Guild Wars 2

If I’m not mistaken, every class besides Warriors and Engineers use magic in some manor, my question is.. how?

• Does magic come from the environment? From within the caster?
• Are certain races more magically adept than others?
• How is magic learned?
• What are the branches of magic? Are there any actual schools?

If anyone could answer these.. that’d be great. As a writer, I’ve always been curious about this.

Chaos,

I can answer question 4. There are currently 4 branches of magic schools. (known)

Preservation, Destruction, Aggression, and Denial

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Magic

This page should give you some good background on magic in the GW2 world. I would write about it here but since it is all in one place easier for you to read it there.

Magic, for the most part, comes from the 4 bloodstones. I would give the whole story but it’s long, so here’s the summation. Abaddon gave full reign of magic to everyone. Everyone went to war with each other and there was bloodshed. Doric pleaded to the gods to remove it. The gods sealed magic back within the original bloodstone and shattered it into 5 bloodstones. 4 of the bloodstones are the schools of magic (Preservation, Destruction, Aggression, and Denial) and the 5th is the keystone that would be required to put them back together (according to legend). The gods threw these stones into a volcano called Abaddon’s Mouth and left the world. Years later the volcano erupted shooting the bloodstones all over. 1 landed in what is now the Maguuma Wastes, another somewhere deep beneath what are now the Steamspur Mountains, and a third dropped back into the volcano, the other two are a mystery. That is about it. Magic comes from the bloodstones (except in certain cases, like dragons or ritualists), certain races seem to be (but for gameplay they are all equals), and magic is believed to start as a natural talent and grow from there.

Thanks a lot ya’ll! Definitely learned quite a bit more from the above responses.

• I was also wondering if there’s any lore or official novels that explain how it’s cast? Certain characters have spells which require them to make specific gestures, while others seem to activate them instantly.

• How is Necromancy viewed by the general public?

• Is magic unique to the caster? For example .. If one Elementalist shoots fire at another Elementalist, will the opponent be burned or simply catch it?

• Does one have to be trained in order to use magic, or is it second nature?

• Are there any in-game locations (such as academys) that train magic-users?

There was actually a thread that talked about Necromancy I few days ago. I can’t remember the name but I think it Undead in the title of the thread. It was a good read. I will try to find it after this post and then edit with it in here. As for your other questions I have no idea, I know that when the bloodstone was split, it made it so that no one person could use all four schools of magic. Before that it was possible to weld magic from all four.

Also it is stated that in the ancient times magic was wild. It wasn’t until the ED’s previous rise did the magic get brought together. The seers created the bloodstone to hold all uncorrupted magic as a way to starve the dragons since they consume magic. Once humans arrived on Tyria, the gods (abaddon) decide to Gift magic from the bloodstone to humans, but this caused problems, which is why the bloodstone was destroyed and that brings us to where we are now.

So I think a person would have to have some sense of magic a head of time and then go to a school to hone it in and learn to control it.

Q: Is the ability to control magic innate, or is it learned? How can it be learned and what are limitations of being self-taught or simply using magic without any sort of learning?

Jeff Grubb: This is my personal feeling, but I believe the use of magic is an innate talent, and like any talent varies from individual to individual, though training will allow that talent to develop or grow. You start the game as “an elementalist” or “a necromancer”, which presumes a body of knowledge and experience, just as one has basic combat skills to be a warrior or thief. Training is possible, but like learning a language or playing an instrument, is best done when young. In game terms, alas, you can’t just decide to become a spell-caster in the middle of the game.
http://ashenfold.com/ashenfold-cartel-interview-with-jeff-grubb-and-eric-flannum/

It is mentioned that some level of training is necessary to properly control magic. Ascalon is known to have had a few academies, but they were all destroyed in the Searing. Two of them are visible in Guild Wars 2- Nolani Academy, which makes up the inaccessible north-western bit of the Black Citadel, and Ascalon Academy, on the east side of the main bridge south of Ascalon City Ruins. Nolani used to be a very prestigious place to learn magic, and Ascalon Academy was more of a general purpose training facility for the Ascalonian Army. To my knowledge, there are no such intact academies. It does not, however, appear that much in the way of formal education is needed- just an understanding of the basics and to be pointed in the right direction. If I recall correctly, there was an interview about the Guardian that said that magic was accessed by an innate affinity, some aspect of personality or character, but that does not mean they’ll automatically know how to effectively utilize it. Also, in Astorea, where new sylvari players start, there’s an NPC complaining that her mentor says she has a good affinity for one profession, but she wants to learn another.
Necromancy is viewed different ways by different cultures. Humans have always been uneasy with it- they feel it’s a little creepy, a little scary, a little nauseating, but nothing so bad as hate or bigotry. Still, human necros seem to tend to end up loners, or at least introverts. The asura treat it very pragmatically, like any other magic, and several of their best minds practiced a hybrid of golemancy and necromancy. The sylvari are comfortable with it- their race, on a whole, doesn’t seem particularly scared of or bothered by death- and sylvari necromancers can easily be as curious and outgoing as any other. I don’t know about norn or charr, other than it is known to exist among norn who follow Raven.
The casting varies- rather by the individual, the profession, or the spell, I know not. As for the novels, there is a sylvari necromancer in GoA who uses both gestures and incantations, and Zojja in EoD, who doesn’t seem to use either.
As for the unique factor, it seems like one magic user can exert any control over another’s magic.

