Netherwitch Grimoire (Runes and Attack Spells)

This is a fragment of my trimmed grimoire, removing any potential spoilers:

List of In-Story Runes

Viituth
Type: Pure, Void
Shape: Unknot; A simple circle
Meaning: Nothingness

Trishullrunt
Type: Compound, Void-Causality link (not a fate rune though)
Shape: 7 3 knot with a chain of four linked rings along the bottom.
Meaning: An unknowable truth.

Voya
Type: Pure, Wind
Shape: Figure eight knot (4,1).
Meaning: The air on which the arrow rides

Morhalshin
Type: Compound, Lightning
Shape: ???, Lightning
Meaning: A streak of light

Inferenze
Type: Pure, Fire
Shape: ???
Meaning: ???

Yithmafar
Type: Compound
Shape: ???
Meaning: ???
Notes: Rune discovered by Lady Vallenfelt

Baleyith
Type: Pure, Metal
Shape: 9 32 knot, right-handed
Meaning: An explosive eruption
Notes: Shares arithmatic denomination with tayiimalth.

Tayiimalth
Type: Pure, Lightning
Shape: 9 32 knot, left-handed
Meaning: A flying spear
Notes: Shares arithmatic denomination with baleyith.

Icealtop
Type: Pure, Ice
Shape: 12 crossing knot
Meaning: A piercing chill
Notes: Greater sigil for: Arctic Gale

Virlithmalt
Type: Compound, Flesh
Shape: ???
Meaning: an entrenched rot
Notes: Greater sigil for: Worms of Rot

Naaleise
Type: Compound, Void and Air
Shape: ???
Meaning: A great leap
Notes: Greater sigil for: Realm Skip

Shalquaq
Type: Pure, Law
Shape: 10, 132
Meaning: As I declare
Notes: Greater sigil for: Edict

Zirgaf
Type: Pure, Abyss
Shape: k11-n166
Meaning: A crushing grasp
Notes: Greater sigil for: Black Hand

Offensive Combat Magic

Basic Magic

Magic Arrow
Runes: 5
Mana: 5 to 15, 33%
Attack: +15 to +25
Max Attack: 150 to 250

Due to the nature of phantasms, physical type ranged weapons bear little effect. Using ki is inefficient, as the energy would be thrown away rather than recycled. Magic arrow serves the purpose adding magical energies to a projectile so that bows, knives, and other ranged weapons can be used.

In addition, the magic arrow spell allows the caster to place their intent in the projectile, allowing for a minor to moderate degree of guidance.

However, being a spell, to use magic arrow demands training. Older demons often dabble in magic but in terms of skill, few achieve a fast chant. This means that bows can only be fired slowly. Still, in siege conditions an army of archers often proves its worth.

Lightning Bolt
Runes: 31
Mana: 50 to 150, 20%
Attack: 200 to 500
Penetration 50 pierce, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 1500 meters
Velocity: 1000 m/s

An attack spell that touches upon the threshold of advanced magic. The dense rune structure allows for a stable bolt with long range, solid penetration characteristics, and flawless accuracy. In most scenarios, a lightning bolt will not miss so long as the target remains within the one-degree cone of redirection.

Unlike its more advanced formulations: lightning lance and chain lightning, lightning bolt splinters upon hitting its target. This means it lacks the ability to cleave through multiple foes. A skilled enemy can take advantage of this, intercepting the spell so that most of the power is lost.

Like most fire derived spells, lightning bolt has poor efficiency and a high ether ratio. Only 20% of the spell’s cost must be paid in mana.

Wind Blade
Runes: 12 initial, 7 chain
Mana: 20 to 40, 33%
Attack: 140 to 220
Penetration 30 pierce, 200% multiplier
Life: 1.5 seconds
Velocity: 50 m/s

A simple attack spell that forms a blade of wind. The rune structure provides a certain degree of sharpness, but if the armor is too thick the blade quickly loses its power. The greatest strength of wind blade is its agility. The blade has enough curvature to complete a full circle every half second, meaning it has the potential to hit again even after a miss.

Wind blade is a chain spell. The first rune formation creates a simple ring that supports short incantation of any repetition that follows in the second after. This makes the casting speed quite high when launching multiple blades.

Wind blades home according to the caster’s intent. No mental effort is needed. Additional direction can, however, improve the spell’s performance.

