Nightlands: Magic
6 January 2018 01:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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houseofstrangeRandom thoughts about how people use magic were had, briefly, while in bed before I went to sleep. I feel like digging up those thoughts again.
Now the basic methodology for how people use magic in the Nightlands is something I would base on a D&D model, as follows:
Sorcery
Sorcery is an innate ability to manipulate arcane energy, being seen as the arcane energy coming from inside. Being a sorcerer is to be a magical creature, with doing magic being an instinct. Predators have an instinct to hunt, but without training are bad at doing so. Sorcerers without training will have uncontrolled explosions of magic, influenced by high emotions and can be as chaotic as the Greater Moon. A trained sorcerer has full control of the magic that runs through them, keeping it in check even in high emotion.
The Great Four races like the Quendár would automatically be sorcerers, having the instinct-level ability to use arcane energy. Because of their immortal and/or reincarnating natures, newborns of all four races may have an instinct-level control over their magic that is a holdover from a past life.
Sorcerers vary in level of ability based on how much arcane energy they can channel in one go. Sorcerers do have a tendency to have a higher average ability to channel the arcane over other forms of magic use.
Wizardry
Wizardry is the art of learning how to use magic via rituals, spells, runes, enchanted items and other tools. Practitioners draw arcane energy into themselves from the environment and shaping it via the spells and rituals they are trained in.
This is the go-to method for a lot of the races with lower average levels of arcane ability. A vast majority of wizards are humans - a race that tends to have a lower average.
Wizardry can be trained in schools, academies and colleges. Such institutions exist in the high-human areas of the Nightlands. This also gives the discipline a "professional" reputation which can result in some wizards having a distinct bias against other forms of magical use.
It is possible for a sorcerer to train in wizardry, if they feel the methods of using magic work well with how they channel arcane energy.
Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the process of gaining favour with magical being - most typically the Fae - and being granted magical aid by them, even to the extent of being allowed to share in a measure of their powers. It is very dependent on the mood and attitude of the being granting the magic, and can often come with a requirement for the witch to perform certain actions on the being's behalf.
Edit 25/4/18:Such witchcraft pacts and arrangements can being made with various non-Fae arcane entities as well. There may even be witchcraft practitioners involved in pacts with the Three Sisters. The most likely to do so are Elená and Losá, as the Eärelenatollë have almost no humans on them who might appeal to Elossí.
Dwarven abilities can, from a certain point of view, be also classed as a cross between sorcery and witchcraft, but saying as much to any dwarf could be taken as an insult. Even so, they have an ingrained affinity for the Living Stone and any and all arcane abilities they may have is directly linked to that. Lose the connection, lose the abilities.
/Edit.
Mage
Mage is not a discipline but a general colloquial term for anyone who uses magic. Given that it is a term that came to be amongst humans, it has a connotation that implies it is not applicable to non-humanoid creatures.
Magi-Tech
Magi-Tech refers to the Daylands technology that makes use of arcane crystals as power sources. As magic cannot be accessed outside the Nightlands, the only way arcane energy can exist there is by being carried in specially tempered crystals that can hold an amount of energy. Small crystals can be put into handheld devices, like a wand created for one specific spell, while large crystals can be used to run large machines used in manufacture, or even vehicles that can travel faster than horses.
The Far Lands - located beyond the Western Sea - has a substantial trade with the Nightlands in arcane crystal to power their advancing society. They are only at the early stage of working in mass production though, yet the Quendár already have concerns that their demand will outstrip the ability of the Nightlands to supply them.
***
ETA: Mystic Masters
In one of my MCU fusion details, there is an order of magi users that are almost a seperate classification of their own. The Mystic Order practice a form of magic that works in a mmanner that seems like a cross between Wizardry and Witchcraft, in that it relies on links to powerful Arcane Entities of the Deeps and requires regimented forms of spells and rituals, as well as heavily enchanted artifacts.
Because of these features of their magic, it is a form that is very effective at granting people of low magic ability access to high-powered magic. Due to this, the majority of Mystic Masters tend to be human.
It is a matter of sometimes quite harsh debate as to what form of magic they really practice, but the Mystic Masters stubbornly refer to themselve as sorcerers, despite almost all other magic users agreeing that of the three forms of magic, that is the one the Mstics definitely are not doing. As a result, most people who know about the Order just call them "Mystics".
The Mystics maintain a handful of outposts but their primary base is hidden somewhere in the southern Sunset Mountains. Almost no one knows where exactly, since the Mystics rely on portals to travel to and from.
