An Introduction to Phytomancy

The etymology of the word “Phytokinesis” comes from the words “Phyto”, plant, and kinesis, to move’, here together meaning the movement of plants, so controlling plants. This is what most people think of when they picture Phytomancy.

Phytokinesis is centered on “the area of ordinance”, a concept found in other branches of magic under the name: “area of effect”. However, in Phytomancy, the mage is the ruler, god even, of their area of effect, hence the flashy name.

Area of ordinance

A simple definition of an area of ordinance would be a mana saturated environment in which control of vegetative beings is possible.

Of course an area of ordinance could be anything, just like a knife can be a stone. The goal of basic Phytokinesis is to determine the optimal area of ordinance to respond to specific situations.

We can define two different types of areas of ordinances: a radicular area of ordinance and a folial-external area of ordinance.

Radicular areas of ordinance

Radicular meaning the roots, a Radicular area of ordinance (RAO), is specialized in control through the roots of plants.

Some applications of RAO are in the untangling of roots, helpful in the transportation of plants, the creation of root matrices for the stabilization of soil and the most obvious application, restraining or attacking with tree roots.

The optimal RAO distribution of mana would be dependent on the type of soil, but the most common way of distributing mana would be through porous sections of soil, to increase the efficiency of mana spread. A hemispherical shape is the most efficient, ensuring an equal mana spread over a large space.

However, RAO is not just root control but also branch control, albeit it takes more time for the mana to travel through the xylem.

For branch control, it is better to use vines, as their mobility is better than wood trunk plants.

Folial-external areas of ordinance

Folial meaning leaves, a Folial-external area of ordinance (FAO), is specialized in control through external organs of plants, namely leaves, through the gaseous exchange pores.

Applications of FAO could be in concordance with wind magic, at high speeds to induce cuts with leaves, but this is mostly used as a support magic to interfere with spell casting and dull blades and armor with plant phytoliths.

The optimal FAO distribution of mana would be either close to the ground, affecting low lying grasses or or high up in the leaves of trees, the shape being close to a horizontal cross section of mana which will seep into the leaves through the gaseous exchange pores.

FAO also affects flowers and fruits, creating strategies such as pollen and spore propagation as support functions.

In FAO, the properties of the external organs of the plant are important, so choosing small or middle sized plants will help increase the efficiency of the setting up of FAO Phytokinetic spells.

Mana density and control

It has already been established that mana is what is used to control the plants. However, what relation does mana density in the plant have with control?

Well, a rudimentary answer to this question would be that the mana density in the plant has a linear relationship with the control exerted on the plant.

If there is minimal mana, the finesse of the movements is lowered. If you inject only a small amount of mana into a giant root, it will very probably not move at all.

However, here is where the problem becomes complex: what if I inject the same amount of mana into a flower. Suddenly movement becomes possible. Now the equation needs to be readjusted with the new variable of organism size.

But what if I had two same flowers, but in one I wanted it to sway and in the other I wanted it to accelerate the maturation of its fruit? There would be a difference in the mana needed to accomplish both tasks. Thus a new variable is added to our equation: the energetic cost of the order.

The formula is still not complete. Burt’s law of mana overcharge states that if an organism stores too much mana, it will cause a mana overcharge which, in most cases, causes an explosion. To not die due to spontaneously exploding plants, we shall add a limit of approximately 3 atmospheres of pressure in the internal environment of the organism due to mana.

This formula is great, however, after a point which is still before the limit of mana overcharge, the finesse of control plateaus. This plateau is utterly useless, and adding more mana will not help. What good would come of injecting a ludicrous amount of mana into a flower to accentuate efficiency by a second or two?

Thus, we must change our limit to increase efficiency of the mana usage, being approximately half of that needed to cause spontaneous explosion in a plant.

To conclude, the relation between mana density and plant control is a relatively linear relationship, but also in respect to the order complexity and size of the plant, the relationship plateauing at about half of Burt’s mana overcharge limit for this organism.

Optimization of the area of ordinance

Optimization is horrible. It requires the use of high level mana techniques. However, it is a cost that is needed to increase the power output of an area of ordinance.

Two techniques, a mana sweep and a mana condensation channel are the most used optimization techniques to reduce the mana waste in an area of ordinance.

Mana sweep

The technique of mana sweep is to send out a wave of mana constructs with a select amount of mana, as a distance limiter. When the mana construct hits an interesting object, it then sends a mana signal back to the wizard, with the distance between the two.

Mana condensation channel

The mana sweep technique is combined with the mana condensation spindle, which creates a channel from the wizard to the object, in which the wizard can channel their mana effectively. This channel is also semi-permeable, attracting ambient mana into the pathway, further increasing the efficiency of the area of ordinance.

What actually controls the plant?

The wizard controls the plant through mentally driven mana signals, which just like all other mentally driven mana signals, can be both unconsciously and consciously triggered.

An important principle of Phytokinesis is that the wizard can only control the amount of plants they might be able to remember or contain in their head.

Of course, the control is limited to the shape of the area of ordinance, if it is an area, then the plants are grouped into a cluster that will only do one specific order. If the area of ordinance is through channels, differentiation of plants is possible and highly recommended, to serve many different purposes.

Job prospects for Phytokinesis specialists

Phytokinesis is a very combat oriented field of Phytomancy, a skilled mage may expect recruitment from many sources for mercenary work, or even offers from the military forces of countries.

However, it does not mean that Phytokinesis is exclusively combat magic. Phytokinesis is a skill required in fields such as landscaping, defense organization and will also find its place in agriculture, and bioresearch.