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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dethklok" data-source="post: 6260530" data-attributes="member: 6746469">Not entirely, no. But in this case, the denizens of Atlantis are simply "gods."One of my friends suggested this. But in that case wouldn't magic be more like songs or strange ululations which everyone had to match specifically and exactly with whatever vocal apparatus they possessed, rather than words per se? This is plausible, but it isn't the magic that most of us recognize, not least because it would be dependent on physical characteristics more than intelligence, willpower, or spirituality.Of course; it can be really cool. (In fact, that's how we always use magic in our games.)Then wouldn't people eventually figure out that there was no need for the ritual of magic and simply snap their fingers with conviction?I disagree. The nature of magic can still be arcane, but I see no plausible way that uttering words in Latin, Babylonian, or LaVey's  Enochian would have power without some external intelligence hearing these words and interpreting them (or else some external intelligence changing the universe to recognize them).This was something else we considered. It does have an internal logic, but unfortunately it gives rise to poems, or personal phrases like "Flickum Bicus," not incantations like Omnes conspecti, omnes auditi, in nocte usque, ad saxum commutate, dum caelum ardeat!Very well! But "flickum Bicus" is still not a classic incantation.Then either one need not use specific words, or else, the immediate question is why some words have power and not others.In Veil of Darkness, the true name of Kairn is a secret written in a book of evil that you must unlock to defeat him. But the question is begged - who named Kairn? In a godless universe, there is no agency to imbue words with cosmic meaning.</blockquote>

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