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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Horoku" data-source="post: 1633265" data-attributes="member: 12667">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.</blockquote>

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