The Magickal Manual- Mistbinder's Primer, Book One, The Basics of Mistbinding

Part One: Elementalism- Firebinding

Part One: Elementalism

Chapter One: Firebinding

Firebinding, often considered one of the eldest forms of Mistbinding, is the art and science of using the Mist to create, summon, and manipulate flames and sources of heat. Most racial cultures first discovered it after coming in contact with the goddess Baharya, who taught early mortals how to create fire first through science, and then through Magick. Firebinding is commonly considered one of the essential tools in a Mistbinder's arsenal of combat and self defense, as many creatures of nature are vulnerable to extreme heat, making it an essential tool in a spellcaster's library.

However, Firebinding is not solely a weapon, to be used to inflict harm upon other beings. Responsible users of Firebinding are also capable of using it to heal, to purify, and even to benefit their own day to day lives.

The Basics of Firebinding

Mistbinding almost always requires the visualization of a sigil in some form in order to function, although, some mages are capable of working magick simply through visualizing a spell's effects and speaking an incantation, or even by using the incantation alone. Because of the complexity of these sigils, many mages choose to keep a spell-book on hand. If a sigil is present physically, a spellcaster may use that instead of fixing it's image into their mind. It should be noted, however, that using a physically present sigil causes the Mist to bind to it through its material. Too many successive uses, and the surface on which the sigil was drawn may set fire, unable to cope with the Mist's flow. Visualized sigils bind the Mist to a caster's spirit, which is itself made of Mist. When a spellcaster binds magick, they use up some of their energy in the casting, which results in the fatigue one experiences when binding the Mist.

The base word for "fire" in the Warped Speech is "Iefr". Alternatives include "Aefalam,"which means "flame", as well as "Aeblaza", which means "Blaze". These words are all interchangeble, but in most tomes of magickal knowledge, the base word for "fire" will be used.

Firebinding consists of using an incantation to bind the Mist into flames, a visualized sigil to sustain the flames and help ease their manipulation, and then the rest of the incantation to direct the fire to do what the Mistbinder intends it to. A word of forewarning: magickally conjured fire will not burn its caster unless the Mistbinder loses control of the spell. However, without a modifying subspell woven into the binding, magickal fire can still harm its master's allies. This is true of most spells, but especially of fire.

When practicing Firebinding, always make sure water is nearby. Never practice in front of an audience or in closed spaces- firebinding is something to be done in the open.

Baharya's Fire Starter

One of the simplest and oldest spells known to mortalkind, Baharya's firestarter is a Mistbinding that causes a flammable object to set itself on fire. It was the first fire-related spell that Baharya ever taught, and has many individual variants that can be found used by adventurers throughout the continent of Elgathaea.

Despite its simplicity, Baharya's Fire Starter comes with a set of risks and limitations that should be known before a Mistbinder attempts to perform it. First: This spell requires the caster to have visual contact with the object being casted on. Whatever object the caster set's their eyes on when finishing the incantation is the object that will be set on fire. Therefore, a Mistbinder casting this spell must not allow their eyes to stray, or else they will set something on fire that they did not intend to.

This spell cannot be cast upon a living being. The Mist within living things causes attempts at this to fail, sometimes backfiring on the caster. The same can be said for tight clothing. Baggy clothing, however, can be set on fire with this spell. Furthermore, enchanted objects are completely immune to the magicks of Baharya's Fire Starter.