Hexical Book

The practitioners of this art would cast their so-called Hexes by drawing strange patterns in the air with a staff-- or craft powerful magical items to do the casting for them. How might I do the same?

Hexical Changes

I feel strangely more in tune with the ambient media around me. It feels friendlier somehow... I can even feel it rippling around me, responding to my actions, as if suggesting new spells to me. The media itself also feels more malleable, more workable, allowing me to manipulate it into precise specialized effects.

I also find my tools more familar. I notice I require less concentration with my staff and can move around while using it, handy for chasing down targets that get out of my line of sight before I can finish my raycast. I shouldn't become too relaxed though, Nature has not become more forgiving of my mistakes. I can also write directly into my abacus with Scribe's Gambit.

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Lightning Rod Staff

By fixing a block of amethyst to some lightning rods, I can make quite the impressive staff. It is quite weighty to wield, but has an great amount of knockback when striking a target, as well as feeling absolutely electrifying to use.

I devote this section to the magical and mysterious items I might encounter in my studies.

It seems like many of these items have uses when held alongside my staff. I suppose I will have to choose what goes in my other hand carefully.

Grimoires

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Grimoire

By encrusting an enchanted book with charged amethyst and edified wood, it traps media within the pages like an echo chamber. I can then introduce a pattern-to-pattern-list binding for the grimoire to keep bouncing endlessly inside.

When I then cast the pattern associated with a pattern list with my staff and the grimoire in my inventory, the pattern breaks free with a faint sound of a Hex being cast. I create shortcuts for tedious tasks, like the raycast mantra or large patterns. The grimoire can even hijack Nature's patterns, to overwrite or add extra functionality.

If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

Write Grimoire (pattern, [pattern] →)

Writes a pattern-to-pattern-list binding into the grimoire in my offhand.

Erase Grimoire (pattern →)

Erases the pattern-list binding to the pattern in the grimoire in my offhand if it exists.

While stable with only a few strands of media wizzing around inside, a single grimoire can not hold more than sixteen pattern bindings. When attempting to introduce more, the grimoire simply rejects it and throws itself onto the ground with a shower of blue sparks.

Archivist Reflection (→ [pattern])

Gets a list of all patterns stored in the grimoire.

I can also restrict a pattern inside the grimoire so it destroys itself after a certain number of uses. I shall find this aspect of the grimoire quite useful if I ever need to lend out my true name. I can simply give them a grimoire a set number of references to my name.

Restrict Grimoire (pattern, number →)

Restrict a grimoire binding to be only usable that number of times, mishaps if you attempt to increase the uses.

Archivist Purification (pattern → number)

Gets how many times you can use that grimoire binding before it erases itself.

Living Scrolls

Living scrolls are mixed with a pinch of amethyst, enchanting the ink to move and wiggle like the patterns I draw with my staff. Not only that, living scrolls can display lists of patterns.

You can't be a proper writer without a touch of madness, can you?

I can freely write and rewrite the scroll's patterns at any time, along with reading it back out. The scroll accepts only a list of pattern iotas, or a pattern iota which is automatically wrapped in a list. When displaying a list of patterns, a living scroll shows one pattern at a time. It changes once per second. Even when I write the same pattern list to two of them at two different moments of their cycle, they end up in sync.

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Small Living Scroll

Large Living Scroll

I have heard tales from the villagers about a magical artifact. Legends say it contains a spirit that grants wishes, but I suspect that is just embellishment evolved over centuries of storytelling. Regardless, I dedicate this chapter to my pursuit and research of it.

Mysterious Lamp

At last I've obtained the subject of a thousand years of rumor! To think a mere wandering trader was in possession of such a strong artifact. The oil lamp emanates a vague residue of media, vacuous in feeling... it reminds me of the hollow media structure of a focus that allows it to store iota. There is also a presence inside with casting capabilities similar to my own.

Educate Genie ([pattern] →)

Teaches the presence my intentions. Because I am teaching an entity rather than etching a casting device, I can freely revise the Hex and reteach the genie any time without losing the media.

