Memory Fuel: The Price of Magic

The Fundamental Truth

Magic is not free. Every spell, every power, every use of the spectrums permanently consumes emotional memories.

Not factual memories. Not skills. Not your name or knowledge. But the emotional experiences that make you human—the feelings, the moments, the experiences that define who you are.

Once burned as fuel, they are gone forever. No recovery. No restoration.

What Can Be Used as Fuel

Emotional Memories (Usable)

• Minor: Pleasant afternoons, small fears, brief joys (50-100 SU each)
• Significant: Important conversations, memorable events (300-500 SU each)
• Major: Wedding days, births, deaths, first loves (1,000-3,000 SU each)
• Core: Defining moments, foundational memories (5,000-10,000 SU each)

What Cannot Be Used

• Factual knowledge ("Persia is my homeland")
• Skills ("How to fight," "How to read")
• Basic identity ("My name is...")
• Mundane routines (yesterday's breakfast)

Result: Heavy magic users become emotionally hollow—they know facts but have lost the experiences that gave those facts meaning.

Magic Costs

Magic Use	SU Cost	Memories Lost
Single Spectrum (10 min)	100-300 SU	1-3 minor memories
Dual Spectrum (15 min)	500-1,000 SU	1-2 significant memories
Trinity Conduit (15 min)	2,000-4,000 SU	1 major memory
Extended Combat (1 hour)	10,000+ SU	Months to years of past

What You're Born With

Average human accumulates 30,000-60,000 SU of emotional memories over a lifetime:

• Childhood (0-12 years): 8,000-12,000 SU
• Adolescence (13-18): 8,000-15,000 SU (emotionally intense period)
• Adulthood (per decade): 5,000-10,000 SU

This is finite. Use it all, and you become a functional shell—alive, skilled, but hollow.

The Three Paths to Fuel

Path 1: Personal Sacrifice (Humane, Finite)

Use your own memories. Free, immediate, but you lose your past forever.

Who chooses this: Ethical practitioners, desperate situations, final stands.

Limit: Eventually depleted. Veterans have decades of gaps in their past.

Path 2: Node Extraction (Neutral-Dark, Infinite)

Extract infinite fuel from The Field at Nodes of Power.

Requires:

• Access to node (guild-controlled or hidden)
• Operator sacrifice (500-2,000 SU to open link)
• Channeler worker (their mind used as conduit)
• Ore crystal arrays (to capture extracted energy)

Cost: Workers' minds slowly destroyed. See: The Channelers

Path 3: Soul Consumption (Evil, Corrupting)

Steal entire souls from victims using Void-Ore devices.

Gain: 30,000-80,000 SU per victim (massive, instant)

Cost: Victim becomes husk. Consumer transforms into div gradually. See: Void-Ore & Div Transformation

The Broken Sun's Choice

He burned his entire soul—every memory except two—as fuel for the eternal shield.

Kept only: His loved one's face and the promise.

Consumed: Everything else. His name, their story, why he loved her, who he was.

This is the ultimate sacrifice: Infinite protection powered by complete self-erasure.

Cultural Impact

Memory Preservation Practices

• Journals: Write everything down before using magic (might lose it)
• Portraits: Visual anchors for people you might forget
• Oral Traditions: Community remembers what individual forgets
• Taboo: Using memories of the dead as fuel (considered desecration)

Social Attitudes

• Veterans: Pitied and honored (gave their pasts for others' futures)
• Magic Users: Respected but feared (strangers to themselves)
• The Wealthy: Use Node extraction (preserve own memories, exploit workers)
• The Poor: Must choose: Deplete self OR become channeler