Meta: Creation of Magic (Tellius)

[amielleon]

This is 20% substantiated and 80% not-unlikely derping.

The source of magic in terms of the energy is the spirits. This is canon, although given the context one might wonder if this fact is limited to anima and dark magic, given the contexts in which this fact is usually stated. But I digress. I'm not interested in where the power for magic comes from. I'm wondering how the magical disciplines currently practiced in Tellius came to be.

Magic was an invention of the beorc. It's technology. So, someone or some group of people created these methods of channeling the spirits' power. I'm wondering about that process of creation.

So the first thought I had was that I think magic as a discipline arose from spirit charming. Not deliberate spirit charmers -- despite how little we know about it, I think engaging in that pact is probably pretty complicated, and furthermore something people wouldn't have an incentive to do without magic being pretty well-established. But I'm thinking about "natural" spirit charmers:

"I see. So, it must have been the spirit who wished to make a pact with you. [...] It's a very rare phenomenon among newborns. Usually it happens to infants who have an exceptional talent for magic. You truly are amazing, Micaiah." (1-7 Base: Pelleas)

I doubt spirits are so concerned with the state of Tellian technology that they would begin to do this only after the development of the discipline. Although I don't think this is strongly implied, I think it's fair to suggest that spirits have always been attracted to individuals somehow well-attuned to spirits (and therefore talented with magic). Before the formal discipline, perhaps there were looser ways these individuals could express their magic.

Perhaps this is where the magic cards in RD tie in. These cards vary in power according to the user's magical ability, and require no formal training to use. I wouldn't be surprised if these were remnants of some ancient improvised system, before the (initially less successful) study of tome/staff magic bloomed.

At any rate, these early talents with ties to spirits were probably quite aware of the magic about them. These were the people, I think, who initially tried to construct technology to control it.

So. As far as tome magic is concerned, which came first?

I'm not sure whether I like the idea of dark first or anima first better. The latter seems intuitive -- it's "normal" magic to us, and the spirits are anima spirits. At the same time, dark is exclusive to spirit charmers, and one must wonder why. I rather like the idea that those ancient spirit charmers, in their crass and unrefined emerging systems, first developed dark magic: a practice too reliant on magical "brute force" for the average man to master, but possible for spirit charmers since the spirit latched onto them puts them differently in touch with magic. And then from dark magic came refinements, and these refinements allowed a magic user to control their contact with spirits, and thus came anima.

No matter the source of light magic, I am fond of the idea that it came last, and that the clergy adopted tomemaking principles to harness something they had been independently aware of. Perhaps there were staves before tomes, and light magic draws off the same source as staves but produces offensive magic because of the nature of its conduit (the tome). Thus the particularly strong connection between light and staff magic in Tellius.

Insert unifying conclusion here.

Comments

[raphiael]

I feel like dark coming first makes a lot of sense - partially because of other universes' referring to it as "elder" (which probably shouldm't factor in, but with all things being equal I'm okay with this influencing my thoughts), and because it makes more sense for things to go from extremely direct and dangerous (immediate contact with spirits and scary as all getout magic) to more indirect and "safe".

Considering just the pattern of characters who learn it, it does seem like light magic is more complicated or specifically refined than the other sorts. After al,l with the exception of Micaiah, characters tend to learn it only after promotion, right? Unlike the other magic groups in Tellius, which tend to be available from the very first tier. (Assuming the first tier equivalent of Dark Sage is something like "Dark Mage" and starts out with the stuff like the similarly named classes, I mean.)

So uh basically I think this makes a lot of sense.

[amielleon]

Yes, excepting Micaiah it's only something you have access to after mastering staves. It's particularly remarkable that in PoR, access to light magic was granted via a skill called Lumina, and your light/staff proficiency was based off the same thing. Then in RD you have that non-light tome users had to get to the third tier to use staves. So I do think light magic is somehow inherently closer to staves than the other two types of magic.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

and because it makes more sense for things to go from extremely direct and dangerous (immediate contact with spirits and scary as all getout magic) to more indirect and "safe".

Yeah, that's the way I feel about the development of magic overall. It gets harnessed and refined over time.