Octarine--The Color of Magic

Magic on the Discworld is everywhere. Both Witches and Wizards can see its main indication--the color Octarine. This is a shade somewhere between green and purple that glows just beyond the spectrum that non-magic folk can see.

Items that have been touched by magic, or that are intrinsically magical, will have one or both of the two Octarine properties. One is an indication of enchantment, the other is an indication of talisman status.

Enchantment comes in levels. There are, so I've been told, ten distinct levels of enchantment, but only the first five are permanent. Above "steady," enchantments will slowly wear away, because no item can contain that much magic for long. Magic is a powerful force, with a mind and will of its own.

  1. Occasionally pulses with Ocatarine light.
  2. Emits a Slight Octarine Glow.
  3. Softly Pulses in Dull Octarine Shades.
  4. Gives off a steady but dull octarine glow.
  5. Steady Octarine Glow.

Talismans will have a distinctly different type of Octarine about them--always a Haze. But there are levels of pre-talisman octarine, which are important to note when attempting to Delude an item into becoming a talisman. Once an item has turned, and taken on that final level of Octarine, the change is permanent. Talismans can also be enchanted (and most of mine are), as the two are distinctly different properties.

  1. Faint octarine shadow that disappears if you look at it squarely.
  2. Faint Octarine Shadow.
  3. Octarine Shadow that flickers out of the corner of your eye.
  4. Flickering Octarine Haze about it.
  5. Hazy Octarine Sparkle of a Magical Talisman.

There are also local levels of enchantment, which affect how easy it is to enchant an item. Wizards measure magic in "thaums", and give all the levels numbers, but we witches prefer a little less math and a little more sense in our measuring. A witch can use a divining bob to determine the approximate amount of background magic in the area; a circle will have its amount of contained background magic, which is higher than most areas of the Disc are naturally. Background levels of magic can be raised by casting a lot of spells--especially if more than one person is doing it--and you can sense the rise if you are a witch or wizard, once it gets serious enough. A warning, however: Too much magic attracts creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions. A while back a number of wizards (and a few witches) gathered together near the Mended Drum and quite a few lost life and limb in the experiment. Some came out of it with a few extra limbs, too, as I recall.

As a member of the magical community, you will be sometimes asked to look at an item that is being deluded or has been enchanted and to report the level it is at. Most non-magical citizens will simply want to know how much longer or how close it is to "steady" (known also as level 5). They can't see Octarine, so if'n you're in a good mood, you might oblige them. Nobody said you had to, though.


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