#and i was like 'yeah okay its a sign anti magic celann'

[nejackdaw]

I have, predictably, been thinking about Celann; been thinking about Bretons and their half elf blood, the magic in it, their innate magical skill. It manifests, in the player character, as higher magical bases and considerable magic resistance (not to mention the ability to absorb hostile magic.)

Celann doesn't seem like much of a spellcaster to me.

Schools of magic are called disciplines for a reason: they require work and dedication, even for the simplest spells (people aren't, for example, commonly seen wandering around casting candlelight.) Even with half elven blood, I can't imagine him being much of a caster.

However, there's still the secondary way magic manifests: as a repellant, a shield. Maybe he didn't grow up learning magic–which naturally, in such a mage-focused society (High Rock,) would be met with a variety of reactions–maybe his family realized he seemed to be missing what most people have and let it rest.

Maybe he never really thought about why his sister didn't just charm him during the attack in the woods until the Vigilant woman he'd met brought it up.

Celann may lack magical capabilities, but in return his mind is firmly walled off, untouchable by charms, fear spells, forced sleep. It's invaluable against the kinds of enemies he and his allies face, against mages and vampires and anything else that slings spells with ease–but it also turns away friendly charms. Courage, Rally, any variation of anything that's meant to bolster and assist results in as much a waste of magicka as a curse. Where others learn to shield themselves against mind altering magic, to close their consciousness to them, he, very slowly, had to learn how to create a window for friendly charms to take effect.

It's entirely unconscious; no effort goes into realizing that something is coming and shielding himself from it. The door is permanently shut, and it takes effort instead to crack it open when something friendly comes knocking. He's able to recognize hexes and charms and curses only because he realizes the harm they could do to his allies–if they're aimed at him, he pays them no mind, may not even realize it's being cast. It's a large part of his success as a vampire hunter: their charm, innate, instinctual, and one of their greatest defenses, is utterly useless when he's the one facing them down. (He's used this to his advantage before, on occasion, when goading his enemies is possible and he can get them to expend their magic on him before his allies reveal themselves, no longer at risk of being turned against one another or frozen still.)

Thinking about Celann, lacking any magical skill--potentially ostracizing, to a degree, in his old life--but with a mind like a fortress--useful and valuable in his new one, earning him an easy place.