Workings of Magic

[@stroVal]

That bit about the Glore Vyrden needing to replenish if you want to use magic more than once or twice reminds me of a magic system from a webcomic I once read:

Living beings had a "life line" which dictated how generally healthy they are by the life flowing through it (I'm interpreting and guessing a little, since I only read through once and it was some time ago).  They also have a "magic line" that's wrapped around the life line.  If you use magic the magic line tightens around the life line, eventually choking it or cutting it off.  There were two ways around this: One way is to "loop" your life line so you have a continuous life feed and thus can't get it cut off (and a bonus allowing you to heal from even death).  The other is to have an outside source that can take the chocking instead of your life line.

Interesting...

[agent oni]

That bit about the Glore Vyrden needing to replenish if you want to use magic more than once or twice reminds me of a magic system from a webcomic I once read:

Living beings had a "life line" which dictated how generally healthy they are by the life flowing through it (I'm interpreting and guessing a little, since I only read through once and it was some time ago).  They also have a "magic line" that's wrapped around the life line.  If you use magic the magic line tightens around the life line, eventually choking it or cutting it off.  There were two ways around this: One way is to "loop" your life line so you have a continuous life feed and thus can't get it cut off (and a bonus allowing you to heal from even death).  The other is to have an outside source that can take the chocking instead of your life line.

I believe this concept is similar to the Forgotten Realms setting, only that it is called a Weave.  I do like the visual explanation of the above and may incorporate into my homebrew I've been slowly developing.

[@stroVal]

That bit about the Glore Vyrden needing to replenish if you want to use magic more than once or twice reminds me of a magic system from a webcomic I once read:

Living beings had a "life line" which dictated how generally healthy they are by the life flowing through it (I'm interpreting and guessing a little, since I only read through once and it was some time ago).  They also have a "magic line" that's wrapped around the life line.  If you use magic the magic line tightens around the life line, eventually choking it or cutting it off.  There were two ways around this: One way is to "loop" your life line so you have a continuous life feed and thus can't get it cut off (and a bonus allowing you to heal from even death).  The other is to have an outside source that can take the chocking instead of your life line.

I believe this concept is similar to the Forgotten Realms setting, only that it is called a Weave.  I do like the visual explanation of the above and may incorporate into my homebrew I've been slowly developing.

I was under the impression the Weave was Magic itself(Divine and Arcane) in the same manner the Force is the Source of any psionic manifestation in Star Wars

[agent oni]

Ok, maybe I misunderstood the Glore Vyrden but I saw one of the descriptors as a magic line.  You are correct.  The Weave is the magic but it is (was) an extension of Mystra's life force (at least that was my impression after reading the novels).  Not sure how much D&D4th ed changed the concept of magic...

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Ok, maybe I misunderstood the Glore Vyrden but I saw one of the descriptors as a magic line.

That wasn't describing the Glore Vyrden.  That was describing a completely unrelated magic system.

[@stroVal]

is (was) an extension of Mystra's life force (at least that was my impression after reading the novels).  Not sure how much D&D4th ed changed the concept of magic...

They have changed a lot I hear..Baldurs Gate was burned to the ground, something about Abeir and Toril becoming one and a spellplague...but all the new changes seem vaguely...Warcraft..like the art and everything 4th.
But all that's for another topic I guess

[Kalos]

Even though this appears to have turned into a discussion of Forgotten Realms (there's no point in even trying to understand that lore, once you do they're just going to kill or incapacitate Mystra again to add some contradictory and wholly arbitrary rule changes)

In the homebrew setting that my game is using, technology is based off of magic itself, taken from the "Primordials" (powerful elemental creatures, ruling various planes) who are at war with the "Old Gods" (forces of classical alignments, the crusading Good, malevolent Evil, shifting Chaos and rigid Order). Back when these forces battled openly, almost everyone had magical ability (and a high chance of being squished by a powerful demon, angel, or elemental). Now only the people with a the tremendous force of will to affect magic on the world can still cast spells, and as such are often afforded positions of power, due to the world's reliance on ambient magical energies which are further researched and developed by scholarly mages.

It's basically random, in the sense that willpower is something that's rather hard to breed into someone, but there's still a specific precedent for who's able to have it. The holiest of holy for alignment and the most forceful of mind for arcane.

[Krensky]

My homebrew's Clarkian.

Arcane, Divine, whatever. It's all just knowing how to use, misuse, and abuse the ubiqitous tech in the environment.

No one knows this. Priests think they're invoking mircales, arcanists think they're manipulating the forces of the universe, etc.

For those familiar, imagine The Council Wars in a few millennium when everyone forgets what was before. It's an independent creation and a very different setting though.

[@stroVal]

In redesigning the world to FC from 3.5 I realize I can be closer to my original vision of it...
And among other things I am not exactly sure I want the Gods to be real or that Magic needs the gods to exist.
Have you all used a pantheon that is 'real' ?(as in: they walk amongst mortals)

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I've had the idea several times.  Usually when I do that I make the gods more characters than forces of the cosmos as it's easier to figure out how they fit in.

[agent oni]

One of the most common theme of magic origin I have come across in fantasy is that it requires a sentient life form for it to exist.  For example:

Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin has it that with the death of the last dragon, magic all but disappeared.

Forgotten Realms had it during 3rd and older that Mystra was the focus point of magical energy.  During the Time of Trouble, magic went haywire since she was thrown down to Fearun along with the other gods.

Deadlands had its magic either through the grace of God or the manitou (bad spirits or demons).

The best magic fluff IMHO though came from L5R.  I loved the concept of Spontaneous Magic.  Like Deadlands, magic is through spirits but they are the "good" spirits types.  The shugenja are a mixture of priest and magician.  They ask (pray) to the spirit to pull off magical spells.  The thing I like about L5R though is that the spirits reside in everything so anything can potentially be magical.  With Spontaneous Magic, a characters actions determine the magical properties of an item.  If he bears a particular grudge against goblins and uses a sword to cut down the lot of them, that sword could potentially become "alive" and give the bearer a +1 against goblins.

I'm in the process of using FC for a Greek setting so the gods do walk among man but magic is not dependent on the gods.  One of the Titans who sided with the gods gave the gift of magic for which he was punished.

[@stroVal]

I think the Ancient Greeks didn't actually believe in magic..more of a divine type (and summoning maybe?) But I guess you have to have magic
Interesting note: they did have constructs(Talos is one of them) so there's another FC race you can use without a problem
and you could really go for a clockwork/steampunk sort of style if you wanted (not everybody's cup of tea..but just saying)

[@stroVal]

A few years back I found an ogl supplement about star magic
You would spellcast using stars and then constellations; it had been converted to 3.5 from some obscure original system...it seemed really interesting at the time but I never got around to using it..Maybe now with Fc?
PS: I think it was from mongoose in the encyclopedia arcana line..but I'll have to find my copy again and check

[@stroVal]

So maybe the cosmos itself is magic... magic-energy-matter cycle.And if you have magic fields or particles its easier to explain an anti-magic field I guess.Its faux science but if done right it could work..I know the gnomes would approve!

[agent oni]

I think the Ancient Greeks didn't actually believe in magic..more of a divine type (and summoning maybe?) But I guess you have to have magic
Interesting note: they did have constructs(Talos is one of them) so there's another FC race you can use without a problem
and you could really go for a clockwork/steampunk sort of style if you wanted (not everybody's cup of tea..but just saying)

Greek mythology is full of magic and mythical creatures.  In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus confronts a sorceress on an island who turned men into pigs.