AlexRose wrote:You can still rp #me blows a gentle wind, like you can now. Clearly you can't use the engine for that though or it WILL blow the person away.
Hmmm, my point exactly though. Why "clearly" you can't use the engine? Your interpretation of the spell is it "blows the person away" yet mine may be it "gently picks up a char and places him/her in a different spot"
It's just guidelines for what to know what to do. We all know what happens if you hit someone with a sword,
...yet as the "sword bearer" in a duel, my char wouldn't tell the other char how to RP it if hit...they may decide it "dented" the armor on that one hit versus finding a tear in the armor going into skin...that is up to their RP and not up to me to tell them how to RP it...if they continue to fight and get ghosted I don't feel it is up to me to tell them how to RP that either... and from past threads there are many varieties of theories on exactly what ghosting means ig.
.. or if you walk in a fire, but how many times have you teleported rl? How do you know what it's meant to feel like? Should it feel gooey, painful, tingly, nothing? Why would one mage feel like death when he's out of mana and another hops around happily?
This is the exciting thing about RP with other players and not a computer generated set of actions however... the unexpected, not exactly knowing how the other will RP something. How boring it would be if there was set things required to RP for set actions...why not just play against a computer? Of course you and I may see things from a different perspective....IMO a game doesn't have to emulate RL.
Just basic rules to show what happens when xyz happens, not: "YOUR WIND SPELLS MUST BLOW PEOPLE REALLY FAR, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE A BREEZE."
Just because our chars had to use buckets to "stay clean" doesn't mean we had to RP ig that we carried a bucket..... we could also RP jumping in the river to the "sound" of splashing just as well or even RP doing it without the bucket or if didn't use a bucket at all everytime we got a message "smells like a cow" we could have #me'd "smells like an orc/elf/human" etc. A new player was asked once if they wanted to go behind the walls to bathe and they told us ooc they couldn't RP that because they didn't have a bucket. The engine already sets rules and guidelines hence the teaching room as one example....other guidelines IMHO don't need to be set.
Fixed "Magical Rules"
Moderator: Gamemasters
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Juliana D'cheyne
- Posts: 1643
- Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:14 am
- Contact:
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Rugh'toh
- Posts: 475
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:28 pm
- Location: Orcs ob da northern mountains
- Contact:
Although I don't know much about magic nor its backrounds nor the teachers who teach it, I want to make four comments. They are based on what I have perceived as PO playing a warrior.
- Most of all mages I have met over the last months do mostly play their mage in the same boring way of a powerful, fearless, often arrogant person who tends to act like a half-god when its skills are only high enough.
- At the same time many of those mages completely are relied on their skills and the game engine: They have a big mouth when my warrior is two tiles away. When I stand next to them - even without any weapon drawn - many use their teleport spell to get out of the range of my possibly potentially death bringing hands.
Imho this tends to what I would call poor RP.
- Many of the mages I've met seem to be loners - at least they don't seem to belong to a larger guild or so. Sometimes I am asking myself then: Why do such loners do have so much power then?
I would not mind at all, though, when the number of decent mages is increasing (as happened in the last months) there are more and more one-man-armies roaming over the isle.
I honestly must admit I don't like that thought very much. It gives too much power into the hands of single persons, I think.
However, this my impression and it could be wrong, of course
- One last comment towards the resurrection if Ikgar by the Orcs, in order to prevent any misunderstandings and rumors:
The whole situation with Ikgar was way different than the situation with Dain and supposedly with other resurrections was.
Without going too much into detail, and without wanting to start a big discussion over that, just let me give you the most important difference:
Ikgar was killed by the Orcs and it was the Orcs (Moshran to be more specific) who resurrected him. No other party was involved into that and no other party got any big benefit or disadvantage by that, except PO Ikgar himself, maybe Wolf's gang.
Furthermore, I doubt that many POs even know the whole story. For any questions, please feel free to contact me and I will give you temporirly access to the Orc board where we have discussed the whole issue for months.
