quick & dirty sense of magic types: black; elemental; enchantment; idol
Posted: Sun May 02, 2021 11:04 am
I'm having a hard time getting a feel for the different magic types, and would be glad of any quick & dirty rules/guides/examples/pithy sayings that can clear my confusion.
I have a hard time learning initial categories generally, so please do know that I'm not trying to be obtuse. It comes naturally :/
And in the following, "noun" is meant to mean anything, really, which can be referred to by the part of speech known as a noun. Anything labeled by a word that behaves noun-ishly. Could be "stuff", I guess, but doesn't some magic operate through stuff that is too ethereal or otherworldly to be real "stuff"? so I call it nouns to help me keep it straight.
So far, I have a sense of "enchantment" as imbuing nouns with non-mundane, non-"natural" qualities. So pretty broad. But I'm not sure that's good for DCC or for fantasy "enchantment" generally because it doesn't exclude much magic. My 10-year-old is convinced that there is a LOT of magic that isn't enchantment but he can't get me to understand what that would be.
And dark magic is ... what? Comes from bad folks? Is all about exerting power in a "negative" way or over matter that has had its own power removed? So that making a stone do a jig is enchantment, but making a corpse do a jig is dark magic?
And elemental magic is ... different to "enchantment" in some fundamental way? or basically enchantment of elemental nouns? or enchantment whose power comes from elemental nouns?
And "idol magic": any of the above, accessed through worship? If so, how is worship of the entity different to having a patron? Is it worship if one has suitably internalized one's own insignificance vis-a-vis the power-granting entity? so you need some sort of groveling aspect? or acknowledgment of the entity's actual superiority on some dimension, as opposed to paying lip-service and then cracking jokes in one's relaxed moments?
Anyhow: thanks in advance for thoughts, pointers, help, commiseration, etc!
I have a hard time learning initial categories generally, so please do know that I'm not trying to be obtuse. It comes naturally :/
And in the following, "noun" is meant to mean anything, really, which can be referred to by the part of speech known as a noun. Anything labeled by a word that behaves noun-ishly. Could be "stuff", I guess, but doesn't some magic operate through stuff that is too ethereal or otherworldly to be real "stuff"? so I call it nouns to help me keep it straight.
So far, I have a sense of "enchantment" as imbuing nouns with non-mundane, non-"natural" qualities. So pretty broad. But I'm not sure that's good for DCC or for fantasy "enchantment" generally because it doesn't exclude much magic. My 10-year-old is convinced that there is a LOT of magic that isn't enchantment but he can't get me to understand what that would be.
And dark magic is ... what? Comes from bad folks? Is all about exerting power in a "negative" way or over matter that has had its own power removed? So that making a stone do a jig is enchantment, but making a corpse do a jig is dark magic?
And elemental magic is ... different to "enchantment" in some fundamental way? or basically enchantment of elemental nouns? or enchantment whose power comes from elemental nouns?
And "idol magic": any of the above, accessed through worship? If so, how is worship of the entity different to having a patron? Is it worship if one has suitably internalized one's own insignificance vis-a-vis the power-granting entity? so you need some sort of groveling aspect? or acknowledgment of the entity's actual superiority on some dimension, as opposed to paying lip-service and then cracking jokes in one's relaxed moments?
Anyhow: thanks in advance for thoughts, pointers, help, commiseration, etc!