Magic as Art

[Library Ogre]

Ok, I was thinking about this while I drove to a meeting downtown, and I wanted to expand on it.

So, my view of the three main branches of learned magic are this:
Spell magic is singing. You sing a prepared song. Composers write new spells; improvisational singing is very hard, especially since everything must be perfect.

Circle magic is stage direction. You are building a story and a stage on which to tell it. Colors and symbols are important, but you might be able to fudge a bit and still get something workable (if you don't have emerald, green glass might work... but it will have side effects for not being exactly right).

Ward Magic is poetry; you combine words, and sometimes shapes and symbolism, to evoke a certain feeling in the universe. In a way, it is similar to creating a spell, or speaking like a Tamarian, with allegories and symbols, understood by the audience (the universe and the diabolist) to have certain meanings... but the combination of symbols can create new meanings. Because you don't activate the poem until you have perfected it, you can build it the way you need to.

When a magic-user sings, directs, or composes their magic, they have two audiences... themselves and the universe. They have to speak in the language the universe understands (power words and symbols), but they can shape it with their own understanding.

So, let's talk about poetry.

Most diabolists have a high school understanding of poetry. Sure, they've written a few haikus, maybe some sonnets, and done free verse and the like. But the Time of a Thousand Magics had villanelles. Odes. Limericks. Sestinas. Demanding and complex forms that are beyond beginning poets, and that you have to specifically learn about in order to use them. You can't do half a sestina and have it be a sestina. Some of these may involve forgotten ward or mystic symbols, but some of them are just reinforcing forms that help to create something that can be appreciated by a knowledgeable audience (like the universe, or the informed diabolist).

Now, circle magic is, in some ways, more forgiving, just like a play can survive some substitutions (non-perfect props, ad-libbed lines), provided they still communicate to the audience what needs to be communicated. You can't go far... you can't use a fish instead of a sword, because the universe knows the difference... but similarity counts for a lot. And, well, you may be a mage, but you won't ever be a circle mage unless you can manage... PRESENTATION!

And, we get back to spell magic. Wizards sing, but, remember, they sing in a language with only four words... Acba Keron Pein Yin. The first is pronounced AK-ba. Or is it ak-BA? Does it change if you have a raising note on the second syllable? If you make the first syllable very hard, practically spitting it? What if you hold it to AKbaaaaaa? Or akbaaaaaA? Is it kerON or KERon? Or kare-ON? Tone, emphasis, length... all can change the meaning of these four words into scores of ideas. If you doubt that, just remember the difference between your mom saying "William, come here", or snapping "WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, COME HERE RIGHT NOW!"

[kiralon]

That's a pretty cool idea

[GoliathReturns]

Carried from that other thread... think what this could mean for magic users, in the way of schools being like the old days of studying under a master, for painting, sculpture, or even fencing...

"Oh, you view it as poetry? You must have studied under Vanderberg, in Caer Itom. Myself, I'm of the Tariflan School, where we know it's like sculpture. Ignore my friend Lucious. He studied under the wolfen Ice-Fang, and views the Art as something like a snowball fight..."

Could we establish a way for magic users to identify how/where someone studied, based on how they use magic?

"Notice how that wizard we fought used his left hand for the throwing motions, for evocations, and his right hand like he was sewing up a body for necromancy? That indicates he trained in the style of the Land of the South Winds Maynard schools. We might be able to go there, and do some research on him..."

Of course, it also opens up if some types work better for different types of magic, or to counter others..

--
GS
Naturally, but I find that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro. Don’t you?

[Marcethus]

Magic is both an art and a science. Nightbane's WB4 Through the Glass Darkly has all sorts of ideas on different ways to handle the idea.

[Grazzik]

Magic is both an art and a science. Nightbane's WB4 Through the Glass Darkly has all sorts of ideas on different ways to handle the idea.

This book is a great resource and the game mechanics it presents give a lot of structured flexibility to how magic can be played/developed in a game. Particularly the concept that magic is dynamic and isn't as formulaic as many players think it is, where they assume cast a spell = a consistent outcome. Instead, the idea that magic is a semi-living force that might resist a caster's efforts... well, that just adds a unique concept that almost makes magic energies itself some new kind of NPC for magic-oriented PCs to interact with.

[Marcethus]

TTGD is one of my favorite resources. I don't always use the living spells stuff but I love having magic behave in unpredictable ways.