However, the orc's already have learnt out of that situation and won't kill anyone again without that anyone involved is clear about the consequences.
Well, and in the end that is the most important aspect of all magic-usage: It should be fair. Fair between mages, fair between mages and warriors. They shoudl RP with each other and not against each other.
In general, however, I agree to Pellandria: People should stick to their own RP. A self-RPled dead person should stay dead in general.
So much to the difficult topics death and mages from my side
No offence to anyone.
Peace and harmony
- Most of all mages I have met over the last months do mostly play their mage in the same boring way of a powerful, fearless, often arrogant person who tends to act like a half-god when its skills are only high enough.
- At the same time many of those mages completely are relied on their skills and the game engine: They have a big mouth when my warrior is two tiles away. When I stand next to them - even without any weapon drawn - many use their teleport spell to get out of the range of my possibly potentially death bringing hands.
Imho this tends to what I would call poor RP.
- Many of the mages I've met seem to be loners - at least they don't seem to belong to a larger guild or so. Sometimes I am asking myself then: Why do such loners do have so much power then?
I would not mind at all, though, when the number of decent mages is increasing (as happened in the last months) there are more and more one-man-armies roaming over the isle.
I honestly must admit I don't like that thought very much. It gives too much power into the hands of single persons, I think.
However, this my impression and it could be wrong, of course
- One last comment towards the resurrection if Ikgar by the Orcs, in order to prevent any misunderstandings and rumors:
The whole situation with Ikgar was way different than the situation with Dain and supposedly with other resurrections was.
Without going too much into detail, and without wanting to start a big discussion over that, just let me give you the most important difference:
Ikgar was killed by the Orcs and it was the Orcs (Moshran to be more specific) who resurrected him. No other party was involved into that and no other party got any big benefit or disadvantage by that, except PO Ikgar himself, maybe Wolf's gang.
Furthermore, I doubt that many POs even know the whole story. For any questions, please feel free to contact me and I will give you temporirly access to the Orc board where we have discussed the whole issue for months.
However, the orc's already have learnt out of that situation and won't kill anyone again without that anyone involved is clear about the consequences.
Well, and in the end that is the most important aspect of all magic-usage: It should be fair. Fair between mages, fair between mages and warriors. They shoudl RP with each other and not against each other.
In general, however, I agree to Pellandria: People should stick to their own RP. A self-RPled dead person should stay dead in general.
So much to the difficult topics death and mages from my side
No offence to anyone.
Peace and harmony
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Friedwulfa
- Posts: 556
- Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:44 am
- Location: SCHLAAAND!!!!
- Contact:
Rugh'toh wrote:Although I don't know much about magic nor its backrounds nor the teachers who teach it, I want to make four comments. They are based on what I have perceived as PO playing a warrior.
- Most of all mages I have met over the last months do mostly play their mage in the same boring way of a powerful, fearless, often arrogant person who tends to act like a half-god when its skills are only high enough.
- At the same time many of those mages completely are relied on their skills and the game engine: They have a big mouth when my warrior is two tiles away. When I stand next to them - even without any weapon drawn - many use their teleport spell to get out of the range of my possibly potentially death bringing hands.
Imho this tends to what I would call poor RP.
- Many of the mages I've met seem to be loners - at least they don't seem to belong to a larger guild or so. Sometimes I am asking myself then: Why do such loners do have so much power then?
I would not mind at all, though, when the number of decent mages is increasing (as happened in the last months) there are more and more one-man-armies roaming over the isle.
I honestly must admit I don't like that thought very much. It gives too much power into the hands of single persons, I think.
However, this my impression and it could be wrong, of course
- One last comment towards the resurrection if Ikgar by the Orcs, in order to prevent any misunderstandings and rumors:
The whole situation with Ikgar was way different than the situation with Dain and supposedly with other resurrections was.
Without going too much into detail, and without wanting to start a big discussion over that, just let me give you the most important difference:
Ikgar was killed by the Orcs and it was the Orcs (Moshran to be more specific) who resurrected him. No other party was involved into that and no other party got any big benefit or disadvantage by that, except PO Ikgar himself, maybe Wolf's gang.
