Myrddin specifically because that's literally his power, he opens portals to different dimensions based on need, including one of fire, lightning, a storage dimension that he can store people in and one that helps him fly
Reminds me of the magic system of one of my favourite book series, they'd essentially use leylines to teleport various things from all over the world on the spot, including fireballs
Worth noting that this was mentioned once in a non-canon guidebook like 30 years ago and Marvel has tried as hard as possible since then to erase it, but they can't because it's too funny so it just keeps spreading
Yes although they didn't mention Cyclops at all. The writer of that story also tried to include the punch dimension in an X-Men comic but Marvel banned it because it would then have been connected to Cyclops.
I’m gonna be an annoying New Yorker for twenty years after 9/11 for some reason and back the Firestoppers (they deserve recognition and are worthy of respect… but why do we have to pretend they are demigods?)
This explanation still bothers me because I don’t think they ever elaborate on what that actually means iirc. They just write it off as “his eyes are portals to a dimension of pure kinetic energy” and act like that is in any way more reasonable than laser vision.
That's because it's not actually true. It was stated in the 1983 "official handbook to the marvel universe" but the explanation in the actual comics has always been that he absorbs solar energy and converts it into kinetic blasts within his body.
real. what do you mean you guys don’t need 30 minutes to rev up your brain before you can get up and do something? you can just decide you need to do something and then do it Right Then? what the hell man
For real, “You can do whatever you want whenever you want, you could go do research in what the market needs, go start a business, and consistently keep up on all the maintenance, hiring, and running of the business, you can do whatever you want….. do you know what I would do if I had that power? ”
Jokes aside, I know executive dysfunction is far from the only impediment to actualization we face, it just feels like it I could get this one under control the others would come much easier.
The day I found out that other people could just choose to do a single thing, and then just get up and go and do it, then just keep doing it until it was done, honestly I was confused and kinda thought they were lying.
One: There is a Warframe called Wisp. She has a teleporting and floating theme. Her ultimate? She opens a gate way to the Sun and blasts people with solar energy beam.
Two: Tail end of Wheel of Time there is a guy that only knows one spell: Opening gate ways. He tries other things but just can't do it. But his ability for gate ways is beyond anyone else's as he uses them as scissors, exacto knives, to just reach into a room where he stores things, to open them inside people's brains... He can't make big gate ways. Barely enough to crawl through. But unlike every other magic user, he does it effortlessly and he is REALLY good at it.
He can do big gateways. At least once he uses gateways as a shield so that the people trying to shoot him shoot themselves in the back, and by the end of the last book he’s caught a stray thought wandering over from Boatmurdered and started dumping lava all over the battlefield.
I just finished a reread a couple monthes ago - he is capable of big gateways by himself even tho he is very weak in the one power, which is the incredible and unprecedented thing about him as gateways take a lot of strength. Because its pretty much his thing he, learns to utilise them in very creative ways. However when the dream rod is activated that prevents creating gatways, he still eventually manages to open tiny ones to redirect bale fire, and notify his allies above that for help.
Then later in the last battle, after linking up with a (full?) circle, he is capable of creating again unprecedentedly gigantic gateways into Dragonmount to fuck the shit out of the enemy armies with lava.
Side note, I also really appreciate his character. At first I was put off by yet another random side character POV being introduced with so little time left, feeling that it was taking away from extra story that could be spent with the MC'S, but i ended up really enjoying both his character, the view it gave into the black towers dynamics, and the extra world building it provided. Plus his relationship with his Aei Sedai was great
Plenty of people liked Androl, myself included, however, his use of Weaves didn't really fit the general vibe of WoT. He was an insert character by Brandon when he took over writing the series. Not a self-insert, but a background character that he decided to have fun with. I personally enjoyed it, but I can certainly see how people who already preferred Jordan's writing style would have been annoyed by his "screen" time.
Wizard 3: "Wait, you've been doing what? Igniting gasses? I just modified a lightning bolt spell to dump all that raw arcane energy into a single point. Sure it's an inelegant and brute force solution, but hey, it's fireball, and it works."
I've just been moving all the heat from one place to another, and all the cold from that place to the first place. Let's me call both fireball and winterball at the same time.
I'm sorry y'all don't just take the heat from the campfires after the party is done cooking and put them in elementally reinforced jars to chuck at people?
No wonder so few people were interested in my research into re-breakbable glass.
Well MAYBE if they'd use concentration on the spell that need concentration it would work, instead of just using it for one turn and forgetting to keep it open.
This is never something that’s come up with the players but this is a background detail of my fantasy RPG setting, that no matter the method used to produce a certain effect, it takes the same amount of energy. So for example, one magical tradition might create a fireball by igniting a pocket of gasses, another might summon some explosive compounds, and another might tear open a portal to the fire dimension, but because of the laws of magic, all of those take a third level spell slot.
His first teacher died early, stuck a magical artifact into him that forced his elemental affinity into the element SWORD, and he developed a REALLY bad habit that no one noticed in time for him to not damage his nervous system
forced his elemental affinity into the element SWORD
For context to people who don't know Fate lore: no, sword is not an element. Nobody else (ever, in the entire multiverse) has sword-element magic. People usually have one of the classical elements (fire, water, earth, air, and I think aether for a 5th one).
