LORE: Calling lore scholars to help me understand Magic

[VincentEttrich]

Hi all. I am wondering if any lore scholars out there could share their knowledge on magic, the mages guild, how magic worked before the mages guild and so forth. I vaguely remember reading that before the mages guild magic was more exclusive and needed to be studied deeply, but after the mages guild, magic could be purchased by anyone. Does this sound right?

 

Also, throughout skyrim, and the rest of TES series, you see much evidence of rituals and deep study by mages suggesting that there is some deeper more secret form of magic than what is provided by the mages guild. Is there any lore on what this studying process involves?

 

Also, any info on the origins or magic, sources of magical power, racial differences related to magic, the properties of magicka, and etc. would be greatly appreciated!

[Lachdonin]

Ok, first off (and i love the question by the way) there are two primary kinds of magic. Tonal Magic, and Aetherial Magic.

 

Aetherial Magic harnesses the energy of the Aubris, generally referred to as Creatia in its most pure form, or Magicka in its most common, to shape and create. Almost all magic in TES falls into this category, from the Et'ada creating Mundus, to the Dawn Magic of the Psijic Order, to the conventional magical schools of the Mages Guild. This type of magic is basically about channelling cosmic energies, shaping them into a desired state, and using them to achieve a result.

 

Prior to the creation of the Mages Guild, this was done mostly by closed off groups such as the College of Winterhold, the Dunmer House Telvanni, the Psijic Order and so forth. In addition, certain families has a tradition of magic, most commonly in Summerset (the Mer are typically magical anyway). Then you had the witches, Wyrds, sorcerers, shaman etc of the world, who were basically extremely primitive magic users who usually relied on individual mentorship (the previous witch or shaman) and had very specific, though limited knowledge.

 

Most of the magic we see in Skyrim, or any TES for that matter, is extremely simplistic. The 'spells' represent very basic magical approaches which yield consistent results. Most higher-order magic is done through rituals and experimentation, and the refinement of specific 'spells' is usually a time consuming process that can, in some cases, take years.

 

With the formation of the Mages Guild, magic was made more accessible by simplifying magic for the masses. The higher order stuff is still very in-depth and intensive, but the design of simple, easy to learn spells intended to have a desired effect (as opposed to understanding magic and using it for broader purposes) allowed the Mages Guild to flourish and make magic a more common thing, and this was due in part to the Spell Schools, all the spells in a particular school start from the same basic 'stance' ensuring that they form a relatively simple progression in terms of power and complexity.

 

Tonal magic is something radically different... Shouts are a very simple version of it, but really, you don't want to go too deep down that rabbit hole... you may never come back out.