Four Magics

[dataweaver]

My group is getting ready to run a fantasy campaign in a semi-generic setting: it will feature elves, dwarves, and orcs in addition to humans, with each race superficially resembling their stereotypes. One of the features of the setting is that it borrows ideas from Alvin Toffler's "the Third Wave": orcs are a "zeroth wave" culture of hunter/gatherer nomadic tribes; humans in the setting represent "first wave" agricultural societies; dwarves are "second wave" industrialists; and elves are a "third wave" information culture. To help back this up, I devised a series of four magic systems, one per race; each is intended to enable that culture's paradigm, such that none of the four races ends up with an overall advantage over any of the others.

We've decided that magic should be formulaic, as per the terminology from [b]GURPS Fantasy[/i]: mages of all stripes do the bulk of their work during downtime, and magic tends to show up either in the form of items of power, or in the form of slow but powerful ceremonial castings. What follows is a summary of my proposed magic systems, phrased in conceptual terms. What I'm looking for is advice on specifics for each magic: how to implement them, and additional ways that each might be used. So without further ado, the magics of the Four Races:


Each of the four primary races has a style of magic with which it excels; each style should have its own strengths and weaknesses, and no one style should be considered to be more advanced or primitive than any of the others. However, each style should have its own paradigm.

Orcish Magic deals with the properties of living things; in particular, it deals with extracting the properties of the local fauna and flora and applying it to others. An orcish medicine man knows the medicinal properties of the local plant-life as well as the mystical properties of the local animal life; he can create herbal concoctions from the flora and magical stews from the fauna. He can treat hides to enhance their natural capabilities to supernatural degrees - for example, an orc might make a cloak of "invisibility" from the skins of chameleon-like creatures, empowering the cloak to take on the coloration of its surroundings. Orcish healers use herbal remedies and brews that promote strength and the recuperative powers of the body.

Human Magic tends to take the form of geomancy: magical landscaping and architecture that directs the local magical energies in productive ways. A human village will tend to be surrounded by good weather, and its crops will tend to grow better because of the mystical energies being channeled into the soil. Similar energy channeling can be used to ward off dangerous beasts or to help tame wild creatures. When applied to ships, human geomancy results in favorable weather, a tendency for the cargo not to spoil, and a tendency for dangerous sea-life to avoid the ships. It also grants additional structural integrity, making human fortifications and ships more robust than they ought to be. Human healers work their arts by channeling the life-energies of their patients, directing them to work more efficiently; human enchanters use the powers of their temples to direct mystical energies into artifacts, granting them a wide variety of supernatural abilities. Used aggressively, geomantic ceremonies can cause a wide variety of natural disasters: plagues, rockslides, storms, floods, and even volcanic eruptions are all possibilities given enough time and effort. Because of its basis in mystical energies, human magic works better on ley lines, and not at all in the "dead zones" where mystical energies flow at a trickle if at all. And because their buildings and ships (and especially temples) are designed to alter the mana flows, ceremonies performed there are especially potent. Some geomancers take on the role traditionally filled by priests, overseeing ceremonies involving the turning of the seasons and the stages of life.

Dwarven Magic focuses primarily on the magical properties of metals and minerals, but more generally on alchemy. Their forges can make alloys with magical properties. They can trap the essence of fire in a gem, to be slowly released as heat and light; and they can grind the gem into a fine powder which can then be ignited to rapidly release the fire. They can do something similar with water: packets of "dehydrated water - just add water" actually exist, and are quite useful, in that a drop of water can release a much larger quantity. They often make use of "purifier stones" which, when activated, draw any impurities out of the target substance: a water purifier, dropped into a bucket of tepid water, will draw the pollutants into itself, leaving pure, drinkable water behind; applied as a mud to a wound, a similar material will draw out the toxins and infections, leaving a clean wound that's more capable of mending itself. They can construct automata and invest them with the motivating power of fire, giving them mobility. And so on. In general, dwarves have been able to do the most with earths, stones, and metals; fire and water are the next most prevalent elements in their workshops, with air coming in last.

Elven Magic is based on symbols and language. Their enchantments involve runes, and their ceremonies make use of repetitive incantations of mystical words and phrases, with each repetition reinforcing the desired magical effect a little bit further until it is strong enough to be activated. Mystical names are used to describe the subject of an incantation, with the name being derived numerologically in part from mystical words for the subject's various properties. The less exact the name, the weaker the magic and the more likely it will have unintended side effects. When spoken, mystical words and phrases incorporate both cadence and pitch, giving their incantations a musical quality. Elven charms tend to be subtle: the effects that are the easiest to invoke are workings of the Wyrd, which is generally mistranslated as "fate" by non-elves. Wyrd charms involve blessings, curses, and geases (i.e., conditional blessings and curses). Mental influences are the next easiest kinds of charm, followed by physical transformations. Elves usually use this level of their bardic magic to create the enchanted forests for which they are famous, transforming both the flora and fauna into more useful forms and imbuing them with magical properties; and given that they generally live in forests, most elven bards learn the names of trees and wildlife early on. While not directly a part of their magical nature, bards are invariably walking encyclopedias, and have a reputation for being fantastic storytellers.

In effect, orcish medicine men deal primarily with a magical equivalent of biology; human geomancy is akin to physics; dwarven alchemy is like chemistry; and elven druidry is a formal science akin to linguistics and mathematics.

These are not mutually exclusive categories, just areas of expertise. There are human alchemists and medicine men; there are dwarven geomancers and medicine men; there are orcish alchemists. There are even non-elven bards and orcish geomancers, although they tend to be especially rare (orcish geomancers because of their nomadic lifestyle). But the best bards tend to be elven; the best geomancers tend to be human; the best alchemists tend to be dwarven; and the best medicine men tend to be orcs. It's even possible for one man to practice multiple disciplines; although the conflicting mindsets should make such a thing tricky to manage.