Yes, the Three Sisters know about them, and have polite dealings with them.
Now the basic methodology for how people use magic in the Nightlands is something I would base on a D&D model, as follows:
Sorcery
Sorcery is an innate ability to manipulate arcane energy, being seen as the arcane energy coming from inside. Being a sorcerer is to be a magical creature, with doing magic being an instinct. Predators have an instinct to hunt, but without training are bad at doing so. Sorcerers without training will have uncontrolled explosions of magic, influenced by high emotions and can be as chaotic as the Greater Moon. A trained sorcerer has full control of the magic that runs through them, keeping it in check even in high emotion.
The Great Four races like the Quendár would automatically be sorcerers, having the instinct-level ability to use arcane energy. Because of their immortal and/or reincarnating natures, newborns of all four races may have an instinct-level control over their magic that is a holdover from a past life.
Sorcerers vary in level of ability based on how much arcane energy they can channel in one go. Sorcerers do have a tendency to have a higher average ability to channel the arcane over other forms of magic use.
Wizardry
Wizardry is the art of learning how to use magic via rituals, spells, runes, enchanted items and other tools. Practitioners draw arcane energy into themselves from the environment and shaping it via the spells and rituals they are trained in.
This is the go-to method for a lot of the races with lower average levels of arcane ability. A vast majority of wizards are humans - a race that tends to have a lower average.
Wizardry can be trained in schools, academies and colleges. Such institutions exist in the high-human areas of the Nightlands. This also gives the discipline a "professional" reputation which can result in some wizards having a distinct bias against other forms of magical use.
It is possible for a sorcerer to train in wizardry, if they feel the methods of using magic work well with how they channel arcane energy.
Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the process of gaining favour with magical being - most typically the Fae - and being granted magical aid by them, even to the extent of being allowed to share in a measure of their powers. It is very dependent on the mood and attitude of the being granting the magic, and can often come with a requirement for the witch to perform certain actions on the being's behalf.
Edit 25/4/18:Such witchcraft pacts and arrangements can being made with various non-Fae arcane entities as well. There may even be witchcraft practitioners involved in pacts with the Three Sisters. The most likely to do so are Elená and Losá, as the Eärelenatollë have almost no humans on them who might appeal to Elossí.
Dwarven abilities can, from a certain point of view, be also classed as a cross between sorcery and witchcraft, but saying as much to any dwarf could be taken as an insult. Even so, they have an ingrained affinity for the Living Stone and any and all arcane abilities they may have is directly linked to that. Lose the connection, lose the abilities.
/Edit.
Mage
Mage is not a discipline but a general colloquial term for anyone who uses magic. Given that it is a term that came to be amongst humans, it has a connotation that implies it is not applicable to non-humanoid creatures.
Magi-Tech
Magi-Tech refers to the Daylands technology that makes use of arcane crystals as power sources. As magic cannot be accessed outside the Nightlands, the only way arcane energy can exist there is by being carried in specially tempered crystals that can hold an amount of energy. Small crystals can be put into handheld devices, like a wand created for one specific spell, while large crystals can be used to run large machines used in manufacture, or even vehicles that can travel faster than horses.
The Far Lands - located beyond the Western Sea - has a substantial trade with the Nightlands in arcane crystal to power their advancing society. They are only at the early stage of working in mass production though, yet the Quendár already have concerns that their demand will outstrip the ability of the Nightlands to supply them.
***
ETA: Mystic Masters
In one of my MCU fusion details, there is an order of magi users that are almost a seperate classification of their own. The Mystic Order practice a form of magic that works in a mmanner that seems like a cross between Wizardry and Witchcraft, in that it relies on links to powerful Arcane Entities of the Deeps and requires regimented forms of spells and rituals, as well as heavily enchanted artifacts.
Because of these features of their magic, it is a form that is very effective at granting people of low magic ability access to high-powered magic. Due to this, the majority of Mystic Masters tend to be human.
It is a matter of sometimes quite harsh debate as to what form of magic they really practice, but the Mystic Masters stubbornly refer to themselve as sorcerers, despite almost all other magic users agreeing that of the three forms of magic, that is the one the Mstics definitely are not doing. As a result, most people who know about the Order just call them "Mystics".
The Mystics maintain a handful of outposts but their primary base is hidden somewhere in the southern Sunset Mountains. Almost no one knows where exactly, since the Mystics rely on portals to travel to and from.
Yes, the Three Sisters know about them, and have polite dealings with them.
