Coins

[Juggernaut1981]

So you can't be a wizard without coins, but you need to be a wizard to MAKE the coins... there's a circular loop here that needs a start.

Once you are a wizard, you then need to monopolise the world market on 'special coins', so it is worth going on elaborate assassinations to steal other people's pile of coins. And once Insert Bad Guy Here gains such a stockpile that it cannot be effectively matched by any one person or any group of people... they get to kill everyone who has coins, become super powerful and take over the world.

Just a thought...

[waldronate]

Except that the coins have a subtle interaction that causes a critical mass effect. Too many and the whole area goes "boom" or drains out all the magic from all the coins or something that encourages hoarding but discourages excessive greed.

[rdanhenry]

Anything with this much practical value may make a good barter item, but it cannot stand as a currency. The practical value will trump the financial use. Much better to use things like gold or a type of shell, with no value except the belief that they are valuable.

If the magic is discharged by use, and recharging is anything but trivial, value would fluctuate wildly, with high-magic-use periods (war, say, or plagues if you have healing spells) causing massive inflationary pressures on charged coins and devaluing discharged coins.

[Juggernaut1981]

Except that the coins have a subtle interaction that causes a critical mass effect. Too many and the whole area goes "boom" or drains out all the magic from all the coins or something that encourages hoarding but discourages excessive greed.

So they can exist in great veins worth mining deep in the earth but can't be stored in a vault?

[Yandor]

haha yeah I was thinking the same when I was heading to bed, but then I thought... Well the gems are #1 not infused while in the ore, but #2 whos to say the special ore isn't like a "containment field" for a large group of them when infused... so you can have a good size amount, but once beyond that point all hell breaks loose... seems like a fun idea =P

[Juggernaut1981]

So if it's just a container, where does the magic come from? Why would they store it in a container rather than access it from the source?