originalists and modernists in the Shadow Court

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by whswhs

There are a couple of other possibilities:

* An attempt could be made to figure out how to cast spells, not in a modern language, but in a constructed language with systematically logical rules, such as Lojban.

* An attempt could be made to figure out the underlying grammar of spells in whatever ancient languages had them, and make up a constructed language whose grammar consistently embodied that same pattern, and which was thus very explicitly designed to maximize magical potency.

Bill Stoddard

Both, in fact, are areas of scholarship with some promise in the setting.

One aspect of how magic and languages interact still causes fierce scholastic disputes, among the Shadow Court and among other groups in the setting. This is that while the rules of magic and the supernatural in a given area appear to correlate amazingly well to the belief system of the locals, using any widely known language for magic is extremely difficult. Furthermore, widely printed and circulated rituals and spells rarely, if ever, work as well as those who are known only to a small group of people.

At first glance, that appears to contradict the widely held view within the community of researchers of the paranormal, namely that belief shapes reality to some degree and that a given work of magic is difficult mainly in proportion to how much it goes against the worldview of caster, target and witnesses. How to reconcile that view of the paranormal with the fact that widely known spells and rituals don't work is, to say the least, somewhat problematic.

One school of thought holds that while belief provides pathways down which the paranormal can travel and shapes for it to take, humans who act to change belief into reality also depletes magical energies in some way. Each spellcaster who knows a certain ritual is thus working with the same store of energy as every other spellcaster with knowledge of the same ritual, whereas one that is known only to the originator is accessing pathways no one else can. According to this school, the most powerful magical workings thus result from inventing new ways to channel the paranormal within a popular and established system of belief.

A variation of this is that as humans make daily use of a living language, in speech and thought, they unconsciously frame their wishes in that language, voice their desires and make talismans against their fears. Thus, the reason widely used languages make poor vehicles for channeling the paranormal is that they are being used for millions of minor acts of magic without people realising it.

Another way to think about this theory is that as a language is used daily by many people, every word and phrase has so many shifting definitions and contradictory meanings invested in it that the overwhelming effect is one of static. Because everyone has their own impression of the building blocks of the language, no one metaphysical meaning can long endure and the ritual is outdated, not to mention drowned in the noise, as soon as it is written.

Others believe that it is not the number of people who use a language or know the words and gestures of a ritual that matter. It is the number of skeptics. Everyone person who knows and uses the words without expecting them to produce any effect is someone whose will must be overcome to effect a given spell.

The influence of spirits on this is also often debated. Spirits may or may not all be residues of living humans (or other mortals), but it is certain that the more intelligent of them also use languages and those languages are usually human ones. A much higher proportion of spirits communicates in languages scholars have determined as being of magical significance than could be expected if their languages were determined by who they were in life.

It is not known whether this is because certain languages have a innate characteristics which make them more suitable for paranormal use and that speakers of these langauges were therefore somehow more likely to end up as spirits or whether the mere fact that many spirits prefer Latin, for example, contributes to the effectiveness of Latin as a ritual language.

There are theories that mortal belief provides pathways for the paranormal, but that the will and energy of the spirits power it. That would mean that any language not widely used in the spirit world is never going to be very effective for magic use.

The case of the Enochian language provides an interesting example. While it undoubtedly works very well for rituals and is favoured by many of the most proficient magicians within the Shadow Court, the evidence also points strongly to it having been an invented language, made up from half-remembered Romance languages by a common conman. How it can both be a Secret Language of Magic and a fraud generates some very interesting debate.

Those who make the best use of Enochian are scholars of the Elizabethan era and linguists, much like applies with every magical language. Knowing the milieu in which it was used appears to be crucial for being able to successfully experiment in order to reproduce the ritual in the correct way. On the other hand, Enochian was, when the Shadow Court started to study it, rather limited in applications, with mostly divination and spirit rituals existing for it. Diligent research has revealed more rituals and some new ones have been written, but it's still much less versatile than many other traditions.

Latin also has a very strong following within the Shadow Court, seeing as nearly all rituals used in the Western world exist in functioning form in Latin. It doesn't grant the raw power that some rarer languages do, but instruction in it is certainly more common. Some classicists use the Latin of Cicero and Caesar, but Vulgate Latin actually has much more of a magical tradition.

The primary investigations of ConLang within the Shadow Court has been into the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The combination of widespread cultural appeal with the fairly low rate of day-to-day use is projected to yield extremely benefician returns. Being an expert in Sindarin culture, however, is far from easy.

As for other power groups in the setting, the Vatican is fond of Greek and Latin both, obviously. Groups in the Middle East have found that Classical Arabic is suprisingly useful and versatile for magic use, but the most powerful magicians are relying on even older tongues, down to the ancient and mystical languages spoken by spirits that claim to have witnessed the birth of civilisation.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Groups in the Middle East have found that Classical Arabic is suprisingly useful and versatile for magic use.

That's really quite surprising, given the way that widely used languages lack magical heft. The Koran is written in Classical Arabic, and is mostly studied in that form. The language isn't all that different from Modern Standard Arabic, and most Muslims pray in Classical Arabic, irrespective of the vernacular language they use.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

That's really quite surprising, given the way that widely used languages lack magical heft. The Koran is written in Classical Arabic, and is mostly studied in that form. The language isn't all that different from Modern Standard Arabic, and most Muslims pray in Classical Arabic, irrespective of the vernacular language they use.

Indeed. It's one of the primary departures from the usual correlation between the popularity of a language and its effectiveness for paranormal purposes.

Theories abound as for why, of course.

One very unpleasant consequence of it is that some of the most accomplished rogue magicians come from Muslim nations.*

A less unpleasant consequence is that the Gulf monarchs mostly friendly to the UK tend to be surprisingly willing to accept the existence of the supernatural and to have considerable resources related to it. The Saudis, as well.

*Few of them, however, would be regarded as good Muslims by mainstream society.