Interstitial Magic

[Nifft]

Omnimancer / Omnimancy sounds presumptuous enough. Though Alienist or Yogmancer should also work fine... "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yog-Sothoth

Yog-Sothoth is a good call.

Sothotheruge or Sothaumaturge both sound awesome.

But they're too evil for PCs.
They will be excellent antagonist NPC class names.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Asmor]

I've been trying to find a good mathematical word for it, but I'm coming up short... Unless you like the idea of not-well-ordered magic.

So instead, I submit to you, "hyperbolic magic."

The word hyperbolic isn't really relevant (at least, not to my knowledge), but I think it sounds good.

 

[blargney the second]

Correspondence.

Ooo, I like that one.

 

[Tal Rasha]

In Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card uses the Portuguese term descolada to name a disease that breaks the links of a being's DNA strand, leading to mutations in that being. It would not be too much of a stretch to use the term to denote magic that introduces mutations in reality - magic that takes the structure of space and time and, for lack of a more poetic expression, messes with it.

What would practitioners be called? Why, descoladore of course. And if you don't like it, think of it as a starting point - right now I'm circling around a better idea based on this term but can't quite pinpoint it.

Later edit: Asmor had a good idea with the mathematical terms. I would also suggest:

1) Disjunct magic - because your magic is different from ordinary magic, that works within the constraints of space and time, and because two sets that do not have any common elements are called disjunct, thus leading to a nice oxymoron in your definition of this class of magic.

2) Aleph magic - from the mathematical notation of the smallest infinite set larger than the set of countable ordinal numbers. That is to say, that which is countably infinite (space and time in our example) is Aleph 0. That which is uncountable, such as the intervals in between space and time, is Aleph 1. I have yet to find a way to introduce the one in the above name in a satisfactory way.

P.S. Details about the math here.

 

[Nifft]

"Mutations in reality" is far too broad a brush -- turning a were-rat into a pig would count, but that's clearly Transmutation. Turning a corpse into a zombie could count, but that's clearly Necromancy.

Nothing wrong with math terms, but they should aid the reader's intuition, not merely impress him. (And every supplemental form of magic could be thought of as "disjoint", so that's not much of an identifier.) From a mathematical perspective, the set of Real numbers sorta qualifies, but only if you already have the intuition. The Cantor set would be a lot closer to the intended meaning... but even that's not right.

Cheers, -- N

 

[KrazyHades]

I'm guessing from the lack of responses to my previous post that those terms aren't suitable, but it would be nice if somebody would confirm or deny this rather than just glossing over it...I don't know whether I should be suggesting more things, similar things, or totally different things if I don't get any feedback!

 

[Nifft]

Temporstitial Magic or Temporspacial Magic? (Temporal+Interstitial)

Temporal is bad:

3 a : of or relating to time as distinguished from space

I want to explicitly include space.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Slife]

Not bad, though the focus there is on the absence of content rather than on the location. Does "lacunae" have that archaic twang that one seeks in a fantasy magic name? I dunno. It feels flat to me.

From a fantasy standpoint, I really like the word limn and its family: Liminal Magic and the Liminaliturge sound kinda cool. Hmm.

Thanks, -- N

Hmm...

limen is also a psychological term for the threshold of response. "Mastery of the Thresholds" sounds like some sort of arcane art. Maybe involved in keeping people from coming into somewhere, or passing between planes.

 

[Nifft]

I think I'll go with Interstitial Magic, and hope to overcome the jargon, since it seems to have stuck with only a very small subset of the population.

Casual names will be Gap Mage and Liminal Mage -- the former particularly for offensive mages, the latter more for Abjuration-style mages. Those magi who specialize in teleportation and long-distance communication will refer to themselves as Masters of Correspondence.

Thanks everyone! -- N

 

[WhatGravitas]

What about limit, and more importantly, the latin root 'limes'? It means boundary in a rather broad way, covering the "Limes" as a sort of spatial boundary, as well as the "Limit" in mathematics (note that in Germany, we use the term 'limes' instead of limit). It is also connected to the latin "Limen", threshold.

Limenal mage, limenmancy, Limenal magic... only avoid the connection to "lime"

Plus: It can be easily connected to you liminal magic.

Cheers, LT.