Article on Principles of Magic

[Robin Smallburrow]

Hi all,

below is a good article from Michael Cole taken from the Yahoo fan group re Magic Principles:

Principles of Magic in Middle Earth

When the world was sung into existence, magic came with it. Magic is thus an intrinsic part of the world, part of its creation. As magic is used, the magic fades. The world will eventually become mundane, as all the magic fades away, but it does still exist.

Magic is also natural. It can enhance or weaken the inherent properties of things, but effects which are truly unnatural are limited.

Usage of magic is dependent on the abilities of the practitioner. Magic will enhance or provide magical effects for a skill implemented by someone, but will not allow that person to cause an effect for which they do not have the skill. In other words, if you cannot smith a weapon, you cannot enchant such a weapon. The enchantment occurs as a result of the smithing process, and the smith must have the required skill to manipulate the magic into the weapon’s creation. You cannot enchant a weapon after the creation. It enhances mundane tasks; it cannot take the place of them.

Magic cannot come out of nothing. You can cause a flammable object to start burning, but you cannot cause a fire with nothing to burn.

Magic takes time. Nothing is instantaneous. The mundane task still needs to be performed.

Magic use takes effort, as in an extra effort on top of the effort to perform the mundane task.

Magic effect is dependent on the individual power of the practitioner. Hedge mages cannot misfire and cause the Sun to disappear.

Magic by itself is neither good nor evil. It just is. It can however be used for good or evil purposes. If it is used for great good or evil, then it can become tainted. Magic can thus then affect further users. If a magic user utilises magic in an area where the magic is tainted, then he himself may become tainted. In other words, trying to use magic from an area in which magic was previously used to perform great evil may cause the user to start a slide towards evil.

Magic use is detectable. It causes a “disturbance in the force.” As to who can detect it and at what distance, that is dependent on the sensitivity of the detector and the scale of the usage. Magic that is tainted is easier to detect.

Magic usage is sometimes uncertain. It is not a science.

Michael Cole

Hope this is of interest! Robin S.