driftfleet | Magic Talk with Yuan, Episode 2

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Magic Talk with Yuan, Episode 2

Who: Yuan Ka-Fai and anyone
Broadcast: Video
Action: The library on the Iskaulit
When: Now

[The video feed opens up to Yuan in the library. He's once again poised to take notes as he addresses the camera.]

A while ago, I asked about magic in other people's worlds, specifically about elves and their connection to it, or where magic originates from if not elves. Today I'd like to ask instead specifically about healing magic.

In my world, healing magic is a little different from regular elemental spells, although most healing spells also incorporate one of the eight elements. Very few 'casters have the aptitude to learn it - I'm not one of them, so there are a lot of gaps in my understanding - and as such, those who do are sought after for their skills. I'd like to hear about healing magic in your worlds as well: is it associated with a particular element or type of magic? Can any spellcaster learn to heal, or is it restricted to certain people? What, if any, are its limitations or drawbacks?

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I could answer, but my circumstances are a little different than most...

Anything I tell you would be from a virtual reality world, where my appearance here is from as well. Is that all right?

I'm not quite sure I follow, but...if you can cast the same spells here, then I think it's safe to assume you've brought the rules of that world with you, and I'd be interested to learn them.

Yeah, I'm not a healer either, so I don't know everything - but one of my best friends back home was. Accordin' to her, it's a form of light element. And yeah, not everyone can do it. It's either your thing, or it's not. Like any other element or focus of it.

Far as limits go, she'd get awful headaches if she kept at it. The more she had to use it, the worse it got. [ A pause... aaaand a sheepish, somewhat guilty smile. ] Dude, there was this one time I pretty much got myself stabbed through with some serious fuckin' ice magic. Like, I think I almost died. But she healed me, even though it took a couple of days and gave her fuckin' debilitatin' migraines... You know, all while threatenin' to kill me herself if it ever happened again. Heh. Still feel bad about that one.

Where I am from, anyone can cast a basic healing spell if they are able to cast magic. But the stronger spells require specific training and heavy study into traditional healing - at least, in the magic I'm familiar with. General healing spells are not as focused; a healer who has been trained, however, can focus the spell to where it is needed the most.

[a hum] Is that what you are seeking?

Mm, I fear my definition of the word "magic" is different to yours - but it seems so in many worlds. There are many things my kinsfolk and I can do that you might consider Magic, I suppose?

Does most light-elemental magic give the user headaches, or just healing? That's not something I've known to happen in my world, unless headaches are normally a consequence of mana drain.

[He doesn't seem particularly fazed by the part about you almost dying. Sorry, Eithan.]

More or less. Interesting. Would you say that healing magic is separate from elemental spells, or an element in and of itself, perhaps? Many casters in my world can use multiple elements at a basic level, but find it more useful to specialize when it comes to more powerful magic.

Part of what I'm trying to do is sort out exactly what 'magic' entails, see if we can find some definition for it across the worlds. So even if you don't call your abilities by that name, I'd be interested to learn what you can do and how it works.

Mmm . . . [there's a thoughtful pause] Perhaps an element on its own, honestly, to put into those terms. But there is still a . . . crossover, though? Holy magic has its own sub-system of healing, as does dark magic. It is fairly simple to explain Elvish healing magic, but when one delves into human magic, it becomes a bit more complicated.

[ No apologies necessary! The opposite, in fact - he rather likes pretending it wasn't a thing that scarred him against ice magic for life. hahaha. ha. ...ha.

By now, he's used to the words "mana" and "magic" being almost interchangeable - in specific contexts and circumstances, obviously - so he can roll with it. ]

Yeah, mana drain. It's just that it tends to happens a lot faster with healers, probably 'cause a lot more focus and attention is involved.

I did bring them with me, that much is true.

Well, in that world, magic can be learned by anyone, but different races each have different aptitudes. For example, I'm an Undine. We're most suited to magic, water and healing specifically. Other races can use it, but they each have their own special aptitude.

Mm, well, you see, that is a little... difficult. But I suppose, the easiest description would be that my kinsfolk work with the Song of the world. By doing so we... guide the Song to the patterns that we wish it to work with, but we can only do so, of course, so far as the Song itself wishes to move. To force it out of it's patterns is possible, but not wise.

