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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9303219" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Funny, I'd put Cleric in the same category as you have Bard, Wizard, and Druid. Clerics are those who learn magic via <em>theology</em>, which is very much a deliberative, technical, exacting field of study.</p><p></p><p>And, in fact, in my Jewel of the Desert game...that's exactly how those things work! The four "learned" traditions of magic are the Waziri Order (Wizards and Artificers), the Safiqi Priesthood/foreign priests (Clerics, and also Paladins via the Temple Knights), the Kahina (Druids, and also Shaman), and Rawuna (Bards). A fifth tradition of "shadow magic" seems to be vaguely like an overlapping of Safiqi magic and what one might call "warlock" magic (I have not had any Warlocks yet). Kahina study the spirits (different kinds of spirits for Druids vs Shaman), while Rawuna learn to grasp the ways people relate to history and experience in order to draw out the magic thereof.</p><p></p><p>Unlike those magics, the magic of Sha'iri truly comes from within. Due to the capricious and often-cruel reign of the Genie-Rajahs long ago, there are a <em>lot</em> of people in the region who descend, some ~80-100 generations back, from at least one "noble" genie. They are far too far removed to become actual "noble" genies themselves, but they <em>can</em> manifest a sliver of that elemental power. Dragons are rare in this land, but the descendants of dragon/mortal-kind partnerships would also be classified as "Sha'iri" in this sense. Such people do not really cast "spells" per se; instead, they manipulate the element to which they are connected. Fire is a common one, but some exhibit unusual combinations, like "sand," which might arise from having mixed earth/air heritage.</p><p></p><p>All people who learn how to make use of magic develop what I refer to as "magic(al) senses." They're hard to explain, for exactly the same reason that explaining color theory to someone born totally blind, or harmony and chord progressions to someone born totally deaf, would be hard to explain. "Magical senses" fall somewhere in between an actual sixth main sensory input, and something like "artist's eyes" where it's a skill that a person might not develop naturally but which can definitely be trained in specific ways. This sense imparts feelings, sensations, textures, etc. When characters in Star Wars say things like "I've got a bad feeling about this," that's (generally) their Force sensitivity triggering; that would be akin to, but not quite the same as, using one's magical senses. Generally they require active, intentional use, unless there's a particularly overwhelming or intense effect going on.</p><p></p><p>Of course, part of why I treat Clerics this way is that they don't actually know for sure that their magic comes from their deity. Their doctrine claims that the emissaries of that deity (who have never been seen in recorded history) taught the first Safiqi these techniques, and thus it <em>arises from</em> their deity. But in a sense, it's just a skill like any other, that can be learned through practice. (As a result, the Safiqi have an internal police force, one focused pretty much purely on capturing, or more often killing, those priests who betray the faith and use their powers for wicked ends.) I have been very, <em>very</em> careful to emphasize that, in this setting, "proving" whether this deity really is THE one all-powerful creator of all things is in fact impossible. No magic exists that couldn't potentially be fooled by a sufficiently powerful false creator. No living being that could bear witness on the matter is free of bias--and, indeed, all of the beings that claim they <em>could</em> bear such witness are VERY much biased in ways that compromise the integrity of their testimony. The one and only actual celestial the players have met has explicitly said this; neither she nor the One can prove any of the things they claim in a way that would be truly invincible to critique, so ultimately it is <em>always</em> up to the individual to decide what they believe and what they don't.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 9303219, member: 6790260"] Funny, I'd put Cleric in the same category as you have Bard, Wizard, and Druid. Clerics are those who learn magic via [I]theology[/I], which is very much a deliberative, technical, exacting field of study. And, in fact, in my Jewel of the Desert game...that's exactly how those things work! The four "learned" traditions of magic are the Waziri Order (Wizards and Artificers), the Safiqi Priesthood/foreign priests (Clerics, and also Paladins via the Temple Knights), the Kahina (Druids, and also Shaman), and Rawuna (Bards). A fifth tradition of "shadow magic" seems to be vaguely like an overlapping of Safiqi magic and what one might call "warlock" magic (I have not had any Warlocks yet). Kahina study the spirits (different kinds of spirits for Druids vs Shaman), while Rawuna learn to grasp the ways people relate to history and experience in order to draw out the magic thereof. Unlike those magics, the magic of Sha'iri truly comes from within. Due to the capricious and often-cruel reign of the Genie-Rajahs long ago, there are a [I]lot[/I] of people in the region who descend, some ~80-100 generations back, from at least one "noble" genie. They are far too far removed to become actual "noble" genies themselves, but they [I]can[/I] manifest a sliver of that elemental power. Dragons are rare in this land, but the descendants of dragon/mortal-kind partnerships would also be classified as "Sha'iri" in this sense. Such people do not really cast "spells" per se; instead, they manipulate the element to which they are connected. Fire is a common one, but some exhibit unusual combinations, like "sand," which might arise from having mixed earth/air heritage. All people who learn how to make use of magic develop what I refer to as "magic(al) senses." They're hard to explain, for exactly the same reason that explaining color theory to someone born totally blind, or harmony and chord progressions to someone born totally deaf, would be hard to explain. "Magical senses" fall somewhere in between an actual sixth main sensory input, and something like "artist's eyes" where it's a skill that a person might not develop naturally but which can definitely be trained in specific ways. This sense imparts feelings, sensations, textures, etc. When characters in Star Wars say things like "I've got a bad feeling about this," that's (generally) their Force sensitivity triggering; that would be akin to, but not quite the same as, using one's magical senses. Generally they require active, intentional use, unless there's a particularly overwhelming or intense effect going on. Of course, part of why I treat Clerics this way is that they don't actually know for sure that their magic comes from their deity. Their doctrine claims that the emissaries of that deity (who have never been seen in recorded history) taught the first Safiqi these techniques, and thus it [I]arises from[/I] their deity. But in a sense, it's just a skill like any other, that can be learned through practice. (As a result, the Safiqi have an internal police force, one focused pretty much purely on capturing, or more often killing, those priests who betray the faith and use their powers for wicked ends.) I have been very, [I]very[/I] careful to emphasize that, in this setting, "proving" whether this deity really is THE one all-powerful creator of all things is in fact impossible. No magic exists that couldn't potentially be fooled by a sufficiently powerful false creator. No living being that could bear witness on the matter is free of bias--and, indeed, all of the beings that claim they [I]could[/I] bear such witness are VERY much biased in ways that compromise the integrity of their testimony. The one and only actual celestial the players have met has explicitly said this; neither she nor the One can prove any of the things they claim in a way that would be truly invincible to critique, so ultimately it is [I]always[/I] up to the individual to decide what they believe and what they don't. [/QUOTE]
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