[ interesting question, but not altogether surprising. ]
Mages, dragons, spiders small and monstrously large, yes. Though, the powerful mages are predominantly women - sorceresses. Simple mages can be either, anyone who put the study into it, but those of particular power are typical female. The Lodge of Sorceresses deposed the Sorcerers some time ago. There are some simply born of the power, we call Sources.
[ what was next? dragons? ]
Unlike what I’ve read of your Old Gods and the arch demons brought with the Blights, our dragons tend to mind their own business. They’re deeply intelligent, power, long-lived and wise creatures. Smaller, less sapient wyverns and drakes can plague the countrysides, but true dragons are rarely seen among the rest of us.
[ aaaand spiders. ] A phenomenon termed the Conjunction of the Spheres, much like the rifts here but on a massive, global scale, brought monsters and demons to live and bred in out realm. We’ve all shapes and sizes, some without evil intent at all. But many with. Overgrown spiders being some.
This world is only really strange to me in the specifics and details.
I've never heard of dragons as anything but very large scary animals before. But then, I doubt many people have actually tried to do much of anything except run away or fight them.
[There's a thoughtful silence. Even unto the rifts, their worlds were so damned similar. How could it be?]
So if you have Demons, you must have the Fade. I wonder how-- wait, you said some are born of the power? How can you have magic and not be born to it? That doesn't make any sense.
The Fade, no, we've nothing like it. Dreams are simply a mind's idle machinations. Our demons and monsters come from many differing worlds, tumbled through during the chaos of the Conjunction.
[ a beat, and he considers Sorrel's question about magic. If he could see him, there would be a vague shrug here. ]
Perhaps there is innate talent they're born with, but not so much they're born another race. Sorceresses and mages choose their craft on the Continent, for the most part. Unlike those here born into it.
[For a moment, Sorrel is stunne dinto silence. You can be a mage...just by choice? What, go to mage school, get a certificate for.... mage class? Apprentice to another mage for ten years and then you're a mage? From nothing?]
I... [He has no words. Sorrel takes a deep breath, and laughs. It's not a good laugh, it's trembling and disbelieving.] I can't even imagine it. Every mage in Thedas is one born to magic, Iorveth. No one chooses to be a mage, and the demons... [he has to stop, and this time his laugh is steadier though no less incredulous.]
You can just... choose to be a mage? What, do the demons just say, oh I've noticed your choice in hobby, guess I'll dig out the really nasty nightmare haunting now? Oh no, but no Fade so... Damn. Damn.
Aye, by choice. We've nothing like the mage towers or the Templars, not that the Sorceresses would allow it. Of anything, they're beyond the law most days, though it's changed as of late.
[ because the Lodge pulled some Fucked Up Shit and now every herbalist and fortune teller is being rounded up and burned at the stake, because the humans of the Continent are incapable of distinguishing one Other from another Other. All witches are the same, all elves and the same, so on and so forth. ]
There is no Fade, so demons have no hold innate on our mages, save for what the fools summon themselves or happen into among the rest of the world. [ and, yeah, that happens sometimes too, but not near so often as Thedas proclaims it. ]
There's hauntings and possessions as well, but one hardly needs to be a mage or anything special to earn those. Just have piss poor luck.
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Mages, dragons, spiders small and monstrously large, yes. Though, the powerful mages are predominantly women - sorceresses. Simple mages can be either, anyone who put the study into it, but those of particular power are typical female. The Lodge of Sorceresses deposed the Sorcerers some time ago. There are some simply born of the power, we call Sources.
[ what was next? dragons? ]
Unlike what I’ve read of your Old Gods and the arch demons brought with the Blights, our dragons tend to mind their own business. They’re deeply intelligent, power, long-lived and wise creatures. Smaller, less sapient wyverns and drakes can plague the countrysides, but true dragons are rarely seen among the rest of us.
[ aaaand spiders. ] A phenomenon termed the Conjunction of the Spheres, much like the rifts here but on a massive, global scale, brought monsters and demons to live and bred in out realm. We’ve all shapes and sizes, some without evil intent at all. But many with. Overgrown spiders being some.
This world is only really strange to me in the specifics and details.
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[There's a thoughtful silence. Even unto the rifts, their worlds were so damned similar. How could it be?]
So if you have Demons, you must have the Fade. I wonder how-- wait, you said some are born of the power? How can you have magic and not be born to it? That doesn't make any sense.
no subject
[ a beat, and he considers Sorrel's question about magic. If he could see him, there would be a vague shrug here. ]
Perhaps there is innate talent they're born with, but not so much they're born another race. Sorceresses and mages choose their craft on the Continent, for the most part. Unlike those here born into it.
no subject
[For a moment, Sorrel is stunne dinto silence. You can be a mage...just by choice? What, go to mage school, get a certificate for.... mage class? Apprentice to another mage for ten years and then you're a mage? From nothing?]
I... [He has no words. Sorrel takes a deep breath, and laughs. It's not a good laugh, it's trembling and disbelieving.] I can't even imagine it. Every mage in Thedas is one born to magic, Iorveth. No one chooses to be a mage, and the demons... [he has to stop, and this time his laugh is steadier though no less incredulous.]
You can just... choose to be a mage? What, do the demons just say, oh I've noticed your choice in hobby, guess I'll dig out the really nasty nightmare haunting now? Oh no, but no Fade so... Damn. Damn.
That's so... weird.
no subject
[ because the Lodge pulled some Fucked Up Shit and now every herbalist and fortune teller is being rounded up and burned at the stake, because the humans of the Continent are incapable of distinguishing one Other from another Other. All witches are the same, all elves and the same, so on and so forth. ]
There is no Fade, so demons have no hold innate on our mages, save for what the fools summon themselves or happen into among the rest of the world. [ and, yeah, that happens sometimes too, but not near so often as Thedas proclaims it. ]
There's hauntings and possessions as well, but one hardly needs to be a mage or anything special to earn those. Just have piss poor luck.