Altera Arcana

[Effort]

Did I say something wrong? :U

 

[Kagayours]

Did I say something wrong? :U

Huh? No -- all you've done is bring up an aspect of my world that I honestly don't have a quick answer for and I would need time to really think through before I give it a response. And I just haven't had the time or mental stamina to do that. o_o Also, I didn't want you to think that I had completely missed/ignored your post when I made a link to that other announcement, so I wanted to at least acknowledge your post's existence, even if I wasn't able to give an actual reply right then and there. Also, forgetfulness is a lovely little bonus item in the ADHD package, so I wanted to give you the heads-up that I might need to be reminded about it if you think I've forgotten. o_o

tl;dr -- You didn't do anything wrong. I just haven't gotten a chance to reply to your questions yet. XD

 

[Effort]

Roger that.

 

[Neobullseye]

There's also the question of how does the magic heal the wound? Does it just speed up the body's natural healing processes

Also, now I'm reminded of the Books of the Elderlings series, in which healing magic worked pretty much like this. As a side effect, trying to heal grave injuries would leave the target completely exhausted, possibly even onconscious for a few days in the case of potentially fatal injuries.

 

[Effort]

You could go even further and the healer could help supply additional energy for the healing process rather than letting the targets body handle all the energy supply. Then you can also get into the darker side of things, like using the life force of a small animal to heal someone and stuff like that.

 

[Neobullseye]

You could go even further and the healer could help supply additional energy for the healing process rather than letting the targets body handle all the energy supply. Then you can also get into the darker side of things, like using the life force of a small animal to heal someone and stuff like that.

Which leads to the logical extreme of inversed healing; AKA, using someone else's energy to heal your own injuries. I'm pretty sure that would be really, REALLY frowned upon though XD.

...And now all I can think of is POW camps filled with enemy soldiers used as healing pods of sorts to restore the health of one's own soldiers. D:

 

[Effort]

What would the Dark Arts be without siphoning life force?

 

[Kagayours]

I guess one way it just shooting waves of healing energy, and the more tightly focused the "wave" is or the more oomph you put behind it can determine the severity or precision of the healing. She could just dump a bunch of healing energy at it for a few minutes and eventually heal it, which is what I imagine is what she'd be capable of as opposed to a surgeon who knows exactly what part of the body to target and can thus save time and energy.

Yeah, that makes sense. I suppose someone with the right medical knowledge would be able to use their magic more efficiently by targeting the right places, but a lack of medical knowledge wouldn't render one incapable of using healing magic.

There's also the question of how does the magic heal the wound? Does it just speed up the body's natural healing processes? Or does it use the magic energy to fill in the gaps of rent flesh?

The former makes more sense under the logistics of earth magic, I suppose. And, in cases where one uses magic to heal an otherwise permanent injury -- I guess you could say that the healing magic triggers a pseudo-natural healing process that the body wouldn't be capable of on its own.

Does that make sense?

 

[Kagayours]

Also, now I'm reminded of the Books of the Elderlings series, in which healing magic worked pretty much like this. As a side effect, trying to heal grave injuries would leave the target completely exhausted, possibly even onconscious for a few days in the case of potentially fatal injuries.

You could go even further and the healer could help supply additional energy for the healing process rather than letting the targets body handle all the energy supply. Then you can also get into the darker side of things, like using the life force of a small animal to heal someone and stuff like that.

Which leads to the logical extreme of inversed healing; AKA, using someone else's energy to heal your own injuries. I'm pretty sure that would be really, REALLY frowned upon though XD.

...And now all I can think of is POW camps filled with enemy soldiers used as healing pods of sorts to restore the health of one's own soldiers. D:

I think I'm just going to go ahead and say that pouring magic into someone would mean giving their body additional energy -- meaning, the target won't have the life drained out of them by a healing spell (which would be rather counter-intuitive XD ). But I think it only makes sense to say that that extra energy comes from the magic-user who is doing the healing.

As for draining energy out of other people -- I'm sure there's some form of dark magic that could allow for it, although I don't know if healing would be the first use for it that comes to mind. XD If you're the type of person who's dabbling in dark magic, you probably have something a bit more nefarious in mind. XD I suppose you'd have to be a particularly wicked pents in order to think up anything akin to that POW camp idea. o_o

 

[Greenie]

but a lack of medical knowledge wouldn't render one incapable of using healing magic.

I like this. Then again, I'm biased since that's usually the way I treat healing magic.

 

[Effort]

Any evil aligned person in love would totally sacrifice someone else's life to save the person they love. As far as the magic providing energy for the healing, I imagine it could vary with the skill of the healer, and I also feel as if magic doesn't work exactly the same from person to person, being touched by their way of thinking and all that. I can totally see someone hitting another person up with some healing juju and when it speeds up their healing rate it causes them to be very hungry. But I suppose it would work half and half, the spell would pull from both the caster and the target and with more skill the caster can mitigate in one direction or the other.

