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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 1633915" data-attributes="member: 6929">Dungeon Damage magic:There are seven important planes of existance. There is the World, at the center. Around it, like the points of a compass, are the four Cardinal Elemental planes (Earth, Air, Fire and Water). Above it is the plane of positive energy; below, the plane of negative energy.People (Mediterranean humans, Germanic elves, Crimean orcs etc) are relatively powerless creatures, barely capable of creating a spark with their lifeforce. That hasn't stopped them, however.Wizards in the current age use the Greek methods of spellcasting, after the great achievements of the philosophers in that realm, and the later perfection of those methods by the conquering Roman Republic. The Greeks theorised the existance of the cardinal elements, but not the planes. Greek wizards like Plato and his adherents didn't discover magic, but they refined it and studied its effects. They thought they were manipulating elemental atoms. In reality, they were opening microportals onto elemental planes, and pulling through elemental essence to create their spells. Recognising that they weren't drawing their power from anywhere they could tell, they threw up their hands and just did magic.Thus, wizards in the medieval age still use Greek word exercises to focus their minds. The words correspond to ancient mental exercises that punch open the microportals, often several dozen at a time, and create the desired effect. As magic is really an unconscious ability at this level, they can control the powers without understanding them.They're also really weak. European wizards can get up to the second spell level, and know some of the third. In Persia, a similar type of magic is practiced; the necromancers of Babylon can do a few things that would astonish Europeans. And in China, they've learned to cast Fireball, and do it through the same mental focus tricks.Clerics are a different proposition. Nobody knows who introduced it; it's likely that the practice was known as long as arcane magic. The point is, they channel largely from the positive energy plane. Around the time the Roman Empire fell over, Christians in monastaries decided to get serious about this thing, and by the time the Middle Ages started up, they'd developed a scientific system focused on emulating miracles. It's almost identical to wizardry, but the focusing chants are based on principles more fully understood, and are in Latin - priests capable of tying their own boots up are capable of memorising every spell, although they don't have enough practice to fire off more than a couple of spells each day. They'll teach it to anyone who seems worthy and joins the priesthood. Most people don't have the strength to go further, but some do, and clerical magic is the most powerful force in Europe.Clerics in other parts of the world aren't as organised or methodical as the Christians, but certainly rival wizards for power.Everyone has to prepare spells each day. The mind of a good magic-user is pliant and flexible, allowing them to set it into different shapes with a little preparation. These shapes, mental katas or what have you, are essential for being able to fire off spells quickly.Sorcerers are unknown so far. They'd evidently be linked to the magical beings that roam the world; the dragons, for example, are permanent conduits to all four elemental planes, granting them astonishing physical and arcane power. (The dragons also have a culture older than humanity; unfortunately, we know as much about it as ants know about us.) The dragons know more than they're telling, too...Nobody knows about the planes yet. They think 'Heaven, the middle world, Hell'. The introduction of planar theory will no doubt bring about a renaissance.To sum up: Planar power focused by ritual mind exercises. Clerics are happy-wizards who don't fool themselves into thinking they're channeling a god's power (well, not too often). Wizards are untrusting and thus held back. And everyone's fooling themselves.</blockquote>

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