And of course it all started with Ars Magica...
'Ars' had 5 verbs - Creo (Create), Perdo (Destroy), Muto (Transform), Rego (Control), and Intellego (Perceive/Understand).
It then had 10 nouns - Animal (what it says on the tin), Auram (Air/gases), Aquam (Water/liquids), Corpus (the human body), Herbam (plants & fungi), Ignem (fire/light/heat), Imaginem (Image/Sound), Mentem (Intelligence / The Mind), Terram (Earth, any non-living solids), Vim (power, magic).
A character would have a rating in each of the 15, and combine a verb+noun for whatever the type of thing they wanted to do, and the primary subject of the spell.
So if you wanted to throw a fireball, that's Creo Ignem. If you want to do 'throw the cup at the table', the table is a targeting problem, and it's Rego Terram.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
'Ars' had 5 verbs - Creo (Create), Perdo (Destroy), Muto (Transform), Rego (Control), and Intellego (Perceive/Understand).
It then had 10 nouns - Animal (what it says on the tin), Auram (Air/gases), Aquam (Water/liquids), Corpus (the human body), Herbam (plants & fungi), Ignem (fire/light/heat), Imaginem (Image/Sound), Mentem (Intelligence / The Mind), Terram (Earth, any non-living solids), Vim (power, magic).
A character would have a rating in each of the 15, and combine a verb+noun for whatever the type of thing they wanted to do, and the primary subject of the spell.
So if you wanted to throw a fireball, that's Creo Ignem. If you want to do 'throw the cup at the table', the table is a targeting problem, and it's Rego Terram.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.