New Possibilities

It casts EVERY INSTANT. After writing a spell into it, I was treated to a splendid unceasing gush of media. I estimate the casting speed must be around twenty times every second. The presence inside the lamp performs the casting with extraordinary efficiency, not producing most of the sound and particles that accompany other casting methods.

I have developed some useful patterns for use with the lamp, documented on the next few pages. These patterns should only be cast by the genie within the lamp, lest I succumb to the Impersonate Genie mishap, which emits red sparks and yanks my casting item from my hand.

Yeah, but your hexcasters were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.

Genie Refl.: Spatial (→ vector)

Pushes my original position when I began using the lamp.

Genie Refl.: Rotational (→ vector)

Pushes my original rotation when I began using the lamp.

Genie Refl.: Kinetic (→ vector)

Pushes my original velocity when I began using the lamp.

Genie Refl.: Temporal (→ number)

Pushes how many times the lamp has casted. Divided by 20, it is the number of seconds since I began using the lamp.

Genie Refl.: Media (→ number)

Pushes the remaining media of the lamp, in units of dust.

Finale Reflection (→ boolean)

The instant I let go of my lamp, it casts twice: once for the usual cast and a second time as a final burst of media. I can use this pattern to recognize whether a cast is that finale, and react accordingly.

Replacement Mind

Hex casting burns out the mind from the energy of thought, flooding the consciousness, inundating every neuron... it's euphoric. For staffs, casting devices, and spell circles, the rate of casting is slow enough that a mind can recuperate; I will never need to replace an impetus. With the speeds lamps operates at, though, even an optimized mind can only bear the burden for so long.

Luckily, the lamp somehow sustains the mind until its battery runs out. When the genie finally perishes, the lamp must be... reloaded.

I am a great soft jelly thing. Smoothly rounded, with no mouth, with pulsing white holes filled by fog where my eyes used to be. Rubbery appendages that were once my arms; bulks rounding down into legless humps of soft slippery matter.

I have no mouth. And I must scream.

Make Genie (villager entity, item entity →)

I have developed this pattern to transform the mind of a villager into a genie. Recharging requires a new mind each time, so I should gather as much amethyst as I can beforehand. The spell itself costs five charged amethyst.

The stress of nonstop casting requires highly trained minds, I estimate of Journeyman-grade or greater. Highly trained villagers should become better genies. I doubt the difference between a Journeyman and an Expert would survive the optimization, but the difference between an Expert and a Master is magnitudes greater. Perhaps great enough to make a meaningful difference in the quality of casting.

Arch Lamps

Because a separate mind casts my spells, a lamp should be able to cast even without me holding it. I estimate any villager short of a complete master of its field would be unable to cast so often unassisted though. These arch lamps are activated and deactivated rather than used and while active in my inventory, they cast every moment even without my input.

The output of an arch lamp is so grand that it saturates the air around me with media... it's incredible. Unfortunately, if two lamps are active at once within my inventory, the resonances clash and deactivate both lamps, as well as rendering every arch lamp in my inventory useless for a few seconds. I should only have one archgenie lamp active at once, although I can still simutaneously use a regular lamp.

Archgenie Purification (entity → boolean)

Pushes whether a player currently has an active arch lamp.

Terminate Archgenie

Can be casted by a casting device, staff, or within the arch lamp itself. Deactivates the lamp's operation, similar to Charon's.

Arch. Refl.: Spatial (→ vector)

Pushes the original position of the caster when the arch lamp started casting.

Arch. Refl.: Rotational (→ vector)

Pushes the original rotation of the caster when the arch lamp started casting.

Arch. Refl.: Kinetic (→ vector)

Pushes the original velocity of the caster when the arch lamp started casting.

Arch. Refl.: Temporal (→ number)

Pushes how many times the lamp has casted. Divided by 20, it returns how many times in seconds the lamp has been in use.

