Magic as a corrupting influence...

[Samothdm]

Okay, I misread the post and gave crunch instead of flavor.

The short-short version: Magic is innate to the world, but has been corrupted by outside (kind of like evil planar) forces over the millennia. The last great wizards of the world, thousands of years ago, basically gave themselves up and went into the earth to reinfuse it with their magical power. The descendants of these people became the "modern" races and these races now tap into the earth to cast their spells. But, they don't actually know they're doing this. They think they're getting their powers from a god or from their sorcerous bloodline or from the power of nature or from their ability to memorize and prepare incantations. They're all basically doing the same thing without knowing, and it's their own ritualistic limitations which prevents a cleric, for example, from being able to cast "magic missile". He doesn't cast it because he doesn't think he can cast it.

The last remaining sentient vestiges of the original wizards that are now part of the earth are starting to fade away, and the evil that first corrupted magic has started to return, unopposed by the original magic-users of the world. Over time, magic will corrupt the user and turn him into an evil outsider (if a spellcasting class goes to level 20 all the way without multi-classing this is what happens).

It gets a lot more complicated than that, but the basic part of the corrupting of magic is just the regular old "something evil from another plane" which sounds really boring and cliche unless taken in context of the bigger campaign themes I have going on.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

In the world of Lawrence Watt-Evans, magic is made of chaos (kinda like Warhammer). You can channel it by performing various rituals to get your fireballs and whatnot. The problem is these rituals have to be exact. You mess up and you can get some effects that range from the mild to the horribly lethal.

That's not a corrupting influence. But it is one where magic is simply dangerous to use.

 

[Ourph]

In the world of Lawrence Watt-Evans, magic is made of chaos (kinda like Warhammer). You can channel it by performing various rituals to get your fireballs and whatnot. The problem is these rituals have to be exact. You mess up and you can get some effects that range from the mild to the horribly lethal.

That's not a corrupting influence. But it is one where magic is simply dangerous to use.

Hey! Nice to see another ENworlder who reads LW-E. My post above was based partially on his take on Warlocks (casters who tap into an alien mind for their magical power). In LW-E's case, if you tap into the mind too often it draws you to the Source (from which no one ever returns).

According to his website, LW-E eventually planned to reveal more about the Source in a later novel, but probably won't now, as nobody is interested in publishing Ethshar books anymore.

/end thread-jack

 

[KaosDevice]

• Go the Athas route: magic pulls life from the area, eventually destroying it.

• 
  
  That was one of the things I liked best about that setting. When I first saw the HBO series Carnivale, I thought, "Hey, that guy is a corruptor!" when he was doing his healing thing.

 

[Falkus]

Heh, topic reminds me of Valygar.

 

[barsoomcore]

Hey, it's Ourph the Mingol! Hi Ourph, nice to have you on the show.



Barsoom has at least three distinct magic systems, all of which have their own "taints" and differing reasons therefore.

Sorcery is the manipulation of the Shadow Realm. The Shadow Realm is the complete negation of all possibility -- utter immobility, perfect stasis -- and there's a little flicker of it in all human beings (which is what gives them an immortal soul). With proper training (or good (ish) luck), people can learn to open their connection to Shadow a little bit, letting its energy seep through them. As it negates all possibilities, it of course negates those physical laws that restrict matter and energy, and a sorcerer who is sufficiently skilled can (by manipulating complex mathematical formulae in their head -- it's the neurological energies that channel the Shadow energy) select the exact possibility they want, and keep that one from destruction while all other possibilities are annihilated.

Problem is that opening that connection to Shadow means going against every instinct your brain possesses, and the better you get at doing that, the less control you have over yourself. Inevitably, characters who get good at doing that go mad.

Whee!

Spirit Magic involves working with the roiling chaos of the Dream Worlds and the personalities that inhabit them. From a certain point of view, it looks as though Pulaji (the people who can do this) are negotiating with spirits. In fact, as the Dream Worlds are truly infinite and thus contain every possibility that could ever be conceived, it's almost more accurate to say that these people are CREATING the personalities they're dealing with, conjuring them whole cloth out of the untrammeled potentiality of the Dream Worlds. This requires utter conviction and the willingness to bend another sentience wholly to one's own desires, and those who get good at it suffer a loss in their ability to empathize with normal mortals. Their skills at diplomacy and so on drop sharply as they get better at "negotiating" with spirits, and eventually they are unable to relate to people around them.

Finally, Psionics involve users channeling the power of the Dream Worlds directly through their bodies and minds (as opposed to reaching into the chaos to find servants). Psions find their bodies slowly transformed by these strange energies, with baroque tattoos crawling across their skin, in patterns according to the type of psion they are.

So there's some flava for ya.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

Why make a system?

Going a bit off topic (but getting back to it, I promise), in the Old Testament of the Bible, the rule given to the Israelites is "Don't suffer a sorceror to live." Doesn't say "Magic is hogwash" or list any specific ill-effects of magic. Just says "don't let anybody do this."

Now, the thought has occurred to me that, contrary to CoC, it is possible that magic is the secrets that mas was meant to know. Only there was that whole Garden of Eden debacle which results in humans being dangerous to the ecosystem and each other -- and if you give them Fireball, Time Stop and Magic Jar, there's no telling how much of the multiverse they're going to go and screw up. <joke>I mean, "Don't eat this tree's fruit" is a lot simpler than "Don't ask why Magic Missile can go from the material plane to the ethereal plane but not the other way around" and the humans couldn't even get the first one right.</joke>

So if you want to talk about magic as a corrupting influence, why not occasionally give magic long-term effects on the world? Fireball causing an actual forest fire, for example? Or Scrying not wearing off when it's supposed to and causing an occasional Nightmare effect on the caster? You don't really need a precise system for this, just ask yourself "what would be the long-term effects of this action not going quite by the book?"

Alternately, "what side effects does the modern technological equivalent have?" Cars cause air pollution, napalm causes forest fires, 802.11 wireless networks invite/incite wardrivers, people with metal in their head occasionally receive radio signals, etc.

But do discuss this sort of thing with your players -- they may be playing to get away from the long-term consequences of reality.

Cheers,
::Kaze (observes the story of Saul going to the witch at En-Dor to consult with Samuel as a biblical demonstration of magic both working and getting somebody in trouble)

 

[loki44]

It's been a long time since I read the book, but I think The Wizard of Earthsea puts forth an intersesting possibility. Magic exists to some degree within everyone. In order to draw out that inner power you must walk a fine line between your Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sides and overcome some very human temptations along the way such as lust, greed and vanity. "Naming" was so important in Earthsea because to know another's true name was also to know that person's weaknesses. In this case magic is not drawn from an outside pool of Chaos, as in WFRP or Call of Cthulhu, but rather from within. We all battle our own personal demons and "corrupting influences".

 

[LostSoul]

This might need different mechanics than what you are planning to use...

What if magic wasn't a corrupting influence in itself, but the rituals that you need to perform in order to work magics were? For example, if you sacrifice a stock light virgin, you can cast a spell (or gain the ability to cast spells for a while). The magic itself isn't warping your mind, but killing young virgins might.

 

[Timeboxer]

802.11 wireless networks invite/incite wardrivers

You just gave me an idea for a magic item in Eberron that "catches" whispering wind spell effects and similar effects in a certain radius, allowing you to spy on messages while they continue to be delivered to their receivers... Definitely trouble for House Sivis's sending stones.