Re: Common Magic

From: Stacy Forsythe <deadstop_at_...>
Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 20:46:36 -0500


Saith Peter Metcalfe:

>That's all very well but what distinguishes a feat from
>a spell? I know what charms and talents are but with
>feats and spells, one enters a thick haze where in
>effect they seem to be the same thing.

For my in-Glorantha explanation, I went with the following:

A talent is something you awaken within yourself.

A charm is a little object symbolically related to the effect. If you know about animism, you'd say it contains the power of a spirit.

(Those everyone seems to agree on.)

A spell is a formula or recipe of some kind -- the sort of folk magic that commands you to perform a sequence of seemingly nonsensical actions, or mix certain ingredients into a soup or tea.

A feat is an example, conveyed in a story of some kind. As with the formal, theistic kind of feat, the user of a common feat so identifies with the legendary protagonist and his/her mythic action that he earns a magical boost to similar actions.

Of course, that's just my personal take on the matter, but it does distinguish between the different types in-setting.

Stacy Forsythe
deadstop_at_...

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