Earth Spike
Runes: 13
Mana: 40 to 100; 33%
Attack: 280 to 400
Penetration 40 to 100 pierce, 50% multiplier, 15% DRR
Max Range: 20 meters * Mysticism

Causes a flower of sharp stone to explode from the earth. The earth, in this case, is any thick and solid surface. This may include walls and ceilings, making the spell extra tricky in caves and castle hallways. The point of emergence is set in the second before the earth spike erupts. However, the shards can twist toward the target. As such, to dodge the target must escape the point of origin by one to two meters.

Because the spell is easy to dodge by those with decent ether sensitivity, it’s recommended to use earth spike in a combination or after reducing the target’s mobility.

Like most earth magics, earth spike has high defense penetration. It is therefore an excellent spell against slow and armored opponents. Its also decently effective against large, fixed assets. The mass of the stone can push through guards and thick material, assuming it can even be blocked. Most demons find it difficult to parry spells that come from below.

Water Knife
Runes: 23 initial, 11 chain
Mana: 30; 33%
Attack: 210
Penetration 50 pierce, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 150 meters
Velocity: 75 m/s

Water knife might better be named water bullet. This magic forges a projectile of hardened water that pierces the enemy. The effect is simple and direct. Water knife can be chained, allowing fast iterations after the first casting. Further, the bullets may be held for up to three seconds, allowing for various rhythms of release.

Like wind blade, water knife can curve along the trajectory of flight. Unlike wind blade, it may never curve back onto itself, nor veer more than 80 degrees off its initial direction. Further, the rate of turn is far less intense, achieving no more than 180 degrees for every second of flight.

However, water knife can be quite tricky, as the bullet can jitter if controlled by skilled hands. This allows the spell to displace itself up to half-a-meter along the column of its path. This feature is independent of the spell’s ability to change its overall trajectory.

Contrary to most spells, the energy that can be placed in a water knife is fixed. Because of this, the magic is considered highly technical, challenging a mage’s casting speed and control rather than their raw power.

Flame Shot
Runes: 9 (14 variant)
Mana: 30 to 270; 12.5%
Attack: 60 to 540
Penetration 10 pierce, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 60 meters
Velocity: ~35 m/s
Area: 1 to 3 meter radius

One of the simplest and effective combat spells in existence. Flame shot forms a ball of fire that may be lobbed like a common material projectile. In order to maximize the range, flame shot must be thrown at a 45 degree angle with the caster moving in tandem to enhance the velocity. The normal variation of the spell has minimal control, only able to skew 5 meters in any direction when cast at its maximum range.

Like most fire spells, flame shot easily accommodates great amounts of energy and ether. Mages can put about twice as much energy into the spell as they can into ordinary attack magics while retaining control. This allows anyone with sufficient energy to unleash terrible destruction.

Despite flame shot’s draw backs, it remains a rather popular spells in the netherworld.

A 14 rune wind dual-element variant of this spell exists. By adding 10 wind ether the spell’s velocity and trajectory control can be greatly improved.

Advanced Magic

Wind Scythe
Runes: 74
Mana: 60 to 300; 33%
Attack: 420 to 1620
Penetration 90 pierce, 200% multiplier
Life: 3 seconds
Velocity: 150 m/s

Wind scythe is a powerful advanced magic sometimes called the reaper’s whisper. Functionally and structurally it is similar to wind blade. In fact, wind blade was created in a bid copy wind scythe’s performance. Superficially the spells are similar enough that wind blade can be used to train a mage in how to best manipulate the scythe’s motion.

In practical terms the spells couldn’t be more different.

Wind scythe is far faster with only slightly less curvature and control. The biggest difference though is in the blade’s integrity. Wind blade disperses upon hitting any substantial target. Wind scythe, however, will retain is integrity on impact and won’t be broken short of attacks with proper characteristics to cleave it. This means a single wind scythe can strike an opponent 2 to 4 times, depending on range, control, and distance.

For groups it is even more deadly. While a scythe is not infinitely piercing, it is entirely practical to kill 10 to 20 phantasms with a single cast. Furthermore, unlike lightning lance or meteor blast, this does not require that the foes be grouped in a convenient manner.

Unlike wind blade, wind scythe cannot be chained.

Meteor Blast
Runes: 56
Mana: 180 to 810; 12.5%
Attack: 414 to 1863
Penetration 50 pierce, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 1.5 kilometers
Velocity: 170 m/s
Area: 2.8 to 6 meter radius

Meteor blast is perhaps the most beloved attack magic in the netherworld, challenged only by lightning bolt and lightning lance. Similar to flame shot, meteor blast creates a ball of fire that flies like a common projectile. For this reason, to reach the maximum range, the spell must be fired at a 45-degree angle.

