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Narrative
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Gus: I cribbed a large portion of this from LT in the Magic From Technology Discussion.
Seth Is there any example of Wild Magic? Ive never heard the phrase before and cant think of a series that fits the description that isnt Magic Realism Ununnilium: That's a good point; by definition, I'd say Wild Magic ("no one has any control over what happens and when") isn't Functional Magic ("allows standardized spells that do the same thing every time you cast them"). Looney Toons: Most of my Wild Magic examples are literary, such as the nasty stuff found in Garth Nix's "Abhorsen" books, and its polar opposite in... ah hell, I can't remember the title now. (I'll find it and edit that when I get home from work tonight.) (Edit, weeks and weeks later: The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory: The Outstretched Shadow, To Light A Candle, and When Darkness Falls.) Seth Ah that i can work with i have those books just havent read them yet. Looney Toons: Even so, they don't quite jive with the "no one has any control" description in the main text — it's more like the magic is "alive" and acts on its own, and sometimes individuals can channel it, make deals with it, or be taken over/consumed by it. Semiapies I'm really not sure that theurgy really described what witches did in Buffy most of the time. For example, the only times Willow performs magic depicted that way are the times she's trying to bring Buffy and Tara back from the dead (with the bonus of her actually arguing with a spirit in the latter case). Other times, it's rather more like rule-magic (with spirits sometimes being invoked) or at times even inherent power. Though, as a friend points out to me, whenever Buffy or Angel would bully a demon into doing something they wanted, that quite arguably counted as theurgy. :) (Or, for a more "magical" take, when Buffy encountered the First Slayer in the shared dream at the end of 4th Season and later in 5th Season while in a trance.) Looney Toons: To be accurate, anything that Willow did simply by force of will, no, that's not theurgy. But almost any time she does a ritual or incantation, there is at least one bit along the lines of "goddess, hear me". That makes it theurgy — an appeal to an outside intelligence to make the spell work. Seth: I rephrased the Wild Magic bit so that it was more in line with your description and the examples that popped up bellow. How i interpreted what you said was that Wild Magic is alive - its not theurgy because its not as strong, the beings can refuse ect ect and it doesnt have to be invoked. Looney Toons: Okay, Yoshi, why'd you nuke Wild Magic? There are valid literary and mythological precedents for it. I'm restoring it. Especially since there are internal references to it within the remaining text. Tavish Artair: While I didn't do the editing, I would figure it's because it's Magic Realism, and it's not Functional Magic. Duplicating entries is unnecessary, and the Wild Magic description also disagrees with the initial presentation on the text. Also, by the definition you presented for your examples for Wild Magic, in those books (Abhorsen, et alia), they look awfully like Theurgy or some highly risky Rule Magic or Inherent Gift instead (that is, you can make a deal with it [Theurgy] or get consumed by it [Rule Magic/Gift, failing] or channeling it [Rule Magic/Gift, succeeding]). Lale: Anyone ever considered making each of those Flavors its own page? Ununnilium: If you want to, and feel that the subject's deep enough to merit it. (For most of these, it probably is.) Ununnilium: Do we have a trope for Rule Magic where the verbal component is saying what the spell does, in another language? Harry Potter uses an As Long As It Sounds Foreign version of Latin, and many other examples use Latin straight-up, while some anime use English. Note this isn't the same as By The Power Of Greyskull/Calling Your Attacks, though it's related. Seth: Magic Foreign Language? I swear i've even seen examples where one demon/elf language was literally magical and any one of the words would invoke some spell. Robert: The Language Of Magic, full of words of power. There are indeed cases where the language is inherently magical - every noun in it a True Name. Seth: Language Of Magic is good but the tendency of some series to use any foreign language for that purpose might need a different name. In the west German and Latin are the most common. In Japan English and i would imagine Chinese but i'm basing that on Fushigi Yuugi. Ununnilium: Heck no, I'd always lump that. TomAq: Anybody up, I wonder, for arranging these entries by medium? I remember hearing about a book where magic was "reality-altering" based on probabilities; the less probable that something could happen differently to how it was without the magic, the harder it was to do (whereas something very likely was easy). Any idea what the book was, or how to categorise this? Ronfar: You might be thinking of The Death Gate Cycle by the authors of the Dragonlance series. Looney Toons: Hm. I just wanted to note that The Law of Contagion actually has been observed in the real world — only it's called Quantum Mechanical Entanglement. |
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