A magic scroll is a piece of physical media which is used to store potentia in order to cast a magic spell instantly at a later time without needing to spend the potentia at that time. Depending upon the type of media and its proximity to an active leyline, the scroll will naturally refill over time. Different types of scroll media will be subject to manaflow degradation upon each use, eventually resulting in the destruction of the media. Despite the name, magic scrolls are not always scrolls, and depending on the medium, are often tablets. If a magic scroll is physically damaged, its potentia is harmlessly dumped into the nearest leyline, and the spell is not activated.

The potentia for a magic spell is spent in its entirety in the creation of the magic scroll. A magic scroll can be either encrypted or unencrypted. An encrypted scroll is generally made when a user is creating a magical scroll for themselves, intending to use it at a later time.

An unencrypted scroll is generally made when a magic user is creating a magic scroll for sale, especially to those who are not experienced enough with magic to cast the spell themselves. Creating a scroll which is unencrypted, contrary to what one may assume, is more difficult and labor intensive than creating one which is encrypted. Encryption may be rightly considered the default state of a magic scroll. The more powerful a spell scroll is, the more energy it takes to make it unencrypted. This relationship is exponential, which is why certain spell scrolls (such as for the creation of vast amounts of water, or for reducing the impact of aging) are so expensive.

The ability of mere paper to store such potentially vast amounts of energy, even single use, has led to the restriction of import on paper in certain totalitarian nations in order to prevent the creation of magic bombs, which are often used by insurrectionary elements in these nations as a tool of revolution via guerilla warfare.

In general, scroll media which is less heavily impacted by degradation upon use will cost more potentia to imbue. There is a correlation between reuse potential and imbuing cost of a scroll media. The more times a scroll can self-refill from leylines, the more difficult it is to imbue it in the first place. This relationship is not wholly linear, however, as certain types of media (namely, gold) can refill itself indefinitely, yet imbuing golden scroll media does not have an infinite cost.

Single-use scrolls are almost always paper, and spellbook pages are almost always either copper or silver. There are niche applications for scrolls of other materials, but these are rare.

These numbers are not absolute, but they are general guidelines for the efficacy of different media in scroll creation. The multiplier describes the amount of potentia required to imbue a scroll as opposed to casting the spell immediately. The potentia limit describes how powerful the spell contained in such a scroll may be. The expected uses describes how many times the same scroll is expected to refill itself given adequate leyline coverage (not counting the initial use) before it disintegrates or otherwise ceases to function.

In theory, any material other than glass can be used as a spell scroll medium, but these are the only materials common enough to be noteworthy.

Of these materials, paper is especially notable for its extremely high potentia limit per gram relative to its abundance and ease of imbuing. As it has a nearly perfect 1:1 ratio compared to casting the spell manually, as well as a respectable refill rate, it is almost always more efficient to imbue a spell scroll rather than waiting for the right moment to cast the spell, considering in many cases, this allows you to gain an extra cast “for free” if in an area with good leyline coverage.

Iron is useful for storing vast amounts of energy in a durable form, and is not uncommon as a “magic battery” of sorts for vehicles which run on magic. However, of the metals, it corrodes very quickly, and is not useful for spellbooks.

Plastic is notable for its extremely high potential reuse count compared with its low imbuing cost, but it is scorned among serious mages for its low potentia limit and unreliability.

Owing to its excellent conductivity, and very high potentia storage capacity, if the creator of the spell is interrupted or distracted while imbuing the scroll, then the scroll's stored magical energy will disperse immediately, forcing the creator to start over from nothing. Maintaining focus for long enough to create such a thing requires going without food and water for potentially many days, which is an experience not unlike that demanded by the open mana ritual. This drawback is present for copper, silver, platinum, and gold spell media.

Copper is considered the lowest grade of material from which a usable spellbook may be made, and its use is common among magic students who cannot afford finer metals.

Silver is the material favored by most mages for the creation of their personal spellbook, as a mage very rarely needs to cast the same spell more than 1,000 times in their lifetime.

