Some thoughts on magic in Golarion - feedback welcome

[Fletch]

This is a pretty long post so, following the good example of others, I’ve used spoiler tags to put my thoughts into manageable chapters.

One of the things I nerd over in my gaming is finding ways to make the fluff match the crunch. Not too long ago, I came to these boards for help in identifying the difference between wizards and sorcerers. For the sake of summary, this is what I came away with:

Spoiler:

Arcane spells are powered by a magical energy that is focused through a variety of words, gestures and materials. Wizards and sorcerers use the same formulas for spells (evidenced by their identical descriptions including components needed), only differing in how they come by this arcane energy. For wizards I reasoned that part of their morning spell memorization consisted of absorbing a certain amount of spell energy that, in the process, got tagged for a specific spell. Sorcerers, on the other hand, have some aspect of their bloodline or whatever that allows them to tap directly into the arcane energy and call it up as they need it. Presumably bards get a similar effect using music, but I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about that aspect yet.

Now, I was quite happy with that theory until I started leafing through the Pathfinder books and noticed some elements which added to this basic premise. Schools of magic, I noticed, provide more fluff than I’d initially thought.

Spoiler:

I’d always thought that schools of magic were a conscious choice. At some time in the distant past (**cough**Thassilon**cough**) arcane students just decided that they’d focus on necromancy or enchantment or whatever to the exclusion of another area of study. But then I started noticing that everybody does it that way. No matter how distant the culture or alien the race, they continued to divide magic by these same eight schools. Once I started thinking that there was a technical reason for the schools, I realized that detect magic allows a spellcaster to identify the school of magic of a particular effect and concluded that there definitely must be some unique signature to each type of spell.

Pretty much like the Winds of Magic over at the Warhammer house, I started thinking of the schools of magic as actually drawing on different sources or at least different flavors of this magical energy. This model of arcane energy not only explains the schools, but could even give some rationalization behind the specialist bonuses granted in Pathfinder.

Spoiler:

A specialist, through extensive practice and exposure, has trained himself to be able to hold more of a particular school of energy at the expense of familiarity and comfort with others. A specialist in necromancy, for example, would be more comfortable holding necrotic energies than he would, say, enchantment or abjuration energy. If he’s not having to cope with either of the latter two types of spell energy (ie, chooses not to memorize any enchantment or abjuration spells), he’s able to actually hold in more necromantic energies than a non-specialist wizard. This extra energy is not only usable to power an extra spell, but even provides a small reservoir of energy to power his grave touch ability. Mind you, this necromancer is still capable of drawing in enchantment energy, but if he does it’s off-setting enough or takes enough extra attention that he’s not able to saturate himself with necrotic energy as he normally would be able to.

I could continue this line of thought into theories as to how divine magic is identifiable by school of magic, but I thought I’d stop here and get some feedback on the idea so far.

Does any of this not gel with the rules as written? Any ideas for where these eight “sources” of magic might come from that would give them a unique flavor?

[Dread]

At one time I had a great deal of backstory for the diferences of magic, even including Psionics into the mix....then I realized that 99% of the players didnt want that much fluff, and so I cut it back to the basic tenents I outline here.

Arcane: Tapping the innate Manna around us
Wizards do it through complex formula
Sorcerers (or Madwands as they are known by the schooled Wizards) do it naturally
Bards have learned how to tap Arcane energies in a psuedo Divine way....by getting people to listen to their nmusic...the listener lets of some of his own innate manna when he listens to the music or chant et al.
Warlocks/Hexblades: Tap Manna through ancient arcane sources
Warmages/Duskblades: Very similar to Sorcerers but also through joint study with others of their kind
Wu-Jen: Through Arcane manipulation of natural energies

Psionic
All- Tap a persons own Manna (thus the limitation of 'points')

Divine:
Clerics: Tap the manna put forth by worshippers as they all focus it in prayer.
Druids: Tap the manna from nature...animals and plants, and when others see a place of natural beauty, they 'put forth' a bit of manna in the awe they give to the location.
Favored Souls: Tap the goes manna directly
Shugenja: Tap Elemental Manna
Shamen: Manna of the spirit world.

Now this manna is found and used in diferent ways, and that seperates the schools.

Divination: (Elvish magic) (focus manna to get a glimpse into the future, reality, etc...basicly it peels back the veils to allow true sight.

Evocation: (Elemental Magic)True Raw Manna focus'd into a release.

Conjuration: (Outsider Magic) using the manna to trigger a 'portal' into Limbo whereby chaos stuff can be formed into something

Illusion: (Dragon Magic) using Manna to mask instead of reveal

Necromancy: The Forbidden School (Human Magic): using Manna to 'undo'...Opens your soul to attention by dark forces.

