Eastern magic

[Dirigible]

A poweful wizard, he hid his heart in a nut so no one could kill him.

"Kick the lich in the nut!"

Would you consider alchemy a magical discipline? Concoctions of immortality were quite a popular goal for Chinese alchemists.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Surprised no one has really gotten into the Australian aboriginal concept of the Dreamtime. The aborigines basically considered what happens when you are asleep just as real as when awake, a second life in another reality, led by the same person. I'm not an expert on the subject, but a Google search for dreamtime and aborigines/aboriginal should turn up a lot of info.

For the BRP Call of Cthulhu game, there was a supplement called Terror Australius which delved pretty deeply into the subject, but obviously with a cosmic horror slant.

 

[RangerWickett]

There's lots of information easy to be found about vague sorts of things people believe in the various traditions, but what I was looking for was, y'know, actual spells each tradition might have. Say you have one magic system that's fairly flexible, and that differentiates spellcasters by giving them access to different spells and adjusting how two mages would cast the same spell. In such a system, what does a Dreamtime mage do? What spells does a Shintoist cast? The flavor is easy. The mechanical differentiation -- making mages from different traditions actually have different powers -- is what I need help with.

 

[MoonZar]

Could folks give me some information about magical traditions in Asia, Australia, and eastern Europe?

You should read the rules of rokugan or oriental adventure for asia. The arcane and divine magic is more spirit and elementals orientation.

 

[Quickleaf]

Australian dreamtime

Ranger, Wow you asked a big question!
I'll give you my two bits about Australian shamanism...

-All life is part of a vast network of relations: A Star Wars force-like ability to check the status of anyone the shaman knows, or has even met once (Though it's harder)

-Every event leaves a record in the land: Various powers accessible according to the place one goes to, provided one knows and honors the stories of that place (like planar touchstones or magical locales...called "dreamings")

-The Dreamtime still exists and can be accessed by spiritual beings: Astral travel a requirement for other powers like: commune with spirits, understand omens, sense someone's true motive, determine the cause of misfortune

-Our ancestors have taught us the right way to live: knowledge of secret travel routes, special cultural skills, summoning ancestral spirits in times of crisis

Good luck!

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

It might not give you exactly what you're looking for but look for the Sammo Hung movie "Spooky Encounters". Sammo plays a character who's the target of one wizard's spells (a hopping vampire too!) but is helped out by another wizard (the brother of the first). I haven't finished the movie but at the moment, each wizard summoned spirits to possess Sammo and the evil wizard's apprentice to fight each other as the brothers are too evenly matched. Good fight sequences too.