Re: Magi's Magic

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_...>
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 21:54:00 +1200

At 08:42 p.m. 7/08/2006, you wrote:

>I'm going to begin a carmanian serie, and I wonder how do you deal (in
>rule terms) with the magic of the Magi. In your gloranthas... ¿are
>they a sort of liturgist, adepts, orderlies? ¿another kind of
>wizardry? I suppose they are more powerful than normal viziri, but
>they do not study "sorcery".

Their magic derives from the sorcerous otherworld but they are not Wizards in the HQ rules. They practice what could be called High Magic which means it's really powerful but little practical effect.

There's three prongs on their magic that I can identify:

• The first is purification magic to make themselves worthy of contact with the Good God. They have to be constantly pure at all times so these magics would be performed to keep themselves sacrosanct. Since sorcery has been identified as bad magic, they can only have limited contact with it at best. Take the prohibitions from Leviticus and you do just fine.
• The second magic is their service to the Truth and its superiority over the Lie. They can command the servants of the Good God (ie the Carmanian Pantheon) and blast the servants of the Lie (ie everybody else's gods). This power isn't going to be flashy but more like magics that can affect a worshippers relation with his deity (temporarily boost magic, excommunication etc).

I think that a Magi could study a particular god (within the Carmanian Pantheon) and compel it to work wonders on Idovanus's behalf. This would use the rules for Divine Aid (HQ p115-116) with the Magi having to work against a 10w3 resistance. This restricts most Magi to accessing the magic through ritual magic.

Lastly there is the power of the Magi to directly work the will of Idovanus which they perform using their ersoon, or wand. This is really personal magic to make their life easier - sorcerer's apprentice type stuff - but if they are impure it won't work. A magi could use his ersoon to zap somebody but this sort of magic isn't in the same league as commanding the gods and if a Magi were found to be studying these magics to be super-deadly, he would be expelled from the order for dereliction of duty.

I would model these magics in HQ as spells and possibly grimoires but they won't work for anybody else unless they are ritually pure and consecrated as a Magi.

--Peter Metcalfe