Interesting thoughts.

[azurelunatic]

How does the feel of a scientist-mage differ from the feel of a mage who is artistic, or religious?

Comments

[bibble.livejournal.com]

art-mages are rougher. from the subble.

[azurelunatic]

Geekmages too, then... mine never shaves. Well, hardly ever...

[koshall.livejournal.com]

How about one who is all three, like me?

[azurelunatic]

Oooh, multifaceted and multitalented.

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

Indeed he is....

[iroshi.livejournal.com]

Which reminds me: I want picture. amberfox claims to have shown me a picture, which I remember not. Send me a picture. You know my email. ^_^

Dooooooom

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Categorizations are arbitrary, and for any categories you can come up with, most people are an arbitrary combination. But, while reading Wizard's Dilemma and noticing sciency and religion-y things in one of the spells, I recently thought:

Religious-mage relies on intent and harmoniousness; not necessary to be accurate if intent is aligned with intent of beings relied on. Everything is personified. Spells may be as simple as a prayer or as complicated as a long ceremony. Anyone can do the same spell if the deity is listening, or if the person believes thus, depending on your outlook.

Scientist-mage relies on accuracy; statement may be met without intent, so care needed. Everything is quantified, and if possible explained, even if the explanation is a "placeholder" for a more accurate one. Spells are complicated, to contain all necessary information explicitly. Anyone "disciplined enough" can do the same thing, though some of the less subtle details may very from situation to situation. Much of Western magecraft.
Artist-mage relies on flavor. If an act has the same flavor as the desired result, the result will come to pass. Spells are crafted to be as apparently simple as possible, with information often implicit rather than explicit, but may be designed to have layers of meaning. Obviously, spells are crafted to the individual's artistic sensibility and may not be reusable by others - or even by the same person on a different day. Many mathematicians are actually artists.

Re: Dooooooom

[azurelunatic]

Yay! Babblingness! Yay!