PhoenixPhyre
2021-05-19, 04:27 PM
So one of the things that's become part of my world (see sig) is that magic has significantly changed over the ages of the world. Both in power (generally getting less and less powerful while more available) and in how it's accessed and used. These have happened kind of ad hoc from a design perspective--they've fallen out of other changes I've made, not been an intentional pattern.
So here are some of my thoughts in trying to formalize it. Note: the cosmology is a hybrid of 4e and 5e D&D, with changes.
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Pre-Dawn War (ie before the planes were settled):
* Everyone with power uses the Words of Creation (truespeech, basically, but including written and sung methods). Effectively stating a fact and the universe complies. Only limits are the roles assigned to each individual. Only the Primordial Princes and their top-level agents can use this at all. But the total number of "entities" is very limited.
Post-Dawn War
* Divinities and planar rulers still use the Words of Creation, although access controls and limits are in place by the Great Mechanism that oversees everything. Now it's less "direct manipulations of shared reality" and more "authenticated API requests with high-level privileges."
* Everyone else...see below.
Mortals
Age of Tyrants (1st Age): all mortals can only handle fragments of the Words. Titans[1] use written Runic Magic, the wyrm[2] use spoken True Sorcery, and Leviathan uses sung Songs of Power.
Runic magic is limited to manipulations of existing matter and energy. You can change matter or energy into different matter or energy, but you can't create or destroy matter or energy[3]. These have to be written down (often inscribed into the bodies of the titans) and empowered via the user's life force. Limited primarily by the energy available to empower the runes. More complex effects require larger runic complexes and more energy. Almost entirely what we'd now call Transmutation or Conjuration magic, although little bits of Enchantment and Evocation are possible.
True Sorcery is similar to Skyrim's Thuum--spoken words that enforce change onto reality. The other half of coin, being the raw creation and destruction of energy and matter. Much worse at complex effects, but only limited by the personal strength of the user in resisting backlash. A wyrm with no concern for personal safety or side effects could do major effects. Basically all Evocation, with some conjuration and abjuration.
Songs of Power is intertwining rhythm and words into the world and "tricking" the world into conforming. Mainly had an effect on living creatures. Very limited in its direct effects on "non-living" matter and energy, but can work with the nature spirits to indirectly cause the effects. Mostly enchantment and illusion magics, with some divination.
Non-tyrant mortals (goblins and primitive elves at this point) only have fragmentary access via being taught pieces of runes or fragments of Words or Songs. Wild magic (effectively sorcery) exists, but is highly unpredictable and risky. High chance of blowing yourself up and everything around you.
Age of Wizardry. Titans, in contest with wyrm, do something utterly stupid and it backfires, changing the nature of the Words of Power. True Sorcery and Runic Magic are no longer accessible. Proto-elves use an artifact to enact the First Wish, creating wizardry out of the shattered fragments of both of them. Wizardry (which is the basis of non-bardic arcane magic, including wizardry, sorcery, and the warlock's power) combines words, gestures, and matter into coherent patterns. At the cost of disallowing "free-form" magic. 2nd-age wizardry is still way more free than modern arcane magic, capable of all sorts of effects and researching new spells is pretty easy. Necromancy and demon magic (blood sacrifices) are "invented" here. Both involve manipulating jotnar, basically anti-nature spirits.
Leviathan, whose power wasn't broken but was changed by the First Wish, teaches mortals of various races harmonic magic, which is basically toned-down Songs of Power suitable for mortal throats and ears and with more access to material changes. This is the foundation of bardic magic. It still has to obey the strictures set by the First Wish, so components are still a thing for bards.
Age of druidic power. As a reaction to the excesses of the aelvar (arcane elves), the outcasts known as the ihmisi use the same artifact to enact the Second Wish. This allows mortals to draw on the power of the nature spirits (kami) and channel their power through themselves to create spells. They use this power to call down the kami of the third moon, crashing it into the aelvar empire's capital.
Druidic magic (or Primal magic) involves using the patterns encoded in nature spirits, letting them occupy the caster temporarily and channel their power through the mortal. Still restricted by the strictures of the First Wish. Generally has difficulty with things that aren't easily expressed in natural terms; kami don't think the same way people do.
The other forms still exist mostly unchanged. Druidic practitioners and wizards create orcs and humans (among other races) out of goblinoids.
