Cards

Cards are magical artifacts that take the shape of trading cards, that give special active abilities or passive effects to those who possess them. Their effects can range wildly in their abilities, From basic elemental magic, to the control of specific objects or even concepts such as a card that summons and controls chairs or doors, or a card that can manipulate the emotion of sadness. There are also passive cards that can give a range of always active effects, such as reducing the MP cost of abilities, unlocking someones potential, increasing someones speed or strength, or enhancing someones senses. Cards are generally stored within a person's Crest Mostly for safety reasons, as they are incredibly difficult to take out of a person's crest without that person's approval. In addition, when a card is stored in a person's Crest, only the Crest owner is able to activate its effect. It should be noted, however that Crests can only store 5 cards at a time, and anyone (Including Ukalisters) are capable of using cards when they are in a physical form and not stored within a Crest. Cards come in two primary types, and have multiple classifications they come in.

 Card Types: 

Cards come in two primary types. Permanent, and Temporary. Temporary cards are static in their ability and have a limited amount of use before they are depleted. when a temporary card is depleted it simply disappears. Temporary cards do not have the ability to level up, and their usage limits vary from the type of card. Typically active cards have a limited number of uses, then they are depleted, while passive cards usually have a time limit before they vanish. Permanent cards are static and never run out of 'power'. Permanent cards are capable of leveling up and becoming more powerful through their usage. Other than temporary cards having limited usage, and permanent cards having the ability to level up, the two act identical to one another. a level 2 Water card will work exactly the same whether its temporary or permanent, the only difference being a temporary will vanish after so many uses, while a permanent card will eventually level up.

In addition, there are several 'sub classes' of card types. The most common of which are Passive and Active cards. as their name suggests, Passive cards are cards that have no active ability. they give a static, always on effect to the wearer as long as the card is held/equipped, whether the wearer wants it too or not. the only way to deactivate the card is to remove it from your Crest and drop it. Some passive cards (typically at higher levels) get some kind of an active effect they can use as well. This effect most commonly is something along the lines of allowing the user to temporary pass its passive effect onto people other than themselves. Some of the most common types of passive cards are:

The Potential Card: As long as this card is equipped, it passively augments the user's ability to become stronger, allowing them to more rapidly reach their full potential.

The Speed Card: When worn, passively increases the movement and reflex speed of the wearer

The Mp Cost Reduction Card: When equipped, makes all abilities the user has that cost MP require less MP to use.

Active cards on the other hand contain active abilities or spells that have to be willingly activated by the wearer. Which means first the card has to be equipped, then the user has to intentionally activate the cards effect. Some active cards give a single static ability, while others might essentially act as a new 'job class' as long as its equipped. All active cards imbue their wearer with the knowledge of how their ability works based on the level of the card. For example, a White Magic card would allow the user to cast white magic spells, even if they do not know how to cast magic of any kind. so long as they have the card equipped, they will sub consciously know how to cast white magic spells (Complexity based upon the level of the card). they have no conscious knowledge of the magic's working, and could not teach the magic to anyone else, they simply gain a subconscious understanding of what the card will allow them to do. It should be noted that some active cards require a specific action to turn them on besides simply willing the effect to happen. this effect can change from card to card. Some examples of common active cards are:

The Speed Burst Card: this card allows the wearer to gain a brief few seconds of drastically increased speed and reflexive ability. The card's effect can only be activated by the user clapping their hands together in front of their chest. Higher levels increase the duration and speed increase the card provides.

The Critter Card: This card allows the user to summon various summoned animals under their direct control. The card is activated in the same way one would summon a Ukalister to them with their Crest meaning they must touch their crest and will the creature within arms reach. if there is no space around them for the critter to appear, then the card will not activate. Higher levels of the card grant access to more powerful critters to summon, or allow them to summon more critters at once.

The Life Card: This card allows the wearer to cast life magic to return people from the dead without any training or knowledge in magic. Higher levels of the card allow the user to bring the target back to life with more health/stamina/MP restored, or even bring people back to life beyond the normal 1 hour time limit. This card is activated in the same way life magic is, though at higher levels the card ignores the traditional concept of "magic Range"

There are also many instances where Active cards (typically at higher card levels) also gain passive effects to them, though these passive effects are either unique to the active cards, or typically less powerful than the passive effect one would get from a purely passive card of the same type. (Such as the speed burst card giving a passive speed increase at higher levels, but the passive speed increase would be noticeably less than the increase the Passive Speed card would give at the same level)