The Magical Descriptions */

[MoonHunter]

Have you ever noticed that most spells cast in game are fairly boring in their generation?

Have you ever noticed that most spells cast in a fantasy novel are interesting and detailed in their generation?

Do you see what most games are lacking? It could add so much to the versimilitude of the scene, that it should not be lacking. We should be taking efforts to incorporate it.

This thread is dedicated to the the description of magical effects, not the "whooosh" of fireballs or splat of web spells, but the glow/ tingle/ hum of the generation of magic. Many fantasy writers do a great job of describing the casting of spells, and the effects on the casters. We should earn from this and incorporate those ideas into our games.

Now perhaps only spell casters or those with "mage sight" can see the full effect. That is okay. Describe what they see, and mention what the muggles/ mundanes see.

Feel free to be creative and insert your own or describe the effects from your favorite author.

Add description modifier to effect.

[MoonHunter]

Molachian is the language of the Divine, the very language that created the world and define reality. This is the language of the book of fate and was spoken to bring the world into being out of the chaos.

Mortals have learned a tiny corrupt fraction of this language, these glyphs and sounds grant mortal magic, the ability to alter reality to a small degree.

To cast a spell, a spell caster begins by focusing upon a glyph... feeding will and mystic energy into the image of it, making it solid "astreally  speaking", seeing it reach towards the target destination. The magic user then creates the next glyph in the chain. Spells appear as long strings of mystical words/ glyphs glowing in the astreal. The spell phrases often repeat to increase their power and cover the area desired

So a mystical door lock would appear as a green text sentence laid over the door's frame and the door, locking the two together.

A spell to cast fire, would appear as a coil of red glyphs. The fire glyphs would continue to be laid down until enough heat energy was generated to make the fire.  If the casting was from a distance would include a chain of letters leading to the fire, filled with the glyphs of distance and the fire glyphs mixed in.

A spell of searching appears as a spiral of glyphs. The Glyphs would be a mix of distance, and search and what you were searching for. More advanced uses would stack several of these spirals together, so several lines of searching glyphs would travel out at the same time.

[Strolen]

Short segment taken from my PBeM game.

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Taobon turns to the clearing, removing his sword belt and placing it on the ground next to him. Kneeling on the ground, Taobon works to place himself in his deepest concentration trance yet. Taking his remaining sand out of his pouch, he opens his eyes, examining the ground, the rocks, the very dirt all around him. Taobon reaches out with his very conciousness, embedding himself in the ground, feeling himself flow through it as if it were water. Taobon uses his psyche as a swimmer would use his hands, pulling himself through the ground; flowing as mud flows, flowing as if he were the very earth.

When Taobon releases his trance, he is on the other side of the clearing, looking back at the two Red mages. Taobon promptly passes out from the exertion.

When Taobon comes up from the ground or when he wakes he turns and sees Lorat and Garoz feeling at the ground where he was standing. They seem very interested in the ground and are studying it carefully. Every now and then they look towards Taobon but then they return to looking at the ground.

"Did you in any way mark the soil before you began your travel?"

"Mark the soil? I do not understand the question master, so I would have to say no."

"Have you ever done this before and if you have how far have you gone?"

"I have never done this before."

"Did your former master teach you this?"

"My former Master taught me theory, not actual spells. I was taught that concentration makes all earth manipulation possible as long as you have the sands."

Goraz speaks as they are escorting Taobon to Charter's tent, "We were not very clear. What you did has never been witnessed before. Only in stories can a man move through the ground without the standings. Only in stories can man use any of the sands as you have without the standings."

Lorat adds, "We had to check everything to make sure no standings were found where you entered and exited the earth. Charter is very pleased that you know this art."

They explain the standings are the symbols carved in the ground or on anything that provide a starting and ending point for traveling. They are the entrance and exit to Elemental Sands traveling. To use the sands to travel at will to anywhere, without using the standings, no matter how limited, is a feat of legend.

[CaptainPenguin]

Shatha-Dahn, the Viridian Sorceror, donned his finest robes. He then emplaced his mirror-polished pectoral and his spell-gauntlets, and took up his glyphed wand, topped with a single huge ruby. He removed the lid of the massive bronze pot, empressed deeply with curving, spiraling glyphs. Gazing within, he beheld the seething crimson stew, made from the entrails of lions stretched so thin that they became liquid, and mixed with shredded ghostshriek mushrooms from the Forest of Night. The devil-stew was coming to a good hot boil.