Although I imagine there is also an established "common practice" with healers and those who teach healing. They guide the mind away from realizing that they could pull the life force from a living creature. It's also entirely possible that it's a well known thing and people constantly warn against that particular danger of healing magic, the Dark side and all that.

Even if a youngin' were to discover this, I imagine the magic wouldn't work unless they were resolute in their decision to pull the life force out of a creature and kill it. Kinda like when someone is too afraid of a spider to squish it. Another thing, I imagine the vital energy someone can pull out of a creature to assist in healing is very much replenishing, but it would have a similar effect to working out a lot. You'd get all exhausted and need to rest and eat food, but this way is more directly dangerous because if you take too much at once you can die, or get sick. So I imagine using the vital energy is very much a Dark thing to do, but then I imagine if you pull all the life out of a creature, like in a sacrificial ritual, then the energy would be much more potent because then you've actually taken the creature's life force.

I keep imagining my own character pulling the energy out of himself though... Hmm but wouldn't this vital energy be the same that everyone uses to perform magic? Or is the energy coming from somewhere else? I guess people don't normally use their vital energy directly, but a small portion of it to pull the energy of their element or spell from a different place and that is why it can get exhausting using spells or raw magic....

 

[Effort]

And, in cases where one uses magic to heal an otherwise permanent injury -- I guess you could say that the healing magic triggers a pseudo-natural healing process that the body wouldn't be capable of on its own.

Do you mean healing an eyeball or healing a scar? I imagine the latter would be difficult in that you would have to, I guess, destroy the scar tissue and replace it with magically healed skin, kind of like a magical skin graft. To restore something like an eyeball, something the body can't normally replace, would require a surgeon's level of skill as they'd have to understand how the eyeball works and what needs to be replaced. Then again maybe the novice approach of dumping magic at it could work as long as the injury to the eyeball was recent, like, minutes.

So yeah I guess what the novice healer would do is just shove energy at the body, telling it to start healing faster while providing it with the energy to do so, which would also draw from the target. But if the body can't normally heal something, then a novice dumping energy at it won't cut it, might cause it to heal wrong even.

That's another level of important detail as well, like for a broken arm or ankle, would a novice have to set the break properly before dumping healing magic at it so it heals properly? Or is it healing it back to it's uh "original state"?

But then I guess that is more along the lines of using time to heal...

 

[Kagayours]

Although I imagine there is also an established "common practice" with healers and those who teach healing. They guide the mind away from realizing that they could pull the life force from a living creature. It's also entirely possible that it's a well known thing and people constantly warn against that particular danger of healing magic, the Dark side and all that.

I mean, just about any form of dark magic is generally a taboo. So, yeah, the former would be correct, in that case. But, just being a taboo in the general sense of the word doesn't mean it's never talked about at all -- so, I guess the latter could still be true, as well.

Even if a youngin' were to discover this, I imagine the magic wouldn't work unless they were resolute in their decision to pull the life force out of a creature and kill it. Kinda like when someone is too afraid of a spider to squish it. Another thing, I imagine the vital energy someone can pull out of a creature to assist in healing is very much replenishing, but it would have a similar effect to working out a lot. You'd get all exhausted and need to rest and eat food, but this way is more directly dangerous because if you take too much at once you can die, or get sick. So I imagine using the vital energy is very much a Dark thing to do, but then I imagine if you pull all the life out of a creature, like in a sacrificial ritual, then the energy would be much more potent because then you've actually taken the creature's life force.

I think you would also probably need a spell, rather than just relying on raw magic. Probably something involving an artifact from the person you want to draw energy from.

I keep imagining my own character pulling the energy out of himself though... Hmm but wouldn't this vital energy be the same that everyone uses to perform magic? Or is the energy coming from somewhere else? I guess people don't normally use their vital energy directly, but a small portion of it to pull the energy of their element or spell from a different place and that is why it can get exhausting using spells or raw magic....

I mean, yeah. Raw magic uses energy in the same way that physical exercise does -- it's really not too different from physically exerting yourself.

I don't know when I mentioned "vital energy" as being any sort of special life force. Neo only ever mentioned healing being exhausting in the case of severe, near-death injuries -- which I suppose would make sense. Also, just because you're sapping someone else's energy doesn't mean that the victim would die, necessarily... It would depend on how much energy you're taking away, which would depend on the severity of the injury that you're trying to heal. Stealing away another person's energy in-the-moment is one thing -- especially if it's a life or death situation -- but, going back to that POW camp hypothetical, it would be much more economical to try to keep the human batteries alive -- so that they can be given time to regain their strength, allowing them to be used again.

