As mana resides all around us, its essence leaves behind residue and traces that are tailored to the specific qualities it contains, with every trail of mana residing in its own unique designation. This allows for the act of Mana Scanning, where one who is versed well in the magical arts can identify secreted mana signatures that waft in the air near a location, or observe a misty translucent mana flow from an individual perceptively, and build characteristics from its recognition. Those that carry a deeper understanding of mana scanning or the matter of mana altogether can perform much more specific tasks per their level of comprehension:

 

Each level requires a timeframe of training.

 

Novice Scanning: An individual can identify the mana’s affinity, how recently it was cast, and the level of intensity the spell was projected. This can cause light exhaustion or a mild headache for new or untrained users. If the scanner already carries the affinity, they do not need to know expansive novice scanning to identify a mana’s affinity. They are also unaffected by the aftereffects of use.

 

Intermediate Scanning: An individual is capable of actively noticing the stemmed flow of mana off an individual’s person, and a makeshift afterimage of impact from a spell’s casted target. This can cause mild exhaustion or migraines for newly learned intermediate scanners.

 

Expert Scanning: An individual is capable of utilizing mana scanning to notice abnormalities within specific bodily systems that work in tandem with mana (nervous or cardiovascular), with supplemental medical knowledge to specify further information. Expert scanners may also clearly see specific prior spells cast in a specified area with enough concentration. This is the most draining of scanning abilities, and can only be done once a day (per session), leaving the user drastically exhausted and unable of casting any other spells. Attempting scanning at this level without proper training can lead to permanent mental deficiencies or brain death if catastrophic enough.

 

That, however, is under the guise of arcane magic. In the case of runic magic, the process has many more complications among intermediate and even expert mana-scanning users. Spells from runic magic are indistinguishable from similar casting forms, making identifying a singular instance of runic aftermath to an individual difficult without deductive reasoning–even more so with identifying an affliction in relation to its magical afflicter. The only way an individual scanner can distinguish a spell as runic instead of arcane is if they are of the same affinity as the spell or affliction they are attempting to identify.

 

Time for scanning: 30 secs - 1 min

Range: Close - Individual (Simply touching)

Range: Close - Area (Walk around the area; wave hand around)