mana

Mana is used by super-human creatures called planeswalkers to power their spells, and the abilities of their minions. It is most commonly used in duels between two or more planeswalkers. These duels are the subject of this game.

By popular definition, mana is an omnipresent ether that can be drawn upon to construct magic spells. It is used in Magic: The Gathering and too-numerous-to-count role-playing games and fantasy stories. This Western understanding of mana can be attributed to Larry Niven, who first described it as such in his 1978 novella, The Magic Goes Away.³ Of course, Niven did not invent this perception of mana but probably combined the writings of early anthropologists with a bit of artistic license.

The anthropologist R.H. Codrington described mana as "an arbitrary, impersonal force possessed by people and objects"¹ in his 1891 book, The Melanesians. This early work strongly influenced many anthropologists who linked Codrington's description of mana with many other culture's belief systems, including the Iroquois orenda, Sioux wakan^a, and Algonquian manitou.¹ This association of mana with an all-pervading force resident in every aspect of being is inaccurate, but widespread nonetheless.

Mana describes a belief held and practiced by the people of Polynesia^b and Melanesia^c, and can be difficult to understand as "the idea of mana is not universal even in Melanesia, and the same term has much different meaning in neighboring Polynesia."¹ It may be described as holiness, respect, or even virtue and is said to be exhibited strongly in people with great character. A Maori^d chief would have a lot of mana, so much so that touching him was considered dangerous. Even so, mana was only experienced in fellowship whether between the chief and his village or even two men in a fight.² In the case of the chief and his village, the shared mana would be dominated by the chief who represented the greatest force of mana; indeed that is why he is chief. Even when inanimate objects are said to have mana it is derived from people. Often an object was said to be imbued with an ancestor's mana.

1 www.allenvarney.com/av_mana.html
2 alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/090.html
3 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana

a Also referred to as Wakan Tanka
b Many Islands
c Black Islands
d New Zealand native word for their people, though often used to describe South Pacific natives in general

In Diablo, your maximum amount of mana could be increased by spending time (I.E. experience points) developing your "Magic" characteristic. The sorcerer, a class specifically geared toward magic-usage, naturally benefits the most from this development.

In Diablo II, the "Energy" characteristic is what boosts your character's mana, and a class more given to actual magic-usage still benefits more. This is well represented by the fact that the "fighting" classes' attack skills generally have lower mana costs than a magic user's powerful attack spells.

In Diablo II, there are also certain monsters that can drain some or all of your mana with each hit they land on you, making life difficult for a character who relies too much on mana for survival/defense.