 

[Kagayours]

To restore something like an eyeball, something the body can't normally replace, would require a surgeon's level of skill as they'd have to understand how the eyeball works and what needs to be replaced. Then again maybe the novice approach of dumping magic at it could work as long as the injury to the eyeball was recent, like, minutes.

>.> No, my point earlier was that in-depth medical knowledge is never needed for healing magic. Medical knowledge just makes the process more efficient. And I'm not sure why the eye in particular would require so much knowledge compared to other organs...

In any case, I'm sure there are spells out there that can cure blindness and the like. :P

So yeah I guess what the novice healer would do is just shove energy at the body, telling it to start healing faster while providing it with the energy to do so, which would also draw from the target.

No, I did clarify that healing magic draws energy only from the user, not the target... sorry if that was unclear.

That's another level of important detail as well, like for a broken arm or ankle, would a novice have to set the break properly before dumping healing magic at it so it heals properly? Or is it healing it back to it's uh "original state"?

I suppose that setting it properly would, once again, make things more efficient, but not impossible.

 

[Effort]

I mean, just about any form of dark magic is generally a taboo. So, yeah, the former would be correct, in that case. But, just being a taboo in the general sense of the word doesn't mean it's never talked about at all -- so, I guess the latter could still be true, as well.

I suppose it would depend on the customs of each individual area. Like how you got some folks who shelter their kids rather than talk to them about the dangers of the real world.

I think you would also probably need a spell, rather than just relying on raw magic. Probably something involving an artifact from the person you want to draw energy from.

Yeah I thought we were talking about spells...if you could pull someone's life out of their body with raw magic that would be kind of crazy since it's attached on a metaphysical level. I figured all of healing would be spells of varying complexity until someone is really familiar with it then it flows like raw magic would. Or maybe it's just one spell, and someone's experience and knowledge determines whether they're just dumping a ton of energy at it or being precise and efficient.

I mean, yeah. Raw magic uses energy in the same way that physical exercise does -- it's really not too different from physically exerting yourself.

Ah so it is pulling directly from yourself, as far as raw magic goes. Does using raw magic also function like a muscle would? You can exercise it to make it stronger? Also could you "tear a muscle" while exerting yourself with raw magic? Does casting a spell draw more energy outside of yourself or is it using that same energy as raw magic but more concentrated?

I don't know when I mentioned "vital energy" as being any sort of special life force. Neo only ever mentioned healing being exhausting in the case of severe, near-death injuries -- which I suppose would make sense.

Sorry my brain started going off on it's own.

Also, just because you're sapping someone else's energy doesn't mean that the victim would die, necessarily... It would depend on how much energy you're taking away, which would depend on the severity of the injury that you're trying to heal. Stealing away another person's energy in-the-moment is one thing -- especially if it's a life or death situation -- but, going back to that POW camp hypothetical, it would be much more economical to try to keep the human batteries alive -- so that they can be given time to regain their strength, allowing them to be used again.

Yes I understand you can take little bits at a time, but even so I imagine taking energy from someone else would be an icky sort of thing to do, like staring at an open chest cavity and poking a heart rather than stabbing it. What I was thinking was that if you do use a spell to directly pull all the life out of a creature, you get something more than just the little bits of energy from using them like a battery. It would be like going from using rechargeable batteries for a remote controlled car, to burning gasoline in a combustion engine.

It's what you do when you want to appease a god or try to achieve immortality, or do something really big. Although I imagine the form of the spell would be different, since pulling all that potential life energy out at once would be dangerous if you don't have a place for it to go. Using a person as a battery makes me think of Shang Tsung from Mortal Kombat, but using them as a sacrifice I think of Aztecs, altars, and obsidian daggers. For the Aztecs the potential life energy would be going to their god, or it could even be used to enchant a very potent and potentially evil item. Or a really big spell.

Is any of this making sense or am I just talking out of my ass?

 

[Effort]

Also, is it possible to do healing without being Earth affinity?

 

[Kagayours]

Also, is it possible to do healing without being Earth affinity?

I'm sure there are spells for it, yes. But, as emphasized before, spells don't come quite as naturally as raw magic. :P

 

[Effort]

Whoa so...they do heal with raw magic? But they can't pull life out of folks with raw magic can they?

 

[Kagayours]

Whoa so...they do heal with raw magic? But they can't pull life out of folks with raw magic can they?

No, because pulling life out of people isn't the way that raw healing magic is supposed to work at all. Raw magic involves the user exerting their own energy in order to use magic. So, in the case of healing magic, the user is using up their own energy to heal someone else.

Pulling energy out of other people is a different matter entirely, and isn't even directly tied to healing. Like I said, there are other things that one could use another person's energy for.

I regret not being able to write up a more comprehensive magic guide. I know it's been on the backburner for quite some time. I've just been too busy trying to not die.

 

[Effort]

You gotta do what you gotta do man.