Foundation Magic

The Foundation Magic (礎, Ishizue) is a magical construct at the heart of each of Yurgenschmidt's duchies, as well as one in the Sovereignty responsible for the entire country.

The Foundation guides and upholds many magical effects throughout the entire duchy. It is through the Foundation that the ivory buildings of the nobility are constructed and supplied with the mana they require to remain standing. Furthermore the Foundation controls barriers, border gates and whatever magic tools the local ruler implements.

The main core of the Foundation Magic is kept absolutely secret, to the point that not even the family members of the archduke are informed of the location of the entrance, to minimize the risk of having the information revealed in any way, be it intentionally or unintentionally.

Should the Aub desire to cast magic through the Foundation, he or she will need to enter the main Foundation itself, since there's either no way to tap into the Foundation from outside, or it was considered too risky to implement such a measure. For example, such a measure is necessary if the Aub wishes to use Entwickeln to remodel part of a city.

The Foundation needs to be charged with mana every couple of days.

This room acts like a conduit that allows mana to be supplied to the Foundation Magic, without having to enter the Foundation itself. Unlike the Foundation itself, this room allows any person whose mana is registered within the protective mechanisms.

Should the Aub be absent or ill, the people with access are expected to supply the Foundation with mana until the Aub returns or recovers. A regular occurrence where this is necessary is during the Archduke Conference.

In Ehrenfest, the entrance to this room is located in the Aub's office, concealed behind a tapestry and protected by a barrier. The barrier looks like a veil made of rainbow colours and does not allow those outside to see the insides of the room. When a person with access passes through the barrier, they can feel a light resistance they have to push through. Rozemyne likened this effect to passing through "a sticky net."

When inactive, the entrance itself looks like a window too small for even a child to pass through, but when a person whose mana is registered moves close, it will expand into a sizeable doorway. To register someone's mana, the Aub will hand the person a feystone. Once the feystone is fully dyed, the Aub will set it into one of seven slots.

Inside the room is a massive feystone, slightly larger than a watermelon, floating high enough in the air that a grown-up man can comfortably step below it. It is surrounded by many complex and interlocking magic circles made from glowing bands of light also floating in mid-air. Pouring a little mana into the floor right beneath the feystone reveals several magic circles marked with the symbol of one of the gods. It isn't clear whether pouring mana into a circle for which one has no affinity is impossible or merely makes the transfer less efficient.

To pour mana into the Foundation, the person needs to touch the floor with their hands in the center of one of these magic circles and speak the same prayer that the temple uses for the Dedication Ritual.

The words of the prayer are: "O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe. We honor you who have blessed all beings with life, and pray that we may be blessed further with your divine might."

When mana is poured into the Foundation, the magic circles spin faster.

Not all duchies use the prayer to supply mana to their Foundation Magic. While it is done this way in Ehrenfest, in Drewanchel the members of the archducal family just pour mana into their Foundation without any ritual or prayer, like they would any other magic tool or feystone.

Should the mana capacity of the people with access to the replenishment hall be insufficient, their own mana can be supplemented by mana stored in feystones.

Due to how ever spot is tied to one of the supreme or primary gods, only seven people can perform mana replenishment at the same time. There is however no limit to how many people can be registered with a foundation and given the respective feystones, in theory allowing duchies with more than seven members in the archducal family, to have their people dedicate their mana in sequence.

Most nobles assume that the Foundation is located beneath the archduke's castles of their respective duchies, but apart from the Zent and potentially the local Aubs, nobody really knows. To access the Foundation, an Aub has a teleportation door somewhere in their castle. Having a teleportation door, rather than a physically connected corridor or tunnel to the Foundation has the advantage, that the entrance can very easily be moved to a different location, without having to re-locate the entire Foundation itself, and makes it much easier to conceal the door.

To be able to use this door, the Aubs possess a key. Despite what the name implies however, this magic object is usually not shaped like a classical key, so it's purpose is easier to conceal.

Contrary to what most nobles and even at least some Aubs believe, in truth the Foundations are located beneath the local temples. There also exists a secondary teleportation door allowing access to the Foundation through the temple. This door is well concealed and protected, and can only be entered with a secondary key. This secondary key is the same key that also opens the local high bishop's bible. In the distant past, near the beginning of the country, the Aubs were also the High Bishops and the secondary key was given into the care of their successors. As the positions became seperated and the clergy and government drifted ever further apart, the knowledge about the bible key also being the secondary key to the Foundation was lost to time in most duchies.