I made a thread several months ago about this, and after playing skyrim, I'm even more fluzzled.

We know,
-Magic is teachable, someone just has to teach you the spell
-You can cast very fast (implying that no verbal commands are used)
-spells can be manipulated in different ways (jet-of-fire, fireball, etc)

This is my idea.
It might be farfetched, but is anything about magic have to be realistic?

Magic has certain energy signature, like fingerprints. Once you learn this magical signature from the vast sea of dismembered hands that is magic, it becomes easier to bring it out. The more powerful the spell, the more deep and complex the signature is. Experience with magical fingerprints of a likeness, makes you better at that group of magic.

This is just an idea, might be stupid, but I can't think of anything else.



I know the magic system is mostly due to gameplay, but does it hurt to flesh it out a bit?

It's hard to tell if the magic gameplay in Skyrim is intended to be accurate to Elder Scrolls lore. In every game I've ever played, magic has always been as easy as pressing a single button. There were no phrases to remember or special hand movements. The dragon shouts seem more like traditional magic to me, where you have to remember a phrase and say it a certain way/meditate on the words and their meaning. Another good example of this is Merlin in the 2011 TV series "Camelot." Merlin often utters words under his breath before performing bouts of magic like turning water to ice, making fires burn larger, and even preventing people from dying. Of course in a game it would be a lot harder to replicate that. I think it's hard to say whether or not the devs intended Skyrim's magic to be a realistic portrayal of magic in the lore, as it's extremely easy and everyone in the game has the capability to perform magic.

But, then again, killing a bear with a sword and taking it's pelt is pressing a button too, while in reall life it's not a simple task at all (and bears aren't stupid!)


Well, magic in lore is not so easy task. People study it for years, research different approaches and study spells. I'd think almost anyone can learn simple magic (of course if someone teaches him...), but higher levels and more powerful magickas require dedication and talent.


And, of course, well.... it's still magic. I mean, if I'd known, I'd fortified my intelligence to pass my exams

No other ideas?

Magic is the ability to take raw potential (magicka) and manipulate the environment. Every master mage knows this, and the schools are just set up to ease the learning to newcomers.

In addition, the skill of a peasant verses a mage is the difference between me trying to play an instrument (lol) and a virtuoso. Yeah, it's possible for a peasant to use it, but like with me trying to play an instrument, it's going to end very, very, very badly with lots of collateral damage.

It's a bit weird in that a silence spell makes one unable to cast magic, but still able to talk to people. Might be an oversight from Beth, but if not then spell casting is not dependent on one's voice at least.

I think it's game mechanics, M'Aiq. There was a book in MW that described how silence worked, despite it being fiction, and a bit of a comedy.

Yeah but that book makes it even more confusing, as the battlemage becomes aware of the silence and his wife doesn't, even though her very words disappear :sadvaultboy:


But at least it says that one's voice is indeed needed to cast spells, even though we never hear it in game.

When has a lady not stopped yelling when angry, even when her voice is gone?

Like I said, the story was supposed to be humorous.

Magicka comes from Aetherius, the place where souls come from - you either absorb it into your soul, or radiate it from your soul. All creatures with souls have access to their own reserve of magicka.

To actually cast a spell would then be something like trying to flex a muscle you normally would not think of using in a very specific and refined way, like flexing only your second-smallest toe on your foot without balling all your toes up at the same time. It is something that takes practice and training to be able to refine properly, but once done, you pretty much just launch spells out of your soul itself, without need for incantations or hand gestures, except as part of a focusing drill. (For example, it may be easier to control your flames spell by channeling your fire magic down your arm, and where your hand points than to simply make flames burst out from yourself, while the "cloak of energy type" spells are more indiscriminate and may just need the training to properly be able to push large amounts of energy in the specific way that creates that energy type out of your soul.)

"Silence" may simply be metaphoric - it might "silence the voice of the soul" if you were thinking of it in terms like nords view their shouts, where magic is just a soul's shout. The term can simply be there as a metaphor for those who wouldn't understand the exact nature of how silence actually works. (As well as because it is a carry-over trope from games where magic does need to be incanted and a silence spell stops that. The term "Silence" is simply used to let people know it means "no magic casting", even if it doesn't fit lore otherwise.)

It's sunlight and starlight that trickles down from Aetherius, like everyone else has said.

Beyond that, magic works by... well, magic.

I understand it's a game mechanic thing, but I think the fact you cannot Shout while casting a spell or vice versa lends credence to the notion that there is definitely a verbal component to casting a traditional spell, even if we don't hear it in game.

You also can't swing your weapon while shouting. Doesn't mean there's any connection.

To my knowledge, mortal magic is the channeling of energy from Aetherius into the Mundus, then shaping it with your mind so it does what you want (thus why it is governed by the Intelligence attribute).

Also, 1,000th post!

Technically, Intelligence only ever gave you a greater capacity for maximum magicka at one time. Willpower was the rate at which you refilled your capacity (drawing it from Magnus/Aetherius there's no evidence that mortals directly tap into Aetherius to my knowledge, and lore says they need to use Magnus as an intermediary). Skill ranks were the efficiency with which you channeled your energy. The ability to shape it was based solely upon the spell in question, where you needed a new spell to inflict more damage or alter the actual impact of the spell beyond the impact on your magicka reserves.