Age of Gods and Man: In reaction to a war waged by a demon-possessed orc, a group of mortals including humans make the Third Wish. This brings into being gods, ascended mortals, powerful planar residents, etc, now given API access to the Great Mechanism and given the ability to grant limited access based on faith of mortals. This is similar to primal magic in the sense that you're channeling someone else's power. Only the mechanism (and thus the scope of the requests) is different. Gods proliferate and claim "portfolios" to moderate inter-divinity conflict. They gain power and access to mortal resources based on faith, so you get holy wars. But this lets humans (especially), who aren't the most suited for arcana or primal magic by nature, have a broad source of power.
Gods of magic start manipulating what can be done via various forms of spells, imposing secondary strictures. This makes some of the research of new spells harder and spells become even more ossified and formalized. Making magic items is still pretty easy.
The Cataclysm: The losing side of the Dawn War gets loose due to mortal meddling. Other mortals misuse a major artifact, causing massive problems, basically removing all arcane magic (because there's not enough ambient energy to interact with) and causing elemental planes to become misaligned. To fix those problems, the Great Mechanism "eats" the existing gods. The kami are so traumatized that they stop responding very much. So basically no magic for a while (ranging from a few months for places far away to 50+ years for nearer places).
New gods are called and that structure overhauled by the Great Mechanism; now there are 16 gods who get direct, fixed subsidies in return for handling all prayers. They're the only ones who can create clerics. There are other ascendants who can teach tricks (ie warlock patrons), but those are firmly arcane tricks, not channeled magic. The new God of Magic has the strict charge to make sure that the Cataclysm can't happen again. He locks down the scope of arcane magic tremendously. Making magic items is now very difficult (impossible in some cases). On the flip side, lower-power magic is now available to almost everyone. Especially in the forms of chants and minor songs of power, which only have limited, temporary effects (no lasting effects beyond the song's duration, and only minor effects such as making weeds more visible or keeping flies off of cattle).
The Fourth Wish: Very recently. Parameters not set, but seeing "technological" magic (akin to mad science). "Mechanical" things that shouldn't work, but work only because the wielder believes they should.
Wild card: psionics. I'm sure it fits in here somewhere, but I'm not sure where. It probably pre-exists the First Wish, but is limited to specific things ("classic" psionics, mind reading, communications, telekinesis basically).
[1] ancestors of modern goliaths/giants, and dwarves
[2] ancestors of modern dragons
[3] note: mass/energy conservation is not a thing in this setting.
So here are some of my thoughts in trying to formalize it. Note: the cosmology is a hybrid of 4e and 5e D&D, with changes.
---------
Pre-Dawn War (ie before the planes were settled):
* Everyone with power uses the Words of Creation (truespeech, basically, but including written and sung methods). Effectively stating a fact and the universe complies. Only limits are the roles assigned to each individual. Only the Primordial Princes and their top-level agents can use this at all. But the total number of "entities" is very limited.
Post-Dawn War
* Divinities and planar rulers still use the Words of Creation, although access controls and limits are in place by the Great Mechanism that oversees everything. Now it's less "direct manipulations of shared reality" and more "authenticated API requests with high-level privileges."
* Everyone else...see below.
Mortals
Age of Tyrants (1st Age): all mortals can only handle fragments of the Words. Titans[1] use written Runic Magic, the wyrm[2] use spoken True Sorcery, and Leviathan uses sung Songs of Power.
Runic magic is limited to manipulations of existing matter and energy. You can change matter or energy into different matter or energy, but you can't create or destroy matter or energy[3]. These have to be written down (often inscribed into the bodies of the titans) and empowered via the user's life force. Limited primarily by the energy available to empower the runes. More complex effects require larger runic complexes and more energy. Almost entirely what we'd now call Transmutation or Conjuration magic, although little bits of Enchantment and Evocation are possible.
True Sorcery is similar to Skyrim's Thuum--spoken words that enforce change onto reality. The other half of coin, being the raw creation and destruction of energy and matter. Much worse at complex effects, but only limited by the personal strength of the user in resisting backlash. A wyrm with no concern for personal safety or side effects could do major effects. Basically all Evocation, with some conjuration and abjuration.
Songs of Power is intertwining rhythm and words into the world and "tricking" the world into conforming. Mainly had an effect on living creatures. Very limited in its direct effects on "non-living" matter and energy, but can work with the nature spirits to indirectly cause the effects. Mostly enchantment and illusion magics, with some divination.