However, the biggest difference other than the sheer power and improved penetration is the incredible speed at which the blast is launched. This, combined with the slightly better radius, makes the spell difficult to dodge. This is true even at maximum range as the spell can skew nearly 100 meters in any direction when striking at its limit.

Like most fire spells, meteor blast accommodates great amounts of energy and ether. Mages can put about twice as much energy into the spell as they can into ordinary attack magics while retaining control. This allows anyone with sufficient mana to unleash terrible destruction.

A variant rune chain of meteor blast, artillery blast is the inspiration for the enchantments of the flame mortar.

Lightning Lance
Runes: 89
Mana: 100 to 500, 20%
Attack: 450 to 1850
Penetration 100 pierce, 15% DRR, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 5000 meters
Velocity: 3000 m/s

One of the deadliest attack magics in the netherworld. Lightning lance is an advanced rank spell that has long range, good penetration, and flawless accuracy. It can be considered a direct upgrade to lightning bolt with the only major change being that the lance can penetrate through multiple foes and has better range and velocity.

Variations of the lightning lance spell are used in nearly all lightning cannons.

One important characteristic of the lightning lance is its ability to pierce. This reduces the effectiveness of the traditional method to block lightning spells, which is to hide behind a shield or cover. Typically the bolt can pass through a meter of material, whether it be stone, dirt, or wood. Parries and blocks not augmented by ki or magic will be entirely bypassed. Even those that are will only reduce or scatter a portion of the bolt’s energy.

If scattered by a ki reinforced block, the lightning will regather into a stream shortly after. A skilled warrior can use their aura to ensure that this passes outside their body. However, the spell will still hit the next party in line.

Arctic Gale
Runes: 93
Mana: 200 to 2000; 20%
Attack: 200 x 5
Penetration 0, 100, 200, 300, 400 pierce, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 150 x Mysticism meters
Velocity: 50 m/s
Area: 15 to 47 meter radius

An advanced ice magic that chills a broad area. The ice creeps into the body, slowly penetrating all defenses over a three second period. Arctic gale is a highly effective spell at killing hordes of weak creatures. It also has the added feature that the caster can exclude themselves and, with practice, their companions from the effect.

Before manifesting, arctic gale travels in the form of a misty ball. Though the range is decent, the spell itself is quite slow. Only when detonated does the gale appear. Since the runic ball stays stable for 3 x Mysticism seconds, the magic can be held and released at an opportune time, representing a persistent threat.

One additional feature is that the penetrating ice will freeze and chill its target, slowing motion and action. The severity depends on the percentage of target’s HP lost to the spell. This effect will slowly wear off over time, the exact duration depending on the caster’s and victim’s comparative Spirit: Integrity.

While arctic gale can be effective against weaker foes, it is not so useful against very tough or fast moving enemies as they can often escape the area of effect before meaningful damage is dealt.

Grave Maw
Runes: 62
Mana: 160 to 500; 33%
Attack: 1200 to 2050
Penetration 160 to 500 pierce, 50% multiplier
25% DRR, SRR: 10%, 15%, or 20%
Max Range: 50 x Mysticism meters
Extra Teeth: 320 and 480 mp

When cast, three to five stone teeth sprout from the earth in an area four to six meters in diameter. Each tooth is two to three meters tall. These pillars snap shut on the target, adjusting their motions to catch the foe even if they try to dodge. This makes grave maw more difficult to dodge than it would first seem.

Like most earth elemental spells this has powerful penetration. The grinding, tearing motion can tear through armor and large structures alike. Grave maw is therefore highly effective at destroying siege weapons and fortifications. It can even be used as an anti-titan magic, albeit the range is short and the titan must be vulnerable to attacks from the ground.

Magma Surge
Runes: 83
Mana: 100 to 600; 5:1
Attack:
- 500 to 2000 (explosion)
- 350 to 1350 (rain)
- 250 (lava pool)
Penetration: 100 pierce, 75% multiplier
Range: 50 meters * Mysticism
Area:
- Blast: 1.5 to 3.7 meter radius
- Rain: 3.0 to 7.4 meter radius

Magma surge is an advanced, metal element attack magic. This spell consists of three parts. First, is the core blast or plume. This explodes from the ground with sudden fury, rising in a magnificent pyre to twice the height of the rain’s area of effect. Creatures caught in this face the greatest destructive force, and may be physically thrown a fair distance.