Answering the questions in order:

1) The primary source of magic for most mortals is the Bloodstones, but they aren’t the original source of magic – the original proto-Bloodstone was made in order to store magic and hide it from the Elder Dragons. A number of special sites in the world seem to be generating magic – some skill points are of this nature. Certain powerful beings, such as the elder dragons and likely the gods and animal spirits, absorb magic by various means, and can then redistribute it out to their followers. Ultimately, though, it seems magic originally comes via the environment, but at this point in Tyria’s history the quantity of magic obtained directly from the environment is a minority, with most of Tyria’s magic having been condensed into the Bloodstones and the Elder Dragons.

2) Unclear. Some races certainly have a higher proportion of spellcasters than others (Forgotten and mursaat, for instance, were exclusively spellcasters in GW1), although it’s unclear how much of that is due to natural talent and how much is due to cultural background. Of the playable races, asura and sylvari seem to be the most associated with magic, while norn and charr prefer more martial professions. Humans are in a bit of a strange position – relatively few humans seem to become spellcasters (note, for instance, that on of the generic Warden types you can come across is an elementalist, but you don’t see generic Seraph or Ebon Vanguard spellcasters*), but there is some evidence that some humans are capable of pulling off magical feats that are beyond what even the asura and sylvari could do unaided. Mind you, many of these occasions resulted in the death of the human in question, so an asura would likely say that only a bookah would let themselves get into a position where they have to channel so much magic through themselves without having some magitech to fall back on in the first place.

3) Also unclear, but in the Guild Wars background it is indicated that there are (or were) places of learning where a student could learn magic (or more martial arts). There are other situations, though, where it seems magic has been learned as a master-to-apprentice affair, or simply picked up by an individual on their own (as likely happened with the sylvari Firstborn, with future generation being taught by the Dream). On the whole, it seems as if use of magic is pretty much like any other skill – it helps to be taught, but you can learn it yourself in a pinch.

4) The schools are Aggression, Denial, Destruction and Preservation, separated in those four disciplines by the Bloodstones – a caster who didn’t rely on the Bloodstones, then, could employ magic that wasn’t separated by those disciplines (although it does seem that a caster who learned Bloodstone magic has a tendency to remain mostly within their school afterwards). The schools are believed to be represented by necromancers, mesmers/assassins/thieves, elementalists/rangers, and monks/guardians/paragons respectively, but the only one that has been confirmed is that elementalists follow the Destruction school.

Because of limited space, I’ll answer the second set of questions in a different post.

*It should be noted that as a rule organisations that are always or nearly always allies, such as the Wardens, Seraph and Ebon Vanguard, aren’t as fleshed out ingame as factions that are fought, so the lack of spellcasters among the Seraph (for example) doesn’t mean that they’re actually universally Warriors as they seem to be in game – the allies we see in such organisations are probably best viewed as a representative sample. However, it is telling that in such a representative sample, the sylvari organisation includes spellcasters while the human ones do not.

Short answer: We don’t really know. Longer answers:

• Does magic come from the environment? From within the caster?

This isn’t really explained well. It seems to be a case of both, or from the Mists. Or from all three. There are locations which hold more magic than others (for example, The Artesian Waters beneath Arah is a source of magic), while we’re also told in minor cases of individuals having latent magical prowess – and this telling is often used in exploiting others (prime example being the Chosen and the White Mantle), and similarly magical locations tend to be tied to the Mists in some manner.

I suspect that it’s a combination of the three. There are some communing skill challenges that tell us three things:

1. Water conducts magic.
2. Souls attract magic.
3. Tyria’s center seems to hold magic.

This points to me as saying that magic is naturally formed from the world itself. Those who have innate magical talent are those with powerful souls – using themselves in a similar way that Ritualists would use other souls. Similarly, the Mists is the protomatter of reality, the building blocks of life, and the afterlife all in one – as such, it holds the ability to create and is where souls go to rest, making it likely a magical powerhouse of sorts.

On top of that, there are the Bloodstones, which are basically giant ancient containers for magic. During the previous Elder Dragon rise, the Seers gathered all non-corrupted magic into the original Bloodstone to starve the Elder Dragons (they consume magic). In 1 BE, Abaddon tampered with it to release it, then the other gods tampered with it again to limit the amount of magic it gave off and then split it. Basically for the past 1325 years it’s been slowly exuding magic.

• Are certain races more magically adept than others?

I wouldn’t be sure to call them “adept” so much as “more inclined to use” – it seems, based on the Orrians, that location can affect one’s magical adeptiveness (being closer to magical hotspots seems to allow easier usage of magic for example), but it’s more about culture than race. Asuran culture is focused on magic, while charr culture is the opposite – however, an asuran necromancer and charr necromancer would, theoretically, be on equal ground (all depending on their nuturing and their own magical talents).

