#magic lore

[ernstiggroteadelaar]

MTG LORE FANS, please tell me about (random) characters from mtg stories you're obsessed with/a fan of/you just think they're neat, i'm trying to find the most fun bits of mtg lore

[the-kingshound]

wait couldn’t the hound, in theory, extend their life significantly with their magic? Like with their resiliency and regeneration?

You'd think that, but no. In fact, the opposite happens.

Lore dump

Magic requires energy to be sustained, in the case of battle magic, since it enhances the user and has effect only on them, the energy it requires has to come from the mage. As such, fightings take a lot out of mages, and while they are insanely resistant to damage they often suffer from chronic fatigue and chronic pain after making too much use of their magic.

Magic, not just battle magic, can become stronger if the mage trains. But in the case of battle magic, since it takes so much from the user, it will slowly but surely wear their body down the more they use it. This very often leads to chronic conditions, joint damage/pain (MC's father has to use a cane) that can force the mage to use a wheelchair or to be bedbound (probably what will happen to Adrei in 15-20 years). Ultimately, battle mages tend to have a lower life expectancy due to this.

Slight spoilers for Morgana and her magic

Morgana's magic, contrary to battle magic, works on external elements and as such requires energy from the outside. Her type of magic is sustained by siphoning energy from all that the mage can reach. Plants, animals, even humans.

It doesn't wear down the user, but it can have heavy impacts on their mental stability.

It is said that one of the most powerful mages in existence made an entire forest die in order to summon a storm so powerful it destroyed the enemy's fortress leaving only ruins.

[overgrown-estate]

Geralf and Gisa; both illustrated by Chris Rahn

Geralf just wants to study the effects of planar travel on magic wielders and Gisa's over here planning on making the Multiverse into Zombieland.

[igorlevchenko-blog]

A word on Constant Effect Enchantments

We've had occasion before now to reflect how constant Illusion enchantments are detrimental to one's mental health. @theseventhoffrostfall has aptly dubbed it "the dunmer version of lead-based makeup" which also underscores how it became a kind of fashion statement, to cloak oneself in, say, cumulative Chameleon enchantments, in civil setting. The harmful effects of illusion magic ranges from insidious to truly devastating: as is the case with Sanctuary spell, shown to be the main driver of disassociative disorders—conditions that involve experiencing a loss of connection between thoughts, memories, feelings, surroundings, behavior and identity. Under these circumstances, one can imagine how even the lowliest Light spell—if made into a constant effect—would be further exasperating these symptoms.

Here I refer you to my monograph: "On pathology of indirect Light spells", Black Horse Courier Press, Imperial city.

While Reflect and Detect spells (of Mysticism school) may work towards eroding one's circumspection—the ethereality, the ghostliness of Sanctuary is an assault on faculties most fundamental.

So once again I ask you to call upon your local Council-members to vote on banning this magical mal-practice!

[ohdragonflyohdragonburnthemdown]

Fairy circles

Fairy cycles are like witch covens, only they are build on trust.

I finally get to talk about fairy circles! I can not tell you how exited I am to talk about this brain child or mine! This is going to be general lore. The Winx specific infos will come later this month.

The base line is that they are like the idea we have of witch covens. A group of at least three (3) people, specifically fairies, that share a magical connection. Unlike witch covens though, fairy circles are based on trust and want.

Each member of the circle has to trust each other blindly, and want to be connected to them. If even one is hesitating it will not work. Like they have to trust each others with their life and more importantly their wings.

Fairy circles, especially those that are "natural" are seen as the will of magic itself and are seen as a higher power. If a fairy circle ives an order to people, they will do it and not even the government of that plante or the High Council can stop them, especially if there is a crisis. Which is why the true or natural circles are automatically recorded by the magic of the Council palace.

This also means if you start a fight with a true circle, when they are working…let's say you should go out and buy milk…your reputation is done for unless the Circle in questions makes it clear that they don't want you to be harmed in any way.

Because they are build on trust, each fairy circle is different and individual to their fairies, but there are similarities that they all share:

The bond mark or first bond A tattoo that takes the colours and symbols of the different faires and combines them in a sigil representing them as a group. The placement of each mark is individual to each circle, but it happens rather often that they influence the wings of the fairies and show up there. This mark represents the original fairies who form the circle, if other's join later on their sigils will be added around the original mark.

The bond soul or full bond This happens when all fairies of the circle reach their full powers and become true equals. Or in other words when they all have reached enchantix. When this happens the whole dimension is made aware by magic, that there is a new fairy circle. The Council palace will glow in the colours of the circle and each planet will see the true form of the fairy circle. This true form is called the soul of the bond. It is when the circle as equals fly together for the first time and their magics combine to form an animal or magical creature to represent them as a group.

The Ritual

To create a fairy circle there is a full on ritual. (I hinted to that in earlier chapters.)

For one the fairies have to go to the place where they have come together for the first time. If one of them came later to the group and this meeting happened somewhere else than the rest of the group meeting that last person is the deciding factor.

For the girls this would be Aisha stumbling out of the forest and the girls finding her in a clearing.

