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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ashanderai" data-source="post: 2317124" data-attributes="member: 13210">Well, there is a lot of ground to cover and most of it isn't really recorded much.  The best sources for what you are looking for may well be anime or wuxia movies.  My preferred research medium for this topic is mythology textbooks, though the type of information you are looking for can often be hard to weed out through the books.Predominant spellcasting/superstitions/rotes/magic tropes/types of magic that I have come across are as follows:- Many tales have shapeshifting sorcerers or monsters.- Often, magic requires the use of a true name or a personal effect to lay a curse on someone.- Paper talismans are common in the Chinese folklore stories of magicians, priests, and demon hunters; especially when fighting monsters, such as vampires and zombies.  They often stick the paper to the creatures forehead chakra to immobilize it or if the talisman is a written spell it is consumed in fire as the spell takes effect.  Talismans are also used to keep away evil spirits, ghosts, and such.  - There are folklore stories of famous Chinese heroes actually being the secret child of some deity or greater spirit and eventually becoming a god themselves.- There are stories of special diets, like eating powdered jaded sprinkled over rice or eating asperegus exclusively to gain some special power like the ability to fly.- There is a lot of magic that is explained in much the same way that shamanism in the west explains magical events.- I know that the aborigines of Australia put a lot of stock in dreams and the spirits that come from the dreamtime.- I am sure you are already familiar with the concept of martial artists learning a secret technique that grants them a magical power.  This is not just a "Hollywood" convention, but is grounded in actual folklore from the region.- Stories of Taoist hermits learning great powers of illusion are very entertaining as they use their powers to teach some hidden lesson to non-Taoists.- The quest for immortality consumes many Taoist sorcerers.- Buddhism is a font of mythical stories about powers granted to those who have advanced far on the path to enlightenment.I hope that gives you a good start on what you are looking for.  You could do a college term paper on this subject and still not cover it all.  I didn't even touch on tales from India on their gods and yogi.  Much of what you want to know just depends on the specific culture you happen to be discussing.  Some of what I wrote above can actually be contradictory if you are talking about multiple cultures at once.</blockquote>

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