Looking for Someone Magical; Looking for Something Lyrical

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

[[Bendytimed to after quarantine is lifted]]

An elf floated over the city, trying to find something called a Jedi Temple.

Every so often, he dipped down, to investigate this or that building. After a few false starts he'd come to realize that his idea of "temple" had absolutely no bearing whatsover on this vast hive of confusion and bizarre architecture, so he'd settled for investigations of likely spots or sources of magical energy.

It is entirely possible that a person could say hello, at such a time.

After a while of this, though, Aibghalien finally decided that, potential risks aside, some expenditure of magic might be called for in this case. Coming to an abrupt halt in midair, he made a few passes, chanted a few phrases, then shot off again with a much more purposeful mien.

A few minutes later he dropped from the sky to enter the Jedi Temple, and set out to look for the open office door of one Lady Nanoha.

Comments

[starlightace]

"Oh, Vita!" Nanoha brightened immediately. "It's... hm, sort of. Some people have it and some people don't. She's a bit different, though." Nanoha stopped short of saying just what exactly Vita and her other Wolkenritter were, though. That was their business.

"That's very interesting. So there's no innate skill involved?"

I should just copy the character class descriptions from the SRD here and call it a day...

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

"Not inborn, no. It requires extraordinary dedication and no small amount of intelligence, but... " He dug in his memory for just a second. "Vita made mention of linker cores, I believe was the term? My world has a similar restriction on magic -- you need to have immortality in your blood, either as an elf or of the gods, to use magic innately. That branch is called 'sorcery'. The path I follow, 'wizardry', is studying to use magic rather than it being innately inborn."

He offered a ruefully self-aware smile as he slipped into 'professor' mode. "The two branches actually have a great deal of overlap in terms of what effects they can produce. The main difference is in the caster themselves. A sorcerer may freely select any spell they know to cast, and may cast more spells of comparable power than a wizard of equal strength in magic. A wizard, conversely, must prepare their spells ahead of time, but those spells are significantly more malleable by virtue of that fact. And a wizard, who learns spells rather than having them innately, has no limitation on the number of spells they may know."

XD

[starlightace]

She nodded as he spoke, clearly transfixed by his descriptions and explanations. "Yes, Linker Cores, that's right."

"That's so interesting. So... it seems to me that a sorcerer might be better off in the midst of combat, but a wizard is more versatile? Is that right?"

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps," he said with a shrug. "To be more explicit, a sorcerer can do a few things repeatedly and skillfully, while a wizard can do numerous things less frequently.

"However," he continued with a smile, "a wise wizard prepares plenty of wands, scrolls, and so forth, so as to increase his versatility and ability to bring to bear the proper skills for the job."

[starlightace]

Nanoha tapped her finger against her lip thoughtfully. "So... by wands and scrolls, you mean you can give items some magic power? Or are they magic items to begin with?"

[for-magic.livejournal.com]

To begin his response, Aibghalien drew a wand made of slim oak heartwood from the brace at his belt, then reached for the pullstring on a wide roll of leather attached to his backpack in just the right position to enable that motion. As he tugged the roll unraveled into a long band with countless narrow pockets, each of which had at least on piece of paper slotted neatly in. Selecting one from a thick sheaf at the top, he placed it and the wand on her desk, allowing the scroll-case to roll back up.

"Neither of these began their life magical; it takes training and skill to imbue them with magic. They differ substantially in their forms." He tapped the parchment first. "The scroll is, essentially, a spell prepared on paper rather than in my head. By reading this, I can cast the spell as if I had prepared it for the day.

"The wand, on the other hand, is basically the same spell cast any number of times. This wand, for example, can discharge fifty fireballs, with less effort and attention required by me. The downsides to this method are that spells past a certain strength can't be crafted into a wand."

He left both on the desk for her to examine if she so wished as he sat back a little. "Unfortunately, I don't believe it would be possible for most other people to use either of those, though I'll be happy to submit it to testing. That's mostly to demonstrate what I can do beyond or besides the spells in my head. What may be more useful to the crew in general are potions."

From a pouch at his belt he produced a small vial full of electric-blue liquid, stoppered firmly but with a tab so that said stopped could be easily popped out with a thumb. This too he set down carefully. "Whoever drinks that will become substantially stronger, physically, for example -- and unlike the wands and scrolls, anyone can use this. It requires no special training or skills.

"The only problem," he continued with a slight frown, "is that to make more of any of these, I need time -- which is in no short supply -- and resources. I believe that I can set up a crystal-condensing apparatus here, to make more of the particular crystals I use over time, which can in many cases substitute for the necessary resources -- but that's not ideal."

Perhaps surprisingly, he actually stopped talking at this point. This had been a very small taste of how verbose and garrulous Aibghalien could get.