@TheEdVerse @SageAdviceDnD #DnD
I wish the wise Elminster could give us a short vocabulary of arcane words that practitioners of the Art often say as V components for casting spells. Like: Fire, time, Air, thunder, cloud, illusory, vines, water, protecion, harm, move…and such.— Alessandro Mechelli (@ale_mechelli) September 10, 2019
1)
In the Realms, incantations for the same spell vary from caster to caster. Most casters today didn’t create most of the spells they use; they learned them from a mentor/tutor, from studying a spellbook, or by reading or 2)
…copying off a scroll, so they’re using the wording a predecessor devised (or got from an even earlier source). So the incantations may rhyme, or not. They may employ words from a variety of languages, or stick to one tongue.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
3)
What the incantation is trying to do is to help THAT CASTER properly visualize the spell effect and identify the target/area of effect/direction (and in some cases, intensity and duration, too), as the spell’s 4)
…material component (if any) is called upon as a focus and/or consumed, and the somatic component (gestures) work to trigger/unleash the magic in proper timing with the incantation or word, to tap the power of the Weave in…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
5)
…a specific manner to achieve a particular magical effect. So incantations can vary. There ARE some “go to” arcane words, which sound vaguely to our real-world ears like Latin or Greek, but aren’t, that function as reliable 6)
…“Weave-tap doorways” for all arcane casters because they’ve been used so often, over so many years, that they’ve established ‘pathways’ (“trained the Weave,” if you will) to call up certain sorts of magical effects.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
7)
If you’re still bearing with me after all of this arcane-sage-blather, I WILL get around (probably in more than a year from now, in an ENWorld column) to presenting some of those go-to arcane words I use. A few brief 8)
…snatches of incantations have appeared in some of my Realms fiction, over the years, but for much of the time the Realms has been published, there was a specific editorial policy (I’m guessing to avoid real-world problems)…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
9)
…against publishing full descriptions of the castings of any specific spells.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
.Thank you so much Venerable Elminster! So, just to be clear, V component CAN be in elvish, common, dwarvish but also in “unique” tongue (with a bit of taste of Latin and Greek as you said). Can we regard to this one as an “arcane language” per se? Or there can be as many unique.. ..languages as (possibly) many magicians practicing the Art?
Thanks again.— Alessandro Mechelli (@ale_mechelli) September 10, 2019
And you shall! :}
Just don't expect any for the next month or so (I'll be offline for heart surgery and some of the recovery).— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
There can be as many unique languages as practitioners. And a typical incantation may sound like two or three sentence fragments, all studded with words in many languages, cobbled together, and slang and formal mixed, too.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019
So, yes, an incantation can be in Elvish, Dwarvish, Common, Draconic, Giant, or use words from those and other languages, mixed with other words from other languages, mixed with 'power words' (arcane words that to non-learned-in-the-Art sound like nonsense words).#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 10, 2019