Second, is the fiery rain that follows briefly after. Those within will take searing damage as globs of lava that fall down. Note, that should a creature be caught in both the rain and the plume, there will be little additional destructive effect.

Last is the lava itself, which will last for up to ten seconds. Creatures that remain on or near this surface will take steady damage from the destructive heat. Worse, enemies caught in the plume or the rain may be subject to this heated burn for several seconds even if they escape, depending on how thoroughly they were drenched.

Unlike earth spike and grave maw, magma surge can be set up to ten meters into the earth. This makes it much harder to detect before eruption.

High Magic

Chain Lightning
Runes: 223
Mana: 200 to 800; 20%
Attack: 900 to 3000
Penetration 200 pierce, 15% DRR, 100% multiplier
Max Range: 5000 meters
Velocity: 3000 m/s

The spell of slaughter. Chain lightning is a sky elemental magic and one of the fiercest anti-army spells in the netherworld. It is fast, long ranged, and nearly impossible to dodge. Ordinary lightning spells can only correct within a one degree cone. Chain lighting allows incredible redirection within a 150 meter column.

In terms of power, range, and velocity chain lightning is near identical to lightning lance. The longer rune chain however, allows more ether to placed within it. Like lightning lance, the spell can pierce through multiple foes hitting every target marked by the caster’s intent. Beyond this chain lightning’s biggest limit is that it can only strike a target once.

While chain lighting has an incredible ability to pierce, when passing through enough enemies it will eventually be exhausted. Depending on the strength of the target and the spell, this will happen after hitting between 5 and 200 foes.

Skyrending Beam
Runes: 298
Mana: 300 to 2000; 20%
Attack: 1425 to 7800
Penetration 300 pierce, 15% DRR, (20% SRR), 75% multiplier
Max Range: 10000 meters
Velocity: 5000 m/s

Skyrending beam is a high magic of the calamity element. While it can be used in ordinary combat, its generally considered a siege spell. Skyrending beam sports extraordinary range and heavy impact with both the breadth and penetration necessary to damage large objects and creatures. This makes it an effective tool to kill titans and airships, or to simply bring down towers and walls.

As a calamity spell, skyrending beam contains physical force. Weaker projectiles, and even spells, caught in the beam will often be knocked aside or dispersed. On rare occasions this can even result in two beams clashing then struggling for dominance. Though this is quite rare in real combat and typically only occurs when choreographed.

The biggest flaw of this spell is that the beam releases its energy over a 500 millisecond period. While this is short by the human scale, demons often have reflexes two to five times faster than that of mortals. This means they have plenty of time to dodge out of the beam, reducing the damage taken.

Outside of war, skyrending beam also suffers from a tendency to massive over penetrate destroying people, houses, and terrain down stream. Care must be taken, therefore, when this spell is used in combat.

The rune sequence and structure of skyrending beam is the basis of the calamity cannon.

Freezing Beauty
Runes: 558
Mana:
- Circle: 400 to 1200; 33%
- Butterfly: 10; 10%
Rate: 20 to 40 butterflies a second
Attack/Chill: 50
Potency: 160 to 280
Penetration:
- Attack: 200 to 400; 5% multiplier; 10% SRR, Chill DRR
- Chill: 400 to 800; 5% multiplier;
Duration: 5 to 15 minutes

This high-level sky magic starts by defining a magic circle. From this circle, the caster can summon frost butterflies by using a combination of ice mana and ice ether. Conjuring butterflies requires very little thought, directing them however demands a certain degree of intent. That said, freezing beauty imbues into these creatures a tiny fragment of the caster’s will, allowing the butterflies to react as though they had 25% of the witch’s Awareness and 10% of their Capacity.

Every butterfly travels at 8 m/s * Mysticism. Despite the fluttering of their wings, this is a purely magical flight meaning they can easily cross the starry void. Upon touching a foe, the butterfly will dissolve into glacial motes. This frigid energy will infiltrate the target’s body and ki, reducing hitpoints while inducing a chill effect.

Chill Buildup: (Total Chill / (Integrity+Toughness)), max 100%
Max Chill Effect: (Potency/Resilience), max 100%
Chill Effect: Chill Build Up * Max Chill Effect

Freezing beauty spreads a brutal cold throughout its target. This will reduce the foe’s Celerity and Awareness by, at most, the Chill Effect. If the total effect reaches 100%, the creature will be entirely frozen. In this state, they’ll be unable to act or think, unless they have mental processes outside the body.

