Those Little Words of Power

[musashi]

It's a question about magick, but I believe we're in the clear here since what I'm asking has nothing to do with specific spells or mechanics, but rather with the information already displayed in the general information section of the website.

I'm just curious and couldn't find anything about it in the game documentation (although I think something addressing this would make a lovely addition to the general information page):

How does an elementalist come to know about the words of power that are used in spellcasting?

For a sorcerer (or Templar) it seems rather matter of fact. I was thinking they're either taught the words and how to use them with the gestures and what not, or they stumble across the information somehow someway on their own. Either way I was thinking that they have to learn those specific words.

But if an elementalist's magick is intuitive, and springs from their spiritual connection with their respective plane, how do they come to know that to summon a piece of kalan fruit to them they need to say 'wek un give me food'? Do the words and the understanding of what they stand for come intuitively? Or do they likewise need to learn them from somewhere/someone in order to use their intuitive power?

Also ... just how common is knowledge of those mystic words? The docs say they're the same words no matter what language they're spoken in, but does every commoner pretty much understand the different moods and spheres, and what they symbolize? I know every commoner understands the elements in the roughest sort of way ... since we use them in slang all the time or just in substitution of saying 'shadow, earth, wind, ect'.

I'm just really curious about how a magicker who suddenly realizes they're different (but has no teacher to show them the way) makes that first leap of logic.

[Marauder Moe]

I think it's fine for a magicker to intuit the words.

I think it's fine for a magicker to be unable to intuit the words and have to learn them ICly.

I think it's very very unlikely that a commoner would know any words besides the elements.

[Delstro]

For me, I would have my PC dream of his element. Some things they would understand, some things they wouldn't. As they got more and more powerful, they understood less in their dreams. A common occurance in my dreams would that my PC would dream of saying those words as if they were the embodiment of their element. IF you know what I mean.


OH. And what Mo said.

[musashi]

Hmm, it just seems a bit odd to me to have a great deal of thought and detail put into explaining the history/meaning/usage of every single one of the magick words of power, and then to say: It's fine to know all this intuitively, or not.

I just found what seemed like a gap to me, between the information, and how it reaches the magickers. As in, there is all this colorful information about the words, but no explanation on how that information makes its way to characters. I think something explaining such would be a ncie addition to the "roleplaying magick" section of the website.

Perhaps that's just me though.

[Zoltan]

I'm glad that there's no cut-and-dried way of suddenly gaining those words for elementalists. It's very much open to interpretation, and part of the fun of playing a magicker is puzzling out this kind of stuff. Fun for me, anyway.

[NoteworthyFellow]

I'm glad that there's no cut-and-dried way of suddenly gaining those words for elementalists. It's very much open to interpretation, and part of the fun of playing a magicker is puzzling out this kind of stuff. Fun for me, anyway.

I've only ever played one magicker, but when I did, I had a ton of fun playing "figure out the magick words" and roleplaying my character's reasoning process for each new spell.  I spent a lot of time explaining the logic behind branching new spells and why that new spell would branch from the old one.  Really, I think that's my favorite part about the current magick system.

[Bushranger]

Hmm, it just seems a bit odd to me to have a great deal of thought and detail put into explaining the history/meaning/usage of every single one of the magick words of power, and then to say: It's fine to know all this intuitively, or not.

I just found what seemed like a gap to me, between the information, and how it reaches the magickers. As in, there is all this colorful information about the words, but no explanation on how that information makes its way to characters. I think something explaining such would be a ncie addition to the "roleplaying magick" section of the website.

Perhaps that's just me though.

They way I tend to see it is that many elementalists do intuitively know these words.

As elementalists found each other they started to find out that the words they said were similar or the same and began to research them. Sorcerers probably did similar things to unlock the power of these words. Groups like the CAM and others have all done research. What is in the files is probably the general consensus of this research. While all (or most) elementalists can intuit the words, the general consensus of what they stand for is probably not widely known and intuitive. It might not even be correct. Up to each individual magick user to decide for themselves, and up to each individual player to determine how much of the background they know and where they learnt it.

[musashi]

I like that angle.