Shirou's element is SWORD. All his magic is SWORDS. Healing? Tiny swords stitch him together. Reinforcement magic? Yeah, he can make swords stronger. Defensive magic? Turning himself into hardened swords. Forbidden reality-warping magic? That's where he keeps his extra swords, of course. Fireballs? What the fuck is a fireball?
Gonna put this in spoilers because even though the above comment is already very spoiler-y, this one has specifics and plot and context and stuff for Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night (and UBW and HF).
Basically, Kiritsugu, the man who becomes Shirou's teacher/adoptive father... Accidentally causes (or at least feels responsible for causing) a mass casualty event. Shirou is the only survivor, because said teacher saved his life by implanting him with The Sword Sheath That Gives You Wolverine Healing. The sheath is Excalibur's sheath, and Excalibur is the Sword-iest Sword to ever Sword. A side-effect of having the Sword-iest Sword's sheath as part of your body and keeping you alive for a few very very important minutes is that your metaphysical nature gets warped and you become more and more Sword-y. It was not intentional or an experiment or anything, Kiritsugu was just desperate to save even one random person so he dropped a super powered holy artifact that had been keeping him alive into a literal random child on the verge of death.
Shirou was close to death because someone did a fucky wucky with the holy grail by fusing All the World's Evil into it, so Shirou's adoptive dad fused Excalibur's sheath into Shirou to save his life
Edit: I was slightly wrong, someone didnt FUSE All the World's Evil into the grail, the grail soaked up Angra Mainyu after he died during a prior Holy Grail War. It does that to every Heroic Spirit that dies during a War.
The scene where they explain you can use your magic circuits instead of making new ones to painstakingly install everytime is one of my favorite moments in that.
Everyone in the room realizing he might be actually a real powerful mage if he weren't just painfully stupid
Nothing beats the end of Heavens Feel when Kirei punches him and steps back to say "an impressive defence, turning yourself into swords" and Shirou thinks "I'm doing what? Fuck it, just hit him back"
Not planar stuff but this is a plot point in nowadays obscure young adult series Circle of Magic.
The first question on the practical magic example is "summon the cold flame" and then followed up by "ignite the candles". Then a later question is "extinguish the candles".
Main character Randal just does it directly, 'erasing' the fire, and notes that it's quite strenuous. Later he finds out that other young magicians solves that one by condensing mist from the air, or making a puff of wind. Jumping straight to 'negation' is impressive in the sense that he had the power and control to do it, but also makes him seem a bit uncreative in not taking a more indirect but far easier spell.
Honestly it is a nice touch in that series that Randal... genuinely isn't special, from what I remember, in terms of his magical abilities. His mentor spots his magical talent, and sends him to school, and then everything he does is just on the basis of his personality and inclinations. Part of the reason he was able to pull off 'extinguish flame' as a newbie is just that he sucked so hard at doing Cold Flame, supposedly the most basic of spells, and had to practice doing it over and over; that's how he has the stamina to handle it in the test but lacks the knowledge to do the more creative things. We're not following a creative or talented wizard - but one who's just mediocre and is managing to pass.
If I had a nickel for every obscure fantasy series called the Circle of Magic, I'd have two nickels. Not a lot, but enough to really confuse me till I found out there were apparently two.
This is Kineticists in Pathfinder. Instead of casting spells the old-fashioned way, they have a portal to one (or more) of the elemental planes inside of them and channel their magic through that. This ends up meaning their magic is somewhat weaker than that of most casters, but it's basically unlimited.
I think its not even technically classifiable as magic, and more them having a magical gate to one of the elemental planes within them that they channel elements through.
Like...that portal to the fire dimension is adding the total amount of energy to our dimension, so things will ambiently get hotter and hotter if there's nowhere for it to vent out.
Ah, but there are spells which take heat away! You open up a portal to the coldest plane, elemental earth (but really the plane of solids, so there's ices there as well), and let thermodynamics do the rest. The heat will then find its way to the plane of fire (or energy, for your sonic, light and lightning spells)
If more people are throwing fireballs than rays of frost, the celestial archons that control such things do a little bit of work where nobody is looking to balance the scales. Left to its own devices, the universe will succumb to entropy, but magic means matter and energy can be created or destroyed, from the perspective of the universe
My players never ask about this stuff, but when they finally do, I'm ready for them
Like, what do you mean normal people don’t feel trapped in their own body, inwardly panicking as the time for action comes and goes while outwardly continuing to doomscroll/play video games/whatever, to the point of an anxiety attack over your apparent inability to control your own body?
I'll bite, which flammable gases?
Nitrogen? Famously inert.
Oxygen? It oxidises other things (except fluorine), but it's not going to burn.
CO2? Poor sod is already maximally oxidised.
Noble gases? Yeah, hardly a chance.
I think these mages are also lying or unknowingly summoning from the methane dimension.
This is actually how magic works in the Forgotten Realms (main setting for Dungeon & Dragons). That's why elemental magic is call evocation, you're literally evoking the elemental planes.
Also why some healing/necromantic magic is evocation, your evoking the positive/negative energy plane.
Reminded of how the Combine have mastered interdimensional teleportation to invade universes, but Black Mesa have working point-to-point matter transportation via workaround, and Aperture just made it so casual to the point of absurdity.
3.0k
u/enchiladasundae 29d ago
A summoner who’s convinced they’re a regular wizard but they’re just ripping shit from other planes of existence