Non-tyrant mortals (goblins and primitive elves at this point) only have fragmentary access via being taught pieces of runes or fragments of Words or Songs. Wild magic (effectively sorcery) exists, but is highly unpredictable and risky. High chance of blowing yourself up and everything around you.
Age of Wizardry. Titans, in contest with wyrm, do something utterly stupid and it backfires, changing the nature of the Words of Power. True Sorcery and Runic Magic are no longer accessible. Proto-elves use an artifact to enact the First Wish, creating wizardry out of the shattered fragments of both of them. Wizardry (which is the basis of non-bardic arcane magic, including wizardry, sorcery, and the warlock's power) combines words, gestures, and matter into coherent patterns. At the cost of disallowing "free-form" magic. 2nd-age wizardry is still way more free than modern arcane magic, capable of all sorts of effects and researching new spells is pretty easy. Necromancy and demon magic (blood sacrifices) are "invented" here. Both involve manipulating jotnar, basically anti-nature spirits.
Leviathan, whose power wasn't broken but was changed by the First Wish, teaches mortals of various races harmonic magic, which is basically toned-down Songs of Power suitable for mortal throats and ears and with more access to material changes. This is the foundation of bardic magic. It still has to obey the strictures set by the First Wish, so components are still a thing for bards.
Age of druidic power. As a reaction to the excesses of the aelvar (arcane elves), the outcasts known as the ihmisi use the same artifact to enact the Second Wish. This allows mortals to draw on the power of the nature spirits (kami) and channel their power through themselves to create spells. They use this power to call down the kami of the third moon, crashing it into the aelvar empire's capital.
Druidic magic (or Primal magic) involves using the patterns encoded in nature spirits, letting them occupy the caster temporarily and channel their power through the mortal. Still restricted by the strictures of the First Wish. Generally has difficulty with things that aren't easily expressed in natural terms; kami don't think the same way people do.
The other forms still exist mostly unchanged. Druidic practitioners and wizards create orcs and humans (among other races) out of goblinoids.
Age of Gods and Man: In reaction to a war waged by a demon-possessed orc, a group of mortals including humans make the Third Wish. This brings into being gods, ascended mortals, powerful planar residents, etc, now given API access to the Great Mechanism and given the ability to grant limited access based on faith of mortals. This is similar to primal magic in the sense that you're channeling someone else's power. Only the mechanism (and thus the scope of the requests) is different. Gods proliferate and claim "portfolios" to moderate inter-divinity conflict. They gain power and access to mortal resources based on faith, so you get holy wars. But this lets humans (especially), who aren't the most suited for arcana or primal magic by nature, have a broad source of power.
Gods of magic start manipulating what can be done via various forms of spells, imposing secondary strictures. This makes some of the research of new spells harder and spells become even more ossified and formalized. Making magic items is still pretty easy.
The Cataclysm: The losing side of the Dawn War gets loose due to mortal meddling. Other mortals misuse a major artifact, causing massive problems, basically removing all arcane magic (because there's not enough ambient energy to interact with) and causing elemental planes to become misaligned. To fix those problems, the Great Mechanism "eats" the existing gods. The kami are so traumatized that they stop responding very much. So basically no magic for a while (ranging from a few months for places far away to 50+ years for nearer places).
New gods are called and that structure overhauled by the Great Mechanism; now there are 16 gods who get direct, fixed subsidies in return for handling all prayers. They're the only ones who can create clerics. There are other ascendants who can teach tricks (ie warlock patrons), but those are firmly arcane tricks, not channeled magic. The new God of Magic has the strict charge to make sure that the Cataclysm can't happen again. He locks down the scope of arcane magic tremendously. Making magic items is now very difficult (impossible in some cases). On the flip side, lower-power magic is now available to almost everyone. Especially in the forms of chants and minor songs of power, which only have limited, temporary effects (no lasting effects beyond the song's duration, and only minor effects such as making weeds more visible or keeping flies off of cattle).
The Fourth Wish: Very recently. Parameters not set, but seeing "technological" magic (akin to mad science). "Mechanical" things that shouldn't work, but work only because the wielder believes they should.
Wild card: psionics. I'm sure it fits in here somewhere, but I'm not sure where. It probably pre-exists the First Wish, but is limited to specific things ("classic" psionics, mind reading, communications, telekinesis basically).
[1] ancestors of modern goliaths/giants, and dwarves
[2] ancestors of modern dragons
[3] note: mass/energy conservation is not a thing in this setting.