Trying to play a non-magic using Rogue in Oblivion I was finding that my options were really REALLY limited; it also made me aware of how basiclly EVERYONE in Oblivion has some degree of magic skills, only the imperial town guards/legion/fighters guild/bandits seemed to lack magic for the most part and that seems to be purely out of balance (And curiously enough, they get screwed by just about anything bigger than a scamp when you put them up to the test - see example: Liberation of Kvatch, Battle of Bruma).

Is this a misrepresentation in Oblivion, or is it correct that in Elder Scrolls about 90% of the citizens have at least some degree of magical aptitude? - If so where do they get it from, are they taught it in school? By their parents? Manifests naturally on it's own? - How common are people with no magical aptitude at all? (In a world where people can click their fingers and set your hair on fire, having no magical abilitity at all would be a huge if notlethal disadvantage), it's strange that despite the fact everyone seems to have proficiency in at least 1 school of magic the world doesn't seem all that different, you'd expect there to be cultural difference when people can levitate, teleport, turn invisible or throw fireballs.

So, what's the deal? - Did Oblivion just goof that in giving everyone 7 majors, civilians end up invariably with at least 1 school of magic, or is it really so magic rich most citizens know at least 1 cantrip? - And if so, why does none of the trained warriors seem to know any cantrips when the average civilian does?

One can assume this is a misrepresentation in Oblivion. If the person do in fact have some sort of magic dwelling inside of them, it might be that the person inherit the magic from their parents. One could assume that the reason why warrior do not have any form of magic is maybe because either a) they have REALLY low magicka level, b) they have really low intelligence, or c) their lifestyle require no magic to survival, though does not need magic to survive.

This is all I can think out of my head but if someone have a better explanation about this issue, I would love to hear it as well.

Use of magic seems to differ from culture to culture within Tamriel. Some people, it seems, are born inherently able to perform a few simple spells (the race- and star-specific ones), but not all of them would necessarily have any USE for them. I suspect it also differs from race to race on how early children can use whatever magic they may inherently possess or be able to learn. Obviously some races DO rely heavily on magic -- all Bosmer have fairly extensive inherent abilities that are not incorporated into gameplay. I imagine High Elves do, too. Dunmer would probably kill each other off before toddlerhood if they could use magic before adolescence, but their culture almost DEMANDS that all of them are capable low-level mages, probably from a fairly young age. Nord culture, on the other hand, seems to have little call for magic except for the sake of convenience. And on and on. And of course, it is true that all citizens have the ability to learn and practice magic, whether they choose to or not. The "real" system is vastly more complex than the game can handle.

I think we can scratch C off the list right away - the Daedric Invasion mod wonderfully demonstrated that.

If you face an army of well equipped, well displined soldiers, and face them off against a similar but slightly smaller unit of soldiers who can also throw a couple of ranged spells as they are rushing into battle, the sheer weight of spellfire from the smaller army in that moment of first contact will very quickly kill or cripple the front line of the opposing force. If the most basic cantrips can be learned by anyone it almost behooves the kingdoms to teach it's soldiers at least one spell; that of how to take what magicka they do possess and expend it as a single blast of spellfire as they rush to close the gap between the battlelines.

Of course, when viewed from that perspective it pays to give everyone a mini-crossbow with a couple pre-spanned shots in it too so they can unload those and score some casulaties on the enemy before they reach melee (The things Warhammer 40,000 teaches us about maximising effectiveness xD)

:)

Well, from my understanding, though magic ability can and is part genetics and such, ultimatly atleast for the player races (Breton, Dunmer Imperial e.t.c) It is like the wizards of DnD where anyone with effort can learn and thus only funds/time/effort are what limit people. A person who goes through life farming soltrice in Morrowind or Graqes in Skingrad are not able to learn magic since they do not have the time or money for it. Also TES goes with a Practice makes Perfect style which backs up my theory.

Everyone's got Magicka right? So everyone has the CAPABILITY to use it. Not the ability, but the capability. I have many a time played a char who has never used Magicka except for enchanted, cast on strikes weapons. If the guards had the ability to use magicka, they'd be higher up the heirarchy. A lot of it comes down to culture and beliefs, ie bandits want something for nothing, and bashing you over the head with a club is a damn sight easier than popping off a fireball that may or may not work, dependent on skill, Fighters guild are pretty much martial in nature and again are all for bashing you over the head. If you could learn just one spell, wouldn't you? The whole world has a connection to Magicka.

Sorry for a bit of a rant there, not meaning to offend if it does!

That's basically what I was trying to get at.

I can only assume that you, of all people in the world of Tamriel, were given the chance by the Nine to pursue knowledge in Magicka, something that everyone cannot experience. To put it simply, you had the chance to explore your potential in magic (and arms) while the commoners, traders, bandits, necromancers, bartenders, drunkards and slaves, did not. But everyone has magicka in them.

I'd say magic is all around all right, but it varies from person to person. From what I gather in Daggerfall, there are only very little mages and magic users to normal non-magic using citizens. Morrowind was more liberal with the magic users, but they were still in the minority, and only those who were brought up with magic used it (Telvanni, MG, priests, and wise women). The normal citizen did not use magic of any kind.

OB was bad mechanics imo, and made magic way too common than what it should have been.

Why is this in Lore?

And I make this point now, bumping the thread a bit, in order to prevent similar threads from crowding the forum. Because, really, it's getting annoying.

The fact that basic merchants sell basic spells to non-mages guild members for dirt cheap fees leads me to believe the average citizen can probably do a bit of hedge wizardry or amateur alchemy. Nothing fancy, mind you. Maybe use a Night Eye spell for short spurts, or Heal Minor Wounds. Nothing on a professional level.