Hi all. I am wondering if any lore scholars out there could share their knowledge on magic, the mages guild, how magic worked before the mages guild and so forth. I vaguely remember reading that before the mages guild magic was more exclusive and needed to be studied deeply, but after the mages guild, magic could be purchased by anyone. Does this sound right?

Throughout skyrim, and the rest of TES series, you see much evidence of rituals and deep study by mages suggesting that there is some deeper more secret form of magic than what is provided by the mages guild. Is there any lore on what this studying process involves?

Also, any info on the origins or magic, sources of magical power, racial differences related to magic, the properties of magicka, and etc. would be greatly appreciated! If anyone know of a thread covering this topic and could link it for me, that would be great as well!

Thanks!

Yes and no. The basic overview is this. What made magic exclusive was that the knowledge behind it was being controlled by some elitist buttholes who believed all magic should be under their exclusive purview and reserved for members only. The mages guild formed later with the idea of spreading magic around so all citizens could have access to it. Nothing actually changed concerning the workings of magic itself. Only who had access to the user's manual.

It's your classic case of the aristocratic arrogance with a pinch of selfish desire to keep the knowledge one gains to oneself. There was little collaboration between mages, and where there was, it was protected by secret handshakes and pass phrases.

Well you don't expect the mages guild to have all the answers do you? How far do you think computer technology would have gotten if we stopped research after figuring out how to use punch cards to input and output data?

Magical research is a lot like researching anything else. You ask a question, then try to find the answer to that question. The method you use is entirely up to you.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Magic

Uh, the Psijics weren't the only ones to know how to use magic, they were just the most advanced at the time. There were tribes that had their own magic ceremonies, cults, covens, House Telvanni which existed before the Mages Guild was founded, College of Winterhold, the Dwemer. There were probably even more institutions of magic teaching in Tamriel before the Mages Guild. The Guild just made an orthodoxy out of it and created the philosophy of the schools of magic to help teach others.

Wasn't referring just to the Psijics.

The only one that seems aristocratic is the CoW because Shalidor felt the commoner caste shouldn't have access to magic. House Telvanni openly accepted anyone who wanted to learn magic, not just their own noble caste, and again covens, cults, religions and tribes had their own shamans, witches, mages etc etc.

Thanks for the responses! I find this from the wiki particularly interesting:

With one or two exceptions, wizards of the early First Era were generally solitary, and there was little collaboration beyond the master-apprentice relationship, or standardization in magical practices.[9]

I am very interested in the process of learning that first spell and also the process of solitary exploration of magic. Looks like I should read the quoted reference #9...

Also, the formation of these different magic cultures and groups is interesting and gave me even more questions, but I'll do a bit of reading on that wiki before I start asking those.

I think the (Aldmeri) elves would argue that they didn't need guilds or colleges to understand and utilise magic, because they hold that they are more Aetherial than humans and are therefore more attuned to the source of magical energies, the sun (and probably a widdle bit from stars too). In the Mundus, the sun is supposed to be a giant tear in the fabric of the material plane (the Mundus) which was supposedly caused by Magnus, the Divine architect, fleeing from Creation back to Aetherius. Magic, as I understand the legend, is supposed to be Divine energy radiating into the Mundus from the solar hole.

Elves claim they are the descendants of the Old Ehlnofey, the Aedric beings who resented being bound to the Mundus and therefore remained more 'divine' than the Wandering Ehlnofey (said to be the ancestors of humans) and, as such, remained more in tune with the energies of Aetherius, making using magic, energy radiating from Aetherius, more easy for them.

I am inclined to believe that, aside from the sun-leaking source of magic, there is also a more terrestrial source. One that is perhaps easier for humans to manipulate. That being the tapping into the power of the Earth-Bones, the supposed remains of the Ehlnofey which became the foundation upon which Creation was built. I think Earth-Bone magic is used for more primal/earthy/rudimentary magics. Things like alchemy or reagent-based spells. I think it uses the power of divine energy that is an intrinsic and fundamental part of 'nature' and the 'natural world'. I think it's maybe easier for humans to use these types of magics (which we see more 'savage' groups like the Reachmen shamans or High Rock Wyrds utilising), because, as the purported descendants of the Wandering Ehlnofey, those Divines who resigned themselves to their binding to the Mundus, they are more attuned to these mortality-accepting entities and their 'life-force'.