Arch. Refl.: Media (→ number)

Pushes the remaining amount of media left in the lamp, in units of dust.

Finale Reflection (→ boolean)

When a master lamp is turned off, it casts an additional time. I can use this pattern to recognize when whether a cast is that last burst of energy.

Arch Lamp Memory

An archgenie can remember an iota, persisting between casts. If I need to save an iota between casts of the lamp, I can stash it in its memory. The two patterns responsible for interacting with the memory can also be cast by a staff or casting device if an arch lamp is active.

Archgenie Gambit (any →)

Sets the lamp's iota storage. Subject to Transgress Others mishap.

Arch. Refl.: Memory (→ any)

Gets the lamp's iota storage.

I have seen... so much. I have... experienced... annihilation and deconstruction and reconstruction. I have seen the atoms of the world screaming as they were inverted and subverted and demoted to energy. I have seen I have seen I have sget stick bugged lmao

Circle Spells

When the media courses through the boundaries of a circle, it saturates the domain inside the circle with media, allowing me to manipulate the environment inside far more flexibly than I am used to. The following are some spells I've come across or developed, which are to only be cast by a spell circle.

Displace (entity, vector →)

For just three amethyst shards, I can teleport an entity from anywhere in my circle to anywhere else inside. Unlike Greater Teleport, this spell takes in world coordinates rather than an offset.

A list of all the patterns I've discovered, as well as what they do.

Hexical Patterns

Dioscuri Gambit II (many, number → many)

Takes a number and duplicates that many elements of the stack while perserving order.

Glyphmaker's Purif. (pattern, number → pattern)

Takes in a pattern and a number and produces a pattern of the same shape, but different stroke order. My notes reveal that ancient hexcasters used this for some grand library.

Janus' Gambit

Instantly terminates the Hex regardless of the current circumstances, breaking even through Thoth's, Themis', and Hermes' Gambit unlike Charon's Gambit().

It's useful to end a Hex early once it has reached some desired state, without the difficulty of using Charon's Gambit because Janus' can bypass the "containment" of Hermes' and Thoth's.

It is always important to know when something has reached its end.

Nephthys' Gambit (pattern/[pattern] → varies)

Pops a pattern or pattern list and dives down an amount corresponding to the tail length to cast the pattern list. Useful for surgery-like operations.

It's extremely versatile and I can mend almost any error in my stack using Bookkeeper's Gambit, pushing iota after a dive, and transforming surfaced iota. It was named after a goddess of mourning and rivers, lending to how it buries/dives down into the stack.

... the unknowns of time travel... is akin to descending blindly into the depths of the freezing water and reappearing as an acorn.

Sisyphus' Gambit (list →)

Takes a pattern list and casts it over and over forever until it encounters either a Charon's Gambit or a Janus' Gambit.

While I have heard of self-producing Hexes called quines used to make infinite loops, they can be slightly unwieldy to work with. This gambit simplifies that process by just repeatedly casting a list until it runs out of evaluations or encounters a Charon's Gambit. The ravenmind is persisted between iterations and it always casts with the base stack.

One always finds one's burden again... One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Themis' Gambit (list, pattern/[pattern] → list)

Takes a list and a pattern or pattern list which is used to sort the list by casting over every iota similar to Thoth's Gambit.

After each iteration, it demands a number at the top of the stack which will correspond to that iota. At the end of the gambit, a list is pushed with the iota sorted by that number in increasing order. The order of identically numbered iota are kept. If it encounters Charon's Gambit, it will create a sorted list with only the iota it has come across.

Shuffling is the only thing which Nature cannot undo.

Telepathy

Media is the energy of thought and consequently, it can interact with thoughts as well. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately for me, the minds of players are too resistant to be swayed by Hexes and even the minds of villagers resist tampering. There is a notable exception though: my own mind is open to my own media, allowing me to read and write thoughts.

Telepathic Reflection (→ null/number)

By focusing on a particular image, I can detect that concentration via this telepathy spell. This pattern pushes how long I have been holding down the telepathy key, or null if I am not holding it.

