20 years ago, before the revelation of the existence of magic or the great incident, the world was quiet and, for the most part, peaceful. It was at this time when, to most folks, the world was normal and appeared the most like the real world we're so familiar with. All was well with the world, but this stable state of the world soon came to an abrupt, and unprecedented, end.
One day a certain villain from another world appeared, bringing with them hordes of monsters. Guiding the monsters like an army, they proceeded to cause mass mayhem and destruction. The world's armies tried to step in to protect their countries, but even the strongest weapons at their disposal that wouldn't end up annihilating whole cities weren't powerful enough to push back. When all seemed lost for the world, a major announcement was made; true magic has existed behind the scenes for centuries, and there were numerous skilled mages all around the world who had been protecting the secret of magic until then. With this announcement came a surge of visible magus activity, as many magi who had once been in hiding were now actively using their magic to fight off the monsters.
As effective as their magic was against the monsters, the mages didn't seem to catch a break; for every monster they slew it seemed like three more would spawn into existence. Couple that with the fact that the monsters were being guided like an army by the villain from another world, and it seemed that humanity would still end up failing against this great threat, and many cities were destroyed. It was at this point in time that a certain group of girls, also from another world, appeared before the villain and humanity alike. With their amazing powers unlike anything the world had ever seen before, the girls destroyed wave after wave of monsters and succeeded in beating the villain into submission. After ensuring the world's survival, the girls dragged the villain through a wormhole back into their own world, never to be heard of again.
Shortly after their departure, there was yet another major shift in the world. Even though the villain was gone, their monsters were still spawning all around the world and causing mayhem. The world's magic was powerful enough to defeat any that showed up, but there were not enough people equipped to handle the monsters, and they were even popping up in small towns or empty countrysides. This lack of widespread security resulted in vast numbers of people moving all over the place, trying to take refuge in the bigger cities where there were more mages to protect them. This led to cities becoming overrun with refugees without enough space to house them all. It was then decreed that all major cities would expand out exponentially and make enough space to house all the citizens who fled for protection from around their countries, and protective walls were erected to keep numbers of monsters from entering the now enlarged cities. It was then decided with the agreement of the magus society that special schools would be developed in every new district, prefecture, or region of city that was made which had the focus of raising and teaching children to be capable of fighting off monsters, alongside teaching them the standard curriculum.
Scientists began working alongside Magi, who were in essence scientists of magic, in order to develop ways with which people who couldn't perform magic would still be capable of protecting themselves against the monsters that still appeared inside the city walls, and thus various magic weapons were developed. These weapons, made with materials intended to prevent them from being used to seriously threaten or harm fellow humans, became standard issue around the world. Classes were also held throughout all the special new schools with the intent of teaching students the best ways to use these weapons, as well as how to maintain them. While new weapons are constantly in development, the current ones are cycled through the schools in order to normalize them as well as test their efficiency and capabilities, and thus the world slowly began to regain its stability, despite the frequent monster attacks.
It is now 20 years after the incident, and most of the world has readily accepted the changes, despite some opposition in the past. Our story takes place in one of the newer prefectures of Tokyo, Japan, formally known as Dai hachi-ji ken, or Eighth Following Prefecture (symbolizing that it's the eighth new area of Tokyo after the reform), where various young children are learning how to fight off the monsters alongside their classmates in one of the most revered schools in Japan. In this place, more commonly referred to as Hajiken, where many students live on campus and have free choice over which defense subjects to take, many developments are being made, and soon it appears that some will gain powers only ever seen once before in history.
Just like with chemical reactions in science, all magic in this RP has some kind of formula. The formula explains what happens in the reaction and how in a way that doesn't necessarily need to be understood in order to use each spell, but should be memorized nonetheless. These formulas can come in various forms; a chant that calls upon the various attributes in the caster's mana and gives them shape and controls the power output ratios, a magic circle with various shapes and runes that fully explain all of the reaction's components, runes etched onto the surface of an object in order to give the object magical properties or lock a spell to it to be used either a limited amount of times based on the amount of mana sealed in the runes or a limitless amount of times by channeling one's own mana through them upon casting it, and in the cases of old magus families a stigmata, or record, that contains unique formulas for spells developed by the family over the ages and passed down from generation to generation, taught in secret and kept hidden from the rest of the world.
Naturally, those who practice magic can manipulate the flow of their own mana without a formula, but the formula itself is what gives the mana shape and meaning. Any magus can force their mana into a shape and cast it out like a spell without a formula, but this method has a very high mana output for a very low cast strength. Skilled magi, however, can create the magic formula with circles formed in the air with the use of their mana, making casting quicker and easier than while they were still in training. These days there are also weapons specifically made for fighting monsters that have magic formulas engraved on them so they can better affect the monsters, but only ones of certain levels of strength can be signed to just anyone. In order to acquire any weapons of more exceptional power, certain permits and/or permissions must be acquired by or given to the user. Some examples of magic weapons that are free to use by anyone include;
Mana Pistol,
Semi-Automatic Machine Energy Gun (SAMEG) - low output,
Spell Spear (wooden),
Magic Bow & Arrows,
Rune Shield,
Enchanted Bouken,
etc.
Basically any low output weapon in existence that you can think of will have a magically inclined counterpart here. To further explain how they work: Melee weapons like boukens or shields will typically be inscribed with either runes or magic circles to boost their effectiveness to harm monsters or defend against monster attacks or other rogue magics. Naturally this is not limited to giving them added capabilities when specific mana waves are channeled through them, but these effects will be more or less limited on power so as to avoid civilian casualties; especially with weapons being given to students. All melee weapons will also be made without any live metal; in fact most will be made entirely out of wood. This is so as to avoid the possibility of someone getting severely injured from friendly fire and to keep some from trying to severely injure others. This style of enchantment is also extended to the bow & arrows. On the other hand, other ranged weapons such as pistols and other low output guns will be loaded with precisely measured capsules of liquefied mana. When the trigger is pulled, the gun fires out the mana, which forms into an attribute-less bolt of magic energy. If a user of one of these weapons desired to add some attribute or element to this blast, they need only to prepare the necessary magic formula somewhere where it will have an effect on the released mana (like a magic circle or rune thread either drawn on paper and held near/placed on the barrel of the gun, or even a magic circle drawn around the barrel in midair with mana).
As mentioned above there are some select families that are long running Magus families, and they typically tend to be more highly skilled in magic use due to that history of teachings. Because of the long history of secrecy, however, many of them still prefer to keep this knowledge from the public, and some haven't even revealed themselves to be magus families, though this does not apply to all of them. Either way, it is typically only long running magus families that will have a stigmata as the formula in question is a compilation of generations worth of study and practice practically engraved into the magic circuits of each new generation as a sort of grimoire that exists within their body and is easily accessed through the channeling of mana through the source.
