Magic is from...

[Storm Raven]

In my campaign, magic is the accidental byproduct of the creation of the Three Worlds, and the competing prime powers.

The short version goes like this: at first there were two powers, the y'Grym and the Ki'tas, who both sought to create their vision of the world (in the plane of Tir Canol). But as each created, he overlaid the creation of the other, and twisted or destroyed it. Each created servants to aid in their conflict, but were unable to gain an upper hand.

Each then created a separate domain that they could use to create new servants and give them homes to fuel their divine war (the planes of Ilkeas and Solum Altus). But each was able to invade and infect the other's planes with their own essence, forcing the creation of the Heavens and the Hells to provide a source of relaible soldiers.

Finally, the Ki'tas attempted to merge the planes into one, crashing them together and destroying much of the y'Grym's work. In response, the y'Grym fought the Ki'tas directly, and overlaid much of his creation with y'Grym's. At the last, the y'Grym used his own essence to wall the Ki'tas (and the Heavens and the Hells and other associated planes, such as the plane of Shadow) off from the three worlds, sacrificing himself in the process, and creating a barrier to direct interaction (the Ban). It is now assumed that both the Ki'tas and the y'Grym were destroyed by this conflict.

Magic is derived from the flows of energy left behind by their creation, and their war. But few know this: this information is mostly only known to those divine and infernal powers walled into the Heavens and Hells that are subject to the Ban, and they aren't telling the whole story to mere mortals.

 

[Gez]

I'll refer you to this thread.

• The fabric of the universe is made up of an energy called lei.
• There are four kinds of lei (maybe even more), which correspond to positive energy (aka life lei or green lei), negative energy (aka decay lei or red lei), spell energy (aka magic lei or golden lei), and pure energy (aka material lei or white-blue lei).
• There are eleven degrees of intensity, called valences.
• Lei, being spiritual, is seen only on the ethereal plane (except the white-blue lei, which is stable enough to adopt also a material form, which is shaped by force effects).
  5. Spellcasters learn to convert a part of their lifeforce (green lei) into magical energy to power their spells (golden lei). The reasonnable quantity of lifeforce they can convert into spells without suffering crippling ill effects is determined by the spell per day table, however they can overconvert and suffer crippling ill effects if so they wish.

 

[Pbartender]

It is often said that humans (and other humanoids) only actually have the use of 10% of their brains. Magic is simply the ability to access the other 90% of the mind's power to create specific unnatural effects by sheer force of will.

It is all just a matter of putting your mind into the right frame of reference, of generating the right thoughts at the right time with the proper amount of concentration. Spell components, focuses, material components, gestures and incantations, are all a means of focusing the mind into the right train of thought to produce a spell's effect. Currently known spells have been perfected through centruies of use, and are exceedingly reliable and safe. Experimentation, however can be extraordinarily dangerous.

Wizards use well tested, and 'scientifically' developed procedures to cast their spells. It is much like following a recipe when cooking. Anyone can learn it, if they have enough memory and patience to memorize the directions with enough precision and accuracy.

Clerics and other divine casters use their doctrine, rituals and sheer faith in their diety to create miracles. The chants, incense and prayers produce a similar frame of mind that the wizard's spells do, but in a much different fashion.

Sorcerers and other spontaneous casters are simply talented with the innate knowledge of certain spells. They simply do it, and could no more tell you how he knows the right spells, than a bird could tell you how it knows the right time to fly south.

 

[Gez]

It is often said that humans (and other humanoids) only actually have the use of 10% of their brains.

By the way, in the real world, it's an urban myth.

 

[Driddle]

Magic is from Mars; miracles are from Venus.

 

[Psion]

In my Trinalia campaign, magic comes from a ubuquitous energy field called the flow. The flow exists everywhere. It exists in a passive, potential state. In some places, the flow pools and flows, and is stronger there. These places are ley lines and nexii.

The flow has a relationship to living things. Arcane spellcasters learn to pull this energy into them. In its natural state it is undirected energy, though. To use it, the spellcaster must shape it into meaningful form.

Wizards prepare the energy that they pull into themselves as they pull it in. They can shape it later, but this takes more effort. This shaping is acheive through formula and rote.

Sorcerers are more like creatures of natural magic, that more naturally draw the flow into them, so can store more. As this occurs subconsciously, most cannot shape it as it is drawn into them. But while they can't formulaicly shape magic, they can reflexively shape it at a whim. But these reflexes are harder to shape than formulae, so a sorcerer has only a limited number of shapes his spells can take.

The gods breathe the flow in massive quantities beyond what any mortal could contemplate. Not only that, but the arose from the primordial chaos and sundered from it as creative beings. It is this relationship with the universe that allows them to shape the flow for creative and healing purposes that mortal creatures cannot. They shape the magical energy of the flow, and then send it back out across the universe, refined by their divine essence. Usually, only divine casters in tune with the specific deity can pluck out this shaped divine energy.

Psionics is different from magic. Psions down draw energy into them as spellcasters do. Rather, they manipulate the flow directly with their mind to acheive the effects they want.