In so doing we can do as much as the Music will allow - I can call sleep for those who are weary, and ease bad dreams. In battle I can confuse my enemies, drawing shadow and confusion. My cousins could do much more than that, but they are formally trained. One of my brothers - he used Song in his crafting, to coax metal to the shapes that would be best suited for them, so that swords would be ever sharp and not break. Things like that.

[There's really one specific part of that that he's got to fixate on first:]

An Undine? You can't be an Undine, Undine is the Summon Spirit of Water. ...A-a lot of healing spells do harness water as an element, but...

I see. So healing uses more energy than most kinds of magic. ...There's actually some precedent for that in my world as well, although I tend to forget: healing doesn't work as well on people who don't have certain...combat enhancements. Most people who see a lot of fighting have them, but I imagine it would be something similar if they didn't.

[Asuna huffs a little, letting it turn into a sigh. She's good at remaining patient at least.]

In the virtual world I was a part of, the Undines are a race of fairies. So, yes, I can be, and I am. Different worlds have different myths and legends, remember? What might be one thing in your could be completely opposite in another.

[This is, by it's very nature, an interesting topic. One that Ignis wants to know more about, considering the nature of magic on Eos.]

Well, on my own world, there are two types of healing that can be done, but only a select group of people have access to the magical kind. The rest of the population rely on hospitals.

...Is Holy magic the same thing as Light magic, then, if you speak of it as the opposite of Dark? And can you elaborate a little on the differences between Elvish magic and human?

So this Song has a will of its own, and only allows you to change certain things by your own will. ...Am I to understand that one of these things includes healing others, then? [Since that is the topic of the moment.]

Once upon a time, hospitals were a place primarily for healing via magitechnology, with a few actual healers employed for those circumstances which required them. In the modern day, with magitech less available, cities have fewer places where the ill or injured congregate, and instead a healer or doctor will be called to tend them in bed as often as not.

What sort of people have access to magical healing, then?

Like, usin' magic on someone without magic in 'em is harder. That'd make sense. So, do the combat enhancements like amplify what's already there? Or could they make someone who's not a fighter actually a fighter?

[ Don't mind him, he's just curious. ]

Undine is neither a myth nor a legend: I know her personally.

But your point is taken: it's not the first time I've run into an awkward confusion of names, and it probably won't be the last.

Is healing magic tied to water magic exclusively, or can the other races that you mentioned, with different aptitudes, use other healing spells as well?

Mostly the former, but to such a degree that trying to fight someone who has that enhancement, as someone who doesn't, is nearly futile.

[Also they are made with Actual Human Souls, which is why he's being so vague about the whole thing.]

There are other things that can improve the strength of healing magic at its source, mind you: does your world have unicorns?

Mm, yes sort of. [ Maglor frowns, groping for the right words ]

Understand, it has no Will of it's own, per se. Just... a pattern. A way it's supposed to be? Like any music, put the wrong note it, and it will fall apart, but one note has many that can follow, a musical phrase can go in many different directions, but they have to be the one that fits.

But yes, healing is part of what some can do.

Ah - yes, holy is light magic, my apologies.

I will do my best to? [there's the sound of shifting, as though she's moving to get into a more comfortable position] Elvish magic is drawn from nature; the way it is done and how it is used is restricted to one with elvish blood. The process cannot be controlled, nor can it be enhanced - but it is a magic that allows anyone with the skill to write and alter spells very easily.

Human magic, on the other hand, is drawn from one's personal power. It can be enhanced, be it from a potion or some manner of artifact, and how one takes in additional power from another source can be controlled easily - but the spells are not as easily altered, and one must take great care in writing them. Like Elvish, it is restricted to those who have human blood.

So a human cannot cast magic using the methods of the elvish system, and an elf cannot use the human system. Half-elves, though . . . given what we are, we can use both.

[she huffs out a breath] From there is where it gets more complicated. Humans have a great many specialties they have access to - both holy and dark, their system's healing, other sorts - while elves do not. Half-elves are restricted as well - we are not able to cast any sort of holy magic.

Makes sense.

[ Good thing he leaves it at that then, for now~ ]

In one of 'em, yeah. They're extinct in my realm though. Supposedly. Wait, they can improve healin' magic?

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Magic Talk with Yuan, Episode 2

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