Furthermore, I doubt that many POs even know the whole story. For any questions, please feel free to contact me and I will give you temporirly access to the Orc board where we have discussed the whole issue for months.
However, the orc's already have learnt out of that situation and won't kill anyone again without that anyone involved is clear about the consequences.
Well, and in the end that is the most important aspect of all magic-usage: It should be fair. Fair between mages, fair between mages and warriors. They shoudl RP with each other and not against each other.
In general, however, I agree to Pellandria: People should stick to their own RP. A self-RPled dead person should stay dead in general.
So much to the difficult topics death and mages from my side
No offence to anyone.
Peace and harmony
/signed
He says all what i think about mages...
EDIT: Sorry for off-topic
Last edited by Friedwulfa on Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Taeryon Silverlight
- Posts: 771
- Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:35 pm
- Contact:
I don't know if that was your intention, but please don't start a discussion about how powerful or not mages are once again. This is about a rp-background for magic.
As for your opinion:
1. I have to admit that Taeryon was quite arrogant, especially towards mages he thought of as people with lower intelligence or knowledge. That didn't have to do with his power, though. Any warrior was easily owning him until the last three or four weeks of his life. His arrogance came from the knowledge he gained. The more he learned the more arrogant he became.
As for Fiorell, I can't really tell he was arrogant or not. He sure awaited a lot of respect from other people towards him, but I always tried to rp him friendly in a distant way.
That's it about my mages.
Teleporting away just because a warrior comes near one (without carrying a weapon on top of that) is indeed very poor RP and those who do should be pulled out by a GM so that said GM can explain them that that is not the way to handle a situation.
Now the problem about those "engine-guy mages" is, that most of them probably were never taught much about the background of magic, which is mostly because their teachers don't know enough about it and so on. To solve that problem, we need a fixed basic theory about the magic that any mage has to stick to. It would surely increase the RP.
Also, if you want to RP with actually rped mages, instead of engine-bitches, try out the following charakters:
Deleted seems it seems to be misunderstood quite much.
About those I know, that they at least know a theory and as far as I can tell from earlier meetings with them, they all prefer RP to Engine-using.
Edit: About the "lonely wanderer" thing:
I had a lot of relationships, some very deep, some less with both of my mages. To be honest, I don't even know any mage except Johann Brown, that doesn't have allies and / or enemies.
You don't have to be in a guild to work together or againced many people.
As for your opinion:
1. I have to admit that Taeryon was quite arrogant, especially towards mages he thought of as people with lower intelligence or knowledge. That didn't have to do with his power, though. Any warrior was easily owning him until the last three or four weeks of his life. His arrogance came from the knowledge he gained. The more he learned the more arrogant he became.
As for Fiorell, I can't really tell he was arrogant or not. He sure awaited a lot of respect from other people towards him, but I always tried to rp him friendly in a distant way.
That's it about my mages.
Teleporting away just because a warrior comes near one (without carrying a weapon on top of that) is indeed very poor RP and those who do should be pulled out by a GM so that said GM can explain them that that is not the way to handle a situation.
Now the problem about those "engine-guy mages" is, that most of them probably were never taught much about the background of magic, which is mostly because their teachers don't know enough about it and so on. To solve that problem, we need a fixed basic theory about the magic that any mage has to stick to. It would surely increase the RP.
Also, if you want to RP with actually rped mages, instead of engine-bitches, try out the following charakters:
Deleted seems it seems to be misunderstood quite much.
About those I know, that they at least know a theory and as far as I can tell from earlier meetings with them, they all prefer RP to Engine-using.
Edit: About the "lonely wanderer" thing:
I had a lot of relationships, some very deep, some less with both of my mages. To be honest, I don't even know any mage except Johann Brown, that doesn't have allies and / or enemies.
You don't have to be in a guild to work together or againced many people.
Last edited by Taeryon Silverlight on Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
[rant] Are you saying I can't RP and prefer using the engine with my Mage? I'm deeply offended by this.
