Incantation

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This article is about expressions for casting spells sometimes called “Words of Power”. For for the Words of Power to open dungeons in Ultima V, see Words of Power (dungeons).

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An incantation (or Words of Power) is an expression made by a mage when casting a spell, usually in the form of utterances. Like reagents, Intelligence, mana and various other resources, incantations are one of the requirements in spell casting.

Sosarian Magic and Ultima IV

Unlike incantations in later ages, in the system of Sosarian magic each spell requires the caster speak a unique set of words that do not appear to share any etymology with other spells. Sometimes these words also form the name of the spell, but often the name of the spell and the incantation are different.

The Quest of the Avatar

At the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment, incantations are still needed to cast spells, although they do not appear to be taken very seriously and have often gone undocumented.

Later Incantations

Ultima V saw the use of primitive magical syllables, each having some sort of agency that could be useful to an adventuring mage. These syllables combine to form the compositions of incantations. For instance, the syllables, An (“negate”) and Flam (“flame”) would form an incantation to douse a fire or In (“create”), Sanct (“protection”) followed by Grav (“field”) would create an energy field. During this time, the incantations also formed the names of the spells, but in later ages, spells would also be given names separate from their incantations.

Syllable	Meaning	Pronunciation
An	Negate	ah n
Bet	Small	b eh t
Corp	Death	k oar p
Des	Lower/down	d eh ss
Ex	Freedom	x
Flam	Flame	fl ah m
Frio	Cold	fr ee oh
Grav	Energy/field	gr ah v
Hur	Wind	h oo r
In	Make/create/cause	ih n
Jux	Danger/trap/harm	juh ks
Kal	Invoke	k ah l
Lor	Light	l oar
Mani	Life	m ah n ee
Nox	poison	n ah ks
Ort	Magic	oar t
Por	Movement	p oar
Quas	Illusion	kw ah ss
Rel	Change	r eh l
Sanct	Protection	s aa ng kt
Tym	Time	t ih m
Uus	Up	oo ss
Vas	Great	v ah ss
Wis	Knowledge	w ee ss
Xen	Creature	z eh n
Ylem	Matter	aye l eh m
Zu	Sleep	z oo

Runic Magic

Main article: Runic magic

Rune stones used for incantations in runic magic

Runic magic incantations have the singular trait that they are not expressed through speech, but by manipulating rune stones, whose characters form syllables.