What They Don't Tell You About Elvish High Magic - D&D

the human mages of NARAL accomplished incredible things they invented scores of spells not just 10th 11th and the 112 level spell but also most of the spells that we use nowadays when it came to wizardry they were simply unmatched of course after releasing the first ever 12th level spell their cities fail and mistre the new goddess of magic banned the use of any of those high-level spells this affected the elves dramatically but maybe not in the way that you would expect see the ban itself wasn't as big of a deal on the elves because there

were never really big fans of true spells in the first place the lore states that elves were able to cast tenth level spells but we never really were given examples of which spells they could cast or how many other casters ever reached this level of arcane power this is because they focused on a type of magic completely different something that is not quite a wizard anymore we are talking about elvish high magic to understand elvish high magic you have to understand that the weave the lifeblood of magic around the world flows with grace all across

when a wizard attempts to cast a spell they simply pluck a very small amount of magic out of the weave and then they form their spell with that amount the more magic that you need for the spell the more you pluck and if you're casting a massive spell like Garza's avatar the only 12 level spell then you might be removing so much magic from the weave then you might be literally causing the collapse of entire ecosystems across a whole continent see when I say that the weave is the lifeblood of the planet I mean it

quite literally the weave keeps the planet stable it keeps the plants growing it keeps the magical creatures existing the world runs on the weave and because of that using very high-level spells can be very taxing on the world elvish hi magic on the other hand doesn't pluck magic from the weave instead it redirects the flow in order to form the necessary shapes the spell needs it to take in order to form the required effects for example if you needed to form a duck with magic a wizard might pluck magic out of the weave and form

the doc in their hands whereas the elvish hi mage might just change the flow of the weave so that a duck gets naturally formed in the currents the two types of magic are just fundamentally different as you can imagine one style of magic is harder than the other and the studies needed in order to perform each of these styles is vastly different from the other now to actually cast an elvish high magic spell you typically need more than one person and a lot of a lot of time there is a reason why non elves call

this type of magic a ritual magic there's always a lot of preparation a lot of cooperation and a lengthy cast time in order to make any of these spells happen so the question is why did else prefer this type of magic when normal spells are so efficient and so easy to use well you're gonna be surprised to know that it is not only because of the environment magic - elves is a very religious experience and this comes from they're very closely attuned bodies to the weave quote magic is as natural a thing - elves as

water air and the earth below it is yet another abundant natural asset available to all elves in this world and they use it without disruption as they do any other resource just as humans learn to use water and wind to turn male wheels elves tap magic and cast spells to make their lives easier as well humans embrace the physical world relying almost entirely on physical tools and physical solutions elves embrace both worlds using physical and magical tools and like solutions end quote so of course when you have a race that is more attuned to the

and you can maybe even perceive it better than the other races that race will attempt to try and keep it in balance especially using magic that does not disrupted quite as badly but the real reason the crux of their decision to focus on hi magic is actually far far more interesting their connection to the weave actually allows elves to feel one another to sense one another this connection can be enhanced with magic to allow elves to actually join in mind and truly feel one another the experience is described as being incredible this experience is actually

what the elvish gods promise all elves when they die they promise that when they joined them in our land or the elvish heaven that they will all join together and experience oneness with their fellow brothers and gods a prospect that entices every single Elva specially the older they get they call this the cult or Vandor the older and elf gets the more they feel the call to their heaven essentially feeling this oneness is every elves dream and they can actually feel it I'll bait momentarily with magic in the material world but only only through high

magic it is through high magic that elves can get a taste of what heaven feels like for them and that is why they prefer it more than normal spells and that is why they focused hard on it instead of trying to master 11th level spells like the nether EES did so now that you understand why not just magic but elvish high magic in particular is an extremely religious experience to them now you can probably guess why they take so much care with it why they have intensive rituals for it and why they protected at all

costs so how does it all work well first an elf has to go through an intensive learning process that generally takes from 75 to 100 years to learn a process that might not be too different than what a master would have to go through since at its core and it's a meditation process in order to fully get attuned to the weave the gist of it is that the wizard needs to be able to physically see the weave for him to even be able to start learning the spells and because the process is so arduous and

requires so much patience there is a list of things that the wizard must have before a master will even start teaching him first the wizard must have already been an extraordinarily accomplished caster able to understand the principles of the weave and how to manipulate it second quote the candidate also must be a far sounder health to wield this power than he ever needed for traditional wizard magic and must be among the most erudite and wise of his race in order to contemplate the powers that he may eventually touch a certain understanding of elven life and