Seregon is one of the most arrogant mages around, he rarely shows fear in the face of warriors or groups. Is this bad RP? No, He's just overly confident that no one will touch him unless they are an idiot, otherwise The Temple would cause a lot of damage to that person / group.
I prefer RP fights to engine ones. Also I had to go through so much test shit and lessons to get magic, just like all the people on your list. I would actually prefer it if people would come and rp with me, instead of running up and ctrl clicking like most warriors. [/rant]
-Matt
Seregon is one of the most arrogant mages around, he rarely shows fear in the face of warriors or groups. Is this bad RP? No, He's just overly confident that no one will touch him unless they are an idiot, otherwise The Temple would cause a lot of damage to that person / group.
I prefer RP fights to engine ones. Also I had to go through so much test shit and lessons to get magic, just like all the people on your list. I would actually prefer it if people would come and rp with me, instead of running up and ctrl clicking like most warriors. [/rant]
-Matt
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Richter Brown
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 5:55 pm
What do you want to tell the Illa community with that statement?Taeryon Silverlight wrote: I had a lot of relationships, some very deep, some less with both of my mages. To be honest, I don't even know any mage except Johann Brown, that doesn't have allies and / or enemies.
You don't have to be in a guild to work together or againced many people.
As far as I know you quit with playing Illa? Thats fine, but would you stop pointing at others on the forums as well? Thank you very much.
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Taeryon Silverlight
- Posts: 771
- Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:35 pm
- Contact:
This List wasn't ment to say all the other mages are noobs. The named mages are just the one I know of as rped mages. Ser never came to use magic outside of training or treasure hunting with any of my chars so I can't tell if you're rping the magic side of Ser good or notRetlak wrote:[rant] Are you saying I can't RP and prefer using the engine with my Mage? I'm deeply offended by this.
Seregon is one of the most arrogant mages around, he rarely shows fear in the face of warriors or groups. Is this bad RP? No, He's just overly confident that no one will touch him unless they are an idiot, otherwise The Temple would cause a lot of damage to that person / group.
I prefer RP fights to engine ones. Also I had to go through so much test shit and lessons to get magic, just like all the people on your list. I would actually prefer it if people would come and rp with me, instead of running up and ctrl clicking like most warriors. [/rant]
-Matt
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Bellringer
- Posts: 867
- Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:55 pm
Richter Brown wrote:What do you want to tell the Illa community with that statement?Taeryon Silverlight wrote: I had a lot of relationships, some very deep, some less with both of my mages. To be honest, I don't even know any mage except Johann Brown, that doesn't have allies and / or enemies.
You don't have to be in a guild to work together or againced many people.
As far as I know you quit with playing Illa? Thats fine, but would you stop pointing at others on the forums as well? Thank you very much.
Johann's RP the one time I saw him was terrible!
With much love,
-Matt
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Djironnyma
- Posts: 3221
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2002 4:34 pm
- Location: Berlin
- Contact:
Such a list?Bellringer wrote:Taeryon, I believe it's unfair to produce a list of "Good-RPers" because it automatically creates the definition that the others aren't up to par. And that's bad, in a game where the tally is set by RP.
I'd reccomend it be deleted, because it isn't conducive at all to this society.
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Bellringer
- Posts: 867
- Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:55 pm
Yay Bell. Thanks Taeryon.-
Richter Brown
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 5:55 pm
- Deleted on request -
Last edited by Richter Brown on Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
How dare you insult the roleplay of those who have yet to join our fine community.Djironnyma wrote:Such a list?Bellringer wrote:Taeryon, I believe it's unfair to produce a list of "Good-RPers" because it automatically creates the definition that the others aren't up to par. And that's bad, in a game where the tally is set by RP.
I'd reccomend it be deleted, because it isn't conducive at all to this society.
