>In your setting/your favorite setting/the setting in which you're playing right now,
What is the difference between divine and arcane magic?
>>44152761
Nothing really. Different power sources demand different techniques to maximise efficiency and output, but it's still magic.
If a wizard got access to a divine power source, with some tweaks he could access it. But he would never be as good as a divine caster given the same source as they know how best to take advantage of it.
>>44152761
Almost all magic comes from deities, only practices vary.
All magic comes from the will of the caster as interpreted by a massive supercomputer complex.
>>44152761
Arcane magic is manipulating the magic energy inherent to the world. You'll find it in leylines and the like. Is theoretically finite if misused.
Divine magic is gifted or channeled through mortals by celestial powers, who originally got their magical ability from the world but have become magically self-sustaining. They're all dead or gone though, so you have to pick over their cosmological corpses or residue to get it.
>>44152959
my nigga.
>>44152761
The difference is like Heaven and Earth
>>44152959
explain
>>44152761
Arcane Magic is the manipulation of the natural world through force of will, using one's inner power, or one's focus to manipulate existing Magical energies. Often these "Break" the rules as written.
Divine Magic is solely gifted or channeled by celestial or Infernal beings. These beings are purely divine in nature themselves. They're powers manifest in ways that are nigh impossible or unlikely to occur by rest in the "natural" laws of said universe.
>>44152761
>Hard mode
Explain psionics as well
>>44153161
In >>44152973
Those rare few who are born naturally self-sufficient. Not as powerful as those who manipulate the natural energies, and not as refined in most cases either.
Kinda behave like blanks in 40k too. People and animals don't like them as much, because they're outside of the system everyone else is part of.
>>44152994
>mfw there will never be a system you can play ar tonelico in
>>44153075
The mages in this setting are magical robots/homunculi with an inherent connection to the supercomputer complex that runs their world. Magic is performed by singing computer code, which the computer interprets according to the will and feelings of the caster and sends the energy to produce the desired effect. There's a shitload of writing on how it works if you'd care for me to link it, but that's the tldr.
In action, it sounds something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iiIMgor8F8
>>44152761
Divine doesn't exist.
>>44152761
Arcane - Magic is manipulated, processed and cast by yourself
Divine - Magic is processed by you, sent to another being usually an aggregate of the will of thousands and thousands of worshipers built around a single mind to be manipulated and formed by it, and sent back to you so it can be casted
>>44153161
Psionics - The power to go "FUCK YOU PHYSICS WE'RE DOING THINGS MY WAY FOR A BIT"
>>44152761
Divine Magic is the will of the gods themselves, channeled through their chosen servants to various degrees. The spells are reliant on the god's own power and generally on their viewpoints, which is why good clerics can heal and evil clerics can harm, even if both serve gods of war.
The magic of a warlock and their pacts are similar to a degree, except the demons or great beings they make pacts with do not give quite the same strength, and are stricter in their views on what sort of magic their warlock should wield in their name.
Sorcerers have some magic blood in them for whatever reason, so they have a connection to natural magic that they can use their will to channel. Wizards are similar, but they have no natural connection - one is built through ritual, dogma, and careful understanding of the arcane.
>>44152761
Reality is bits of fully, or mostly, defined stability in a sea of narrative chaos. Magic rips a little hole in realiy, lets a bit of the narrative soup in (or the raw instinctual/emotional soup beneath that) in. This briefly makes reality les defined, and reality struggles to regain its homeostasis/equilibrium. In this interrum, it is possible to briefly "trick" the rules of reality into being different, and a magical effect is created. Generally Arcane users do this by understanding the laws of our universe, while divine users do so by understanding the world beyond that's leaking through on an instinctual/faith level.
>>44153161
This is actually a major plot point in my campaign, and there's at-least one player who is really good at identifying my posts on /tg/ so just trust it's cool.
>>44152761
Since my setting is scif-fi and we use psychic for everything not science, holy powers or magic is basically the mind ability to project and generate healing life energy to a place or person. It also can be used to bolster strength or use to fight and destroy necrotic energy more effectively than others.
The religious factions are the only one that possessed the training facility to train people in such use, but there are people who can come out with it on their own due to desperation.
Arcane magic or simply other forms of psychic disciplines are diverse in nature. Can be purely destructive like elemental energies. Can be used to effect others like pure psychic discipline. Can be used for force choking via telekinesis.
Everyone can use psychic but using it is tiring to both mind and body and require long hours of training before any results materialized. This forced people to prioritize one discipline over others as they don't have the time or effort to diverse their powers over different disciplines. However, focusing on one discipline carry both boon and disadvantage, you can use powers in that discipline better than others but you will be highly affected than others by powers from disciplines that opposed yours. Basically Pokemon, hard counter the game.
Due to that, people simply know about the existence of such powers but most people don't give a flying fuck since a lot of people have been killing each other with bare fist and household utensils before and usage of psychic power change nothing.
Except for the military, the cloak and dagger community and the underworld, where skilled psychic users are prized as security and field agents to do their dirty deeds.
My setting has no Divine Magic, and Arcane magic doesn't really have a presence on the primary area. Most "casters" are Psionic, and Psionics and Ki-Manipulation are just aspects of the universe in my setting. It's a natural process like a Dragon breathing fire, a Psion trains his mind like a bodybuilder trains the body.
