In Paksenarrion’s world different groups of characters have different kinds of magic–nobody has it all, and many people have none.<\/p>\n
The sources of magic remain a mystery except for wizards’ magicks–a learnable, teachable technology.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Elder Races are sure such magic as they have is part of their created nature, and consider their own gods responsible for it.\u00a0 Magelords, the only humans with inborn magical ability, have variously believed the abilities came from their ancestors through normal inheritance, from the gods originally, or from specific techniques taught by a given deity.\u00a0\u00a0 Paladins believe their patron or their patron’s god grants the powers, and Kuakganni believe the green world grants theirs.<\/p>\n
The difficulty for a writer inventing magic is to put the limits of such powers where they’ll do the most good for the story–and where readers can suspend their disbelief long enough to enjoy the story.\u00a0 Many readers like (and many dislike) the very thought of magic in a story.\u00a0\u00a0 Multiple magic systems may seem more complicated, but also allow for constraints that help define different character groups.<\/p>\n
For instance, the two Elder Races of Earthfolk have innate magery–part of their essence–but theirs is limited to specific places and materials.\u00a0\u00a0 Dwarves and gnomes can do things with stone no one else can do,\u00a0 but have no magic touch with “the green blood”–with plants or with most animals.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Though a dwarf may be individually charming, he will not be able to charm (in the magical sense) a human.<\/p>\n
As shown in the story “Gifts,” Earthfolk are traditional guardians of dragons’ eggs because of their ability to magically interact with stone.\u00a0\u00a0 (Dragons in the egg are somewhat sentient, at a low level, and seek to find hosts in which to grow and transform.\u00a0\u00a0 They cannot invade Earthfolk.)<\/p>\n
The Sinyi (elves to most humans) and their estranged cousins (iynisin or kuaknom)\u00a0 have innate magical abilities with living things–not with stone or objects once made of wood but now “dead.”\u00a0\u00a0 Elves use their magic to make things healthier, stronger, and to shape them to growth the elves find beautiful.\u00a0 Kuaknom, who bitterly resented the “treachery” of the One Tree’s appreciation of a human’s song (the first Kuakgan) have turned against living things and use their magic to harm.<\/p>\n
Magic in humans ranges from the Old Human talents (“green thumb” and “granny magic”)\u00a0 to the magelords’ far more spectacular abilities.\u00a0 These are inborn, natural to the individual in which they appear.\u00a0 They may be greater or lesser, just as individuals differ in physical strength, eyesight, and other physical characteristics.\u00a0\u00a0 Though some training is involved, the ability is always there unless blocked\/locked by something or someone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The magelords at their\u00a0 peak possessed enough power to cause themselves major trouble.\u00a0\u00a0 By Gird’s day, many had no power left; others had only a few of the original abilities.\u00a0 By Paks’s day, Girdish teaching is that the only innate magical powers left are not really innate, but the result of following evil gods who lend their followers power.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s not entirely true–there’s still real magelord magic around, but it’s been in hiding a long time.<\/p>\n
Wizards are a different kettle of fish–part scholar, part engineer\/inventor.\u00a0\u00a0 A wizard needs no innate magical talent, but does need intelligence, creativity, and a good memory.\u00a0\u00a0 Much of their “magic” is indeed smoke and mirrors (or the equivalent)–a\u00a0 change in appearance, not reality.\u00a0 But over centuries, they have produced a body of knowledge that includes actions equivalent in actual power to those produced by individuals with innate magic.\u00a0\u00a0 They have invented devices that can store specific actions and release them on command (almost never safely by a lay-person but by any wizard), though careless or dishonest wizards produce inferior devices.\u00a0\u00a0 (The ineffective fireballs in the story “Bargains” are an example.)\u00a0\u00a0 Since a wizard spends years learning his\/her craft, at personal expense and effort, wizards don’t\u00a0 give it away and are perceived as less moral and greedier than elves.\u00a0\u00a0 A spell or a magical device, like a machine, acts as designed, within the limits of its quality and the care used in construction.<\/p>\n
Paladins’ magic powers are grafted on–gifts from their patron (saint or deity) and used with permission and guidance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They’re limited to a few specific areas such as making light, protecting others from paralyzing fear, healing, and discerning the truth.\u00a0\u00a0 Paladins cannot magically turn stones into bread or reeds into fish; they don’t fly through the air or walk through walls.\u00a0\u00a0 The other talents needed for a paladin are nonmagical, shared by many others than paladins.\u00a0 Others are also charismatic, honest, brave, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Paksenarrion’s world different groups of characters have different kinds of magic–nobody has it all, and many people have none. The sources of magic remain a mystery except for wizards’ magicks–a learnable, teachable technology.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Elder Races are sure such magic as they have is part of their created nature, and consider their own gods […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contents","tag-magic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}