[Before I get into this: Hope you had a merry Christmas! Have a happy New Year! Remember: alcohol and family reunions are a good combination!]
There's a big difference between the High Magicks and the kind of
stuff most spell-slingers do. For one thing, you don't need a
magegift to do them.
[Sorry, do which? Magic or "MAGICK"]
Yeah, I know that sounds like it doesn't
make sense. The thing is, there's magic, and then there's
Magick. Spellcasters and mage-freaks like me, well, what we do
is use local power for local effects. The magegift lets us find,
tap and shape that power, but with a few exceptions ( Lina
Inverse Willow Rosenberg ) we can rarely
affect an area larger than, say, a small town. And that only if
we're lucky and have a lot of power handy.
[Ah, now, see, here I'll have to disagree on the wording.
Lina and company do not "tap local forces". The energy that they channel is basically universal to their universe (or at least global to their . . . globe). Anywhere they are, they can get energy from the Elements or the Astral Plane or channel from the various Mazoku. And Lina is just one of many who can do a Dragon Slave, which affects a bit more than a small town. It's just that she's very good at it.]
The High Magicks, well, they're closer to priestly rites than
spellcasting. They're often like little plays -- dramaturgy, I
guess you'd call it -- where each participant has a specified
role. And it's the roles that are important. Because in the
High Magicks, the partipants don't just draw or call on power,
they *become* Powers. The ritual makes its participants, however
briefly, one with the Forces and Beings and, and... Things that
they are representing, which they can then alter -- and be
altered by, in turn, because it's a reciprocal relationship.
That's the danger of the High Magicks -- the loss of self, the
immersion in the cosmic forces you are calling on. You tell it
how you want it to control you, and if you bungle it, well... I
sometimes wonder if Hexe came into the world because a certain
young German girl named Helene accidentally -- and more or less
fatally -- invoked her with a High Magick ritual, many years ago.
[Now I know that this sounds similar to Lina's Giga Slave--and it probably is, but it's pretty much the only spell in the Slayers-verse that does this. And even then, it doesn't happen every time. And the Lord of Nightmares has to leave the body or the world will be destroyed.
Oh, and the Slayersverse does do a lot of channeling from the Mazoku, but that doesn't mean that, say, Gaav could inhabit Lina's body when she does a Gaav Flare. It's just drawing energy from Gaav.]
There's a big difference between the High Magicks and the kind of
stuff most spell-slingers do. For one thing, you don't need a
magegift to do them.
[Sorry, do which? Magic or "MAGICK"]
Yeah, I know that sounds like it doesn't
make sense. The thing is, there's magic, and then there's
Magick. Spellcasters and mage-freaks like me, well, what we do
is use local power for local effects. The magegift lets us find,
tap and shape that power, but with a few exceptions ( Lina
Inverse Willow Rosenberg ) we can rarely
affect an area larger than, say, a small town. And that only if
we're lucky and have a lot of power handy.
[Ah, now, see, here I'll have to disagree on the wording.
Lina and company do not "tap local forces". The energy that they channel is basically universal to their universe (or at least global to their . . . globe). Anywhere they are, they can get energy from the Elements or the Astral Plane or channel from the various Mazoku. And Lina is just one of many who can do a Dragon Slave, which affects a bit more than a small town. It's just that she's very good at it.]
The High Magicks, well, they're closer to priestly rites than
spellcasting. They're often like little plays -- dramaturgy, I
guess you'd call it -- where each participant has a specified
role. And it's the roles that are important. Because in the
High Magicks, the partipants don't just draw or call on power,
they *become* Powers. The ritual makes its participants, however
briefly, one with the Forces and Beings and, and... Things that
they are representing, which they can then alter -- and be
altered by, in turn, because it's a reciprocal relationship.
That's the danger of the High Magicks -- the loss of self, the
immersion in the cosmic forces you are calling on. You tell it
how you want it to control you, and if you bungle it, well... I
sometimes wonder if Hexe came into the world because a certain
young German girl named Helene accidentally -- and more or less
fatally -- invoked her with a High Magick ritual, many years ago.
[Now I know that this sounds similar to Lina's Giga Slave--and it probably is, but it's pretty much the only spell in the Slayers-verse that does this. And even then, it doesn't happen every time. And the Lord of Nightmares has to leave the body or the world will be destroyed.
Oh, and the Slayersverse does do a lot of channeling from the Mazoku, but that doesn't mean that, say, Gaav could inhabit Lina's body when she does a Gaav Flare. It's just drawing energy from Gaav.]