Normally the flow is invisible and intangible. However, in places where the atmosphere becomes saturated with it, magical energy "spills over" into the real world. Ley lines and nexuses glow softly in the dark, and magic "wildwinds" flow up and down ley lines. Casting spells in an area saturated this way can super-saturate the area and cause it to spill over and cause unintended magic effects, often called wild surges (I use ENPub's Wild Spellcraft for this, with some of my own house rules.)

 

[Pbartender]

By the way, in the real world, it's an urban myth.

Oh yes, I know... that is why I use it as an explaination for a purely fictional ability in a fantasy-based game.

It's the idea that anyone has the potential for using magic, if only they can learn the proper methods for unlocking it... And there are several methods for doing that.

 

[the Jester]

Welllll...

There's another level of reality underlying the physical- not a different plane, just a level beyond our perceptions. Magic tweaks that level, which causes changes in the mundane world. Think of it as being the mathematical structure that predicts gravity, the sun, our universe- but being able to modify the structure to produce different effects (usually channeling energy from the inner planes to do so).

That's not exactly where it comes from, but that's the theoretical underpinning of it. Different cultures have different myths of where it came from.

 

[Horoku]

Depending on the campaign...
In most campaigns I run, I explain the Arcane-Divine split as follows: Arcane magic is the manipulation of forces. Divine magic is the channeling of forces.
Now, as for mechanics:

Arcane magic uses a system of "Words of Power," which, when combined with gestures and a binding framework (more on that momentarily), can force spirits to do things for you.
Basically, there are spirits everywhere; minor spirits, major spirits, elemental spirits, whatever. They exist on a slightly higher dimension than the rest of us. During the Creation (insert backstory here), the spirits were bound into service by the gods to establish laws of physics in the universe: cause and effect. However, in doing so, the spirits themselves are bound by the "programming language" that the gods used. These are words of Power.
When a mage prepares a spell, he summons the spirit that he needs to himself, and binds it with a structure of concept and thought, through use of a sort of auto-hypnosis via an arcane mantra. This thought structure contains all the necessary programming for the entity, requiring only environmental and targeting (verbal), and shaping (somatic) data to to be inputted (is that a word?) upon casting. If the spell involves a material component, then the spirit, upon activation, absorbs the essence from that component, destroying it, and manifests that essence through its own higher dimensional power as the spell. If there is no material component, then the spirit is fueled either by extra-dimensional energy or the mage's own aura... usually a combination of the two.
That's how I usually do that. For sorcerors, it's the same thing, but the preparation step is impromptu, on the spot.

Divine magic is a bit different. The priest, rather than commanding the spirits to do things, instead, through the power of his faith, is given (as a sort of inspiration) personal access to the higher-dimensional energies of the spirits; however, instead of a spirit acting as the middle-man for magical effects, the priest warps his own aura into the necessary shapes, channeling his raw life energy to access extra-dimensional powers.
Of course, I do other things. I've run some campaigns where magic was the language of the gods, and it just does things. I've run campaigns where magic has consequences due to the source of its power (witchcraft, preservers/defilers). Actually, my second most common method is as follows:
Divine casters speak with their god (maybe without legible response), and are granted powers through faith. In these cases, a hymn is sung during casting as the verbal component, and the caster channels a tiny degree of his gods power, as directed by somatic components and the hymn.
Arcane casters tap a field of energy that permeates the planes, called Magica (or whatever), and have learned that magica responds directly to certain sound and motion patterns, as well as materials. This is the setup that makes the most sense for wild mages, in my opinion.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The essence of magic is conflict, the greybeards say. Tension. Aggression. Opposites in harmony. Repelling, and attracting.

Say I meet my most hated enemy, and cast Fireball at him. That's not just a ball of fire -- that's every ounce of hate I've felt balled up and thrust into the air, lit aflame, and layered over him.

The horrible thing is, I retain it...I still have the hate, and now it's given me power...

Say my closest friend gets hurt, and I cast Cure Light Wounds o them. That's not just magical mending -- that's my love, affection, and protective force pulling the flesh and bone together.

The wonderful thing is, I retain it -- I still have the love, and now it's given me power.

This conflict, this tension, is what births magic. Love, hate, even the power of indifference (in Dispel Magic) can be harnessed and brought to bear. Knowing how to do that is a matter of training for the Wizard. They know scientific formulas of how to tease out the energies that everyone can feel, but only they can turn into a Lightning Bolt. But Wizards are military casters; they learn distructive spells, harnassing hate and anger and vengeance, and hate destroys those who use it -- wizards are frail beings. Sorcerers are always overemotional; it's their Charisma. A manifestation of their own personal hate can create that same ball of fire that a Wizard must train to eke out. But then, anyone can train to be a Socerer, too -- it's just a matter of loosing yourself in the emotion, but for a sorcerer, this is painful as well. Clerics and druids, shephers more of love or balance, certainly bear the weight of spells better, but also because they defer the spellcasting. A cleric feels love so strongly that their patron can't help but answer their prayer for healing, so they are tested less. They are stronger in themselves, because their deity is the wielder of their magic.

Magic isn't something you just do. It's something you live. It's not a dry science. It's not age that causes the stooped posture, it's living your life every day as if turning your fury into fire were the most important thing in your life.