Platinum is uncommonly used for spellbooks due to its rarity and relatively high imbuing cost, but it is slightly easier to come by than pure gold, has a higher tolerance for impurities and scratches, and much easier to imbue, so it isn't unheard of for a spellbook to primarily use platinum. Scrolls made of platinum are considered to be functionally permanent, although it is known to mages that they are not truly permanent in much the same way that one knows a knife cannot be re-sharpened forever.

This is the highest-grade scroll media which is in widespread use among sapes. Due to the very high refill rate, and the fact that the energy limit of a spell scroll is tied to the mass of the scroll, platinum scrolls may be made using a thicker sheet to enable them to store a more powerful spell. Certain platinum scrolls are kept in the armories of nations, for use as weapons of war. Imbuing such a spell into a platinum medium, considering the multiplier of roughly 250, and the extremely high energy limit, is entirely beyond the capability of any individual.

Pure gold is the ultimate material for spell scrolls, but it must be absolutely pure gold with no impurities, scratches, or imperfections of any kind. The presence of any impurities or imperfections increases the imbuing cost and re-introduces the potentia limit and reuse limit of lesser grades of material to be similar to the lowest grade material present in it. 18 karat gold sheets are often passed off as gold by unsavory merchants, resulting in efficacy similar to silver or even copper depending on which metals are present in the alloy. However, this is much worse than simply using pure silver or copper, as the user will experience the drawbacks of imbuing gold (extremely high potentia cost) with none of the benefits.

With almost zero exceptions, gold spell scrolls are imbued by dragons or fae folk, who have far more potentia to draw upon, and far more time to spend, than sapes do. Such scrolls have on rare occasion been created in collaboration with sape mages who have rendered extraordinary services to a dragon or fae. There should in theory be a limit

The most common use of gold spell scrolls is for ceremonial use by institutions like churches, or to continually project magical barriers around a city. There have been only very few truly pure gold spellbooks, almost all of which were in the possession of speakers from Feyndraig who had the longevity for the high imbuing cost of pure gold to be worthwhile. Once a pure gold sheet has been fully imbued with a spell, it gains some regenerative properties, will resist most damage, and will self-heal its own scratches.

Large gemstones may be used to carry many different spells, but are more useful as carriers of enchantments than they are as scrolls (due to manaflow degradation).

The usage differs slightly for an encrypted vs unencrypted scroll.

An encrypted scroll must be utilized with the sincere focus and intent of its user, with the memory of what was happening while they were creating the scroll firmly in their thoughts. For this reason, most mages prefer to imbue scrolls in the dark with no intrusions or distractions, in order to make the scroll easier to use. Typically, an encrypted scroll requires the user to fully comprehend the spell contained in the scroll, handle the potentia flow from the spell manually, and may require a small amount of potentia to initiate the spell (which is almost always returned to the user after use).

An unencrypted scroll is created in such a way that the end user need only intend to activate the scroll. The end user doesn't need to understand how the spell works. The end user doesn't even need to be a mage. Unencrypted scrolls can be used by absolutely any sape, fae, or draconic.

In areas of sufficient leyline coverage, a scroll will automatically refill itself with potentia at a rate up to the refill limit of its medium. Media with a lower refill rate, such as stone or wood, may be used without regard to the overall condition of the leyline. However, media with a very high potential refill rate, such as platinum or gold, may adversely impact the leyline health in the area in which they are used. It is good practice to include a rate limiter on the scroll to avoid this, if using a gold or platinum medium.

The optimal storage of a spell scroll depends upon several factors. The fragility of the scroll, the refill rate of the scroll, and the power of the spell contained in the scroll. If a spell scroll has a very high refill rate and contains a powerful spell, the scroll itself may heat up significantly while refilling. It is considered good practice to leave a scroll with a high refill rate (in essence any scroll made of copper, silver, platinum, or gold) on a bed of dry sand (which is a good thermal insulator) in order to prevent it from inadvertently igniting anything nearby.