Magical Arts

Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:40 pm

There are 7 skills you can learn; Illusion, Alchemy, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration. There's also the practice of Necromancy. I know there was Thaumaturgy in Daggerfall, but the spells in that skill were put into other skills in later games. But what I'm wondering is, are there other, lesser known magical arts out there?
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james tait
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:41 pm

There are 7 skills you can learn; Illusion, Alchemy, Conjuration, Mysticism, Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration. There's also the practice of Necromancy. I know there was Thaumaturgy in Daggerfall, but the spells in that skill were put into other skills in later games. But what I'm wondering is, are there other, lesser known magical arts out there?



Keep in mind:

The so-called schools of magic are entirely inventions of mortal minds. Magic is just magic, and spells are constantly being reorganized into different colleges. From one game to the next, absorb health may be a Mysticism or a Restoration spell.

Battlemages and other scholars often debate categories of magic:

http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/responsetobero.shtml
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Cheville Thompson
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:07 pm

Chronomancy, the magic of time alteration
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Betsy Humpledink
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 1:17 pm

Chronomancy, the magic of time alteration


Where is that mentioned? I can't find anything about it in the Imperial Library. :poke:
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FLYBOYLEAK
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:17 am

It gets a brief mention in SI.
Though messing around with Akatosh isn't what I'd call a school of magic.
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Marie
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:51 am

This weekend I spend a whole hour outside in the cold kissing a girl, it only seemed to last a moment. Inside I took a boiling hot kettle with glue-wine off the furnace, turning around and putting it on the table seemed to take hours. I blame Chronomancy.
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Lovingly
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 6:23 am

It gets a brief mention in SI.
Though messing around with Akatosh isn't what I'd call a school of magic.


Do you remember how it was mentioned? What was the context?
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Princess Johnson
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:36 pm

Do you remember how it was mentioned? What was the context?

The guy who owns the magic shop in Crucible apparently practices it. I think he mentions having a collection of time-frozen people and creatures somewhere, or something like that.
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KU Fint
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:15 pm

Phynaster: Hero-god of the Summerset Isles, who taught the Altmer how to naturally live another hundred years by using a shorter walking stride.
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kasia
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:03 am

Phynaster: Hero-god of the Summerset Isles, who taught the Altmer how to naturally live another hundred years by using a shorter walking stride.


I don't see how that's a magical art though...
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Mistress trades Melissa
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:01 pm

Magic schools don't really exist: they were just invented by the guy who founded the Mages Guild as a way to organize it. Although I've played as a nord for probably less than a single day, I have always been facinated by the Thu'um.
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naome duncan
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 5:19 pm

I don't see how that's a magical art though...

You try it.
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Mariaa EM.
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:15 pm

So is there anything else besides Chronomancy? I'm curious mostly because I want to know what kind of spells exist that we haven't really seen yet.
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Gaelle Courant
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 2:37 pm

Well, there's Thu'um, out of Skyrim. And there's those Redguard swordmasters who can evidently split an atom with their swords, and create a blade out of their will (can't remember the name offhand). And it has been mentioned that some tribes of Alyeids could shapeshift. And bosmer do have the Wild Hunt, which could be considered magic, I suppose. And that's all I've got.
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BRAD MONTGOMERY
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:46 pm

Keep in mind that spells are mostly gameplay mechanics. For what is possible, anything you can think of that won't horribly break the games.
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Pumpkin
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:25 pm

It gets a brief mention in SI.
Though messing around with Akatosh isn't what I'd call a school of magic.

A clarification: I didn't mean to imply that it's not magic. However, fooling with Aka doesn't seem like something quite as mundane as, say, magic in the form of a charm or shield. Whatever organization ends up replacing the Mages Guild in categorizing magic into schools is not likely to factor time-altering magic into their artificial divisions and classifications.
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Guy Pearce
 
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Post » Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:02 pm

Anything involving magical energy focused through the caster's will would be magic, thus there are pretty much limitless types of spells, bogged down only by imagination and game mechanics. Obviously there is some kind of rule preventing people from making mountains out of thin air, but I don't recall anything as specific as, say, Eragon's "same fatigue as it would doing it yourself" rule. Thus there are quite a few things you could do with it.

But, since the categories of magic, even if they are just names and systems, are the basis of the question, and he is asking in the context of these systems, supposing such laws exist, I would go so far as to say that a few I would say should exist, even if they are necessarily in lore, such as: geomancy, shapeshifting, some kind of destruction magic focusing on wind, and other things that we find in other fantasy universes. But, these are not there due to game mechanics, same reason as necromancy, thu'um, and the like.

But, if you define the categories broadly enough, saying anything that physically changes a material substance without using it for injuring something else is alteration, then you can fit everything in those. But certain fields are broad enough that they should recieve recognition, such as necromancy. Thus we have a problem.

So, in essence, in lore you are bound to find examples of non-categorized magic, but even if we are to assume magic is limited to the spells we read about or see, the question rests entirely within the definitions, with no true answer. It is surprising how many questions behave this way, when what you are trying to determine is something created by humans, not just in lore but in life.

Well, my philosophical moment is done for the day, so I bid you all goodnight :D
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Steve Smith
 
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