Crystal Pens
A pen made of amethyst allows me to sketch patterns in midair as input to my spells. Though I use my pen like a normal staff, patterns I draw with it are merely stored in an internal list rather than executed.
Items
I devote this section to the magical and mysterious items I might encounter in my studies.
Echo Shards
Ever since acquiring a few Echo Shards from one of those ancient cities, my Hexes have felt... restrained in a way, as if the shards were trying to absorb them. Holding a shard in my other hand would let it do so, and would let me release all of the patterns I've drawn at once.
This behavior seems rather useful for quickly casting prepared spells. For example, if I let my shard absorb a simple raycast Hex, I could release it all-at-once against an entity rather than having to catch it off-guard standing still. Patterns released from an Echo Shard are cast against my staff stack, letting me use the newly-found entity by hand.
Mediaweave
A perversion of Edify Sapling lets me knit a fabric out of wool and media. It acts similar to a Thought-Knot, but can only hold Hexes — standard iotas fizzle instead of embedding themselves in the fabric. Additionally, the weave, radiating with raw energy, can passively exert force on nearby media, with no mind involved — nothing as powerful as a Hex, but still useful nonetheless.
Interestingly, I can wear a single length of mediaweave around my neck. Though it is strangely comfortable, I wonder about the effects of putting such a strong concentration of media near my vocal chords… I should review my string patterrraow— ahem. This interaction may warrant further investigation.
Stringworms
A strange object I've discovered, stringworms are worm imitations made from fuzz. I can acquire a stringworm by edifying placed String; however, they have no use in my studies.
Casting Pouches
Though a Phial is my ultimate goal for media storage, knitting a pouch out of mediaweave may help me manage my amethyst better. Only a few cloths are needed to give me some decent capacity. Each pouch holds six slots, and I can extend their capacity to twelve with a bit more weave. A small pouch may go within a large pouch, but neither size can be placed within itself.
Upon Nature's request for media, my pouches will offer themselves and their contents first of all; similarly, if I attempt to Recharge a pouch, the inserted media will form a 'cloud' of sorts inside, which will settle into any trinket or similar within. To inhibit this behavior, casting pouches may be sealed by applying Honeycomb the same way I'd insert an item. I can later wash off the seal by applying a wet sponge.
Something strange about these pouches I have noticed. I can feel the media hesitant— resistant, even— to leave the pouch. Only the media Nature— no, I— ask for is pulled from the pouch. As amethyst shatters inside, I feel the leftover media bouncing, ping-ponging, trapped in the walls until it evaporates. A battery within— my beloved Phial, or an Artifact of mine, could grab bits of this cloud, with none of the costs directing the clouds myself incurs.
Patterns
A list of all the patterns I've discovered, as well as what they do.
Advanced Lists
These patterns seem to represent common operations I perform on lists. Though these are perfectly possible to do with normal List Manipulation, it often requires more effort. Perhaps Nature willed them into existence to better understand what I'm doing... or perhaps they are my own invention?
Ferris Distillation ([a], int → [a])
Rotates the list leftward: an argument of 1 moves the first item of the list to the end. Negative numbers allow rotating the list rightward.
Retention Distillation ([a], int → [a])
Selects the first few elements from the input list. If the number is negative, selects the last few elements instead.
Rejection Distillation ([a], int → [a])
Drops the first few elements from the input list; the dual to Retention Distillation.
Retention Distillation ([a], [int] → [a])
Selects from the list only elements corresponding to the given indices. Unlike Selection Distillation, this cannot reorder or duplicate iotas.
Rejection Distillation ([a], [int] → [a])
Drops from the list iotas at the given indices. All other iotas are kept in the same order as the input.
Deductive Purification ([bool] → [int])
Creates a list of the indices for which True is present. For example, [True, False, True] becomes [0, 2]. I can also mix bools and ints in the input list.
Deductive Purification ([num] → [int])
Adds each index to the list based on the value. For example, [1, 2, 3] becomes [0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2]. Zero or negative numbers do not appear at all.
Multiplicative Dstl. ([a], [b] → [[a, b]])
Calculates the outer product of two lists. The resulting list has an entry for every possible pairing between the input lists.
Division Dstl. ([a], [b] → [[a, b]])
Calculates the inner product of two lists. If the two lists were arranged side-by-side, the resulting list has one entry for every row (unpaired elements are skipped).
