So clearly most Athasians fear & hate arcane magic, but elemental clerics seem fairly well accepted. Psionics is familiar to everybody since it’s so common, sure… but unlike psionics, clerical magic uses verbal and somatic components like arcane magic. So how does the average Athasian know the difference between a wizard using spells with elemental-looking effects vs. an elemental cleric?
(Certainly templars and such would know the difference. I’m thinking of mob violence type issues… Yet nobody seems to do this, even in the Veiled Alliance, so something must prevent it.)
They likely do not know. If a spell has elemental effects and plants do not die, a preserver could pass themselves off as a cleric.
The preserver would have to draw energy with their hand near the ground, so people do not see energy flow into them.
While it’s not really explored, I think it’s demi-canon that people know the difference between priestly and arcane magic simply because we don’t hear anything about clerics being lynched for being accused of being wizards. It is implied that they work somewhat openly, with the tacit permission of the templars (i.e. the templars don’t bust them just for being clerics), whereas wizards are explicitly persecuted.
I like Raddu’s “Priest spells are prayers people can understand, wizards start talking weird.” It solves the problem of why priests survive when wizards don’t.
I agree that people do seem to know, since elemental clerics are accepted where wizards aren’t. I was just wondering how that worked, especially since we don’t see the Veiled Alliance posing as clerics all the time.
Yeah, verbal components being in an unknown magical language is a really good idea.
Another thought… What would common people on Athas call clerical or druid magic?
I feel like they probably wouldn’t call it “magic”, because that’s seen as a very very bad thing. But “miracles” or something along those lines feels too on-the-nose real world religious.
We have the term “windsinging” from the PP, so maybe there could be equivalents for the other three elements… firebringing? watercalling? earthblessing? But what about for druids?
But should there be a general term that isn’t something-magic?
There’s “the Pact”, but that’s what gives elemental clerics their powers, not what they do.
I like your singing/bringing/calling/blessing, though I can also see it varying a lot across the Tablelands, and beyond. Druids might be “spirit magic”.
Or, they might just call it “Earth Magic”, “Fire Magic”, etc., without directly connecting it.
"Given the harsh and gritty nature of Athas, all clerical magic is called '****ing'. Fire elemental clerics are fire ****ers, who practice fire ****ing. Druids are known as land ****ers, or spirit ****ers. Templars are often king ****ers, but in Gulg, mother****ers is considered appropriate."
A point I too brought up elsewhere.
The fabled Time of Magic brough about something Rajaat called magic.
So…what of divine energy sources for clerics and druids?
They must have had other names, because magic is a word invented by Rajaat.
The Prism Pentad is somewhat helpful for the New Race character Magnus, though I do not recall the exact wording. It likely was windsinging, like you suggested.
Have to be careful of the language thing unless the idea is that the exact words don’t matter, just that there is a verbal part of the spell, but it’s the intention behind the words while arcane magic relies on specific words.
Even the Tyr region alone has many languages, each city has one, there’s common, there’s dead languages, racial languages. Elemental magic has been around longer than any commonly spoken language today. On the other hand wizardly magic may all be tied to a specific language that Rajaat invented or just used and taught to everyone he trained so it was passed down.
