"The four essences?"

[SlackC]

On p 300 in the CRB, there's box that says "Scholars of magic widely agree that all of existence is composed of some combination of four essences," namely Matter, Spirit, Mind, and Life. Does this actually come up anywhere in rules? Seems silly to add one more layer of categories on top of tradition and school, but I can't find any other reference to this concept in any spell or rule. What are these for?

[Ventnor]

There are some Sorcerer feats that interact with the four essences.

[Lost In Limbo]

It's a lore reason for how and why the 4 schools of magic have similarities and differences. Also provides a guideline for anyone making new spells for what makes sense or fits naturally in a school and what doesn't.

[Deadmanwalking]

Yeah, it's a lore bit regarding why Primal is different from Arcane is different from Occult is different from Divine, and provides guidelines on what spells are okay to have on which list.

It's not usually mechanically relevant, but then neither is your character's name.

[Perpdepog]

It also acts as a guideline on which magical traditions may blend together. Magaambya, for example, blend arcane and primal because of their shared focus on the physical essence.

[SlackC]

Cool! Thanks for the responses. I like lore, I just get nervous when I see a big box with lists and I'm not sure how it's supposed to work. :)

[The Raven Black]

The 4 essences are actually 2 groups of 2.

One deals with what is affected by the magic : Material, which is the Inner Planes and all things tangible (like the Elements) , and Spiritual, which is the Outer Planes and all things intangible (like emotions, souls...).

The other deals with how you affect, the nature of your access to magic : Mental, which is the rational approach, and Vital, which is the instinctual approach.

You need one of both to do magic : an object and an approach.

[Temperans]

The only reason the "4 Essences" exist is to act as a minor guide on what spells go on which tradition. But in reality there are 6 essences: Planar, Quintessence, Mental, Soul, Material, and Vital.

Of those only 2 essences that have an actual role in the lore: Planar essence and Quintenssence.

Planar Essence is what makes up all the planes and its synonymous with Planar energy or power. This is what determines what alignment, element, or other characteristic the plane has. Ex: The Fire plane is composed of Fire essence.

Quintessence is the aligned substance of the planes. Quintessence is what creates outsiders, by merging with a soul. An outsider that dies merges its Quintessence with the plane were they died. Quintessence is also converted into potentiality that eventually becomes souls.

So Quintessence == aligned planar matter, outsiders, and the fuel for soul creation.

[SlackC]

Temperans wrote:

...So Quintessence == aligned planar matter, outsiders, and the fuel for soul creation.

Well, that clears that up. ;)

[ikarinokami]

the four essences also help when deciding on what list a spell should be. I would expect we will learn more about them in secrets of magic, since that book is suppose to be a combination of lore and crunch.

[Coldermoss]

The Raven Black wrote:

The 4 essences are actually 2 groups of 2.

One deals with what is affected by the magic : Material, which is the Inner Planes and all things tangible (like the Elements) , and Spiritual, which is the Outer Planes and all things intangible (like emotions, souls...).

The other deals with how you affect, the nature of your access to magic : Mental, which is the rational approach, and Vital, which is the instinctual approach.

You need one of both to do magic : an object and an approach.

I got a very different reading. My thoughts on Material and Spiritual essences align with yours, but Mental and Vital also describe objects- those being the Mind (often affected by illusions and enchantments) and Life Force (often affected by necromancy).

[Temperans]

Honestly, I dont agree with that logic, for the sole reason that I really like the idea of 6 traditions of magic. Including:

* Soul + Mental. Aka Psychic.

and,

* Material + Vital. Or what I described as "Muscle Magic". It could also be the tradition for Kineticists.