Breakdown of True Magic types, and contrast with Mana Magic
While this story primarily revolves around mana-based magic, there is another form known as "true magic." True magic draws upon one's life force, the will to live, to affect the world. Unlike mana-magic, it requires a medium in order to work, as well as substantial spiritual power to affect the world to any noticeable degree. The most common spellcasting method uses a spiritually sensitive individual as the medium and demons for the power source. As you can imagine, this is extremely foolhardy, so the Ancients developed a brand new method, which the Immortals use. The Ancient method uses advanced nanomachines as the medium and the person's own spirit as the power source. They dubbed it "dust magic," or "seed magic" in some circles.
Dust magic is considerably weaker than mana magic, and detrimental to your mental health. Excessive use of dust magic separates much of your spirit from your body, resulting in side effects such as dizziness, confusion, depression, temporary insanity, and out-of-body experiences. In short, it's highly unpleasant business.
Mana magic, on the other hand, draws upon the ambient mana energy for its power, and naturally responds to your thoughts without the aid of a medium. Abundant, powerful, and versatile, mana magic is superior in nearly every way. The concepts behind the use of dust and mana magics are much the same, however, requiring the power of imagination for their creative abilities.
