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While the four spell lists are fairly universal and wizards cast Magic Missile in very similar ways, the actual philosophies behind different magical cultures in Golarion aren't super-fleshed out. Let's fix that by coming up with different magical paradigms (to borrow the word from Mage: the Ascension).
Magic as Mastery
Most commonly found in Cheliax and its former holdings but originating on Taldor, this paradigm looks at magic as a different forms of mastery. Mastery over elements, mastery over shapes, mastery over minds, etc. The spells commonly taught emphasize control, dominance, and commanding. It engenders a steely will, dedicated study, and a towering ego.
Magic as Change
While most paradigms have vague origins, this paradigm originated with Old Mage Jatembe himself. He taught the idea that magic, much like life, is about change. Changing one thing to another, changing someone's mind, changing places, all to live harmoniously. Closely tied to the halcyon magic taught in the Magaambyan Academy, this paradigm has dominated central Garund for millenia.
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| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
While the four spell lists are fairly universal and wizards cast Magic Missile in very similar ways, the actual philosophies behind different magical cultures in Golarion aren't super-fleshed out. Let's fix that by coming up with different magical paradigms (to borrow the word from Mage: the Ascension).
Magic as Mastery
Most commonly found in Cheliax and its former holdings but originating on Taldor, this paradigm looks at magic as a different forms of mastery. Mastery over elements, mastery over shapes, mastery over minds, etc. The spells commonly taught emphasize control, dominance, and commanding. It engenders a steely will, dedicated study, and a towering ego.
Magic as Change
While most paradigms have vague origins, this paradigm originated with Old Mage Jatembe himself. He taught the idea that magic, much like life, is about change. Changing one thing to another, changing someone's mind, changing places, all to live harmoniously. Closely tied to the halcyon magic taught in the Magaambyan Academy, this paradigm has dominated central Garund for millenia.
I like that.
Tying magic to the seasons, could be an offshoot of halcyon magic (rainy season vs. dry season, perhaps sometimes tied to Gozreh in their aspects as goddess of the sea and god of the sky, or Nethys as protector or destroyer). Change would be seen not as chaos, but merely as cyclic, with the one season being for growth, and the next for cutting back, the one hand planting, the other hand harvesting. Metaphors could include the tides, as well. Magical paradigms that focus on one season over another, such as the Winter Witches of Irrisen, might be thought of as static and overly limited and 'off-balance' / tilted too much to only half of the 'bigger picture' and missing the greater whole of magic, for all their specialization on cold and ice.
And the Chelish mindset that there is no 'greater truth' to magic, that it's just power to be taken, tools to be used to prove one's own superiority by mastering the elements, the very laws of nature and constants of reality, just as they master the lesser classes of people and rules of society, would be an utterly typical reductionist view to justify their own self-importance.
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And the Chelish mindset that there is no 'greater truth' to magic, that it's just power to be taken, tools to be used to prove one's own superiority by mastering the elements, the very laws of nature and constants of reality, just as they master the lesser classes of people and rules of society, would be an utterly typical reductionist view to justify their own self-importance.
Also, having a clearly erroneous foundational theory neatly explains why they're so backwards in the art.
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Other options;
Magic as Devotion
Believers in this paradigm claim that all magic, not just 'divine' magic, is a distorted reflection of the 'tools of the gods, used in the creation and maintenance of the universe itself.' Followers of one specific god or another will tend to view magic in keeping with their god's interests as most properly honoring their god, and other types of magic (such as magic that animates the dead, for a Pharasmin) as a blasphemous perversion of the gods' gifts. Opinions vary, obviously, as an Urgathoan would view the same undead-animation as a holy sacrament! Still others regard all non-divine magic as corruptions of intent, dishonoring and disrespecting the givers of these gifts by pretending they are just 'natural forces' and not a divine trust. Still, to those who believe, every use of (appropriate!) magic is a prayer to their god, or even, in the case of pantheists, *all* magic is a prayer to the relevant gods. (Nethyn Devotionists are most flexible, and also regard almost any use of magic as a prayer to Nethys, so long as it doesn't violate one of his anathema.)