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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1949459" data-attributes="member: 571">The question now arises, how does Dragon Earth magic work? I haven't the foggiest. On the simplest level it involves the user manipulating magical energy to produce a desired result. It's the bloody details that get me, for the simple reason I don't live on Dragon Earth, and know nothing of how magic works there.A distinction must also be made regarding psychic abilities and spells. The former being what comes naturally, the latter being what is learned. A psychic ability is an innate talent an organism is born with. Some species (the basilisks for example) have a psychic ability. A spell is a mechanism for manipulating magical energy to produce a desired result.[sidebar]Since I like the word, I use 'heka' (hey-kah) as Dragon Earth's name for magical energy. It comes from the Ancient Egyptian "hekau' (hey-kow), or "words of power". I first learned of the word in Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys: Mythus.[/sidebar]Heka is manipulated, shaped, woven, carved, molded into the proper form to produce a desired result. In the case of a psychic ability this manipulation is unconscious. In some species automatic. In the case of spells the caster must guide the shaping, usually through gesture, word, and the use of materials somehow connected with the desired result. It is possible to cast any spell through 'imaging', but this is difficult and takes practice.There is one thing to note about heka, you can't use it up. Unlike the mana of Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away Dragon Earth's Heka is not a non-renewable resource. It is part of the basic foundation of the Dragon Earth universe. Which means it's part of everything. Too, when an ability is used or a spell cast only a minute fraction of the available heka is used. This is the reason for Detect Magic. I'll explain.Most everybody has the ability to detect raw magic, unshaped, un-directed heka. It's that strange feeling one gets when things are quiet and one is not really paying attention to anything. Detecting magic, seeing if you would, where heka has been shaped requires the shaping of heka so it 'highlights' (for lack of a better word) where (if any) heka has been shaped in the immediate area.Another thing to keep in mind is that heka does not power the effects created, it merely makes the effects possible. Magic, in short, makes it possible to do things not possible to do otherwise.At present the scientists of Dragon Earth are in the early stages of reforming the Laws of Magic. But for our purposes the classic 7 laws will suffice. They are...1. The Law of Sympathy,2. The Law of Antipathy,3. The Law of Ritual,4. The Law of Change,5. The Law of Emanation,6. The Law of Conduction, and7. The Law of Obstruction.In my next post we'll be looking at the first law.</blockquote>

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