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How "Easy" Is Magic? - Printable Version

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RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Thorgar - 07-12-2015

(07-11-2015, 03:58 AM)Sigil.9054 Wrote:
(07-11-2015, 01:06 AM)OttoVann Wrote: AS easy as you want it to be for YOUR character.

I suppose I'm to thank you for reminding me that it's my character, and I can do as I please.

But since I'm posting a thread requesting the input of my fellow roleplayers, one should infer that I at least marginally care about what they have to say on the matter.  The manner in which I choose to play my character takes into consideration the ideas of the community in which I choose to include myself.
i read your response and the smart arse in me has to say "we use silly string for all summonings and poptarts as rune tablets... trust me" =^.^=

on a somewhat more on topic reply;  When you look at magic through the lens of Theoretical Physics, magic is simply the act of manipulating energy with energy. you start with the base form wave (your personal energy/chi/bio-electric/bio-em) you pass it through a medium (wand/rod/crystal/etc) to which it phase shifts taking on similar properties.  Once in-sync you manipulate that energy field by applying "pressure" and effectively creating eddies and currents in a stable field then control the resulting cascade failure into its desired form (fireball/cure/tax-audit). 

Learning to use that energy would be like learning to flap your ears, easy to conceptualize harder to do. however once you learn to do that base task (flapping your ears or summon fire) it becomes easier to do.  Most learned forms of magic require a medium.  i say require but what i mean is they are taught to use the medium to find the pattern they need to sync with which causes them to become dependent on using said medium.  Basically its not required but without it casting magic becomes significantly harder for your average energy manipulator.  For most they could not do it with out the aid of the medium, and later casting spells add to that dependency by giving them additional mediums for more grandiose energy manipulations.

not sure if this will help, but fun food for ideas.

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - DreamedReality - 07-12-2015

I have another question on how other people interpenetrate aether potency. It is flat out said at several points in the MSQ that Eorzea is a land of a lot of trapped aether and quite aetherically rich.

Does anyone have any information or theories on how drawing on it are on the other continents? Would disciplines that draw aether from the environment rather than from inside oneself be more difficult to do?

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Gaspard - 07-12-2015

quite so. I believe that garlemald is described as aetherically depleted, as its been farmed till kingdom come for ceruleum. Its also known that areas where many have died are also aetherically charged.

alas, there's  a chance that some forms of magic might be rendered useless on garlemald/garlean lands. 

beyond that however, I've little memory and would rather sounds the sounsyy signal

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Unnamed Mercenary - 07-12-2015

The Vegas fanfest had a small story about why Eorzea (and the rest of Aldenard is so aether-rich). I wish I could find the exact text, but the general tale was that once, all the continents were together. The other continents we bigger and bullied Aldenard, and became jealous of its gifts, moving away. The story was about how the continents split apart and why there's distance between them. Because the flow of the aetherstream is at Silvertear Lake, Aldenard naturally has the highest concentration of aether. The other continents are further away, which lessens the flow.

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Hammersmith - 07-13-2015

I'm going under the assumption that everything "magic" still works on the existing "Aether manipulation makes things happen".  Which means the wiggle room you have is how you get magic to fuck around under your command.  

With that in mind, the School of Practice I have worked up for a later thing.  It's close to Bardic, but it's a lot more primitive and a lot less 'pretty'.


- What are the factors in learning magic? 
Heart and soul and a good memory.  Can't sing a song if you don't know the words or don't believe the words.

- Does it require study?
A good amount, since you have to know the words and how to sing along, but all of that's for nothing if you can't hold a tune and scream the right word.  Some people just aren't cut out for it.  Some people are nothing BUT one giant song waiting to be sung and they're pretty well fit for it.


You either 'get' it or you don't, after study.  Bad students of it tend to say the wrong word at the wrong time for the wrong reason with the wrong emotion and end up dead in very unique ways.

- Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world?
Yes and no.  Everything's got a word behind it.  Trick is knowing it.  Trick is finding them.  Trick is knowing how to use them.  It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever.  It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change.

- What kind of components are involved? IE, Vocal, Somatic, Material, Focus, etc.
It's somatic.  It's song and word and curse and shout and scream and lul and lilt and poetic joy.  It's word and voice and heart.  You don't need components to do it, but you can only manipulate existant things so it doesn't work in a vacuum.  It's also doesn't have a lot of words for catastrophic, unnatural things, so the song can't drop a moon or teleport someone, or raise the dead.

It CAN coax all the heat out of the front of your skull and give you a brain freeze from hell.  It -can- pull all the flame and heat in a room into one point and then release it in one quick, ugly, violent flash-bang blast.  If you're feeling really adventurous you could try calling lightning, assuming you knew the right name for the right kind in the right place, but lightning's kind of notorious for being indiscriminate once it's unleashed.  You could pull chunks of shrapnel out of something, you could draw poison out assuming you knew the "word" for the poison.

