Magic Scrolls are scrolls of parchment that have been enchanted to contain spells. According to Ainz, they were treated as one-use expendables.[1]
Description
Effective spell casting depends on two factors:
- The skill of the magic caster.
- The time necessary to cast the spell.
Magic scrolls are items that bypass those needs and are a common tool used by the inhabitants of the New World (to those that can afford them). These scrolls act as vessels for prepared enchantments, enabling casters to bypass the needed time to cast spells and conserve mana. At the same time, if the magic caster ran out of mana, they would usually rely on scrolls to cast their spells instead.< [2] Another quality of their usefulness is that these scrolls do not require a person to have a high knowledge of magic in order to cast it.
Once the spell activated, the sealed magic will be released and the remains of the scroll disintegrate into particles of light. Because of that, if the sealed spell was activated by the user, the magic stored within the scroll would be exhausted. But there are many different spells that could be sealed within, so a variety of magic could be prepared in advance according to the situation, making them very convenient and essential.[3]
On the other hand, there are some scrolls that were affected by their creators’ skills. Though for the most part, they are made at the minimum possible level that allowed for their creation, which also meant that they were fixed at the lowest possible caster level.[4]
Additionally, a normal scroll could only be used if the person possessed a class that could use the same branch of magic as the scroll.[5] For starters, in order to use a scroll of a faith-based magic caster like a priest, one had to obtain a faith-based class. The spell had to exist on the list of learnable magic for that class. However, some thief based classes have a skill that can disguise this list and deceive the scroll.[6]
Nonetheless, the usage of scrolls varies by a different spellcasting system it belongs to. Still, with a Talent ability possessed by Nfirea Bareare, one is even capable of bypassing the restrictions of an item, allowing the person to use scrolls from different magic systems.[7]
Abilities
Through the experiments conducted by Titus Annaeus Secundus, magic scrolls made using ordinary animal skins can only contain about 1st tier magic. However, regular parchment could be used to store up to 2nd tier magic, but nothing above that. This suggests that in order to seal away higher quality spells in magic scrolls, higher quality of materials are necessarily required. For example, using human skin, it is possible to contain at least 3rd tier magic. On the other hand, a scroll made with materials of the highest tier, like dragonhide, could contain even 10th tier magic.[8]
According to Suzuki Satoru, some traps that hailed from YGGDRASIL are said to be under the disguise as scrolls to fool collectors. When a person tries to use one of them, it will end up exploding upon usage, and so on.[9]
Elves used the bark from a special kind of tree to make scrolls and could only inscribe druid spells up to the 3rd tier on them.[10]
Known Magic Scrolls
- Floating Board Scroll
- Healing Scroll
- Invisibility Scroll
- Message Scroll
- Napalm Scroll
- Perfect Unknowable Scroll
- Rabbit's Ear Scroll
- Scroll of Clairvoyance
- Scroll of Counter Detect
- Scroll of Crystal Monitor
- Scroll of False Cover
- Scroll of God's Eye
- Scroll of Locate Object
- Scroll of Mass Compass
- Scroll of Report (Web Novel Only)
- Sensory Scroll
- Stronghold Teleportation Scroll (Web Novel Only)
- Summon Monster 1st Scroll
- Summon Monster 10th Scroll
- Teleportation Scroll
Trivia
- Ainz owned scrolls, the kind where it is imbued with spells that he did not bother to learn.
- A scroll with a 1st tier spell normally costs around 1 gold and 10 silver pieces in the market.[11]
- In the Web Novel, compared to wands and staffs, scrolls were cheaper and were used more commonly.[12]
- One of Demiurge's jobs is to figure out ways to make stronger parchments to be able to hold higher level spells.[13][14]
- According to Ainz, magic scrolls from the Great Tomb of Nazarick can only hold up to 3rd-tier spells with the current materials Demiurge is harvesting as of now.[15]
- The Slane Theocracy has managed to make scrolls from the 1st to 4th tier but the manufacturing of said scrolls is a closely guarded secret.[16]
- In Mass for the Dead, Momonga considers conducting an experiment to see whether "noble paper" or copy paper from another world is compatible to contain higher tier magic and make magic scrolls.[17]
References
- ↑ Overlord Volume 01 Chapter 2: Floor Guardians
- ↑ Overlord Volume 06 Chapter 11: The Final Battle of the Disturbance
- ↑ Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 4: Twin Swords of Death
- ↑ Overlord Volume 03 Chapter 5: PvN
- ↑ Overlord First Half Chapter 33: Preparations Part 2
- ↑ Overlord First Half Chapter 62: The Capital City o f the Kingdom Part 2
- ↑ Overlord Volume 02 Chapter 1: The Two Adventurers
- ↑ Overlord Volume 08 Side Story 2: A day in Nazarick
- ↑ Overlord Bonus Volume Chapter 2: The Two Set Off
- ↑ Overlord Volume 16 Chapter 5: Kill Steal
- ↑ Overlord Volume 05 Chapter 3: Those who pick up, those who are picked up
- ↑ Overlord First Half Chapter 5: Magic
- ↑ Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 3: Army of Death
- ↑ Overlord Volume 04 Chapter 4: Dawn of Despair
- ↑ Overlord Volume 13 Chapter 4: The Siege
- ↑ Overlord Volume 15 Prologue
- ↑ Mass for the Dead Special Event: Sasaki, the Mage and the Undead King