He went to the heavy iron table and selected three instruments- there was the disc made of floating fragments, through which glowed mysterious energy; a smoky, square glass pane; a crystal hammer. He took these to the pot. He opened his mouth and spoke the Sacred Verse of Djaki- the words became glowing, echoing, buzzing streams of syllables which swirled through the air, forming little eddies and drifting clouds around Shatha-Dahn.

The Sorceror rolled back his sleeves and took up the glowing disc. This he used as a fan, waving it slowly, sending glowing streams of power which brushed the flitting words slowly but surely drifting into the foully-smelling stew, releasing shuddering tones as they sank into it.

Shatha-Dahn then took up the glass pane and held it over the stew. Thin, purplish fumes rose from the bubbling surface, and as they did, Shatha-Dahn spoke a single loud, vibrant word, the Ahndatic Power-Word. The glass slowly tinged smoky purple. He emplaced it in the Wonderous Lightning Clamps, where it was held by buzzing electric tendrils. Then, taking hammer in one hand and wand in the other, he struck the pane smartly but delicately in the center.

The tones of the shattering glass seemed to reverberate onward and onward and onward into infinity, louder and louder, eclipsing all other sounds and senses, until Shatha-Dahn's entire world was the breaking of the pane, the splintering of the glass. The sound carried him away, through endless vistas of time, through porticoes upon the tombs of dead gods, through hallways into endless dimensions of the universe, through vast chambers where Old Age and Youth marched like generals at the head of a vast army of all the dead ever gone to dust. Finally, he came to a deep, dark place, at the very tip of the howling vastness at the edges of realness, and there he found the delicate, iridescent bubbles that rose from the floor of nothingness.

He grasped one of these bubbles, every so delicately, and looked into it, and saw the vision which he needed, the bit of information about that blasted meddler who had so wrecked his plans... And then his intense, deep concentration was shattered, shattered as the glass which had taken him to the extremes of prescient vision.

Ah, well. The spell had been successful anyway. Shatha-Dahn went to the dining room to eat a fine meal of smoked spiderflesh served by sub-human apes.

[MoonHunter]

Magical energies manifest as tiny glowing stars (of the four, five, six, or eight point variety depending on the mage).  

So a simple spell will appear as a single star forming in the mage's hand and fly out to the target. If it is a spell of vision, two stars form there and fly into the target's eyes. A powerful spells will appear as a few dozen stars in their hands, falling slowly from their hands. Forceful spells will be seen as a spray of stars. If the spell needs to be "programmed" or several spells effects need to be chained together, the stars will begin to spin around the mage's hands, slowly at first, but faster as they are being focused. When spells are elemental/ natural in nature, the stars will change into circles of color with a glyph in them (with the color and glyph determiend by the element).

Argent begins to cast a spell of lifting.  He summons stars to his hands. They hover there around them, small round galaxy of stars. Some of those stars head towards the huge stone he is lifting. A few begin to orbit his right hand.  They slowly being to spin faster, as those stars direct their breathern. The free stars begin to plaster the outside of the huge stone and lift it.

Argent calls forth a shower of stars. They puddle at his feet, forming a larger star.  A few stars stick to his hands, slowly spinning on the ends of his fingers. The large star slowly lifts him. He must hurry, as the large star supporting while he rises is slowly leaking stars.

Argent calls forth a handful of stars. The begin to dance around his wrists. Then faster and faster, slowly turning red. A few red spheres peel off from the halos about his wrists, into his hands.  Those red spheres form into a small firey mass. With a throwing motion, it speeds towards the advancing phalanx. The halo begins to shrink as red spheres follow the firey mass, which is turning into a larger and larger sphere as it flys towards the now retreating warriors.

