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Who's your favorite Wizard?


Acky

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Originally Posted By: Earth Empires
Avernum didn't have sun and doubt Empires scientists were focusing on sun/moon. Those who knew answer if Erika could have gone outside during nights (which don't exist at Avernum) are dead long ago.

Avernum is a cave, but Erika can go anywhere she pleases in the cave. The question is whether she can go out under the moon on the surface, where there are meaningfully nights in the first place.

Presumably if there are mages inflicting sunlight curses there are also mages who understand whether or not moonlight counts for the curse's purposes. Those might just be those who cast the curse in the first place, but I can't imagine Erika not throwing all her considerable research efforts into figuring out all the details of her curse.

—Alorael, who can't see why starlight in a similar spectrum shouldn't be similarly fatal if it really has to do with the light. Spectra are spectra, obviously. And that's why science has no place in a magical discussion.
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Originally Posted By: In which a name is changed
And that's why science has no place in a magical discussion.


Pretty much.

I usually tend to assume that magic in a semi-classical setting like Avernum would adhere to the rules of beliefs common to such cultures. Even the more advanced ones, like Ancient Greece/Rome didn't have quite the view/knowledge of the universe we do today. Thus, unless explicitly stated otherwise, I tend to differentiate between solar, lunar, and starlight when it comes to these things.
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Originally Posted By: Necris Omega
I did like Solberg, and love how he went out in the very end, but... the whole "cowering in a tower for two games" kinda knocks him down a few points. What, Avernum can't be buggered to arm, oh... say, some elite adventurers with a certain demonslaying blade and get him out of there? ...


I know right! Leaving Cheeseball and me to rot in there and defend for ourselves.

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega
Still, probably #2 on my list.


Second only to Erika...I'll take that!

Post #557 cool
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Seriously. Witch can mean "female wizard," "female warlock," or just "female user of magic" in general; it can refer to a practitioner of specific traditions such as Wicca, although the term itself predates such modernizations; it can imply an evil magic-user; an archetypal fairy-tale figure; a specific costume, thanks American Halloween; and it has even be used to refer specifically to men at various points in history.

 

So no, "does nature magic" and "usually wiccan or pagan" are not categorically applicable.

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Originally Posted By: grimace-ga

I recently spent many happy hours marking essays on Arthur Miller's
'The Crucible', a play about the 17th century witch hunt in Salem,
Massachusetts. An alarming number of students believed that male
defendants at the witch trials were accused of being *wizards* and
practicing wizardry. I blame Harry Potter...


Me too!
I bet that if you'd open an English-English dictionary from 1980 and a dictionary from 2010 on the value "witch" you would find two completely different definitions and all thanks to that series.
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For the purposes of this discussion I'm personally inclined to incorporate as broad a definition of "Wizard" as possible. Relegating descriptions to a very narrow and finite purview would disqualify too many interesting characters.

 

Besides, the definitions aren't generally as forged in steel in Avernum. Witch, mage, wizard, shaper, warlock, Arch-incantrix... In the end, you're either using arcane magic, priest/divine magic, or both.

 

Some are necromancers like that goober in the Northpoint Lighthouse on Bigail; some are demonologists like Garzahd, Linda, and... I guess you could call Solberg a Demonologist given his anti-demon expertise; pyromancers like Erika; angrymancers like Rentar; and a whole host of other disciplinary specialties. Whatever their magic of choice, they're all wizards in the end.

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Although harry potter is good none the less. Who here has read the entire series? Say blast-ended skrewt! The magic in there is not so differant in exile in avernum. The wands have differant uses. In Harry potter they are used to cast multiple spells with unlimited uses. In exile and avernum (not counting the one you get at the sacred items temple in E/A 3) wands only have one use and have about 6 charges. The spells in E/A are more attacking spells (atleast mage spells), and harry potter spells have some attacking and killing, but its mostly for other stuff.

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Eh, Avernum/Exile make allusions to magic that is more "practical" that were too "needs more explosions" for your party to be buggered with, and Exile even had a number of spells that would fit into that category I think (Scrying, manna spells, Flight, invisibility, a few others...).

 

Yeah... as much as I hate to admit it, the high, very "classical" magic of Harry Potter does have a lot of parallels with Avernum/Exile's also very classical magic system. Except, you know, loaded with corny pseudo Latin.

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Originally Posted By: Trenton Uchiha, rebel servile.
Although harry potter is good none the less. Who here has read the entire series? Say blast-ended skrewt!


Blast-ended Skrewt! Five times. Thinking about a sixth...

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega
Eh, Avernum/Exile make allusions to magic that is more "practical" that were too "needs more explosions" for your party to be buggered with, and Exile even had a number of spells that would fit into that category I think (Scrying, manna spells, Flight, invisibility, a few others...).


Cleaning and organizing spells to start with. The first one I remember hearing about was in Fort Draco in Exile 1: Escape From the Pit. The woman who ran the larder in the SW corner of the fort mentions having to use a de-dusting spell several times a day because of all of the iron ore dust from the smelters. Several times in the Spiderweb games you might hear about other spells that the characters don't have access to.

Post #564 cool
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