Magical Theory and Practice, Friday, Period 3

[tellmehowstuffworks]

Today's workshop was being held in a classroom. There was a hot Renaissance Faire goth standing at the front of the classroom when the students arrived, and when they sat down they would notice that each of them had a flower and a rock sitting on their desk. "Good afternoon," Yennefer said to her students. "I am Yennefer of Vengerberg, and this is..." She glanced at her notes, and then looked again. "Magical Theory and Practice. Bit of a joke in the class description, I see." Or was it? "Well, we might get to that. We'll see how it goes. For now, I will tell you that while I am new to instruction, I am a sorceress trained in the school of Aretuza, and have been an advisor to the king of Aedirn for thirty years." Yep, she was older than she looked.

"Being as we all come from different realities here, I expect we also come from different magical traditions, and that sticking too closely to what I was taught might be completely useless to you, but I believe that in broad strokes much of that information continues to be true, based on the fact that I have been able to do magic since I got here, so I will teach you starting from that foundation. First, I would like to know what I am working with. Everyone will please tell me their name, so I can check them off this list, and what their experience level is with magic, and a little of how they know it to work, and then we're going to do a little exercise. Any questions so far? No? Good."

Comments

Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"I'll start. I have already told you my name and experience level, and where I come from magic comes from harnessing chaos, which is the life energy of the universe. Some living things have a lot of chaos and some things have a little, but all of them can be used for magic. A mage can use their own inborn chaos to power a spell, or they can use a substitute: someone else's chaos, or the energy of an animal or a plant. Now who'd like to go next?"

Re: Introductions!

[thishouseishaunted]

Well, inborn chaos was promising. Mae had tons of that!

"I'm Mae Borowski," she said. "Um. I have . . . no experience? Is that okay? But I like chaos!"

She had a connection to an elder god living under her hometown that occasionally drove her crazy, but she didn't know about any of that just yet.

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

The cat. Was talking. Well, that was a new one on Yennefer, but you met all sorts. "No experience is perfectly...okay, if I'm using that word correctly," Yennefer told her. "Everyone has or had no experience in everything at some point, which is why I'm trying to get an idea of the lay of the land, as it were." She gave Mae a little smile and said, "I like chaos, too."

Re: Introductions!

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae would object to being called a cat. But she was getting used to it.

She smiled faintly and nodded. "Then I guess I'll do okay! Which is totally how that word works, yeah."

Re: Introductions!

[nicedragonsfinishlast]

Oh god oh god. Julius had no idea how he was going to get through today without letting anyone know who - or, more specifically what - he really was.

"I'm Julius," he said, skipping his last name because he was pretty sure he was going to stumble over the fake one right now. His eyes were pretty steady on his desk. "Uh. I've had magic training for years now. Not super-great at it."

Mostly because he never wanted to give his more magically-inclined siblings a reason to think of him as a threat. Or competition. Murder of siblings was forbidden, but opening a portal to another dimension and leaving him there for a few hours? Totally fine.

"Uh, different, umm, people access magic in different ways where I come from. It wells up from the earth and certain people can access it and shape it? I guess? To make them do what they want. Other people, like, uh, me. Have a reservoir of magic that we're just born with. We can do stuff to make it bigger and stronger, and it increases as we get older," he mumbled.

Magical creatures all had that in common.

"Uh, there are other - entities? Out there. That do magic differently, like spirits and stuff. But I don't really know all of that."

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

...Well. That was quite a curse, wasn't it?

"It sounds like we have relatively similar ways of looking at magic, possibly," Yennefer said. "Perhaps you could stay after class so we could discuss the particulars." And that curse.

Re: Introductions!

[nicedragonsfinishlast]

Julius made a small noise in his throat, not unlike a small creature in the grip of a predator.

Look, he didn't know what it was about Yenefer, but she just screamed 'dragon' at him, even though she clearly was not.

"Yes ma'am," he said quickly. Because arguing would be a sucker's move.

Re: Introductions!

[legionqueen]

"I'm Juillenne Milone, and this," she tilted her head to indicate the mountain cat sprawled under her desk. "Is Camden. She's my familiar."

"Where I'm from, most- but not all- people are born with a single gift. For example, I am a naturalist- I can control plants and animals. This type of gift is innate to who you are and runs in families. Low magic can be practiced by anyone and is done with blood and runes. It is forbidden on Fennbirn."

Not that that actually stopped anyone, they just had to be sneaky about it.

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"I must admit I'm not..." Yennefer trailed off, realizing what she was about to say, then, looking pained, pressed on. "I am not familiar with...'familiars.' And I would like to know more about this 'low magic.' What can it accomplish?"

Re: Introductions!

[legionqueen]

Jules absolutely did not giggle at 'familiar with familiars', no. Because that would be impolite.

"Camden and I are... connected. We each feel what the other feels." Which meant pissing Jules off would get a snarly mountain lion all up in your face. As Julius well knew.

"From what I've seen," she grimaced, "it's mostly used to influence the minds of others. Or control things. A friend of mine once tried to use a love spell on myself and... another friend," her expression went briefly sad. "It didn't go well."

