A Little Discussion about Magic

[Enuky]

Recently, I was speaking with Inheritance and he asked me a good question about magic in this universe. That is, how "ambiguous" magic works. What is stopping a magic user like Cecile from transforming a person like Oromis into a toad?


I'm afraid most of you will probably be disappointed in my answer, and to be honest I've kind of avoided having this talk. I have no formalized system for magic in this universe, and I realize most of you prefer such systems. I felt pretty bad about not having one, but then I started watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch of all things, and in it soft magic is handled beautifully. So I've accepted the use of "soft magic" in this rp, inspired by the Great Sabrina (and I really recommend this show to you, paperclip).



But alas, I'm gonna do my best to shed a little light on how I imagine magic works:



Magic is driven by mind power applied to magical energy, and there are two main forms of magic: Direct and Indirect.


Direct magic is physically offensive. A fireball would be an example of this. A physical force is produced by the magic and is controlled by the user. These spells are influenced only by the user's skill level, and must be physically deflected to be avoided.


For example, Cecile could attack Oromis with a fire ball and upon impact it would burn him just as a fire ball of equal strength produced by someone else. Oromis couldn't prevent this attack unless he dodges it or blocks it with a physical barrier of some kind. The driving force is physical.


Indirect magic is ambiguous and consists of concepts such as transformations, mind altering spells, materialization, and any other type of magic that has no clear driving force. It requires a greater amount of mental conceptualization on the part of the user, and is most effective in conjunction with the element of surprise.


Indirect magic is trickier than direct magic. Unlike direct magic, this form is influenced by the power of both the user and the adversary. It can't be deflected with physical barriers, but it can still be avoided through mental strength.


In order to effectively cast an indirect spell the user must both be powerful enough to cast the spell and powerful enough to out-will the adversary. It is possible to use ones own magical energy to block the effects of malicious indirect magic, and for this reason most powerful casters learn to instinctively keep their guard up against such attacks at all times.


If an adversary is unsuspecting of attack or too weak of a magic user to keep magical defenses high, he/she will be affected by it. If it is a powerful and aware user such as Oromis, it would be much more difficult to produce a lasting spell against him. Users such as Oromis are simply less susceptible to indirect attacks.


The user's personal strength also comes into play. For example, Cecile once transformed Lance into a toad, but the spell only lasted several seconds. Lance wouldn't have had an instinctive magical barrier developed at the time, but Cecile's personal skill was too low to sustain the spell. Inexperienced users often cannot produce lasting spells because until magic becomes instinctive breaking "focus" also breaks the spell. An instinctive user can rely on the higher functioning of the brain to keep a spell active while not focusing consciously on it. This is similar to how people develop driving skills.


Thus, weak users are prevented from abusing seemingly simple spells. There are no numbers or math here, and I expect rp members to use good judgement given the skill level of the character and adversary.


In order to cast an indirect spell against a character such as Oromis, one of the criteria would need to be met:

• Oromis was completely unsuspecting or distracted by something else at the time, meaning he probably wouldn't be aware that any foe could be present.
  
  
• Oromis was injured. If something else has already weakened him, he would be more susceptible to indirect magic.
  
  
• Oromis was attacked by someone of equal or greater magical power. A foe closer to his skill level would likewise be more difficult to deflect mentally.
  

I hope this wasn't a confusing slop. ;-; I wanted to shed some light on the various factors that can influence magic.

 

[DemetrioMachete]

That makes sense to me.


Thank you for making things clearer.

 

[Inheritance]

Aye that is good- take my suggestion for a grain of salt as you will but I assumed for transfiguration usually the opponent's constitution would also be a factor...who knows.


Otherwise that is a pretty fair system of magic, yet it fails to cover this:


Magic words-


So I am not at all against a universe where magic words is needed, in fact they normally make things much much more balanced. However, it is very hard to use this unless you


A. Create an entire language


B. Make a list of spells (which is hard but doable)


So while I can help with both, the latter just seems smarter because it is quite hard to make a language, people don't do it everyday for a reason.