Send Thought (any →)

Momentarily displays the iota above my hotbar. If cast repeatedly, each cast overwrites the previous message instantly.

Shout Thought (any →)

Displays a iota across my screen. It obstructs my vision and takes some time to fade in, so I shall only use it sparingly.

Hallucinate Pling

Causes me to hear a pling that is inaudible to other players.

Hallucinate Click

Causes me to hear a click that is inaudible to other players.

Patterns and actions that perform a magical effect on the world.

Mage Blocks

The blocks from Conjure Block last forever, are consequently a pain to clean up, and are not too versatile. Luckily, Nature offers an elegant and flexible alternative. These mage blocks come with a suite of modifiers. I could even stack multiple modifiers on one block or reapply a modifier to toggle it off.

Conjure Mage Block (vector →)

Conjures a mage block at the location. Costs three dust.

I can create a city out of nothing, or I can cover it in volcanic rock.

Modify Block: Bouncy (vector →)

This modifier makes the block delightfully fun to bounce on! It returns more force to me than regular slime blocks and I notice even if I sneak, the block bounces me regardless.

Modify Block: Energized (vector, number →)

This modifier makes the block emit a Redstone signal, with the number corresponding to the power level of the output.

Modify Block: Ephemeral (vector, number →)

This modifier takes in a number in addition to a position and shatters the block after many twentieths of a second. Subsequent casts can lengthen or shorten the duration.

Modify Block: Invisible (vector →)

This modifier prevents the block from emitting the telltale particles that accompany my casting, even when being stood on.

Modify Block: Replaceable (vector →)

This modifier is useful for construction! With this modifier applied, I find I can easily place another block in the place of the mage block.

Modify Block: Volatile (vector →)

This modifier makes the block break other mage blocks it's touching. Notably, if it breaks another volatile block, that block breaks and so on until every volatile block shatters.

Chorus Blink

Chorus Blink (vector →)

Between Blink, Greater Teleport, ender pearls, and chorus fruit, this spell serves a harmonious midpoint for safe, precise, and cheap teleportation.

It consumes a chorus fruit from my inventory and teleports me up to 16 blocks using an offset vector. The cost is a single dust whether I teleport the full 16 blocks or less, and has no penalty for multiple casts in one hex. Ambit works strangely with repeated casts of this spell because each blink shifts my ambit to my new position.

I could be there in a heartbeat.

Conjured Staves

Conjured staves are not unlike cyphers. They have a media battery for casting and when they run out, unable to consume my health or my inventory's stash for media. They are not rechargable or reprogrammable, and using Erase Item on it simply destroys it. However, its true power is input interception.

Conjure Staff (vec, num, num, [pattern] →)

Conjures a staff at the location with the amount of media, rank, and hex respectively.

This is my staff. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

When I use my primary or secondary use keys while holding a conjured staff, it intercepts my click. After a number of clicks corresponding to the rank I assigned at conjuration, it casts the Hex I gave it, starting the stack with false and true, corresponding to the left and right clicks respectively. If I pause for too long between clicks, it simply cancels the current "cast".

The spell is not too expensive, requiring only an amethyst shard, an amethyst dust for every rank, and the media for the battery. The result is a speedy and versatile casting device, with infinitely more possibilities and no cooldown compared to other casting devices.

Not only that, conjured staves feature an iota storage that can only be edited from the staff itself.

Staff Reflection (→ any)

Reads the iota from the conjured staff's inner storage.

Staff Gambit (any →)

Writes an iota to the conjured staff's inner storage. Does not allow player references.

Specks

I can conjure an image of an iota into the world, called a speck. Nature allows me to customize them quite extensively, altering their size, thickness of stroke, and more. They also take on my pigment color. Once they are in the world, I can move, rotate, and otherwise alter them for free, regardless of range.

