So you guys are thinking that its more like Dragon age? You will the spell into existence, gaining new spells by practicing each spell type? ie: Practicing a fireball spell will eventually allow you to cast a flame tempest spell?
That doesn't sound that bad *sigh*. Still not as awesome as the dragon riding, land coveting, bad-asses that are 20th level wizards. I'm starting to warm up to the idea, the more I think about it.

I just wish the game reflected this. Not buying spells, but gaining new ones as your levels in said skills increase. This would be awesome.

But, right now, I think they're pretty much leaving it up to the player. This is a good decision, since changing the formula up would make a damn lot of people mad.

What about powers then? How do they work? They are quite different from spells.

This perspective's based on the skills and their parent Attributes.

Schools the Guild deemed psychic were governed by Willpower. Spells in the School of Illusion were cast by incantation, and speech was governed by Personality. Intellect governed the Schools of ritual magic, like Conjuration. If memory serves, Mysticism lore was the least understood. New understanding, or the preferences of Traven, changed how the School's spells were cast.

Thats the kind of thing I was looking for. Any source for that conclusion?

It's just an intuitive guess, based on where magic skills are allocated. This is from the book Mysticism:

Mysticism is the school of sorcery least understood by the magical community and the most difficult to explain to novice mages.

It also kind of seems like Neo learning to bend reality through will in the Matrix. He just needs to believe he can jump from one roof to the next without hesitation :shrug: And apparently imagination is as essential as willpower.

The second quote might offer insight into how the silence spell works... maybe?

We already know that much. What I'm wondering is how.

The first quote says that he "utters" the charm. But I thought that you cast a spell by will, and not a verbal command.

I imagine vocal and gestural components to the ways mages cast spells have mroe to do with their focus. The way the little engine that could chanted "I think I can" in order to will his actions into reality. Same can be said of various chants or rituals performed in various of performances.

I don't imagine these utterances or rituals or gestures to be necessary at all. But it often helps brings focus into something more tangible and something to latch onto mentally.

The way that motivational speakers tell their audiences to verbally compliment themselves in the morning or actually say "I can do that" rather than simply thinking it, makes a huge impact on what someone can and can't do.

It's not the same as body movement, although that's a good starting point. See, learning body movement is basically your brain acclimating itself to what your limbs and digits can do, keeping you within that range at a speed and intensity that won't break anything. For example, there is a paper clip on my desk rightn now, about two inches from the back right corner of my keyboard. A baby would have to grope around where I, after more than twenty years of practice, can very calmly and gently pick it up between thumb and forefinger and place it somewhere else easily and silently. Now it's two inches from the back left corner.

Magic is different, in that it is convincing yourself that something impossible can be done with a quick finger-waggle at a distance. Trying to brute-force it with willpower is possible but inefficient. The trick is to, rather than force something functionally impossible like, say, unlocking a door without touching it, you trick yourself into knowing that it is possible using a mental equation. Since Nirn is made of the collective unconscious of its people, the lock simply follows suit.

I like this idea, but I've never heard it before. Do you have a source?

Look up the concept of CHIM. He's basically just stating a boiled-down version of the principles behind it.

Ok, just read this;
http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Silence

And one quote stood out;


Note, this was a strong battlemage. He wouldn't need to use the words as "aid".

So, I'm guessing its up to the player to decide. With all the inconsistencies in lore and whatnot.

I thought it was common knowledge that spells were cast with finger wiggling and chanting?

I'm assuming some of the extremly powerful wizards may be able to get away with it (Gods, ancient mages, etc), and just will some kind of magic.

It's intentionally ambiguous in the lore to allow them flexibility in its in-game implementation, and also to foster the creation of threads like this.

I think that the spells you purchase are basically patterns that you have to shape the magicka into to get the result you desire. Spellmaking altars allow you to pick apart those patterns and scale and combine the individual components of the pattern separately creating a new spell, a new pattern. The chanting and hand motions are a sort of conditioning to recall the pattern and impose it on the magicka, sort of how the biotics in ME make certain gestures to initiate a mnemonic response to do what they want.