• How is magic learned?

Some can call to it naturally – those considered prodigies, like Cynn in GW1 – but most have to train to use it. Some, according to an historic Ascalonian merchant, train for years.

• What are the branches of magic? Are there any actual schools?

There are four named schools of magic – these are from the Bloodstone. When the gods split the Bloodstone, they divided the magic it gave into four schools: Preservation (Monks and Guardians), Destruction (Elementalists and GW2 Rangers – note: Elementalists is the only profession who’s school is confirmed, the rest is speculative), Aggression (Necromancer), and Denial (Mesmer and Assassin/Thief). The schools that Dervishes and Ritualist used is hard to point out. In lore, it is impossible to use all four schools of magic at once – and seen through mechanics in GW1, even three seems to be impossible while two is.

However, I suspect there can be other kinds of magic than those four – magic that doesn’t come from the Bloodstones could then be channeled into these kinds. but that’s all 100% hypothetical speculation and I won’t delve.

About Necromancy:

Just some posts on the forum that might be good reads for more information on how necromancy is seen in the world and other tidbits.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Necromancer-lore-question/first#post1270138

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Zhaitan-and-Necromancy/first#post1288013

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Necromancers-and-Zhaitan/first#post1395785

To your second set of questions:

• I was also wondering if there’s any lore or official novels that explain how it’s cast? Certain characters have spells which require them to make specific gestures, while others seem to activate them instantly.

The two novels do give descriptions of casting magic, but not really into the details of it. More of what would be seen watching folks cast magic. Which is really just handweaving and magical lights/whatever the effect of the spell is. But it’s never really elaborated upon.

• How is Necromancy viewed by the general public?

Depends on culture. Sylvari view it as a natural part of life. Charr view it like all other magic – disdainfully. In general though, thanks to Zhaitan, it has been looked down upon in the past century. Even before hand it was looked down and misunderstood as “evil” even though it isn’t – though not as much.

Ghosts of Ascalon shows this better than I could explain it, but basically it just gives a big sense of uneasiness to non-sylvari.

• Is magic unique to the caster? For example .. If one Elementalist shoots fire at another Elementalist, will the opponent be burned or simply catch it?

That’s… a good question. I would presume no to it being unique, but there are likely spells that can’t simply be “caught” (and an Elementalist catching fire would more likely revolve around manipulating the fire into a standstill rather than just gripping it with one’s hand – these are the actual elements here!). Though in that example, I’d say that wouldn’t be possible given that Elementalists utilize the school of Destruction. But I’m merely postulating here.

• Does one have to be trained in order to use magic, or is it second nature?

Answered already. Most folks have to train for years to use magic, some if they’re talented can use it without training, and those who live in magically saturated locations seem to be able to use it second nature – at least that was the case for the Orrians and, seemingly, asura while underground (possibly now).

• Are there any in-game locations (such as academys) that train magic-users?

During GW2? I’m not sure. During GW1 there were a few – though we only knew of three: Drascir Academy, Nolani Academy, and the Temple of the Unseen (though this is questionable given the ties it holds to the whole Chosen situation).

Onto the second lot of questions, although it seems I’ve been ninja’d a bit while answering the first:

1) There are sections in some of the books and novels that describe the actions that a spellcaster takes in casting a spell – there are some stories about Devona and co. that describe how Cynn casts spells that you can probably find online if you hunted around, as well as the two novels. It seems to be a mix of gestures, incantations, and mental focus, but some spells require more than others – a simple quick spell might be just a word and a flick of the finger, while animating an undead minion required a more intensive incantation and somatic display.

2) As noted above, depends on the race. Asura, sylvari, and non-Flame charr all seem to regard it as just another branch of magic (although note that the charr have a lower view of all forms of magic than most races). Humans, as mentioned above, are a little bit wigged out by it – as Dougal explains to Killeen in GoA, they intellectually know it’s just another branch of magic, but are nonetheless unsettled by it. Norn, also, seem to have a general dislike of it as being disrespectful to the dead… although this depends in part on whether they think the dead in question are worth respecting. In both cases, though, the general dislike is ameliorated by necromancy being sanctioned by Grenth and Raven respectively.

3) From what we’ve seen, learning a type of magic provides no inherent benefit towards defending against that kind of magic, although it might allow for learning skills that are effective in actively defending against it. So, to give your example, an elementalist couldn’t simply catch another elementalist’s fireball like it was a basketball, but there might be a spell that allows them to do so.

4) This one has pretty thoroughly been answered above. Short answer is that like nearly any skill, it can be learned alone, but it’s easier with one or more mentors.

5) In Guild Wars 1, presearing, there were several – the academies at Nolani and Surmia, the Shing Jea Monastery, and the Sunspear teaching program would all count, and they’re just the ones in the home nations of the PCs – likely, Kryta, Orr, Kourna, Vabbi, and the Kurzicks and Luxons all had their own teaching programs. In Guild Wars 2, there doesn’t seem to be any significant mention of this among the humans and norn, while asura and charr have their colleges and fahrars that presumably teach magic to those so inclined. For sylvari, of course, the Dream is their basic education.