Arcana, or Triggered Magic, is the colloquial term used for one of the eight spheres of magic made available to some users of a Silvergate.

  It uses a specific vital stat, Arcane power, labeled as just “Arcane” on the Interface. As with all magic, the stat is not visible until you obtain a Skill that uses it.

  The classical view of an Arcane caster is one that invests significant power into activating a Skill but does not need concentration or thought. Arcana is considered a complementary magic to another combat style.

  Arcane Skills are typically associated with stats like Reasoning, Dexterity, Resilience, and Intuition. They run the gamut of buff, debuff, shields, and reactive magical effects. All Arcane Skills are named Arcane X, Arcanic X, or some name variation. You do not need to check the Skill mechanics to know it is one of those. There are also no Skills including a variation of Arcane in their names that are not Arcana.

  Arcana's specific “flavor” comes from its unique two-stage activation system. All Arcane powers require allocating Arcane in advance, which reduces the available Arcane cap. Once “activated,” the Skill will occasionally trigger, draining further Arcane in exchange for its effect. If an Arcane Skill needs Arcane to fuel it and the remaining vital levels are too low, you get an Arcane Failure Cascade, as all Arcane Skills deactivate, even for Skills that do not need Arcane at that moment, and returning the pool maximum to its nominal value.

  The astute Arcanist will abandon an Arcane power when the risks become too great.

  A few Arcane Skills, colloquially “Traps”, will trigger only once and self-deactivate after the effect happens. These self-deactivations, like manual deactivations, do not trigger Arcane Failure Cascade.

  Establishing an Arcane Buff requires significant time and consumes the power needed to establish itself. Here is a typical Arcane effect:

  Magical failure for skills typically depends on the relative rank vs. skill. The trigger cost only happens if your doubling actually results in a success and also results in an effect that takes into account this double skill level.

  The vital formula has one of the lowest Level-dependent factors along with Psionics:

  Vital cap = 500 + Reasoning×4 + Dexterity×3 + Resilience×2 + Intuition + Level

  It has a fast recovery, too, but based on a separate stat:

  Rate = (Reflexes / 5) per second

  Any Skill or piece of gear that affects Reflexes will increase that rate, which is of great interest to Arcanists, who are always leery of getting too low in vitals. There is still a specific Meditation skill that can be used to improve that significantly:

  As Arcane is almost always below the true cap due to investment mechanics, this Meditation can be used at all times even if the Arcanist is currently not regenerating, making it one of the easiest to raise.

  Other, more generic Meditations also greatly increase your regeneration rates for Psi energy, but all Meditation skills are incredibly rare (see “Fanduk”).

  Arcanic Entanglement (tier 5 Dexterity): redirects a % of damage taken to a target.

  Arcane Intuition (tier 4 Intuition): automatically triggers the most appropriate counter skill when a magic skill is used.

  Arcane Speed (tier 3 Reflexes): Increase actual reflexes whenever hit.

  Arcane Weakness (tier 2 Resilience): increases the costs of your target’s actions.

  Arcane Precision (tier 1 Reasoning): increases magical skill success chances.

  Special section on Locational Interference – Project Cartographers Eyes-Only

  This section contains only highly speculative information and is not considered accurate. It is intended to serve as a discussion board for Cartographers involved in the Build Map project, not as a reference.

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