Oh, also there was the fact that her mother had used low magic to bind Jules' war-gift so that the presence of two (very strong) gifts wouldn't end up driving her insane, buuuuuut she didn't actually know that part yet.

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

And what exactly was wrong with using magic to influence the minds of others? Don't answer that.

"Does she serve some sort of purpose for your magic, or is she merely a companion animal?"

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

"I'm Anakin Skywalker," Anakin said, smiling faintly, "and I've been a Jedi since I was nine. We refer to the lifeforce powering the universe as the Force, which is neither good nor evil. The intentions of the user decide if you are using the Dark Side or the Light."

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"So whether magic is used for good or evil is a central consideration of your tradition? Interesting." She sounded like 'interesting' meant 'boring.' "And you would consider yourself an experienced practitioner?"

Re: Introductions!

[sith_happened]

"Yes," Anakin said, nodding. "I've taught several apprentices."

Re: Introductions!

[dauntlessdragoon]

To be fair, being in a class called Magical Theory and Practice wasn't the most confusing thing Freya had been sidled with since arriving here, but it did cause a decent amount of bewilderment in her.

"My name Freya," she eventually offered. "Freya Crescent. I am a dragon knight of Burmecia."

Spoken as though everyone should clearly know what that meant, although she sort of figured, by now, that no one actually did.

"So although certain aspects of my skillset are derived from magical energy and are similar to magical abilities, they aren't really magic...Though I suppose maybe an understanding of magic will assist in improving them?"

She certainly hoped so, otherwise this whole thing was just going to be a bit of a waste...

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

Yennefer had no idea what a dragon knight of Burmecia was either, but she wasn't about to let that bother her. "That's an interesting technicality," she observed. "If your abilities are derived from magic, what makes them not magic?"

Re: Introductions!

[dauntlessdragoon]

"I believe," Freya ventured, after having pondering this technicality quite a bit herself, a paw to her chin as if to prove just how contemplative she was, "it's because dragons are magical creatures, and our powers are derived from tme, or rather, inspired by and learned from them from centuries past..."

Even as she said it, though, the answer didn't feel very satisfactory.

"It's an incredibly old tradition, going back to the very beginning of my species' history," she offered, almost apologetically. "I'm afraid my mentor didn't have the opportunity to explain the nuances to me in detail before he..."

Here, she paused, filling the space with an almost tangible sense of longing and despair.

"...left."

Re: Introductions!

[nicedragonsfinishlast]

"Uhhh..." Julius said quietly to his roommate once Yenefer had gone off to talk to someone else. "What's a dragon knight?"

You know. No reason. JUST CURIOUS AND STUFF HA HA HA.

Re: Introductions!

[dauntlessdragoon]

It was interesting how the details of Freya's status had gone mysteriously unmentioned thus far, wasn't it?

But Freya had to smile, just a little, her chin lifting with no small amount of pride.

"It's the highest order of the Burmecian military," she informed him, hoping to maintain the gravity in her voice that such a position would suggest, though she felt her chest was bursting with butterflies at the thrill of saying it. "Anyone who manages to acheive the rank of dragon knight has proven themselves worthy of the greatest strength and ability, inspired by the ferocity and magesty of the beast for which the name is derived."

Also, it meant she could jump high!

And, you know, slay them.

Re: Introductions!

[special_rabbit]

"I'm Amaya Blackstone," Amaya offered, in the cheery tone of someone who had no idea what she was doing here, but, would you look at that, there she was anyway. "And I haven't got a magical bone in my whole body! And, before anyone asks," and she didn't even mean this in the dirty way, "no, I don't particularly want one."

Sorry 'bout that, Yennifer. A bit too many evil witches and wizards around Amaya's way for her to have too high opinion of the stuff, even with a few people around Fandom to help sway her mind a little.

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

Yennefer couldn't help taking it in the dirty way, Amaya. Sorry about that. But she was on court manners, so her eyes just lit up with amusement for a moment before she asked, "Then why did you sign up for this workshop?"

Re: Introductions!

[special_rabbit]

There was a good chance Amaya was going to test those court manners a lot, Yennifer.

She just couldn't help it; hers was a family-friendly franchise.

"I didn't," Amaya admitted with a resigned shrug and a shake of her head. "I guess the moose just thought he was being a bit funny, and I came anyway because I'd feel a bit bad, just not showing up, and, well, sometimes you can find useful things in unexpected places, so why not at least give it a spin?"

Re: Introductions!

[magnusrushesin]

"My name is Magnus Burnsides," he said, slipping into that gruff, Errol Flynn voice again to get back into character. "I have magic weapons, do those count?"

Somewhere... Taako was so annoyed with him for even asking that dumb question.

Re: Introductions!

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"How did they come to be magical?" Yennefer asked. "I'm trying to figure out what you know of how magic works in your world."

Re: Introductions!

[magnusrushesin]

Magnus did a shrug of 'I dunno'. Because he wasn't a fucking nerd.

"Oh, uh. It's these planes things? Like. We're here on this plane. And there's another one that's just all magic, all the time. And that's what my buddies pull from. Other than Merle. He pulls his stuff from the plane where gods are and stuff."

That was actually a concise explanation for his canon.