Card Use

Owning a card does not mean being able to use it. Activation requires understanding the seal arrangement, waking the card, directing the energy flow, and holding the effect under control from first spark to finish.

Untrained use is dangerous in mundane ways: the card may work weakly, not work at all, or wear down its user. The dramatic failures make better stories, but the common ones make the case for training.

This is why card education is a civic institution, why masters certify students, and why the phrase "he bought a deck" is, in most towns, a complete joke on its own.