Excisor's Gambit ([a], int → [a], [a], a)
Extracts an iota from the given list, and breaks the list apart around it. Returns all items before the iota, all items after the iota, and finally the iota itself.
Refinement Distillation ([a], [a → bool] → [a])
Discards iotas from the given list unless they satisfy the given predicate. Using Charon's Gambit discards the current and all remaining iotas.
Appendices
For some strange reason (a sort of 'hex bug'?), I feel the need to document these patterns in a separate chapter. I've properly spliced these patterns into my other set of notes.
Murmur Reflection (→ str)
Adds the phrase on the tip of my tongue to the stack, regardless of whether I intend to say it.
Modulus Distillation II (num, num → num)
Similar to Modulus, but differs for negative numbers: -8 %₁ 3 = -2, but -8 %₂ 3 = 1.
Apply Pigment (pigment →)
Imbues the item held in my offhand (e.g. a casting item) with the given pigment.
Erase Block (vec | entity →)
Erases the Hex or iota contained within a dropped item or block. Costs one dust per item.
Demiplanes
the world under my control nature is mine nature is MINE the world the world NO LONGER will the OVerworld rule me My mind is going My mind is going THE PAIN OF THOUGHT my mind my mind my a nine by nine room to myself SOLELY MYELF NO ONE ELSE a burst of media to Shatter the world nearly six` allays sewn into the walls for eternity oh how it must hurt IT HURTS IT
Conjure Demiplane (→ imprint)
Creates a fresh cuboid with a 9x9x9 interior, as well as a dimension to hold it in. Costs 18.2 thousand dust.
fragments of space the world falling apart crumpling a fine powder to the media tie my plane TIE IT DOWN WELL bindings of thought to keep it safe safe from others safe from me only a sliver of an allay's mind for the price eternally trapped not alive not dead merely floating Form the allay into bindings from some point outside must hurry now I feel it slipping away the cost of tying it to itself disasterous the plane slipping away my mind slipping away
Bind Demiplane (imprint, vec →)
Binds the given demiplane to a position. This position is used when exiting the demiplane, as well as in case of any unfortunate accidents. Mishaps if I bind a demiplane to the plane I'm in.
My mind is drifting drifting spinning, running from me with every slice I take of Nature. Every passing moment my grip oh my hands weakening my mind passing through like sand
I must steady myself. The price of sanity is outright shattering the planes I've made — a burst of media worth 25 shards, and the pocket will crumple like a villager, spewing its contents into where it was bound.
Testing this process on living creatures is unwise.
Shatter Demiplane (imprint, vec →)
Ruptures the boundaries of the given demiplane, destroying its contents. All dropped items and experience are spewed at the plane's attachment point.
Greater Reveal
Though my Hexes can use Reveal to transmit information to my mind, the resulting message is ephemeral — unless I stand still and reflect on what I've heard recently, it will slip away like anything else someone says. Additionally, constantly hammering my mind with iotas distracts me from more important things.
Thus, I've devised a new pattern of my own. It's similar to Reveal, but the message is lodged well within my mind, and I forget it instantly if I replace it with something else. It can also take a list of messages, for convenience.
Greater Reveal ([iota] | iota →)
Takes a list of iotas (or a single non-iota, which is treated as a list with one element) and embeds them in my mind persistently. Displayed iotas survive all methods that would clear a normal Reveal, and can only be cleared by another casting of Greater Reveal or my untimely demise.
To be a Hexcaster is to glimpse a truth that might best be hidden.
Staffcasting Patterns
These patterns force me to cast a Hex as if I drew it by hand. There are two variants of this pattern: the Greater version keeps the stack from the outside, while the Lesser version uses my staff's stack. My ravenmind is preserved in both cases.
Lani's Greater Gambit (∀αβ. α, [α → β] → β)
Coerces my staff to cast a Hex. The hex uses the stack of the outer casting environment.
Something's odd about how these patterns are named. I can simulate the Greater variant with merely a wrapper around the Lesser variant, but accessing the staff's stack itself is impossible with purely Greater. Does this not make Lesser strictly more powerful than Greater?
Lani's Lesser Gambit ([? → ?] →)
Coerces my staff to cast a Hex. The hex uses the stack of the staff itself, but keeps the outer environment's ravenmind.