Thing is: All of this takes the Words.  Not a lot of them are known, they're kept secret by practitioners, and used as a kind of currency between people who do this kind of thing.  Secrets kept are powerful, even if they're small.  Assuming you can match the kind of emotion the word wants to function, you can do a lot with it, but doing it right means knowing the words and how to use them. That's so intense most practitioners only work in a certain 'facet' of the language.

- Does magic draw energy of some kind from the user?
It's using their emotion as the leverage to "shape" aether, and the word they're speaking specify where that lever gets applied.  How they speak, how intense they feel, and how purely, dictates how it works.  If you're missing the heart, the song, or the word, the entire thing collapses and tends to target a part of you with it, by force, 

Needless to say people who know this sort of school don't use it just for 'kicks'.  No one wants their brain getting catapulted out of their ear at mach 2.  No one wants to have their bones turn to liquid or their eyes into rocks.


Don't say the wrong words.  Don't say them if you don't mean it.

- Does it vary depending on the kind of magic? If yes, how so?


I think there's a billion different ways to shape aether, shape the effect, and to what degree of power, so definitely.

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - DreamedReality - 07-13-2015

(07-12-2015, 10:32 PM)Gaspard Wrote: quite so. I believe that garlemald is described as aetherically depleted, as its been farmed till kingdom come for ceruleum. Its also known that areas where many have died are also aetherically charged.

alas, there's  a chance that some forms of magic might be rendered useless on garlemald/garlean lands. 

beyond that however, I've little memory and would rather sounds the sounsyy signal

Ahhh thank you! And good to know about Garlemald.

(07-12-2015, 11:56 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: The Vegas fanfest had a small story about why Eorzea (and the rest of Aldenard is so aether-rich). I wish I could find the exact text, but the general tale was that once, all the continents were together. The other continents we bigger and bullied Aldenard, and became jealous of its gifts, moving away. The story was about how the continents split apart and why there's distance between them. Because the flow of the aetherstream is at Silvertear Lake, Aldenard naturally has the highest concentration of aether. The other continents are further away, which lessens the flow.

Ohhh I did a few searches but didn't find the story. Thanks for the synopsis!
 If anyone does know where to read this at in it's entirety I'd love to read!

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Sounsyy - 07-13-2015

(07-13-2015, 05:46 PM)Jaques Wrote:
(07-12-2015, 11:56 PM)Unnamed Mercenary Wrote: The Vegas fanfest had a small story about why Eorzea (and the rest of Aldenard is so aether-rich). I wish I could find the exact text, but the general tale was that once, all the continents were together. The other continents we bigger and bullied Aldenard, and became jealous of its gifts, moving away. The story was about how the continents split apart and why there's distance between them. Because the flow of the aetherstream is at Silvertear Lake, Aldenard naturally has the highest concentration of aether. The other continents are further away, which lessens the flow.

Ohhh I did a few searches but didn't find the story. Thanks for the synopsis!
 If anyone does know where to read this at in it's entirety I'd love to read!

Las Vegas Fan Festival
(@27:01)

Fernehalwes Wrote:The continents - We all know about Aldenard, and then we have Ilsabard where the Garlean Empire is, and then in the Far East you have Othard. These names actually have this kinda cool history to them.

The legend that's told in Eorzea is that Aldenard, Ilsabard, and Othard were three brothers that were really tight and always wanted to stay together. They made a pact that they would never be apart and they would always stay together. Until, Ilsabard and Othard saw that Aldenard had all this cool stuff and was hoarding all of the resources, the beautiful land, etc. So they decided to betray him and they moved away and left Aldenard all alone.

What happened next was the Twelve saw this wrong that was done by Ilsabard and Othard to the third brother. So the gods decided to bless only Aldenard and not bless the other two. And that's why you have the land blessed by the gods. And that's why Ilsabard and Othard are separated. It's a pretty cool way to explain plate tectonics.


RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Aduu Avagnar - 07-13-2015

(07-13-2015, 09:58 AM)Hammersmith Wrote: - Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world?
Yes and no.  Everything's got a word behind it.  Trick is knowing it.  Trick is finding them.  Trick is knowing how to use them.  It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever.  It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change.
Only one question, is Muad'dib a killing word?

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Gaspard - 07-13-2015

He who controls the spice

RE: How "Easy" Is Magic? - Hammersmith - 07-14-2015

(07-13-2015, 08:17 PM)Nako Wrote:
(07-13-2015, 09:58 AM)Hammersmith Wrote: - Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world?
Yes and no.  Everything's got a word behind it.  Trick is knowing it.  Trick is finding them.  Trick is knowing how to use them.  It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever.  It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change.
Only one question, is Muad'dib a killing word?

If it wasn't before it is now.