What is Destruction?

[dubbad29]

I think the schools are actually pretty distinct. First to address the differences between Alteration and Destruction. Yes, they can both be used to inflict damage, but Destruction magic does so directly. It converts magicka into a flow of elemental power that does direct damage to victims. No matter how you spin it, Destruction has always (or at least since the days of Cyrodill's Mage's Guild) been the traditional school for battlemages for this reason. Alteration, however, is different. In Reality and Other Falsehoods, we read about the distinction between Illusion magic and Alteration magic, and discover the true nature of Alteration. This excerpt is particularly illuminating:

 

 

It is easy to confuse Illusion and Alteration. Both schools of magic attempt to create what is not there. The difference is in the rules of nature. Illusion is not bound by them, while Alteration is. This may seem to indicate that Alteration is the weaker of the two, but this is not true. Alteration creates a reality that is recognized by everyone. Illusion's reality is only in the mind of the caster and the target....

To cast Alteration spells is to convince a greater power that it will be easier to change reality as requested than to leave it alone.

This also covers the uniqueness of Illusion. Illusions apply only to a target. For example a fear spell on causes targets to run away, because only they have been "convinced" to be afraid. Paralysis, on the other hand, causes a target to freeze, not because they wanted to or were "convinced" to do so, but because the caster has altered reality; it is now a fact that the target is paralyzed, if that makes sense.

 

Conjuration is easy to distinguish because it only involves the interaction of casters with Oblivion.

 

Restoration is a little tricky. Some people think of it like reverse Destruction, but I don't think that's true. Whereas Destruction relies on the power of the elements, Restoration is solely focused on the, well, restoration (and sometimes preservation) of life. This is seen clearly in all healing spells. Wards are strange, and personally, I think they'd be more appropriate in the Alteration school, but oh well. Turn undead might be considered an illusion by some, but it all ties back the the restoring of life. I.e., the restoration of life and the destruction of undeath fall on the same spectrum.

 

Personally, I miss the Mysticism school, but I think its effects were appropriately sorted into the other schools.

Finally, is there a mod for Skyrim that brings some of the old functionality of Telekinesis back? That would be great.

[ilikecheese1337]

I like to think of it like this, and it fits rather well with the lore:

 

Destruction magic physically undoes reality. The elements just happen to be the magical expression of such an idea.

 

Restoration magic controls life energy (which actually exists in TES due to the connection of the soul to Aetherius) and the original state of reality (presumably, though we don't see any of them, spells to repair broken things would be Restoration). Turn Undead, Bane of the Undead etc. are just uses of the magic to damage the life energy that animates undead.

 

Conjuration magic is easy: it just manipulates the boundaries between Mundus and Oblivion.

 

Alteration magic modifies reality by subverting its rules. That "Reality and Other Falsehoods" book oversimplifies the concept in order to teach Alteration to a layman (the story of the book is, IIRC, a man who just wants to learn Waterbreathing, and doesn't have time for normal magical study).

 

Illusion magic manipulates the mind or visual/auditory/olfactory etc. stimuli.