Brace · The Velan Codex

Each thumb draws a bracket, mirrored: outward, a hard corner, straight down, a hard corner, then back inward. Raises a small shield.

Left thumb

Right thumb

White dot: start. Arrow: end. Diamonds: sharp corners the scorer checks. Both thumbs draw at once, as the player sees them on a landscape phone.

Strokes

Mirrored: the left thumb draws the right thumb's shape flipped left to right.

Thumb	Size	Sharp corners	Vertices
Left thumb	30 mm (18 × 30 mm)	27% along, 90° 73% along, 90°	4
Right thumb	30 mm (18 × 30 mm)	27% along, 90° 73% along, 90°	4

Size is the longer side of the drawn shape. Corner positions are the share of the stroke's length drawn before reaching them.

Casting

Breath window: 600 ms (default)
Fizzles: below 45% overall, or under 30% shape on either thumb
Thumb sync: about 80 ms allowed between the thumbs' start and end times
Learning: Learned by tracing it 3 times, each recognised as this spell and scoring at least 55%; breath is not timed while tracing

Score weights (defaults)

shape35%

size10%

pace15%

corners20%

sync20%

Effect

15 shield.

	Weakest cast	Base	Perfect cast
Shield	9.0	15	22.5

Cast quality scales power from 0.6x just over the fizzle line to 1.5x for a perfect cast.

In the Codex

Spell: Brace
Side: Evane
Style: Mirrored
Left thumb: Mirrored bracket: left (outward), hard corner, straight down, hard corner, back right
Right thumb: Bracket: right (outward), hard corner, straight down, hard corner, back left
Size: 30 mm
Sharp corners: 2 per thumb, at 27% and 73%
Effect: 15 shield

From Mobile RPG Codex › Spellcasting › Spell Book (Prototype)

Spell: Brace
Faction, style: Wardens, mirrored
Shape: A bracket: outward, sharp corner, down, sharp corner, back inward
Size, breath: 30 mm, 600 ms
Effect: Shield 15
Learned: Act 1, taught by Aske hand over hand (she traces it with you, but doesn't cast)

From Spell Set › Defence

Spell: Brace
How: Taught by Aske, hand over hand; she traces but doesn't cast.
Where: Sallowbank ferry, scene 6.3
Required?: No

From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Spells gained

Concept art of the effect

Elsewhere in the Codex

The casting prototype ships eight spells, five Evane and three Facet. Repel, Coil, Gale and Facet Seal came first, one per drawing style; Brace, Mend, Bevel Lash and Prism Snare are the first batch from the Spell Set tab. Each lives in its own data file (Assets/StreamingAssets/Data/Spells/<id>.json), and the scorer checks exactly what this table describes. Shapes are written as the player sees them on a landscape phone; "outward" means toward that thumb's screen edge.

From Mobile RPG Codex › Spellcasting › Spell Book (Prototype)

Spell
Brace
Speed within each stroke
Out, brake, down, brake, back: two hard stops
Tempo across both thumbs
Both thumbs start, corner and finish together
Breath window
600 ms
From Mobile RPG Codex › Spellcasting › Speed and Tempo

Top row, left to right: Repel, Coil, Gale, Facet Seal. Second row: Brace, Mend, Bevel Lash, Prism Snare. In each pair the left half is the left thumb and the right half the right thumb; the white dot is where the stroke starts. The image is rendered from the spell data files, the same way the in-game spell book draws its icons.

From Mobile RPG Codex › Spellcasting › Spell Sheet

Wardens of Measure: weight and measure (Repel, Brace, Tally).
From Story Bible › Spell Lore › Naming future spells

Faction (style)
Wardens of Measure (mirrored, hard corners)
Attack
Tally
Defence
Brace
Healing
Assist
Control
Repel
From Spell Set › At a glance

Three answers to an incoming hit: absorb some of it (Brace), absorb more of it (Facet Seal), or dodge it (Drift). Facet Seal is unchanged from the prototype.

From Spell Set › Defence

Brace into Coil: a mirrored defence into a mirrored attack, the easiest thread to learn on.
From Spell Set › Composites

Art and audio: Proving Ring arena with crowd; Tamsin battle model and casting animations (her Repel and Brace in Warden pale blue); Rook's one-handed Facet Seal VFX: a circle held open, then a square, fusing (Facet Seal VFX exists in Assets/Art/VFX/FacetSeal, split in two).
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Act 1: The Sallow Road › Chapter 4: Whoever rang the Glass

Player does: fight the boss: Repel to stagger, Coil in the stagger window. Brace for the surges and Mend between phases, if learned. Losing is allowed: the companions (or the current) drag the protagonist up the bank, and they can try again or go back to Halfway first.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Act 1: The Sallow Road › Chapter 5: The Sallow Wyrm

What happens: Aske isn't surprised to see the protagonist and doesn't say she's glad. If the Wyrm is gone she's heard ("Coil. Huh."); if not, she says the Steps are theirs to deal with, not hers. Either way she teaches Brace, hand over hand: she traces it with them but won't cast, her thumbs over theirs and the bands turned to the skin. In the square, the villagers have Act 1 lines, and Fenn shows off a chalk door-mark that gave one spark, once.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Act 1: The Sallow Road › Chapter 6: The road onward

Player does: talk; learn Brace by tracing.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Act 1: The Sallow Road › Chapter 6: The road onward

Content to make: quest aske_brace; nodes Act1_Ferry_Aske (ends in <<learn_spell brace>>), and _Act1 parts for Prologue_Villager_Tobin, _Marra, _Fenn (their entry nodes in villagers.yarn gain a branch for act1.stage >= 1). Sets spell.learned.brace 1, aske.brace 1, fenn.spark 1. Spell Set: Brace is "taught by Aske hand over hand" in Act 1; this is that lesson.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Act 1: The Sallow Road › Chapter 6: The road onward

121 more mentions

Data: Assets/StreamingAssets/Data/Spells/brace.json