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Taeryon Silverlight
- Posts: 771
- Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:35 pm
- Contact:
I'm not pointing at you. It's just that Johann is the only mage of who I not know that he has some allies.Richter Brown wrote:What do you want to tell the Illa community with that statement?Taeryon Silverlight wrote: I had a lot of relationships, some very deep, some less with both of my mages. To be honest, I don't even know any mage except Johann Brown, that doesn't have allies and / or enemies.
You don't have to be in a guild to work together or againced many people.
As far as I know you quit with playing Illa? Thats fine, but would you stop pointing at others on the forums as well? Thank you very much.
It's wonderful how people misunderstand things and get pissed about that.
WIth that list I just wanted to say, that I know all those who were named from RP very well and that I know of all of them as good RPers. That the others weren't named doesn't mean I say they're bad RPers. It just means I didn't RP with them enough to tell if they're "Engine-Noobs" or RPers.
Richter Brown wrote:Matt? Matt? Matt the guy Taeryon called an "engine-bitch"?
The master of all Powergamers?
I love your RP/ CTRL Klick.
Nice that you heard of me, Master of all powergamers? Just a silly title that for some reason I aqquired without even doing anything special, but thank you for letting me feel honored. Feel happy that I didn't report you yet for the things you have done. Change your ways because I am not the first one to have this opinion.
-Matt
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Taeryon Silverlight
- Posts: 771
- Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 10:35 pm
- Contact:
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Richter Brown
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 5:55 pm
Play the way you like, and let me play the way I like. If I do any rulebreak or unfair behaviour IG, you may send me a message or report me to the staff. Same as I do. But please stop writing such stuff here.Retlak wrote:Richter Brown wrote:Matt? Matt? Matt the guy Taeryon called an "engine-bitch"?
The master of all Powergamers?
I love your RP/ CTRL Klick.
Nice that you heard of me, Master of all powergamers? Just a silly title that for some reason I aqquired without even doing anything special, but thank you for letting me feel honored. Feel happy that I didn't report you yet for the things you have done. Change your ways because I am not the first one to have this opinion.
-Matt
Just go back to casting MES PEN and SIH YEG with your character ... on yourself... when other people are around... with no #me's whatsover or spawn friendly monsters with the summon spell wherever you go.Richter Brown wrote:Matt? Matt? Matt the guy Taeryon called an "engine-bitch"?
The master of all Powergamers?
I love your RP/ CTRL Klick.
Or perhaps teleport everywhere because you're too tired of walking,
but don't insult other players or call *them* powergamers.
(I neither feel this post insultive nor critisizing roleplay. The people that can judge and punish this can as easily look up how many spells aforementioned person is casting on average and will see that I'm not ranting but stating facts)
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Richter Brown
- Posts: 76
- Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 5:55 pm
Well Faladron, such allegations are false.
I dont know what your experiences were, but I ask you to do a !gm if you think I was doing rulebreaks. Writing here on the forums such insulting and incisve posts is not wanted by anyone.
Thank you.
Nalzaxx Verfasst am: Di Jan 06, 2009 1:07 am Titel:
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Well I'm an Engine-NooB and I like it.
What you gonna do about that? Huh?
I dont know what your experiences were, but I ask you to do a !gm if you think I was doing rulebreaks. Writing here on the forums such insulting and incisve posts is not wanted by anyone.
Thank you.
Nalzaxx Verfasst am: Di Jan 06, 2009 1:07 am Titel:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I'm an Engine-NooB and I like it.
What you gonna do about that? Huh?
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Mr. Cromwell
- Posts: 1876
- Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: All over the place.
Thank you, Nitram.
--
Cromwell's take on things.
I can tell you that my experience with magical theory is limited to helping PO Taeryon translate a name of some book into English. However, reading certain one-eyed stuff makes me want to facepalm.
Let me make 'my' position clear (and I know several players agree). It's a fantasy game, but still.. not everything is related to magic. Open your eyes and look past the runes and manas and you'll see a whole world which operates without the need for magic. Magic is an addition to the world, not the force which makes the world go around (in simple terms; the world will survive without magic, but not the other way around). If everything was indeed really magic coming from an official source, I think that this would not only make any opposition to magic IG (nordmark) redundant, but would also (further.. magic is basically fireworks as it is) trivialize magic.