There has to be a set up of candles, one for each person involved and then one by one in order of when they met the specific words of the persons culture are spoken.

Each planet has their own phrase to create a fairy circle, based on their magic and culture. It can also vary depending on where someone is from, from a planet. If everything goes well, the tattoo appears and the connection is established.

Types of Fairy Circles

The most well known examples of fairy circles are Circles born from Hope, Circles forged through trial and War Circles. They tend to emphasize different kinds of magics and also boost fairies differently.

Circle born from Hope This specific kind of fairy circle is created when fairies come together to help each other emotionally. It's sometimes also called the family circle, since fairies who have this kind of bond behave as if they are family.

Circles forged through Trial These circles are often seen in guardian faires from the same planet, since they are most likely to be forced into dangerous situations outside of war. This kind of circle is the most common and focused on trust. Lynphea is well know for this kind of fairy circle, since it's flora and fauna is rather vicious.

War Circles They are rare and both seen as the highest kid of circle and the most feared. War Circles are a combination of Hope and Trial circles with an addition of distrust. Faires who are part of a War circle often have no choice in how they got together, but learned to trust and lean on teacher other, while starting to see through the lies told in war. This circle isn't talked about much and generally not seen a positive by the ruling class, since it tends to change the system …go figure.

There are other kinds of Circles, but these are the big three. They can also be mixed and redefined depending on the circle. As usual…boxes.

Benefits

The fairy circle posts each fairy's powers to a small degree, it also makes it easier to cast spells that belong to another members range. For example Aisha would find is easier to cast fire magic, which opposes her natural magic. Or Flora has an easer access to atificial magic.

It's also a bit of an alarm system. If one of them is in danger the bond will flare up both visibly and magically and the members of the circle will be made aware of it.

The last known benefit is the creation of telepathic connections. They don't happen just because the circle has been established, but it's much easier to create a telepathic bond simply because the magics are already connected.

Other than that not much is known when it comes to benefits of a fairy circle since it, much like witch covens is a sacred practice and you generally do not ask about it.

Drawbacks

If a member of the fairy circle died or is magically drained, that will also hurt the others. Their magics will be unbalanced and weaker, because the bond tried to heal the unbalance. This in the past has been used to eliminate fairy circles, when one has become too powerful.

Historical insight.

The most well known fairy circle is Arcadias Circle also know as the golden circle. They are regarded a newer gods today.

Fairy circles as a whole have declined ever since the fall of Sparx, but there hasn't been a fairy circle that has been recognized since Domino has been cursed.

Lastly: DO NOT MISTAKE fairy circles and fairy rings. Those two are different things with very different meanings!

[beatheturtleandearthling]

It’s Here!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64626514/chapters/166003810

Enjoy this little CBS Ghosts fic @umheyitzbellaig and me wrote together!

P.S. It even has original/original magic lore!👀👀

[goffilolo]

Magic attribute categorisation

As much as I find the wide variety of magic attributes on the world of Black Clover to be interesting and full of potential, I feel like it’s being kneecapped to some extent by Tabata’s minimal lore and in some cases lack of more detailed explanations. I could sit here all day discussing it, but the one thing I did want to focus on is the categories of attributes as we know it. We’ve only been introduced to categories of ‘elemental’ attributes and told briefly that other types of magic can be derived/evolve from those. But the longer I sat down to think about it, the more I realised that there’s still far too many attributes that are in no way even closely related to anything remotely elemental and should be in a category of their own.

This realisation was then followed by a kindergarten level mental exercise of being given cards with many different things and told to put them in groups based on similarities. This has led to the following extended attribute categorisation. I did put a few examples for each of the categories to help better illustrate my point, but I didn’t see the need to try and include every attribute we were ever shown.

Here's the list of categories:

Natural attributes - All the basic ‘elemental’ attributes fall into this category, as well as some other types of magic that relate to the natural phenomena.

Examples:

Poison magic

Glass magic

Beast magic

Material/Man-made attributes - These attributes may have initially evolved from natural attributes, but they are characterised by appearing as/being based on man-made objects, often allowing for more ‘complex’ spells. 

Examples:

Key magic

Sword magic

Dice magic

Physical attributes - This category covers all attributes that are derived from the laws of physics and affect the very foundation of how the world works.

Examples:

Spacial magic

Time magic

Gravity magic

Performative attributes - Unlike other types of magic, these aren’t based around a ‘thing’ or a physical force that can be manipulated, but rather an ���action’ that needs to be performed.

Examples:

Sealing magic

Copy magic

Dance magic

Conceptual attributes - These attributes are unique in that they aren’t based on physical/tangible elements and are often derived from more complex, man-made ideas. They exist because the very concept of them exists within mass consciousness. 

Examples:

Word magic

Dream magic

Curse magic

All of this is just my ideas based on categories that make sense to me. If you don't agree with them that's fine, if you want to use the ideas of these categories in your own stuff that's fine too.

[macabresymphonies]

I appriciate the implications for lore and larger story and all the supplemental stories (please don't get rid of those WOTC) of Thunder Junction, but the fact this is "an empty plane with no living beings before that" makes it feel so forgettable it's actually insane.

