Sources of Magic

[Jürgen Hubert]

In my homebrew setting, the source of magic is people!

And given the existence of Nexus Towers in my setting, I do mean this in a "Soylent Green" kind of way...

 

[Roman]

An interesting setting Juergen (sorry, my computer cannot do the umlaut) and the magic system is indeed well worked out.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

My setting search entry used the idea that all magical energy came from the gods originally. There's sort of a migration path of magical energy
divine <--> druidic <--> arcane.

The stripped down, short version is that the first war of the gods wrought such destruction on the world, that it was in danger of unraveling. The First god and goddess (who had created the world) ended up immolating themselves and binding a great deal of their power to the Earth (it's actually a LOT more complicated than that, but I'm going against type and trying to be semi-brief ). Besides ending the war, this gave the planet the energy needed to sustain itself, and something of a will of its own, derived from the creators. It could choose mortals (druids) to act as instruments of its will and wield its powers. The power of the earth is tightly bound and seemed self-regenerating, but subsequent wars of the gods, powerful mortals, dragons, etc. (There's a long history) destabilized the ley, and it leaked out to saturate the world. Arcane casters tap this loose ley energy.

And there's sort of a push-pull relationship. The magic that leaks out into the world diminishes the power of the Earth. When the magic of the Earth grows too weak, it must be re-inforced, or the world will die. This has had to be done a few times over the course of history, but requires a significant input (read: sacrifice) of divine or arcane energy. Most recently, a goddess descended to earth and sacrificed her divninity and nearly all of her power to "recharge" the ley and all but seal the "leaks" (she created the fey in the process, and became their queen, leading them in their chores of caring for nature. They're fickle, but at least they proved better stewards for the world than the dragons, but that's a whole 'nuther story). Of course, "sealing up the cracks" in the ley diminished the flow of arcane magic, which sure didn't please arcane casters. Or the Empire built dependent on the vast amount of free arcane energies.

There's also a Source out there from which the Creators themselves sprung, which is limitless, but is beyond mortal ken and cannot be tapped. Even the remaining gods cannot use it, and only the wisest of them has any understanding of it.

That's probably not enough explanation to make things clear, but it's getting late.

 

[Snoweel]

My campaign world rationale is that magic is an energy that exists down int he very fabric of reality...

... Wizards and similar spellcasters access this energy via an extradimensional "pattern" or "machinery" devised and embedded within the fabric of reality in certain regions of the universe. This "machinery" was created by an ancient race that existed very early in the history of the universe, and which spread throughout much of it, imprinting their "machinery" just about everywhere. The "machinery" is not machinery as we know it; it's more along the lines of mathematics and language, a mental device used to help shape and embody thoughts and concepts...

My take on magic IMC is basically identical to this, Col.

Though in my case, the "ancient race" is the ancestors of the humans of the world, some of whom live on as Gods or Spirits of one form or another. Of course this isn't common knowledge in my campaign.

 

[Destil]

In the world I'm currently designing, magic has it's source from eight Inner Energy Planes, vast, nearly empty planes, similar to the planes of positive and negitive energy. These are the arcane energy planes, and are accessed only through the deep ether and far shadow transitive planes. The shadow plane can be used to travel to the Illusion, Evocation, Conjuration and Necromancy planes, beyond that is the plane of negitive energy. (Thus necromancy is more about manupliating negetive energy, and the reason thre are shadow conjurations and evocations). The etheral plane leads to the Abjuration, Enchantment, Divination and Transmutation planes, with the positive energy plane beyond (I've changed [healing] to a sub-school of transmutation, as a result, rather than conjuration. This is also why abjurations extend into the eatheral plane, the're praticaly spilling into it already).

These planes project pattrens of magical energy into the rest of the multiverse, sort of like a magnet's field lines.

Arcane magic primarly works by altering these pattrens slightly, as a way to draw energy dirreclty from the arcane planes. It sort of momentarly 'widens' the field lines, letting excess energy that builds up along the altered path to spill out as they constrict back to their natural state. Wizards do it through a careful manupliation of trigger elements, these sort of 'conduct' arcane energy, like metals in my magnet example. Sorcerers do so more through willpower, their bodys are partialy conductive by their nature. (No material components for my sorcs, though foci are commmon).

Divine magic simply uses these pattrens as a imprint or template. The magical energy comes from someplace other than the arcane inner planee. Typicaly a god, or an elemental inner plane. In effect, they have their own filings, which line up along the magnetic field lines as the're poured out into the universe. Thus why divine magic is so similar to arcane. They need to use trigger elements only to mantain the connection between the power the're channeling and the energy lines, and thus they don't have to be nearly as precise, and unlike arcane components don't dirrectly conduct magical energy as much (thus no divine spell failure, and the more heavy relinace on foci. M components common to arcane spells are destroyed because they are being used to conduct tremendous amounts of magical enery, burning them out, in effect).

Psionics are completly diffrent. There is no psionic power plane, the source of psionic energy is appearantly the entire multiverse itself. Unlike magic, which can be vastly affected by the nature of the plane you're in (Quickened spells in the Astral, Empowered and Enlarged fire spells in the plane of fire) psionics is universal, they are only altered by the fact that ectoplasim behaves a bit oddly in some planes. Psionics, like arcane magic, appears to use some sort of pattren or pathway, but it's intrinic to existance itself. Many people think that it's in effect a 'fingerprint' of the original creator of the multiverse, and perhaps a tiny fragment of their true power. The main source of energy that's used for this is latent power of the mind and body, something everyone possess potential for, but only thoes who are properly trained, or thoes with true gifts, ever discover.

All in all, this is similar to Colonel Hardisson's system in many ways. I suppose it's a rather scientific way to look at magic, and also a formulamatic one... but both are a good idea, in a system where magic is studied, in my opinion.

 

[Tonguez]

All of Creation is a song its chards and tones vibrating throughout all things

The Gods are embodiments of these Chords and can channel their power through those that worship them (ie Divine Magic). Others such as Shaman and Witches have learnt to sing the Chords embodied in certain Spirits and thus gain there favour and aid (in this case it is the Spirit which c'ast spells' (ie uses their natural abilities) and not the Shaman who calls them and makes the request)

Others such as Bards and Wizards have learnt to generate tones which change the flow of the Great Song and create temporary effects (ie Arcane Magic/Spell songs)

Most spells are too feint to be noticed however Powerful Spells (ie Epic Spells) create ripples in the Great Song and threaten to alter reality. These Dischords risk attracting the notice of the Gods and if too disruptive their retribution.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

An interesting setting Juergen (sorry, my computer cannot do the umlaut) and the magic system is indeed well worked out.

I aim to please.

And of course, the ability to use specially constructed towers to turn life energies into magical energies as all sorts of... interesting repercussions for the setting's socio-economic realities...

 

[Roman]

Destil, an interesting idea on rationalizing the division of magic into the eight schools...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Destil, an interesting idea on rationalizing the division of magic into the eight schools...

I always thought the divisions made sense for wizards. They need to study to get their spells, and one of the first things scholars do is categorize things down to the toenails (literally, in some fields ). Of course, for sorcerors it makes less sense, but sorcerors throw LOTS of curves to the flavor of the magic system, IMO.

That aside, it really is a neat idea, Destil. But I'm a sucker for funky cosmologies

Tonquez, it sounds like your magic system is a bard's best friend. Have you cooked up more magically powerful bard variants for it?

 

[Roman]

Any more ideas?