Hello everyone. I'm currently working an a piece of short fiction set in Tamriel. One thing that's currently puzzling me however is why, as far as the lore is concerned, is the casting of certain types of magic based on Intelligence, whilst others rely on Willpower? Essentially, how does one cast spells in Tamriel? Is anything along these lines discussed in any of the lore?

I understand that it's a strange question, but if someone can point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

No, thats just game play. Real people don't have statistics, though if you're intelligent you're probebly better at complex spells while being strong willed might make you better at pushing your spell through. Feel free to make something else up.

Thanks proweler for the quick reply! I suppose it makes sense that some spells are going to be harder to cast on an intellectual level whilst others are more based on strength of will. Would this difference lead to priests within Tamriel being able to cast some spells more effectively (strengthened through their belief in the Tribunal or the Nine Divines) whilst isolantionist mages with a personal library may be more effectiant at the intellegence based wizardry. Tamriel doesn't seem to have a D&D divide between divine and arcane magick (which, personally, I'm thankfull for), but is nothing on magick really discussed in the lore?

I apologise if this seems like a pedantic or awkward question, but I'm attempting to really research TES lore at the moment, and this has been puzzling me for some time.

I just think of them as abstracts.

If you have Morrowind, you can check the CS dialogue section to see the NPC topics on 'Willpower' and 'Intelligence'. If you don't have it, I can copy and paste 'em for you.

When picturing an individual that would symbolise each of the two stats, I imagined an academic to represent intelligence and a sort of ascetic/cleric to represent willpower.

For example, you could be extremely clever but succumb to every "desire." Someone who is highly intelligent could still be a skooma-svcking philanderer. On the other hand, you could have someone who is not very intelligent at all but has incredible spiritual strength.

I realise that people have more or less said what I said, but I hope that my ideas will help you in some degree.

Intelligence, and Wisdom are easily defined. What the will is exactly, is a bit more difficult and requires a lot of philosophy reading to begin to understand it. One of those words that everyone knows, but few people truly comprehend.

anyway: "Magic is the science and art of causing cause in accordance with the will," Aleister Crowley.

A lot of The elder scrolls is based on Occult lore, In fact I remember seeing the saying "as above so below" in one of the in game books.

I should also mention that the seemingly low intelligence of races such as Redguards, Nords and Orcs certainly does not translate into actual lore and is entirely a game mechanic.

Some of the more powerful spellcasters, both good and bad, have been of these races. Notably, there was an evil Nord sorceror in Morrowind who possessed Clavicus Vile's masque. In the expansion, Bloodmoon, there was a powerful Nordic Shaman. There was an Orc Necromancer in Morrowind, and in the lore of Oblivion a powerful Orc Necromancer sat on the high council of mages before resigning. Also, two of the more accomplished spell vendors in the entire game are both Redguards.

Not really. The Redguards are very suspicious of magic; they don't trust intelligent people. Because of this a Redguard with the gift of intelligence would not have their gift fostered by their culture. They would travel away from home to learn about magic and would probably be estranged from their family in doing so.

The statistics of the races in the game are probably half genetic and half cultural. Eg. The Argonians have their mystical relationship with the Hist and are pretty good casters. Because the females are more intelligent than the males, this probably suggests that the females have a more spiritual role in tribal culture, while the males are hunter-gatherer types.