The Weave & The Wellspring
The Weave
Perhaps no aspect of magic has been studied more, and understood less, than the Weave. Every spellcaster (at least any spellcaster of at least moderate power) knows the Weave exists, but none seem to be able to describe it in a consistent fashion. Attempts to do so often lead to madness, and those who do not succumb to madness oftentimes wind up unleashing fabulous power. Power that inevitably destroys everything about themselves, including their own person.
Each type of spell-caster understands the weave in their own way.
The Wellspring
If the Weave is the very fabric of magic, then the wellspring is the method by which an individual spellcaster interacts with it. While those who attempt to study the Weave itself are on a road to madness, those who attempt to uncover the true nature of how the Wellspring interacts with the Weave ride zephyrs.
The Wellspring is often described much as is a conventional well used for drawing water. This Wellspring holds mana, which is the energy used to power spells. Many casters describe the way they draw mana like drawing water from a well. More powerful spells require using a larger "bucket", and these buckets are a caster's spell slots. Notions of why spellcasters seem to have a definite number and size of buckets available varies, but most magic practioners don't spend their time idly pondering such questions, they simply accept the fact as "the nature of the Weave", and get on with casting spells.
Mana seeps into the Wellspring, slowly but constantly. The mana for cantrips is not drawn out of the Wellspring as is a common or greater spell, but is used directly from the Wellspring.
Warlocks and sorcerers are exceptions to these general principles. Warlocks only have one size of bucket, and use it's full power to cast their common spells. Sorcerers tend to describe their Wellsprings more like a pitcher, which allow them to pour out mana for spells, or to manipulate how they cast said spells. Rumors and legends speak of those who could draw from their wellspring as they wished, drawing forth mana without regard to spell slots (at least for common spells). Whether these legends are simply fanciful stories, or some secret lost to time, no one can say for certain.
Cantrips are
Spell Catagories
The worlds within the D&D multiverse are magical places. All existance is suffused with magical power, and potential energy lies uptapped in every rock, stream, and living creature, and even in the air itself. Raw magic in the stuff of creation, the mute and mindless will of existance, permeating every bit of matter and present in every manifestation of energy throughout the multiverse.
Mortals can't directly shape this raw magic. Instead, they make use of a fabric of magic, a kind of interface between the will of a spellcaster and the stuff of raw magic. The spellcasters of the Foregottten Realms call it the Weave and recognize its essence as the goddess Mystra, but casters have varied the ways of naming and visualizing this interface. By any name, without the Weave, raw magic is locked away and inaccessible; the most powerful archmage can't light a candle with magic in an area where the Weave has been torn. But surrounded by the Weave, a spellcaster can shape lightning to blast foes, transport hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye, or even reverse death itself.
All magic depends on the Weave, though different kinds of magic access it in a variety of ways. The spells of wizards, warlocks, sorcerers, and bards are commonly called arcane magic. These spells rely on an understanding-learned or intuitive-of the workings of the Weave. The caster plucks directly at the strands of the Weave to create the desired effect. Eldritch knights and arcane tricksters also use arcane magic. The spells of clerics, druids, paladins, and rangers are called divine magic. These spellcasters' access the Weave is mediated by divine powers-gods, the divine powers of nature, or the sacred weight of a paladin's oath.
Whenever a magic effect is created, the threads of the Weave intertwine, twist, and fold to make the effect possible. When characters use divination magic such as detect magic or identify, they glimpse the Weave. A spell such as dispel magic smooths the Weave. Spells such as antimagic field rearrange the Weave so that magic flows around, rather than through, the area affected by the spell. And in places where the Weave is damaged of torn, magic works in unpredictable ways-or not at all.
Comments