The Magic Industry

Sorry this post is so late, I've been busy.  There will be another post up later today.

This post is a module, meaning it is not a setting of by its own right, but is instead designed to be easily incorporated into any number of other settings.
Specifically this post details a magic system, that provided an unusual look at magic and could offer an interesting spin on things.

Magic is a property of the world, mana is found in all things. Magic quite literally makes the world go round. The mana that suffuses all things allows the planet to remain a cohesive body and continue to spin. In fact, magic is the grand unifier of quantum and relative physics. This is the basic principle that underlies all reality.  The magic that maintains the cohesion of reality is known as the under-spell because it underlies the whole of existence.

Magic is infused into all things, but it is not readily accessible.  In fact, the magic of the under-spell cannot be accessed directly by any means.  However, magic sometimes pools, and builds up into dangerous levels, when it does it is released in a massive lashing-out of force.  This causes lightning, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other such calamitous events.  When these disasters occurs, the sudden release of magic causes a minor tear in the surface of the under-spell, and some of the mana released is left behind, severed from the under-spell.  When mana is left behind, it cannot return to its natural state as omni-present nigh-undetectable energy, nor can it interact with other substances in normal ways.  Trapped separate from the under-spell it condenses into a crystalline substance known as crysl.  Crysl tends to aggregate in fist sized lumps, though smaller and larger pieces are possible.  Size does not indicate the amount of mana in a lump of crysl, the more mana in a nugget the darker its hue, and the heavier it becomes.  A common and relatively weak nugget of crysl will have a pale yellow color and is weighs little more than a feather. Stronger nuggets are a deep ocher and weigh hundreds of pounds.  An odd quirk of crysl is that while mana that is severed from the under-spell cannot rejoin it, it reaches out to the magic of the world and it leaches mana out of the under-spell and into itself.  A nugget will grow in strength by about half over the course of about three years. There is no danger of magic ever leaking all the way out of the universe.  There is a certain threshold of density, when a lump of magic reaches a certain potency it implodes and rejoins the under-spell, though this usually causes catastrophic destruction and leaves behind tiny nuggets in turn.

There is another way for mana to rejoin the under-spell, but some other details must be explained first.  The soul exists, and most animals possess souls.  The soul is a special sort of magic, a reservoir of mana within a being that allows free will.  The soul is not bound by physics, or the laws of reality as we comprehend them, and so free will in possible.  The more complex the entity the more mana composes the soul.  When a being with a soul comes into contact with a nugget of crysl, the soul takes hold of the mana in the crysl and absorbs it.  The crysl vanishes and power courses through the being.  Since choice has its root in the soul the result is complex.  The soul cannot contain this increased level of mana for long so it tries to discharge it, but the discharging of mana is complex.  So the soul which has in it the hopes and desires of the being, discharges the mana in an attempt to do whatever the being most immediately desires.  A frightened rabbit might leap a hundred yards with a strong dose of magic.  A predator might bring down prey with ruthless speed and teeth.

But something as complex as a human can imagine more creative uses.  From striking out with simple bolts of lightning, to powering complex machines that in other worlds would be driven by coal.  Here we find the magic-industrial revolution, people build fanciful machines, mining rigs, airships, combine harvesters, and so much more.  All of this is powered not by coal or pressurized steam, but highly trained wizard-engineers carrying bags of carefully mined crysl.

Coming eventually:
Module Expansion: Gloves, Clamps, and Goggles
An expansion to this module detailing the powers that magic allows and the devices that go hand in hand with those powers.