lore not to mention sense of maturity is also necessary for this education therefore the earliest age at which elves are allowed to begin studying high magic is four hundred and fifty winters and quote the master must also be older than nine hundred years old as is per elvish customs now as far as the actual teachings quote students are taught meditative techniques to allow themselves to more readily feel see and sense the weave around them and within them in essence the apprenticeship teaches the students to look beyond the physical world without the use of spells or

other devices the ability lies in many elves but those with the industry to learn wizardry do not necessarily have the diligence to sit patiently and learn to see what the weave teaches them unconsciously every day and the quote they do this by literally having the elf just sit by a river in have him or her stare at said river until the elf learns every aspect of the movement of the river how the water moves why it moves what forces are at play within it and how can one shift its movements after that they are sent

to would smoke until they can track the tiniest cinder into the sky above the trees once a student can't predict its flow they can study the wind and then the heat as they go on to predict the way nature and its systems work and how energy flows through the world then they will start to finally see the weave there's also a fair amount of training simply watching the Sun and the moon rise and fall through the days following the flow of light through the trees it is said that this entire process takes about forty to

sixty years in order to be completed but once the training process is done that's when you start to see the difference in the mage it is said that such a meditative training at hundreds of years to the elves life span a mage that has gone through this training it's also able to see magic as if they had casted detect magic but without the need for the spell their ability to see illusions is also extremely heightened since it is like they can see the matrix of the world so they can see what's real and what's not

the older a mage gets and the more experience in the weave the better these abilities become now the last portion of the training involves the master teaching its pupil the secret of high magic alongside hidden knowledge of the world quote there are hints that the things learned in the latter half of apprenticeship are such secrets as true names of animals and folk the location of places of power across torille and ways to unravel wizard magic after it is cast and quote it is only after all of this is done that the Master will finally teach

his student the very first high magic spell though of course it would only be one of the weaker kinds only after hundreds of years already being a high mage then will they be teached the stronger stuff see there are actually three types of elvish high magics and they correspond to the amount of individuals needed for such spells the most basic of rituals are called rituals of solitude and they are performed with a single caster these are the simplest of spells with a shortest amount of casting time and effect the least number of things quote while

this appears similar to a standard wizard spell casting one caster solitude is misleading for all high magic ceremonies tie the caster with the target of the power subliminally the caster reaches through the weave to connect with the target of the ritual in order to affect these simplest of high magics and quote the lore says that on a remote but very basic level many of the spells that we use work in this fashion like for example the spell magic missle once the connection has been made between the caster and the target the spell will follow the

target without any further input for a normal wizard the connection is made through line of sight but for an elvish high mage the connection can be made on a spiritual level using the weave as its conduit but let's go even further beyond where the true power of high magic starts to show here we have the rituals of compliment quote the mid-range of high magic rituals require three high mages to cast different parts of the ceremony for the high magic to be tapped and controlled these rituals linked the trio together in a conscious sharing of minds

while each performs a particular or in some cases identical ritual within the larger ceremony each of the mages drops all mental defenses in order to take part in a multi-person ritual such as this they all share their knowledge and perception of the rituals workings and they experience the wander that at least approximates the Ascension the elves feel upon entering the oneness of our band or and the quote this is what we start to see the elves experience the true religious effects of high magic once they start to combine their minds together in order to cast

a truly powerful spell anyways the rituals of compliment are of course way more complex than the rituals of solitude and on average they last about an hour or so to cast what's interesting is that while the casters are casting the spell they sort of one for the spell they can talk to each other mentally and can even read each other's minds though it is severely frowned upon to have someone read your mind without your approval it is said that anyone who would abuse this particular intimate bond to try and steal magical secrets from another wizard

in the casting that wizard is automatically expelled from elvish society banished from its clan and from any elvish contact which is to them a fate worse than death sometimes if the magical secrets stolen our two dangers to be let loose then the offending mage will simply be killed outright this is actually particularly important in elvish society they actually don't care at all if powerful rituals or great spells or great knowledge is lost and forgotten they would rather completely forget how to do a massive spell rather than have someone use it wrongly and damage the world

behind more for example is what's left after the elves used a potent high magic in order to destroy and that's a high magic spell that is now lost to history but you can clearly see the leftovers of such a calamity now the last and most powerful kind of high magic is the ritual of the myriad quote these are the most powerful magics cast on torille by mortals while the humans contest this with the wish spell as evidence high mages contend that the effects of that not inconsiderable spell are incredibly local and individual and often fall