Worse, as this Chill Effect builds it’ll reduce all resistances against cold. Meaning that only very powerful foes can ignore a large number of freezing beauty butterflies. It takes roughly 60 seconds to erase a 100% chill build up. This is influenced by Vitality: Resilience. Skilled manipulators of ki can further reduce this time in half, with specialized arts having a far more dramatic impact.

Both the circle and the butterflies summoned from it have identical duration. If the circle is somehow destroyed, all the butterflies conjured from that circle will likewise vanish.

Black Hand
Runes: 452
Mana: 750 to 6000; 25%
Attack: 3000 to 13500
Penetration 175 + Mana / 10 pierce, 25% to 50% DRR, 75% multiplier
Max Boost: 200% to 400%
Max Range: 10km * Mysticism
Velocity: 15 * Mysticism m/s
Duration: 10 seconds

Black hand is a high magic of the abyss element. This creates a hand of the abyssal element containing both a powerful crushing and grinding effect as well as a gravity effect. This hand has a size of 20 meters from palm to finger tips, increasing to 60 meters as mana is supplied. The hand can squeeze, slap, or crush but it can only do so once. During this action, gravity will pull the target toward the palm requiring a Strength: Force of 300% to 900% to escape.

Unlike most spells, black hand does extra damage to large scale constructions. The calculation is as such:

Actual Boost: MIN(Max Boost, (1/(1-SR))
Scale Adjust: Attack (Actual Boost)^(2) (1-SR)

Effectively, this means against the power of Black Hand increases with scale resistance until 50%, where damage is doubled. A resistance of 75%, however, results in the same impact as a scale resistance of 0%. Only scaling beyond this actually reduces the destructiveness of the spell. At max power, these break points instead become 75% and 94%.

As a final note, black hand was designed to be used with rune gate. The large range allows the spell to sustain itself through the gate. What’s more, the additional mana cost of casting through a rune gate is completely eliminated, though the base overhead remains.

Supreme Magic

Bolt of Judgement
Runes: 876
Mana: 1000 to 8000; 16.7%
Attack: 5,000 to 33,000
Penetration 400, 30% DRR, 30% SRR, 75% multiplier
Max Range:
- Starting Point: 5km * Mysticism
- Max Bolt Length: 15 km
Velocity: 10 km/s
AOE: column, 15m radius

A powerful supreme magic often used by Zeus during the Golden Age. Bolt of judgment starts in the sky, taking 1 second to form before striking down on its target. Like most lightning spells, the caster is allowed a 1 degree cone of correction. This makes the spell difficult to dodge, especially since the bolt’s initial path isn’t set until the last 100ms of the casting.

Unlike most lightning spells, the point of initiation can be set far from the caster. Further, like lightning lance, the spell is penetrating. Furthermore, the spell cascades through an entire column, making it highly effective against titans, airships, or fortifications.

Against exceptions, bolt of judgment uses the calamity element instead of sky. As a result, it has much higher penetration than most lightning spells. Even better, bolt of judgment can use its DRR to reduce warding effects as well as solid armor.

Garuda’s Wing
Runes: 923; 387
Mana: 500 to 4,000; 10%
Attack: 500 to 2,000 (+0% to 90%)
Penetration 200, 150% multiplier
Velocity: 25 m/s * Mysticism
Duration: 60 seconds + 15 seconds
AOE: 7 to 20m radius

Garuda’s wing is a terrifying supreme magic of the sky element meant to wipe out groups of weaker enemies. The effect of this spell is to create a powerful tornado with a height ten times the radius. This swirling wind advances according to the caster’s will, taking 3 seconds to reach is maximum velocity.

Those drawn into the tornado’s main body will be torn apart by the sharp winds, taking damage according the spell’s attack every second. Escaping the tornado will require fighting the strong which run from 140 to 400km/h. However, being outside the tornado doesn’t provide full protection either, as this spell extends a wind screen to an area four times its radius which will buffet and pull enemies in.

What makes garuda’s wing truly horrifying, however, is that the spell can be stacked 9 times. Each subsequent casting of the smaller rune chain requires the same energy as the first cast. The result is that the tornado’s radius increases by one fold, eventually reaching a breadth of 70 to 200 meters in radius. Even worse, the attack power increases by 5% while the duration increases by 15 seconds.

At full scale, garuda’s wing can easily wipe out large segments of a battlefield.