Vis

Vis is the basic energy behind everything in Thaumcraft. Vis is present everywhere, though not usually seen. It is contained within Nodes, and all nodes interact with each other in a large network. Vis can only be taken out of the atmosphere by various wands: the Wand of the Apprentice, the Wand of the Adept, and the Wand of the Thaumaturge. Each wand can only hold so much vis at a time, with the higher level wands having a greater cap. Vis is used in advanced crafting recepies for the Arcane Worktable and the Infusion Altar. Most actions that have to do with vis will also potentially affect the Flux, which is the level of disturbance in the vis. The amount of vis in the atmosphere can only be seen when the Goggles of Revealing are equipped. The vis of every chunk (16x16 area) is separate and may have one or more aura nodes. If the flux of a node is high, the node will have an animation of lightning around it (seen with the goggles of revealing). When the vis of a node is low, with the goggles of revealing, you can see other nodes shoot some of their vis towards it. If this effect is not seen, it means that aura crystals are being depleted to restore the vis.