[StevenH]

I think I will weigh in with an expanded example of how Order/Chaos mages improve their magery "levels" in Modesitt's Recluce series. Hal wanted an in-game reason to allow Magery level to increase, so bear with the wall of text where I attempt to explain (badly, most likely) how one writer did it (and if L.E. Modesitt ever read this, he'd probably say I have it all wrong!)



Note that there aren't any "spells" per se; there are effects that you can cause based upon your understanding of Order, Chaos, and the Balance.

Magic in that universe works by manipulating bits of Order and Chaos around. Mages come in (roughly) two flavors: Order (Black), and Chaos (White). There are also Grey mages, who have figured out how to use both. It's actually a bit more complicated than that, as those two categories are largely social constructs, but not completely. Chaos users actually use Order to contain their Chaos, and Order users use their Order to move Chaos around. Chaos is basically the "heat" or life force of living things. Order is what controls that "heat" and is kind of the underlying structure of things; having no Order or no Chaos will kill you. Living things need both to live. There is a Balance: the amount of Order and Chaos remain equal, so when a city starts building up its Chaos mages, some other place on the world ends up with more localized Order than usual. Most people don't realize this, which is why most of the conflict happens in the books.

Recluce mages "see" Order and Chaos energy flows. Their minds interpret it as little motes of energy; the Order motes as having metaphysical "hooks" like velcro that allow you to sort of build structures out of them (usually shields, but it works in many other ways as well, such as "unhooking" the Order structure of an object, causing it to release it's inherent Chaos and explode). They can also detect the Order and Chaos that exists in the environment and in living things. At first, their range is pretty short, but over time they can extend this out pretty far. If this was all it was, then it could be represented as a skill. But it's not, because all of the mage's powers are related. Knowing how to sense things far away is a direct function of how well the mage can also detect smaller bits of Order and Chaos. Which also works to make their shields stronger, because the bits of Order and Chaos are smaller, more intertwined, and more refined.

Or, let's just look at shields. Mages put up shields to deflect the energies of enemy mages. Chaos users throw firebolts. Order mages don't really throw anything, but are better at using shields, and in some cases can form the shields into tubes or scoops that catch enemy firebolts and redirect them. The way they form these shields matters: Chaos users make theirs out of bits of Chaos, Order users make theirs out of bits of Order. The smart ones, however, use both in their shields: Order shields use small bits of Chaos surrounded by Order, Chaos shields the opposite. This makes them much more powerful because they are more balanced.

When a character was first learning how to use her powers, she was told first to see the Chaos she was trying to use. Then she was told to try to form it into a shield by imagining it as a weave, such as a quilt or cloth. Over time, the weave got tighter and tighter, in effect raising the thread count, thus strengthening the shield. Again, this could theoretically be represented by a skill increase.

But, as I mentioned above, it's all related. Her ability to see and manipulate finer and finer meshes of Chaos (and in her case, a bit of Order as well) allowed her to also get better at healing (using a bit of Order to strengthen bodily processes or get rid of wound-chaos), better at sensing life forms at a distance, and even more tightly focus her chaos bolts to keep from getting too fatigued too fast.

So in this case, it can make sense to consider it a Magery increase due to practice, rather than a just a series of skill increases.