The fact that we have a reasonable and balanced theory is much more important matter than whether a character ought to cream his/her pants or not when the mana-bar is at X-percent.
Basic theory
There are not just one, but actually two kinds of energies.
Firstly:
The dominating force which we can call "Creative energy" or "Life Energy" here. This energy is something which is included in "every" creature and every particle. There is creative energy in every man, every blade of grass, every stone and speck of dust. This is the energy of gods and (thus) nature.
Secondly:
Magical Energy. These energies are present in the world, but they are invisible and unaffecting the most. Only those with special qualities (mages) are able to truly sense these energies, and with further training harness them from their surrounding environment for their own use (mana). However, magical energy itself cannot be used to create anything permanent and all "creations" of magic are in fact mere crude or perverse imitations of life (undead, golems). A mage can use and manipulate this energy to alter or transform objects with creative energy (so golems and undead are animated objects), but anything created out of "pure" magical energy is temporary, flimsy or unstable. This explains why walls, portals and other objects are only temporary in nature, as well as many other limitations to magic in illarion.
Thus in essence, the current magic of Illarion is alteration of creative energy through magical energies (anything 'permanent' such as the teleporters, undead or golems), or temporary exploitation of harnessed magical energies (lightning bolts, portals, walls -> everything else).
(The pure essences are magical energy so compressed that it has taken a physical form. Craftsman is not "creating" a magical weapon, he is merely altering an existing weapon with the magical essence that will be bound on the weapon)
Creative energy is the energy used by priests, druids and witches due to their relation to nature and gods. Gods hold the ultimate power of creation and life, while nature (the gods' creation) is a cycle of death and birth, the creation of something new from old.
This theory and Rituals
Creative energy, on the other hand, CAN create something completely new out of -nothing-. Druids, witches and priests 'can' perform rituals which *create* permanent changes. So if the most powerful mage in the world makes a mountain rise, then the mage "merely" reshapes the stones underground and uses his magical powers to push them up on the surface. When his willpower or the magical energies binding the stones are gone, the mountain will crumble. When a priest prays and performs a ritual, the mountain simply *becomes*.
So if a mage performs resurrection ritual, the best he can hope to achieve is either to turn the deceased person into a mummy, skeleton or a lich (perverse and crude imitation of life) or merely delay the inevitable, bringing the dead one back in a dying condition (alteration).
A priest on the other hand can -give a new life-. A mage "might" be able to make a tree grow fast, but he still needs a seedling or a tree. A circle of druids or witches can -create- a forest.
This theory also explains the behaviour of various creatures:
This kind of nature of energies is the reason why demons, undead, golems and other magical perversions and alterations are so chaotic and destructive: They are not capable of creating "new". They only can 'alter' things. They are bound to the mold.
On the other hand, Dragons for instance are not magical creatures. They have powers which can be compared to magic, but the source of their power is their divine roots (being children of bragon and so on). This is why they are not purely destructive can sometimes be reasoned with. They 'can' create new things.
Conclusion
This is, in my opinion, is a fairly balanced view on magic theory which adequately answers to several questions, such as technical/balance issues (“Why can’t I cover gobiath with walls?”), goes a way to explain why things are the way they are and most importantly sets certain limits to the power of magic, separating it from the divinity-affairs ritual wise. However, most importantly it doesn’t make anyone in particular the center of the universe simply because the powers and their nature are so vastly different on all sides.
--
Cromwell's take on things.
I can tell you that my experience with magical theory is limited to helping PO Taeryon translate a name of some book into English. However, reading certain one-eyed stuff makes me want to facepalm.
Let me make 'my' position clear (and I know several players agree). It's a fantasy game, but still.. not everything is related to magic. Open your eyes and look past the runes and manas and you'll see a whole world which operates without the need for magic. Magic is an addition to the world, not the force which makes the world go around (in simple terms; the world will survive without magic, but not the other way around). If everything was indeed really magic coming from an official source, I think that this would not only make any opposition to magic IG (nordmark) redundant, but would also (further.. magic is basically fireworks as it is) trivialize magic.
