How does it really work?
Summary:
- Magic plays an important part in Frieren.
- Mages can be of any race; they use mana to cast spells.
- The more mages practice magic, the stronger they get.
- Spells highly depend on visualization and personal characteristics.
Magic is an inseparable part of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren) because of course! Frieren herself is an elven mage after all. But how does she really use her magic?
Mages and mana
Mages are the ones who can wield magic. Members of any race can become mages: humans, elves, demons and even monsters. But the power of magic highly depends on experience and practice, that’s why human mages are the weakest ones.
Elves can live for thousands of years, that’s why they’re significantly stronger than human mages. And demon mages can rival the strength of elven ones.
In order to wield magic and cast spells, mages have to learn how to focus, control and develop their mana, which is a sort of supernatural energy that allows a user to use magic. But if you’re a gamer, you don’t really need us to explain this.
Magic abilities strongly depend on the user’s training and even personality. They also rely on the ability to visualize. The stronger the image of a spell is inside of a mage’s head, the stronger the effect will be.
However, mages can’t do something impossible with magic even if they visualize it. They have to also believe in what they’re about to do. For example, if you want to destroy the entire world and can visualize it, you still won’t succeed because you know it’s beyond your capabilities. You can’t fool magic.
Inner nature, mentality and even education also play a crucial role when it comes to magic in Frieren, and magic users from various backgrounds will have different skills, abilities and also weaknesses.
Spells
Mages cannot learn spells by themselves, they need to have a teacher or a grimoire for that. It’s something like a school subject. And just like with the school subjects, you can improve your spells by practicing and learning more.
When mages use spells, they consume mana, that’s why users have to have enough of it for the spell to work. You may see mages using a staff when using magic (like Frieren, for example), but there are spells that don’t require using one. It all depends on the situation and a mage’s personal characteristics.
There are two official classifications of spells in Frieren: Goddess's magic (utilized with the assistance of holy scriptures) and Curses (used by demons and monsters). But fans, however, think that spells can also be divided into offense, defense, support and other.