I tried to stay positive really, but it's just bunch of returning characters having a cowboy themed party. The events could happen literally anywhere else, Ixalan especially, because there was no inherent faction, history or structure that made it unique to the plane. The Marketable Plushie™ could have been locked in Niv-Mizzet's cabinet for all I care and it would actually make more lore significant, than a random vault desert plane with vaugely native american nomad faction visiting it (you know, it's like native american history, sans most of it's core).

With MKM feeling like "Clue night at Markov Mansion" (to the point actual Clue set came out with it), Caverns of Ixalan not originally being Ixalan, but being "too similar not to not change" (god forbid you have more than one native american set when you have your n-th "vaugely european fantasy" set), I'm afraid it's setting a bad precedent for the future where creativity is stifled by marketability.

"I know you got a plane that suddenly has pissed winged police all over it and crime can no longer fly in demon city, but we can't do two sets on the same plane in such a short time (unless it's scamming you on small packs of course) so the cops and robbers set is instead back on Ravnica, you guys like Ravnica don't you (the sales charts said so)? Look Teysa Karlov is here! Isn't she like your "gagachondra mother boss queen" or whataver you nerds like to say? We're still testing grounds since we lost our last goth girl bait to some "character growth" or whatever back in Strixhaven"

Hoping Blumburrow is good enough to maybe make them reconsider (at least epilogue sets were atrocious enough to make them stop any in the future). It at least looks like it has an original enough story that's not just "Jace is the main character despite not being that well liked".

[parallel-2-anywhere]

An important take

OMENPATH ISEKAI IS DEFO A NEW GENRE OF YA ROMANCE ON MANY WORLDS AFTER THE PHYREXIAN INVASION.

[askthesorcerersupreme]

I'm aware we spend stamina to use magic and conjure spells, and I'm aware I start to get sleepy when I spend too much. What happens if I conjure spells beyond the limit and my stamina reaches zero?

You die

I’m kidding, for the most part.

It’s not that common to die from hyperextension, but it is very harmful to your health. It also works similarly to heat exhaustion. The more times you do it, the easier it is to get it again, and the worse the effects will be.

@doctorstrangeaskblog

[erosianexile]

Deep in the underground labyrinth, Aera sees a whirlwind in the wood - yet Cyrrus cannot see it. Is it magic, dream or illusion? Perhaps the chaos is visible only to the one who can wield it. 🌪️

- Night Gem, Book One: This Boundary Will Not Bind Us

[ernstiggroteadelaar]

is there actually art of Ral Zarek shirtless? just to confirm if he's really an otter yaknow

[glasswinggames]

Following a poll to celebrate 300 followers on twitter, I wrote up some of the lore around magic in Ever After!

I forgot how much I had, but I managed to get a 5 page doc down to 4 pictures! One day I'll end up just posting my essays I feel haha!

Thank you for following Ever Afters development! It really means everything and motivates me to keep going!

[overgrown-estate]

Amalia and Kellan settling down on Thunder Junction. Glad he's tired of moving around. The Omenpath Arc seemed a little rushed with him in each set. I'm going to need at least one story of them on Thunder Junction before we see them again anywhere else. I wonder what Annie thinks of the Fae and the Vampire?

[mercy-be-mine]

I really think this discourse over whether we need to start humanizing cursed tomes is ridiculous. All tomes are inherently worthy of protection, and don't even get me started on how far 'blessed' object laws extend in comparison.

The current popular takes are so twitter-level basic, for which I can only really blame our poor public education. For most people, their only experience with cursed tomes are from high school - I'm talking like Evolutions of Eternal Screams vol.4 or Musica Infernale - and it's not their fault.

In reality, every cursed object has been imbued with some aspect of a greater consciousness, a consciousness deserving of autonomy like the rest of us. There are so many types of cursed consciousness, and they're all valid!

Merryk's Catalogue of Lunar Curiosities is one of the strongest defenses of cursed tome autonomy, as Merryk himself lives within the text. The book is a large and well-loved leather journal with inked moon drawings and studies jotted down inside. The text, if you could read it, would detail out certain effects the moon has on home-grown spells during varying times of the year.

But you can't read it.

Instead, the second you start reading, you're awakening into a pleasant wildflower garden. Golden light streams across a contained cottage yard. Sitting across from you on a wicker patio chair with a plate of scones is Merryk himself, who spent thirty years ritual casting himself into a curse so the lonely gardener could enjoy teatime forever. He's well-read and enjoys taking notes from various travelers, sharing stories of his own projects and adventures. He'll offer you the scones and you will decline. You talk philosophy and politics, compare leather-working tools and mending spells.

He offers the scones to you more insistently, but you decline, until he tries to force-feed you. You escape by running into his gardening shed which snaps you out of your stupor. You'll slam the book shut. It wasn't until the invention of the camera that anybody actually read the contents of the book.

It is a curse, after all. However, for all intents and purposes, Merryk lives a full life in his cottage and has a provable existence outside inquiring wizard's drop-in visits. He enjoys lemongrass mint tea and can be physically harmed. Merryk deserves federal protections. Call, email, and write to your government representatives.