[MoonHunter]

This thread talks about Wheel Magic and how it would impact the world.
http://www.rpgcitadel.com/guild/index.php?topic=912.0

So we will have a conventional priest
"Kneeling in the temple, the shining light of the stained glass showering down upon him, Prator Neal prays.  He has spent days composing a proper and emotionally evocotive prayer to the City Diety. The city fathers had requested that he compose a prayer for the proper success of the upcoming market faire. Weaving supplications to the diety of commerce, inviting him into the house of the diety of the city and blanketed by the diety of lovely spring weather had been timeconsuming, but worth it.  This prayer was simply too long to transcribe easily to a rotating prayer wheel in the time given and too important to be entrusted to an young acolyte, so the Prator himself repeated the delicate rhyme and meter with verve and feeling. He was only on the 53rd repitition when he felt it.  While he could not see the spirits being supplicated (being great dieties) he felt the simple fresh breeze of their spiritual passing. While he could stop at this point, he felt it was best to be respectful and finish the 100 repetitions that he had planned. "

An example of the acolyte turning a general wheel.

It was early spring and the new growth needed to begin.  Poxy was still in the castle chapel turning the enscribed prayer wheel. He was repeating the text automatically now, because after the first few hundred times, it had imprinted upon his exhausted mind. The wheel continued to turn with him slowly repeating the prayer as it did. His shift was only for another eight hours (to complete his day of devotion), to be preplaced by the prator himself. They would ensure a proper planting, as priests had for centuries before them.

A "heretic" is being confronted by the Guards
"Stop Heretic".  Jaral was begining to think he had changed his name. The young priest pocketed the healing top he had been using on the poor of the district. He pulled out a familiar top for defense and protect.  "Kellen, bones of the Earth, I need your aid" he intoned as he loaded the top and firmly held the pull ring. With a mighty pull, the top spun... sending out the prayer to Kellen and his minion spirits. Jaral could see the little minion spirits emerge from the earth and spin with the top.  He intoned again, joining his thoughts with the whistling of the top.  The minions were satisfied and dived into the earth. Just in time as the watchmen were in spear length of him. Stone and dirt errupted to from the ground before him... pelting and confusing the watchmen.  Jaral scooped up the top and ran off into the crowd, secure in the knowledge that the minion would continue to shower them with dirt and stones until he was far away.

[MoonHunter]

The GM should describe spell casting as possible.

"It appears that the world has gotten a little darker. It is like the lights have dimmed, or maybe a grey film is over your eyes. Perhaps it is sleep. Perhaps you are seeing reality as it really is. The Spell Caster is in sharp relief, almost spotlighted by a bright light. From behind (or the side) the character's shadow becomes blacker than black. It begins to move upon its own. Oozing upward, the shadow moves towards it goal..."

The Shadow can engulf the caster, providing defense... reach out and moving something or clawing at the target.... the caster slides into the shadow and slides out of another one...

"A sensory spell would be much the same... the target of the spell is spotlighted and his/ her/ its shadow becomes ebony black.

[manfred]

The creation of the Golem of Prague

(Seen a docummentary describing this, and it sounded pretty interesting.)

After finding out the way (which was no easy task by itself, involved deep study of holy books, a question directed to the heavens having answered, and analyzed for its hidden sense) the rabbi took two companions and they purified themselves to not be destroyed by the true name of God (which also had to be used in the process). Creating life is dangerous.


Quoting:
He called two people to assist him. His son-in-law, a Kohen (a Jew descended from the ancient order of priests) and his pupil, a Levite (a Jew descended from the servants of the Temple). He explained that they needed four elements -- fire, water, air and earth. The two assistants represented the fire and water, Rabbi Loeb, air, and the Golem, earth. He explained how they had to purify themselves, because unless they were completely ready, the Shem Hameforash(the true name of God) would destroy them.

After a day of purification, they read various chapters from a particularly holy book, Sefer Yezira (The Book of Creation) and then went to the River Moldau. By torchlight, they sculpted a giant body out of river clay. The Golem lay before them, facing the heaven. They placed themselves at his feet, looking at the quiet face.

The Kohen walked seven times around the body, from right to left, reciting special Zirufim. The clay turned bright red, like fire. Then the Levite walked another seven times around the body, from left to right, reciting some more Zirufim. The fire-like redness disappeared, and water flowed through the body. He grew hair and nails. Then Rabbi Loeb walked once around the body, and placed a piece of parchment in his mouth, on which was written Shem Hameforash. He bowed to the East, West, South and North, and all three of them recited together: "And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." The Golem opened his eyes and looked at his creator. They dressed him and took him to the synagogue, where he could get ready to start his mission.

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Note the religious themes, and the elemental theme (it wasn't emphasized, but the helpers were not only symbolic representations of the elements - their very personalities had to resemble the elements).