If not, and we want a universe (which I assume is kinda what we are operating in) where more powerful and more intricate spells need magic words, and more simple spells don't need them. If that is the case, there should be some kind of outline on what exactly are the limits and boundaries to not using words of power.


Example, Oromis uses destructive forces of Fire, Lightning, and Ice. He is rather skilled with a sharp mind and a very strong will (and for all you Oblivion Players we know that's what destruction needs). So he doesn't use words of power, however his spells are never very complicated, though they require a lot of power. Is it to the point where the more intricate you need words of power, and for basic (fire blasts, lightning bolts, ect) attacks then you just don't really need them.


Is that about right orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?


@Enuky

 

[Enuky]

Aye that is good- take my suggestion for a grain of salt as you will but I assumed for transfiguration usually the opponent's constitution would also be a factor...who knows.


Otherwise that is a pretty fair system of magic, yet it fails to cover this:


Magic words-


So I am not at all against a universe where magic words is needed, in fact they normally make things much much more balanced. However, it is very hard to use this unless you


A. Create an entire language


B. Make a list of spells (which is hard but doable)


So while I can help with both, the latter just seems smarter because it is quite hard to make a language, people don't do it everyday for a reason.


If not, and we want a universe (which I assume is kinda what we are operating in) where more powerful and more intricate spells need magic words, and more simple spells don't need them. If that is the case, there should be some kind of outline on what exactly are the limits and boundaries to not using words of power.


Example, Oromis uses destructive forces of Fire, Lightning, and Ice. He is rather skilled with a sharp mind and a very strong will (and for all you Oblivion Players we know that's what destruction needs). So he doesn't use words of power, however his spells are never very complicated, though they require a lot of power. Is it to the point where the more intricate you need words of power, and for basic (fire blasts, lightning bolts, ect) attacks then you just don't really need them.


Is that about right orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr?


@Enuky

Excellent question. This post was definitely not an exhaustive guide to magic in morganna, so I wasn't trying to cover everything. 


To answer your question simply, almost no verbal spells are absolutely necessary. 


Spells were developed long ago as a teaching tool for users. The spells aid a caster in "conceptualizing" the spell and focusing to produce it. Again, it's all mind power. Spells also help "uniform" magic in a way that allows it to be taught to others and documented. 


This is why a caster can actually create spells and there are different spells that can do the same thing. For example, a "fire" spell in Morganna could have a different name in Bathelon. Magic was developed stimultaneously across many different cultures, and so naturally there are many variations of the same magic.


But are spells absolutely necessary? No, they're not. Any spell can be produced without verbal spells, it's just a lot easier for the mind to make someone invisible when the caster says "invisibilia", to name an example. 


However, I will say that because of how effective verbal spells are as a teaching tool they are a widely accepted and very popular method. Many casters come to depend on their use, and most find producing spells with mental work alone to be very challenging. 


@Inheritance

 

[Enuky]

I'd also like to elaborate on why verbal spells are useful. 


Say for example we have a group of individuals being taught a spell together.


Without verbal spells, how could these people produce identical spells? The answer is they probably couldn't. 


Verbal spells are basically a way of communicating the desired outcome of the spell. 

 

[Enuky]

Whether spells are needed depends on how difficult it is to conceptualize the desired outcome. I imagine it would be more challenging to conceptualize morphing a person into another shape vs producing a lightning bolt. 


BUT it will always vary caster to caster as learning does from person to person.


I would like to compose a guide for this, like you mentioned. It seems to me from here though that a general rule of thumb would be indirect spells more usually need the use of verbal aids and direct spells can more easily be done without them. 


It would make sense that armies would train using verbal spells. To uniformly conduct training and drills. However, they would also logistically need to produce these direct offensive spells instantly and silently to be effective in battle. 


So I would pretty much expect any trained knight in special forces to be capable of fighting offensively without verbal spells. It would make good sense for oromis to be capable of this. 


I'm a strong strong believer in hard work as well. One must practice practice practice to become 'powerful', and casting without aids becomes easier with lots of practice. Likewise, there are always naturally gifted and those who will struggle.