The fact that we have a reasonable and balanced theory is much more important matter than whether a character ought to cream his/her pants or not when the mana-bar is at X-percent.
Basic theory
There are not just one, but actually two kinds of energies.
Firstly:
The dominating force which we can call "Creative energy" or "Life Energy" here. This energy is something which is included in "every" creature and every particle. There is creative energy in every man, every blade of grass, every stone and speck of dust. This is the energy of gods and (thus) nature.
Secondly:
Magical Energy. These energies are present in the world, but they are invisible and unaffecting the most. Only those with special qualities (mages) are able to truly sense these energies, and with further training harness them from their surrounding environment for their own use (mana). However, magical energy itself cannot be used to create anything permanent and all "creations" of magic are in fact mere crude or perverse imitations of life (undead, golems). A mage can use and manipulate this energy to alter or transform objects with creative energy (so golems and undead are animated objects), but anything created out of "pure" magical energy is temporary, flimsy or unstable. This explains why walls, portals and other objects are only temporary in nature, as well as many other limitations to magic in illarion.
Thus in essence, the current magic of Illarion is alteration of creative energy through magical energies (anything 'permanent' such as the teleporters, undead or golems), or temporary exploitation of harnessed magical energies (lightning bolts, portals, walls -> everything else).
(The pure essences are magical energy so compressed that it has taken a physical form. Craftsman is not "creating" a magical weapon, he is merely altering an existing weapon with the magical essence that will be bound on the weapon)
Creative energy is the energy used by priests, druids and witches due to their relation to nature and gods. Gods hold the ultimate power of creation and life, while nature (the gods' creation) is a cycle of death and birth, the creation of something new from old.
This theory and Rituals
Creative energy, on the other hand, CAN create something completely new out of -nothing-. Druids, witches and priests 'can' perform rituals which *create* permanent changes. So if the most powerful mage in the world makes a mountain rise, then the mage "merely" reshapes the stones underground and uses his magical powers to push them up on the surface. When his willpower or the magical energies binding the stones are gone, the mountain will crumble. When a priest prays and performs a ritual, the mountain simply *becomes*.
So if a mage performs resurrection ritual, the best he can hope to achieve is either to turn the deceased person into a mummy, skeleton or a lich (perverse and crude imitation of life) or merely delay the inevitable, bringing the dead one back in a dying condition (alteration).
A priest on the other hand can -give a new life-. A mage "might" be able to make a tree grow fast, but he still needs a seedling or a tree. A circle of druids or witches can -create- a forest.
This theory also explains the behaviour of various creatures:
This kind of nature of energies is the reason why demons, undead, golems and other magical perversions and alterations are so chaotic and destructive: They are not capable of creating "new". They only can 'alter' things. They are bound to the mold.
On the other hand, Dragons for instance are not magical creatures. They have powers which can be compared to magic, but the source of their power is their divine roots (being children of bragon and so on). This is why they are not purely destructive can sometimes be reasoned with. They 'can' create new things.
Conclusion
This is, in my opinion, is a fairly balanced view on magic theory which adequately answers to several questions, such as technical/balance issues (“Why can’t I cover gobiath with walls?”), goes a way to explain why things are the way they are and most importantly sets certain limits to the power of magic, separating it from the divinity-affairs ritual wise. However, most importantly it doesn’t make anyone in particular the center of the universe simply because the powers and their nature are so vastly different on all sides.
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Djironnyma
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Uhhh... nice theory but i dont think you really understand what was asked for (at least by Taeryon or later me). Such definitions are in my opinion to much regulation for a official background, can be the opinion/theory of a char or a group of chars. Like i wrote above it is more need to describe "To do a magic XYZ feels for a mage/priest/fisher like...", not a "The world works that way", that should be a IG, and only a IG thing, it would ruin much RP if there would be a forcing official background.