Conjure Speck (any, vector, vector → entity)

Conjures a speck with the iota, position, and rotation. Costs one-hundredth of a dust.

Because you saw things from every angle, you understood them for what they really were.

Move Speck (speck entity, vector →)

Moves a speck entity to the position.

Rotate Speck (speck entity, vector →)

Rotates a speck entity to face the vector.

Roll Speck (speck entity, number →)

Accepts a number between 0 and 1, representing a fraction of a full rotation, and rotates the speck's image by that amount.

Iota Speck (speck entity, any →)

Changes the speck's iota.

Lifetime Speck (speck entity, number →)

Commands the speck to disappear after that many twentieths of a second.

Size Speck (speck entity, number →)

Scales the speck, can range from 0 to 10.

Thickness Speck (speck entity, number →)

Changes the thickness of the speck, must be less than 5. Only has a noticeable effect when the iota is a pattern.

Dismiss Speck (speck entity →)

Forces a speck to disappear.

Zone Dstl.: Speck (vector, number → [entity])

Returns specks similarly to other zone distillation patterns.

I have stumbled upon a branch of manipulating media entirely focused around information. These patterns can divine a surprising amount of information like types of blocks, status effects, the weather, the nutritional value of food, whether I am sprinting, block explosion resistance, and more. While likely not too useful for the majority of Hexes, these will be convenient to have, should I ever need them.

Enchantments

Thaumaturgist's Purif. (item entity →)

Gets a list of enchantments the item has.

Charm Distillation (item entity, identifier → number)

Gets the strength of the specific enchantment on the item.

Entities

Inferno Purification (entity → boolean)

Pushes whether the entity is burning. Also applies to entities that are visually on fire, even if they are immune to fire like blazes attacking.

Inferno Purification II (entity → number)

Pushes how long in seconds the entity will continue burning if not put out.

Enderman's Purification (entity → boolean)

Pushes whether the entity is touching rain, water, or in a bubble column.

Sloth's Purification (entity → boolean)

Pushes whether the entity is sleeping. Applies to players, cats, foxes, and a variety of other creatures.

Racer's Purification (player entity → boolean)

Pushes whether the entity is sprinting. Includes if I am swimming or if I have left the ground since sprinting and extends to cats, foxes, and more.

Food

Edibility Purification (item entity → boolean)

Takes in an item entity and returns whether you can eat it.

Calorie Purification (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and pushes the amount it will fill you.

Satiation Purification (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and pushes the saturation value, which roughly affects how long it will fill you.

Hunger Purification (player entity → number)

Returns how full a player is.

Stamina Purification (entity entity → number)

Returns my saturation, which roughly correlates to how long the player will remain full.

Flesh Purification (item entity → boolean)

Takes in an item entity and pushes whether it's considered a meat (whether wolves can eat it).

Dessert Purification (item entity → boolean)

Takes in an item entity and pushes whether it's a snack (you can eat it really quickly).

Identifiers

My Hexes has so far been quite blind to the world. I can get a creature's height, velocity, and more but I can't directly identify that entity. Nature's solution to the problem is the identifier iota. Every entity, block, status effect, enchantment, sound, etc... has a unique identifier that my Hexes can identify. Once I have two identifiers, I can compare them with each other.

Detective's Purification (identifiable → identifier)

Pushes the identifier of an entity or block at a vector.

I notice that if I were to use Detective's Purification on an item, it returns that it's an item entity, but if I were to use Recognizer's Purification on that same entity, it would return the type of item. This type of item matches with a block identifier returned by Detective's Purification. I can imagine Recognizer's as returning additional information if possible.

Recognizer's Purif. (entity → identifier)

Pushes extra identifier information of an entity, mainly the item type of an item entity or the item type inside an item frame entity.

Tool Purification (player entity → identifier)

Returns the type of item in my mainhand.

Accessory Purification (player entity → identifier)

Returns the type of item in my offhand.

Items

Storage Purification (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and returns how many items are in it.

Warehouse Purification (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and returns how many items that can stack in it.

