#wandless casting

Due to the nature of my Rayne x oc fic, I like wanted to expand (and also kinda spoil) my thoughts behind the concept of wands in the universe.

So far the canon (ep 2? or ep 1 of s2) has given us the following:

Wands act as an output device. (So unlike my favourite magic system, it is not a magic helper/part of the FDE cycle. It's the frickin speaker.) Thus this means that they can break if the wand itself is fed too much magic than its intended output.

It's possible to change and buy new wands as you either increase in magic power (through training or other) overtime.

So that implies...

Magic users were able to cast magic through other output mediums (such as sigils, and even their bodies)

Wands became the default way of figuring out people's magic power and how they utilise magic. Thus wandless casting is set aside as a whole for the more 'efficient' way with the tool and becomes the default.

Why is that the case though?

I think this comes down to the Bureau's control of magic and the dangers of Wandless Magic Casting.

For the first one about the Bureau, it's as explained in the 2nd section: figuring out people's magic power can pinpoint conflict points between people in districts or regions, allowing for less magical based administrations (like housing?) to be able to ensure that there's less conflict between people while also deterring evil-doers (idk what else to call them).

Now the second is that like a lot of anime power systems which use mana or cursed energy from jjk, magic doesn't flow evenly in the body. This means that in order to execute magic, there needs to be a way to aim and fire the magic from the body.

So what would happen to those 2-liners or people with a lot of magic power tried to execute a spell? Attempting to fortify the body while simple on paper, forces the user to flood their entire body with magic in order to fortify it and if you cannot control magic that finely, it can be rather dangerous to cast without a wand. The wand can control the output of a magic user's magic to an extent.

A reason why many people pre-Adam Jobs forming the Bureau had short lives, is because of Wandless Casting. Compared to sigils, which require a medium in order execute the spell, Wandless Casting can put the magic user's body at risk if they are unable to control their output as well as their own body's health. More fitness is required to maintain the body, rather than just using a wand which allows you to be able to have a physical thing that is not part of yourself to act as the output.

That's why Wandless Casting has been surpassed in teaching for Wand Casting.

Moreover, there's been nobody in recorded history who has managed to unleash their thirds and summons without a wand. So... yuhhhh.

_ _ _

Yes and no.

When you're first learning a spell, it tends to be important, along with pronunciation and enunciation.

The more points of focus (wand, intent, the way you're saying the spell name) you have, the better your chance at decent success instead of something mediocre or that doesn't work at all.

The thing about a wand, however, is that it's a focusing tool. A specalised focusing tool--which is why they're often so highly specific to their owner or why certain combinations work better for certain types of magic--but still only a focusing tool.

Hedgewitch wands also work well in a pinch as they're a familiar shape of focusing tool to the point that it ends up not mattering all that much that they haven't got a core.

A wand, however, isn't strictly necessary for a lot of things as evidenced by the fact that most people can do at least some level of wandless casting and that children are able to produce magic without a wand (not always well or necessarily controlled, but they can do it).

After awhile, it becomes second nature to use it that way and you're not necessarily even aware that you're focusing through a wand; it's also sometimes why you'll see someone who is perfectly capable of casting, say Lumos, wandlessly still make the motion they'd make with a wand with their finger or their entire arm.

Habit.

There are some wand woods that lend themselves to silent casting a bit easier (Alder being one of them. Alder is amazing for that sort of practise; if you're having difficulty with silent casting, get an Alder wand to ease into it then step back to your regular wand), and there are some spells that, once you've learned them, don't require much more than passive focus.

Most utility charms are like that and most adults can cast them silently and wandlessly.

The main reason you see people start to get a bit shouty when they want to make sure what they’re casting is as powerful as possible is that doing that adds an additional level of focus to the cast.

The more difficult a spell is, the more focus it takes, and the more difficult it becomes to cast at all if you:

- Don't use a wand.- Use a wand but are sloppy with the cast pattern.- Try to cast it silently.- Mispronounce it, even a little.- Have wavering intent.

Trying to use a spell in a way that goes right to the edge of what its original intent was also makes it significantly more difficult to cast.

Going back to Lumos, you can use it to light a fire if you're able to force it into compliance because it--counts as within the boundaries of the design, it's "lighting" something, just not in the way in which it was originally intended. It will resist and if you’ve not done it before, likely not work at all, but you can force it.

That all aside, once you've got something down wordlessly and wandlessly, you can make up whatever words and motions you want to go along with it and it's not going to matter because it's a superficial display and you're actually doing the real casting silently and without your wand.