Magic

[Upon Mars.]

I was wondering... in all the different Geneforge Games we learn that the Shaper's arts are based on the splitting and recombining of DNA or macromolecules stored in essence; magic would cut through material and make certain substances react so as to produce the desired effect: tampering steel or making living beings.

 

I have three questions.

 

-Question one:

What is magic? How is it made? Any speculation?

 

_Question two:

Is there any description in the game that describes how essence works?

 

-Question three:

We all know that essence is the current equivalent of the primordial ooze from which we all descended. Knowing that essence reacts to air like the primordial soup did to a oxygen "rich" atmosphere, how come essence doesn't burn when tampered with?

 

Thank you for your time.

[Txgangsta]

Magic is mysterious. I don't remember anything about it except that if you had the ability you could be trained in controling it.

 

The graphic art seems to imply that essence comes from the caster and coalesce's not far away. The essence is then directed with magic to form the creature. At least I think that's how it works. That's how it works in my mind.

 

I remember essence vats that were volitle after mantience wasn't kept up.

[Mod.]

Quote:

-Question one:
What is magic? How is it made? Any speculation?

_Question two:
Is there any description in the game that describes how essence works?

-Question three:
We all know that essence is the current equivalent of the primordial ooze from which we all descended. Knowing that essence reacts to air like the primordial soup did to a oxygen "rich" atmosphere, how come essence doesn't burn when tampered with?

Magic is using a person's willpower to use the arcane energies existent throughout the universe to do something. At least that is my guess. There are different sects of magic users throughout the geneforge universe, the shapers is just the most prominent.

Essence is created by shapers out of raw materials. There is a fan-fic here somewhere that involves shaping using blood (haven't read any of it in forever, still need to find out what happens) which is possible, due to the fact that early shapers shaped the insides living beings in order to kill them (and it usually worked). Essence could be similar in some way to blood, or whatever humans are made of. It is possible that many different substances are capable to shape with.

[Archaeolagent]

Brief digression -- Mod, I've been meaning to ask for a while what your userpic is. It's sort of fascinating looking, and I've been debating if it's actually supposed to be sperm or not.

[Dikiyoba]

The full-size version reveals that they are snakes.

 

Dikiyoba assumes that magic spells are something you can learn if you have the aptitude for it and the patience to develop the proper technique (books, trainers) or a very specific innate ability (canisters, some creation attacks). The essence cost is probably due to balance issues rather than an actual component of spells, since the Sholai and the remains of ancient civilizations have magic but no Shaping.

[Acky]

@Slarty - Pretty sure it's not sperm, since it has three tails. Looks more like an oddly shaped enzyme to me.

[Mod.]

Cool, i got Slarty to make a post with not value toward the topic. It happens to be a blue version of the Razer logo, a gaming gear company. I liked the look.

 

I don't remember a reference to the Sholai ever knowing magic.

[Randomizer]

Originally Posted By: Mod.

I don't remember a reference to the Sholai ever knowing magic.

Geneforge 1 had Sholai using magic before they got stranded on the island. They have a few people with them capable of using magic.

[Tuldrac]

Well, from what i can tell, it's all just manipulation of energy.

Like in geneforge 1, in order to kill things the primitive shapers would just throw energy at the enemy, this sometimes worked, but also sometimes it had the undesired effect of making the creature power. (thats what i got from it anyhow)

 

I think that essence is merely just concentrated energy to take on a form.

Just as magic would be energy taken on a different form, to enhance your abilities temporarily or shoot a fire ball, it avoids the issue of possibly helping your enemy.

[Milla]

Re: Sholai

 

In Geneforge 1 it is said the Sholai have strong magic which is different from the Shapers.

 

Also a point worth mentioning about essence, it;s mentioned in all the help .pdf in the magic section would (paraphrasing) without training someone trying to contain essence within their body would be consumed from the inside out.

[Ezrah, Kitty of Wonder.]

The way I interpreted it is that magic in the geneforge theory is probably some sort of latent psionic ability that has to be honed, shaped and perfected through training... because it didn't seem like -everyone- was capable of even magic... within the geneforge world itself, everything seems to follow well defined laws of physics even if we don't know them, so I think that "magus" training is probably most concentration and technique to properly, and reliably, alter the forces acting upon, and properties of objects within the world around them.

 

so far as shaping is concerned... it seemed to me that within the story shapers did what many here described... and then began experimenting on creations using various spells... so I have the feeling that whatever means magic functions through, its probably relatively similar to the electromagnetic force... and, in high enough dosages, would cause subtle or not so subtle alterations to its target if it didn't kill them outright...

 

[it also mentions that the shapers have been around a -long- time, altering generation after generation of creatures, so it would make sense]

 

Finally essence seems very much like primordial ooze, or at least a swirling maelstrom of charge amino acids and other "lifestuff" that they use to peice togeather their creatures... and has been shown to become unstable [very flammable, and quite explosive due to the magical charge in it] so far as essense cost in the game, thats a little more puzzling, but I like to think that everytime a shaper shapes something "on the fly" they leave a small part of themselves lodged inside of it... I doubt they can memorize the millions of codons necessary to form a creature... but they could encode the information into them selves for later extraction... perhaps there is a ritualistic portion to magi training that does the same with the complicated calculations required to achieve the desired spell effects... and the "burn up" a little bit of it [which the body would naturally replenish with time] each casting.