Gaining Magery

[maximara]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

The church in the time period given considered all magic to stem from the Devil. When holy miracles did happen, they did not happen on command nor did they happen frequently.

Actually varied wildly depending on region. Monks, priests, physicians, surgeons, midwives, folk healers, and diviners were all considered to perform some degree of magic (Low Magic). Heck, Exodus 7 has the account of Moses performing spell magic with the Lord's blessing:

"The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

"When Pharaoh says to you, `Perform a miracle,' then say to Aaron, `Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a snake."

So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake."

There is a reason witchcraft trials are often connected with Western Christianity rather than Islam or Roman Orthodoxy.

In fact, the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (1486) was denounced by the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne for recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology.

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

So unless the setting diverges in a major way in that aspect, all Magery should require some sort of demonic bargain.

As I said it all depends on where you are.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

If you make a fourth assumption (which I think you implicitly are) to wit:

4) Anyone can become a Mage.

Then the limitiing factor would be the cost of the training to make use of Magery and the expense of the transformation itself.

So assume a four year course.

Why that long? Fractional Magery [1/level] is an option as magic is likely going to be along Books and Paths lines (ie Limited Non-Mage Ceremonies: Non-mages are at -5 on all ritual rolls).

Heck, Magery 0 is only [5] and at 1 = 200 hours it is going only take 125 days or 62.5 five day weeks to learn with a teacher available.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by maximara

Why that long? Fractional Magery [1/level] is an option as magic is likely going to be along Books and Paths lines (ie Limited Non-Mage Ceremonies: Non-mages are at -5 on all ritual rolls).

Heck, Magery 0 is only [5] and at 1 = 200 hours it is going only take 125 days or 62.5 five day weeks to learn with a teacher available.

Dividing 200 hours by 8 hours/day gives 25 days. About a month of six day weeks (which is what I would assume for the middle ages).

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by maximara

Why that long? Fractional Magery [1/level] is an option as magic is likely going to be along Books and Paths lines (ie Limited Non-Mage Ceremonies: Non-mages are at -5 on all ritual rolls).

Heck, Magery 0 is only [5] and at 1 = 200 hours it is going only take 125 days or 62.5 five day weeks to learn with a teacher available.

I was assuming:

Magery is given by a magical ritual, not taught as such.

What is taught is the related skills and spells and the time taken to do that is also used to constantly assess the suitablility of the student to follow the profession, especially in the first year when Magery 0 is not yet available.

You can use the path of teaching the Magery itself but the related skills are still going to have to be taught sometime thus lengthening the course of instruction overall.

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Dividing 200 hours by 8 hours/day gives 25 days. About a month of six day weeks (which is what I would assume for the middle ages).

That said recall that Magery is itself a Talent and each level (beyond 0) gives 10% discount time-wise studying spells... (pp.B66, M6) to a maximum discount at Magery4... So for professional mages learning Magery to 4+ ASAP could help quite a lot in the long run...

GURPS Thaumatology pp. 15-18 have different origins on how to gain magery and spells...

That said, poignant in my mind is I recently read about the "hippocratic" oath, a promise to take care of fellow students and to teach my and my teacher's children these secrets WITHOUT PAY...

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html

[Plane]

Originally Posted by maximara

Fractional Magery [1/level] is an option as magic is likely going to be along Books and Paths lines
(ie Limited Non-Mage Ceremonies: Non-mages are at -5 on all ritual rolls).

Another option where we aren't using fractional magery to buy off that -5 non-mage penalty pt-by-pt (like with standard Magery 0) would be using limitations. -80% gets us to 1pt as well. Like these three from Thaumatology...

Can't Maintain Spells -30%
Extravagant Rituals 3 -30%
Fading Spell Effects -20%

This could let you learn some basic spell-lobbing stuff for low durations.

There's other cool stuff like Radically Unstable Magery which makes me wish there were reasons we could pile on more limitations here.

[Black Leviathan]

Given your assumptions your exposure to the source of magic would have to be significant or obscure to prevent it from being a common occurrence.

Magery is a symptom of magical disease, while many people catch the virus, not everyone develops the magery symptom and some get a worse case than others. You can be immune (Magical Resistance). Your magery can go away over time. It's possible Magery is more likely in folks who have poor HT attributes.

Magery is a "curse" like vampirism and mages inflict the state on others ritually. Scarcity is a result of their lack of interest in diluting the art or awakening anyone who they can't mentor.

Magery is a result of exposure to the pure magic that mana radiates from not unlike a good kind of radiation exposure. The places where magic come from are isolated and often dangerous. Those with profound exposure or prolonged contact with the source have higher levels of magery. Potentially The Source isn't on this plane of existence and only those that travel to other planes of existence gain Magery.

Magery is the result of addiction to a drug and paired with the Addiction disadvantage. Children of addicts can be born with magery but it will fade in time without the drug.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The simplest option is "magery requires 15 points worth of study"; having power come from scholarship is within the medieval paradigm, and having to spend 4,000 hours under a teacher or 8,000 hours of self study to get magery 1 and 5 spells at IQ-1 is gonna keep magic rare enough.

Except in 4e Magery 0 is only 5 point and a mage can learn and cast a ridiculous amount of generally useful spells at that level.

Yes, they can learn more but the point of that list was spells that would have a profound effect on daily every day life and Food and Water are going to be the "go to" colleges.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by maximara

Except in 4e Magery 0 is only 5 point and a mage can learn and cast a ridiculous amount of generally useful spells at that level.

Yes, they can learn more but the point of that list was spells that would have a profound effect on daily every day life and Food and Water are going to be the "go to" colleges.

One possible result of this is a number of professions/guilds that train in Limited Magery 0 (unless the setting forbids applying limitations to Magery 0, of course), for something like One College Only (or Aspected), or even One Spell Only, because the spell or spells are just that useful in their profession, and perhaps don't add so much to training time as to be viewed as 'not worth the effort.' Chances are, the Royal Chef knows a fair bit of food magic at a fairly high level, but a lot of nobles and courtiers would at least learn Test Food, even if they know no other magic.

[Eric Funk]

Originally Posted by maximara

Yes, they can learn more but the point of that list was spells that would have a profound effect on daily every day life and Food and Water are going to be the "go to" colleges.

I was pondering the map for my fantasy campaign and had to decide where High mana areas* would be as they would have a strong effect on economics... (allowing anyone to cast spells in addition to double powerstone charging). (pp.B235, M6, M69)

*B235 notes some settings High mana is standard...