Deterioration Purif. (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and returns how much damage the item has sustained.

Fragility Purification (item entity → number)

Takes in an item entity and returns how much durability the item can have at its peak.

Status Effects

Diagnosis Purification (entity → [identifier])

Gets a list of status effects the entity is afflicted with.

Prescription Purif. (item entity → [identifier])

Gets a list of status effects the food or potion will bestow.

Condition Purification (identifier → number)

Gets the general "goodness" of the effect towards the afflicted. -1 for harmful, 0 for neutral, and 1 for beneficial.

Concentration Dstl. (entity, identifier → number)

Gets the potency of the specific effect acting on the entity or null if the entity doesn't have it.

Clearance Distillation (entity, identifier → number)

Gets how long the effect will last or null if the entity doesn't have it.

World

Meterologist's Refl. (→ number)

Pushes a number corresponding to the weather. 0 for clear, 1 for rain, and 2 for thundering.

Miner's Purification (vector → number)

Pushes how hard the block is to mine.

Demoman's Purification (vector → number)

Pushes how resistant the block is to explosions.

Plane Reflection (→ identifier)

Pushes the identifier of the dimension the Hex is being cast in.

This is the online version of the Hexical documentation.

Getting Started

Hexical Changes

Lightning Rod Staff

Items

Grimoires

Grimoire

Write Grimoire (pattern, [pattern] →)

Erase Grimoire (pattern →)

Archivist Reflection (→ [pattern])

Restrict Grimoire (pattern, number →)

Archivist Purification (pattern → number)

Living Scrolls

Small Living Scroll

Large Living Scroll

Genie Lamp

Mysterious Lamp

Educate Genie ([pattern] →)

New Possibilities

Genie Refl.: Spatial (→ vector)

Genie Refl.: Rotational (→ vector)

Genie Refl.: Kinetic (→ vector)

Genie Refl.: Temporal (→ number)

Genie Refl.: Media (→ number)

Finale Reflection (→ boolean)

Replacement Mind

Make Genie (villager entity, item entity →)

Arch Lamps

Archgenie Purification (entity → boolean)

Terminate Archgenie

Arch. Refl.: Spatial (→ vector)

Arch. Refl.: Rotational (→ vector)

Arch. Refl.: Kinetic (→ vector)

Arch. Refl.: Temporal (→ number)

Arch. Refl.: Media (→ number)

Finale Reflection (→ boolean)

Arch Lamp Memory

Archgenie Gambit (any →)

Arch. Refl.: Memory (→ any)

The Great Work

Circle Spells

Displace (entity, vector →)

Patterns

Hexical Patterns

Dioscuri Gambit II (many, number → many)

Glyphmaker's Purif. (pattern, number → pattern)

Janus' Gambit

Nephthys' Gambit (pattern/[pattern] → varies)

Sisyphus' Gambit (list →)

Themis' Gambit (list, pattern/[pattern] → list)

Telepathy

Telepathic Reflection (→ null/number)

Send Thought (any →)

Shout Thought (any →)

Hallucinate Pling

Hallucinate Click

Spells

Mage Blocks

Conjure Mage Block (vector →)

Modify Block: Bouncy (vector →)

Modify Block: Energized (vector, number →)

Modify Block: Ephemeral (vector, number →)

Modify Block: Invisible (vector →)

Modify Block: Replaceable (vector →)

Modify Block: Volatile (vector →)

Chorus Blink

Chorus Blink (vector →)

Conjured Staves

Conjure Staff (vec, num, num, [pattern] →)

Staff Reflection (→ any)

Staff Gambit (any →)

Specks

Conjure Speck (any, vector, vector → entity)

Move Speck (speck entity, vector →)

Rotate Speck (speck entity, vector →)

Roll Speck (speck entity, number →)

Iota Speck (speck entity, any →)

Lifetime Speck (speck entity, number →)

Size Speck (speck entity, number →)

Thickness Speck (speck entity, number →)