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.

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 nearly indefinitely, yet imbuing golden scroll media does not have an infinite cost.

These numbers are not absolute, but they are general guidelines for the efficacy of different media in scroll creation. The multiplier describes the rough

Depending on whether a

In areas of sufficient leyline coverage,