Classificatory Problems and Traditional Schools of Magic - V. Falconheart

Essay
Victrienne Faconheart
16 November, 625 K.C.
"Classificatory Problems and the Traditional Schools of Magic"
The traditional schools of magic are among the first topics taught to prospective mages. Virtually all apprentices can list them by memory, and many practitioners of the arcane identify as specialists in one or more of those schools. Archmage Runeweaver in The Schools of Arcane Magic provides the traditional list: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation.
It is my contention that these schools lack real coherence. They divide magical techniques according to neither fundamental similarity of technique or similarity of the effects it creates, but rather mix the two. The result is a system which must be found unsatisfactory to serious scholars of the arcane.
This problem can be seen most clearly by reflecting on the distinction between evocation and abjuration. Both deal with the manipulation of 'pure' energies by making them manifest in the physical world. On the level of fundamental magical theory, then, they are functionally identical. What separates them is rather the purpose for which magical energies are manipulated, namely for offensive or defensive purposes, respectively. Similarly, enchantment as a school has no distinct theoretical basis: it is a process of applying other forms of magic, not a true form in itself.
On the other hand, other schools adequately reflect fundamental distinctions in the techniques of applying magic. This is seen most clearly with respect to the difference between illusion and transmutation. Both of these schools deal with alteration of the world. However, the distinguishing feature here is not the sort of effect produced – both an illusion or a transmutation could create an image of a particular thing. Rather, they are distinguished by the deeper difference in how the effect is produced, namely that illusory effects alter only sensory perceptions of the world, while transmutation alters only the physical world.
We have seen that some schools separate themselves along lines of effect (the evocation-abjuration distinction) and others do so along causal lines, that is, how their effects are produced (the illusion-transmutation distinction). This essay will not deal with a more satisfactory schema for categorizing the magical arts, and I acknowledge that the entrenchment of the existing schools makes their elimination unlikely. However, I nonetheless encourage a deeper thinking on the categories of magic.
Category:Library of Sarceline
Category:Victrienne Faconheart