Suggest some literary magical traditions

[kenobi65]

Bewitched -- long-lived witches and warlocks live among humans ("mortals"); only they can use magic. Some spells can be cast with just a hand flourish (or a nose twitch), while others require the recitation of bad poetry. Teleportation and polymorph are very common spells.

 

[freyar]

Wizard of Earthsea - wizards need a staff and truenames have power

Actually, the staff there is just a status symbol, indicating "graduation" from the School on Roke or perhaps completing training with another Roke wizard. It doesn't actually do anything with magical power, and there are quite a few examples of magic users w/o staves, though they're generally identified derogatorily as "sorcerors," "witches," etc. But the true naming is good! IIRC, this kind of magic also appears in Susan Cooper's great kids' series The Dark is Rising.

 

[sckeener]

My addition would be the same as the sorcerer...creature magic...

Dragon magic for Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogies
Vampire magic for Brian Lumley's Necroscope series

LEY Line - Magic that can only be performed at a location using the forces of nature. Paranormal occultism is the only source I know of.

In a similar vein, Gregory Keyes' "The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone" series, the 'magic' power is gained at certain holy sites (supposedly ley lines of power in the past), but once gained can be preformed anywhere....

Call of Cthulhu: Magic is found in obscure tomes written in languages man was never meant to speak, and invoking it wears down your mind rather quickly.

My favorite sort of magic....I love the archivist from HoH!

 

[BadMojo]

Jhereg - Every Imperial citizen can use a little magic.

To expand on that a bit, I'd say that in Steven Brust's "Dragaera" world, sorcery as known by Dragaerans would be tapping in to a central power source (the Imperial Orb) to use magic, with no ritual component.

Eastern Witchcraft in the same setting is highly ritualistic and doesn't seem to rely on anything more than the willpower and innate ability of the individual, with even the ritual possibly being merely a tool instead of the source of the magic.

How about Glen Cook's "Black Company" books? I can't quite get a handle on that, but it does seem like there's a big difference in the way The Taken cast spells and the way One-Eye casts.

 

[Klaus]

Buffyverse - Spells can be performed by anyone by use of magical items while saying particular words. Witches and warlocks however have more knowledge and power for using it for their purposes. (from Wikipedia)

 

[drothgery]

To expand on that a bit, I'd say that in Steven Brust's "Dragaera" world, sorcery as known by Dragaerans would be tapping in to a central power source (the Imperial Orb) to use magic, with no ritual component.

Eastern Witchcraft in the same setting is highly ritualistic and doesn't seem to rely on anything more than the willpower and innate ability of the individual, with even the ritual possibly being merely a tool instead of the source of the magic.

And then there's psychics (as per Daymar), the Elder Sorcery, Necromancy, and slicing most of that together into wizardry. And the Jenoine seem to have their own thing, as do the Lords of Judgement.

How about Glen Cook's "Black Company" books? I can't quite get a handle on that, but it does seem like there's a big difference in the way The Taken cast spells and the way One-Eye casts.

I'm not sure there's such a big difference; the Taken (and Lady, later) definitely taught some spells to Goblin and One-Eye, and Goblin and One-Eye were the principal magical tutors for the much more powerful Tobo.

 

[WayneLigon]

Bewitched -- long-lived witches and warlocks live among humans ("mortals"); only they can use magic. Some spells can be cast with just a hand flourish (or a nose twitch), while others require the recitation of bad poetry. Teleportation and polymorph are very common spells.

One plot device I always liked from that series was that the only person who could undo an enchantment was the person who cast it.

Also, apparently people are born witches and warlocks instead of learning their powers.

 

[Zurai]

LEY Line - Magic that can only be performed at a location using the forces of nature. Paranormal occultism is the only source I know of.

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books make extensive use of ley lines, nodes, and similar things.

 

[kenobi65]

Also, apparently people are born witches and warlocks instead of learning their powers.

Yup; it seems to have been a genetic offshoot of humanity. A witch / human pairing is fertile, and the offspring may be witches (e.g., Tabitha).

Tabitha also illustrates that the magical power is inherent...she was levitating things from her crib.

 

[Evilhalfling]

How about Glen Cook's "Black Company" books? I can't quite get a handle on that, but it does seem like there's a big difference in the way The Taken cast spells and the way One-Eye casts.

There is also a quote from Gob or 1-eye about being able to do most of what a taken can do, it just takes more time (in some cases years) but this may also be a boast. it refers to the magic spear that 1-eye spends several yrs making.

Black Company : Each spell needs preperation.

Darksword Trilogy: Everyone has inborn talent with one or more elemental magics

Furies of Calederon: as above, but with more emotinal baggage. (ie water mages are too empathetic, fire mages are inspiring speakers, etc..)

Daggerspell: ask the invisible elemental spirits to do it. + warding, astral forms, and elven (bird) shapechangers.

dernyni magic was complicated by the Kabalistic calling of elemental lords for rituals, in addition to every day psionics.

Magic of Recluse The forces of raw Order and Chaos can be balanced or concentrated to perform magic.