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Author: naturalironist

Sep 24th 2016 at 10:23:56 AM

In an anthropological sense, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism Shamans]] are people who have access to the spirit world and can see and communicate with spirits/supernatural powers. More overtly magical powers shamans may have include the ability to summon spirits or temporary magical powers achieved through possession by a spirit. {{Miko}} are the closest thing on this wiki to this trope. To me, this deserves to be a trope in itself, and a possible explanation for the mechanics of the WitchDoctor or EthnicMagician's powers. I can think of a few examples from Asian media that I'm not sure are on the wiki, will come back with more.

But it seems that what the description is going for is something like DnD warlock, a person who makes some sort of long-term bargain with a god or supernatural force. I believe this is also how Shadowrun shamans work. I would second ContractMagic as a name for this.

The difference: Shamanic magic consists mainly of the power to intercede/communicate with spirits, and if great feats of magic are performed, they are done directly by spirits rather than by the Shaman. With ContractMagic, the magician can control his own magical feats and the duration is longer, although still may last only as long as the contract. Shamanism is RitualMagic, ContractMagic is FunctionalMagic.

Theurgy might be an ok umbrella page to cover both.