Spellcasters in golarion and how they learn

[Mavrickindigo]

I have been reading a couple Pathfinder Tales and noticed something interesting: they treat classes like witches and wizards as if thre future spellcasters had some sort of spark. But shouldnt those casters ne sorcerers instead? What is particularly weird is that one novel, children are kiddnapped from ulfen lands because they have been maked as jadwiga. But in every campaign setting book ive read, jadwiga was treated as an ethnicity

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Dot

[Simeon]

Jadwiga, who are related to Baba Yaga, have a natural predisposition towards being witches. While a wizard's magic is only learned, and a sorcerors magic is intuitive, a witch's magic kinda blends the two together. A witch gets their power from their Patron and to a lesser extent, their familiar as opposed to a wizard's spelbook. The blood of Baba Yaga, albeit fairly diluted, gives them a closer connection to their Patron.

[Mavrickindigo]

So it would be possible that ulfen people by the border to have blood relation to baba yaga? Make sense. But how doea that explain the "you're a wizard harry" moment in the other book? Where the character was said to have a spark for wizardry?

[Simeon]

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So it would be possible that ulfen people by the border to have blood relation to baba yaga? Make sense. But how doea that explain the "you're a wizard harry" moment in the other book? Where the character was said to have a spark for wizardry?

Jadwiga only have a faint connection to Bba Yaga, as the witch queens are the daughters of Baba Yaga and the Jadwiga are their children. The Ulfen near the border are militantly against the Jadwiga and Baba Yaga, so blood a blood relationship would be nearly impossible. Furthermore, Jadwiga don't have a special talent for becoming wizards, just witches.

[thejeff]

Simeon wrote:

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So it would be possible that ulfen people by the border to have blood relation to baba yaga? Make sense. But how doea that explain the "you're a wizard harry" moment in the other book? Where the character was said to have a spark for wizardry?

Jadwiga only have a faint connection to Bba Yaga, as the witch queens are the daughters of Baba Yaga and the Jadwiga are their children. The Ulfen near the border are militantly against the Jadwiga and Baba Yaga, so blood a blood relationship would be nearly impossible. Furthermore, Jadwiga don't have a special talent for becoming wizards, just witches.

Every culture that borders another has sex and has kids, regardless of laws and taboos.

[Therrux]

You may be overthinking what that spark may be. It could merely be that the kid just showed a bit of talent for the craft. Just like you can find a kid that has a talent for music. It could be as simple as the kid figuring out how to cast light at young age.

[Simeon]

thejeff wrote:

Simeon wrote:

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So it would be possible that ulfen people by the border to have blood relation to baba yaga? Make sense. But how doea that explain the "you're a wizard harry" moment in the other book? Where the character was said to have a spark for wizardry?

Jadwiga only have a faint connection to Bba Yaga, as the witch queens are the daughters of Baba Yaga and the Jadwiga are their children. The Ulfen near the border are militantly against the Jadwiga and Baba Yaga, so blood a blood relationship would be nearly impossible. Furthermore, Jadwiga don't have a special talent for becoming wizards, just witches.

Every culture that borders another has sex and has kids, regardless of laws and taboos.

True, but the child of Jadwiga and an Ulfen would be killed if the mother is a Jadwiga, and if the mother if Ulfen the child will be kept in the dark about their heritage and not taught magic.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

"Spark" could simply be the corresponding casting stat above 10. The higher the stat the more likely it is to be noticed.

[Lazlo.Arcadia]

In my home campaign: Magic is always an innate ability. Either you will ultimately be able to do it, or you won't, regardless of how smart you are (or whatever your high stat is).

In PF canon however learning arcane magic is more like studying calculus. If you are smart enough to understand it, you can master it. And just like there are different levels of understanding it (not everyone is a rocket scientist or nuclear physicist) there are different levels to which NPCs and PCs will aspire.