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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reason" data-source="post: 2053269" data-attributes="member: 6022">...One effect of removing overt magic is that it becomes a lot harder to definitively prove someone is/is not a wizard. Or rather it's a lot easier to fake it. e.g. from my <a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/the_enclave/index.php" target="_blank">Enclave setting</a>:------<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/2005/02/wizardry_of_sea.php" target="_blank">Wizardry of Seafarers and Islefolk</a>Only tales and seafarers' songs remain of the old, potent Magi wizardry that faded with the Vanishing; sails to charm the wind; great tomes and ledgers that knew their own contents; robes to slick away arrows and fire like rainwater; hulls that avoided shoals of their own accord; full sea chests weighing less than a feather; cold wizard-lights to bring day to night; fishhooks to call and land the mightiest eels of the Unending Sea. Dusky Islefolk in Port, Cael and fisher villages know only a little of the old wizardry; the ways of the Magi Vanished along with the Isles. All that is left now was once traded to the stonefolk or recorded by renowned Ammander sages such as The Denier or The Expected Smile. In truth, few descendants of the Magi have the perseverance or the talent in their blood - wizardry may come easily to Datarii, but not to mortal folk. Still, most Magi-blooded shipwrights claim a little wizardry and many folk believe them. Islemarks are carved on prows, painted on sails and engraved on axes used by Seafarers' Guildsmen - marks thought lucky or effective are paid for in good coin, but only a few amongst the many descendants of the old Magi work true wizardry; Seafarers' Needles; wizard-lights; Unbroken Casks, and the like. Islefolk such as Nelaan the Lightkeeper and Master Shipwright Benlei are held in high regard for their wizardry, albeit the merest shadow of that wielded by the greatest Magi of the Vanished Isles.-----You'll see a lot of things similar to makers of Islemarks - stuff that isn't magical but might just be, and enough people believe in luck or effectiveness to muddy the waters. The same goes for mind-effecting magic, only more so; does it work because it works, or because the victim is convinced of it?----<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/2005/01/declarations_an.php" target="_blank">Declarations and Refutations</a>...The Silent could stand no more than a day and a night of this terrible fellow and his animals. She wrote a Refutation to end all Refutations, direct and puissant, scribed most carefully on the cheapest, poorest parchment. The sage emerged from her manse to thrust the Refutation upon the trader. His face paled upon the reading of it, and he ran as though the Powers themselves were chasing him - but in silence. For all we know, he is running still, Refutation clutched tightly in his hands, somewhere in the far reaches of the Ammand....----So, yes, subtle magic means lots of fakes and frauds and interesting stories. Uncertainty is always fun.Reason<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com" target="_blank">Principia Infecta</a></blockquote>

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