Enchantment: Faerie Magic: Using manna to alter perceptions

Transmutation: (Dwarven magic) Altering reality...much like changing the atomic composition of an item ...ie nuclear magic ;)

Universal: basic manna manipulation.

I think I have everything...but if Im missing one...

the parenthesis is who originally learned/started teaching this typoe of magic....

just some ideas for you...

[Set]

My magical 'grand unified theory of everything' was inspired by Al-Qadim, and, in particular, the Sha'ir class, which could send an elemental minion, basically a tiny genie, out to scour the planes for fragments of magic that it would bring back to the Sha'ir, who could then cast the spell that his Gen had 'fetched.'

It was a neat concept, but I immediately thought, 'Why the heck would there be Bigby's Clenched Fist spells just floating around in the planes, waiting to be snapped up?'

I concluded that spells, specifically the arcane words and gestures and components required to trigger spell effects, are leftover 'tools' from the creation of the universe (perhaps by the gods, perhaps by entities or forces that predate the gods, and which the gods would probably deny existed...). These leftover words of creation formed the basis for the languages of the eldest races (such as dragons), and while some arcane-blooded souls, perhaps infused with bloodlines of draconic, fey, outsiders or geniekind, could learn to pick up items that contained resonating residues of these energies (material components), and using words and gestures, place themselves in the same sort of state that allows the forces of creation to flow through them, just like the ancient creator(s).

The gods themselves tap this ancient power (which is why even the servants of the gods are limited to using codified and formulaic spells, and can't just say 'Hey Pelor, how about a whirling vortex of icy shards of death?'), as do countless magic-blooded creatures, sometimes using spell-like abilities, other times reduced to having to study and prepare specific 'tools' for the day's magical workings.

Hundreds, sometimes *thousands* of these formula have been discovered, and some, such as Wish and Miracle, are amazingly open-ended. Indeed, the eldest sages theorize that only when a spellcaster has learned Wish or Miracle, only then is he doing more than playing with the tools of his elders in the clumsiest of fashions, like children toying with fire. Some claim that these open-ended spells are the only 'true' magic, and that every other spell is just the bastardized mumbling of rote words to eke out static effects. Others claim that the true magic is beyond even these mighty spells, and can only be seen in the works of the gods, whose powers of creation and destruction far exceed the limitations of these spells.

And yet research-minded Wizards are said to create spells according to specific designs, not just discover pre-existing spells with unanticipated effects. Would this not put the lie to such a theory? Perhaps. Perhaps not, if the 'toolset of creation' had no true limits, and was not merely a collection of 'tools,' but an entire system by which tools could be generated as needed by the creator(s), so that a Wizard who has spent decades learning the ways of fire magic might well discern the barest hints of 'the rules behind the rules,' allowing him to craft a never-before seen spell to evoke fire in new and different ways. The rules were all there, and his previous experience with spellcraft allowed him to see that words and gestures and material components to evoke fire shared certain obscure elements in common, putting him in a position to figure out exactly what combination of word elements, somatic components and physical materials might best bring about the exact fiery manifestation he seeks to be able to call into the world.

[Mosaic]

It's been a while since I read the Earthsea books bu Ursula K. Le Guin, but as I remember it magic was all about learning the True Name of each thing. Once you new these names you could control a thing or make things happen. And all the little names put together began to form the language of creation, until everything just became one big word that was the universe.

[kinda' like Buddhism and Christianity and String Theory and the Force all rolled into one]

EDIT: Okay, my explanation sucks. Here's the quote:

Ged: "It is no secret. All power is one in source and end, I think. Years and distances, water and wind and wizardry, stars and candles, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a tree's root: they all arise together. My name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name."

Murre: "And what is death?"

Ged: "For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after."

[Fletch]

Set wrote:

I concluded that spells, specifically the arcane words and gestures and components required to trigger spell effects, are leftover 'tools' from the creation of the universe

A long time back, when I only had the Greyhawk boxed set to tell me about that setting, I'd made up a myth about Boccob having a book that contained the entire formula for the creation of the universe. Ol' Zagyg, I said, was a master thief who snuck into Boccob's library and read the book. The entirety of it snapped his mind and drove him mad, but he was able to retain snippets of the formula. He'd learned how these sylables combined with those gestures connect an amber rod to the creation of a bolt of lightning, fer instance. I felt sad when I found out that the legends of Boccob and Xagyg didn't actually match up with what I'd invented.