Arcane magic are a memetic semi-sentient entity obsessed with making people dependent on it and making it spread. Most of its practitioners are extra-terrestials. Spells are basically "cheat codes".
In my setting, gods are manifestations of a peoples' collective psionic energy, the manifest sum of all faith put into their existence. Divine magic is essentially a person pulling back some of that power - "I believe God exists, therefore God exists, therefore he grants me power," would be a succinct description, though of course the people in the world have no idea of it.
Arcane magic is a "shortcut" - secret knowledge about the workings of the world granted to mortals by cosmic interlopers who are attracted to the world's fluctuations of psionic energy. When a deity dies or is otherwise incapacitated, they insert themselves as artificial deities. Arcane magic causes madness, as mortals aren't meant to understand it, often with physical side effects as well.
>>44152959
Isn't Ar Tonelico that one Japanese game with the teenage, nearly naked girls?
>>44156214
Gotta be more specific than that
>>44152761
I posted this a while back- god of arcane magic gives magic with no strings attached to those who qualify to prevent one church subsuming all the others and the world, because it's a polytheistic setting and any god that got left out against their will might make bad things happen or not be there to guard against divine abuse.
My setting doesn't really have divine or arcane magic. The "normal" type of magic is elemental based, and it's used by mimicking feats from old myths and lore. The other type of magic comes from your souls being branded, and also grant an unique power to the branded. Both users can augment their amount of lifeforce so that they do more witht their powers.
I like my clerics without magic, with sole exception to turning undead and giving people a little pick me up akin to lay on hands but weaker.
The only exception is praying for a miracle, which works inherently different from any spellcaster spell since there are no spell slots and the restrictions on the miracles are more story and god based then mechanical.
So no, there is essentially no divine magic except if that is what you call miracles.
>>44152761
Magic is kinda like the mana theorie. An energy flowing in the whole world allowing people to do wonders.
What shapes it and it's uses is how you think about magic and anything you do.
You're a high-level warrior and think you can break mountains through training? With enough time and use of your strengh, you'll be able to do it.
Same with blacksmith that can enchant a weapon without knowing magic at all.
Divine was the first magic, since people felt like there was something above them that could give them powers, and it simply did.
Arcane is made from people who thought that magic should work in a certain way, with rules and logic. And in the end, it did.
Tldr: divine just think that god could give magic, and magic turn itself to do so, arcane because first wizards thought that it should obey rules.
Divine magic is dedicating your life to the gods, thus feeding them a constant source of energy. In return they cast spells for you in your times of need.
Arcane magic is just doing it yourself, and thus many gods hate it as a threat to their existence. Luckily for the gods its much harder to learn so most people don't bother.
>>44152761
Divine magic is granted by the power of an extradimensional being, arcane magic is drawn from forces originating from other planes of existence, that, when interacting with ours, slightly alter the laws of reality.
Divine magic comes from good gods while arcane magic comes from evil gods.
>>44158416
that's magicist!
>>44158444
It's called "everyone but clerics are warlocks"
Some people say god does it, other people say it's a natural force
It's the same thing.
>>44152761
There isn't really specifically divine magic, though a slim majority of sorcerers learn their arts of ritual from a religious organization they hold rank in and certainly many such practices claim to be divinely inspired or directly handed down to them by gods. Even these magics don't require the practitioner to maintain faith or hold to vows, as evidenced by the many warlocks who still wield them.
>>44152761
The arcane/divine distinction does not exist exactly as such. Magical effects - or weaves, rather - instead have different densities where higher densities absorb lesser densities. It happens to be that deities need to expend far less relative effort to produce a dense magical weave and thus have a really easy time wrecking mortal casters if they ever get in a scuffle.
>>44156214
Only in the third game.
The third game, by the way, is absolute trash. Just play the first two and listen to the music for the third.
>>44152761
Divine power is reality being forced to change to do something
Magic is borrowing from your future self, or taking from a victim
>>44152761
Divine Magic comes from a defined Sapient source while Arcane Magic comes from the energies that pervades and makes up all things on the material planes.
Druids and Rangers that simply worship "Nature" get the power from local spirits, and Clerics that follow a concept but do not voice a particular god function kind of like temp workers for whichever God of said concept has need of a servant at that time or place.
>>44152761
None whatsoever, it's a distinction made by humans for purely historical reasons. "Arcane" magic is just a quick and dirty version of the elven magical tradition stripped of their cultural context and religious associations (which would be meaningless to them) and taught to humans in a hurry to supplement their magical capabilitie in battle and make them more effective allies.
Ultimately human wizards are tapping the same forces as the priests who use "native" human magics, but it suits everyone to maintain a clear distinction because the techniques that wizards use are much more advanced and dangerous than the generally pretty low-key miracles worked by high ranking priests, and associating the two would damage the benign public image that priestly magic enjoys. In any case, almost no human understands enough of magic to realise this.
In every other culture in the world, there is absolutely no difference between "arcane" and "divine" magic. They all have a magician caste who are responsible for acting as intercessor with the unseen world, and be they orc shaman or elven archmage they're expected both to make close study of the lore of their forebears and invoke the aid of their patron gods or spirits.The setting is warhammer fantasy, albeit filtered through years of my own interpretation