under the attentions of some divine agent the myriad rituals of high magic or the titanic sorceries of which legends are born and woe upon the enemy who forces the elves to unleash these forces rituals of myriad require a team of at least five mages at the castings center in the identical manner used in the rituals of complement with all the attendant dangers and protocols myriad level high magic takes far more time to cast due to many factors extend that preparation and purification rites open the ceremonies and these cleansings take nearly as long as a ritual

of compliment in itself once the site of the central casting and all the extended casting sites for all of the other secondary casters are purified and ready there is a delicate opening liturgy cast by the central caster that links the secondary and any subordinate casters to link supporters to the primary caster at the spells center once all five are linked and focus the casting of the ritual actually begins depending on the ritual myriad high magic can occur in as little as three hours or it could last from dawn until dusk of the following day end

quote this is the big one this is the elvish high magic that prepares on most of the city and will certainly affect the whole city you will have tons of different magical circles scattered across a massive range surrounding the primary caster you will have different groups of mages of all skill and prowess doing different rituals in order to support the main spell on top of that very often when something like this is done you will also have normal people from the city join in on the ritual in order to give part of their life essence

to the ritual in order to help and you will also have any possible mages in the area also help by giving their spell capacity over to the ritual the more people give in their essence and the more mages on the sidelines giving their spell capacity the easier the spell will be on the casters and the less likely that the primary caster and the rest in the central circle will be hurt by the casting the ritual of the myriad is the closest that any elf will ever get to being in heaven as the ritual can joins

the minds of all in the casting together including everyone else in the city so they can all feel each other read each other's minds and be together in this central collective this kind of ritual is also the only one where non casters and the rest of the city can enjoy in the religious fervor of high magic whereas normally only the high mages can enjoy it high magic has never been done by non-ells but the elves themselves assure any who asked that it is simply impossible for humans or other races to be able to lead such

a spell this is because in order to be able to take part in the primary or secondary caste or circle for any of this high magic spells you need to be able to link harmoniously with the rest of the caster's something particularly difficult if not impossible for non elves quote on a basic level elven high magic illustrates the most fundamental difference between humanity and elven kind the magic that humanity is capable of mastering without the gods decree is individual in nature and the wizard has only to rely on himself and his knowledge for this power

in only exceedingly rare cases can human magic be worked among more than one caster and this requires trust and cooperation things the elves believe humans have only in limited amounts elven magic on the other hand relies on cooperation and community and high magic depends on that unequivocally culturally humans stress every man for himself while the elves culture embraces the idea of all for one and one for all their magics reflect those very same ideals and quote thank you so much guys for watching the video next time we're going to be talking about every single actual

spell within each of the different categories for hi magic so next vid is going to be for the reach rules of solitude and we're gonna literally cover every single spell in that category so that's that's gonna be exciting and then on the video after that we're gonna do rituals of compliment and then the one after that rituals of myriad so we're gonna literally just cover all of them so it's it's gonna be great I would like to personally thank my patrons reporters ricado fan Daniel Luna dr. Cal belts kids your boy Elissa Russell major fail

gaming Cody Hereford say Lee ugh bury mask and 5e magic shop doc feeder Daniel Umar Morgan Johnson sack bowel Brad Salazar guess earn em rusty rein biotech no frag cash bein and mediocre at best for supporting me on patreon at the $25 level if you would like to support me as well then please head on over to patreon comm slash mr. Rex to support once again thank you so much for watching and I will see you all on the next video bye bye [Music] now if you remember my last episode you're probably thinking hey wait

a minute they can combine their minds easily while casting these really powerful spells wasn't that one of the necessary components of mistress ban in order to cast a level-10 spell yes yes you're correct when mr. OTT restricted 10th level spells she changed the rules so that one could only successfully cast a tenth level spell if they had a secondary caster combine his mind in essence with the primary caster something that elves can do really easily now that I think about it elves don't really even care about losing experience for failing a tenth level spell because

they they live for so long plus the powerful elvish mages in the kingdom are the high magic users and those don't even need to be 20th level to even being able to cast elvish high magic plus they are all extremely wise because it is demanded of them by their training it's weird it's almost as if mistress restrictions on 10th level spells barely even affect elves and only affects humans that is so hard you could almost believe she designed his rule so that it would only screw over humans but that would be silly