Well, well well, who would have said that...I have always been an opositor of including high elf mages in my games but then two thing happened

- I player of mine wanted to play with a High Elf mage

- I meet Emirikol in the forums and we had several discussions about it in different posts.

While the first gave me the strength to try it, the second made me revise all the lore I own regarding high magic, and well, Emirikol was quite right at the end!

So, here I present my first attempt of house ruling High Elf mages.

What is this NOT:

An attempt to house rule High Magic spells. In the framework of my rules this will be covered by rank 6 and higher characters.

An attempt to balance High Elf mages with other spell caster. Do not evaluate balance, I don't think there should be any.

What is this?

An attempt to house rule the path that High Elfs must follow in order to have access to High Magic Spells, without altering too much the in-game mechanics.

A first draft which I like to share in this forums because there is a lot of wisdom and I will like to have as much feedback as possible from interested players and GM's in order to further develop it.

Cheers

I like the draft to it, seems to me the abilities are powerful, and rightly should be so.

We're talking about magic that in ancient days formed and sculpted a planet, and while no one (we know of) still has that power and knowledge, it's the most powerful form of magic there is.

I once thought about why Dark Elves don't just practice High magic, I mean they're the same race, why not use both dark and high magic?

Then I decided it was because only males can use High Magic (no explanation really needed), and since females are the power in Dark Elven society, no one uses High Magic, and this is also part of why the Dark Elves has such a big hatred of High Elves.

Might not be how it's portrayed in the lore, but for me it works.

Nice work

Spivo said:

Psychology and greed.

High Magic is difficult, requiring patience, precision and perfectly balanced thoughts and emotions to manipulate. We don't know what proportion of High Elves ever actually learn High Magic, but I'd wager that it's a comparative minority amongst those who choose magical study, and even for those who do begin to practice it, the study is something that requires centuries of effort above and beyond learning to master individual lesser lores. In the hands of a master, it is both the subtlest and most potent of tools.

Dark Magic requires no precision or patience - it is a force available to any with the will to grasp it. Dark Magic can occur naturally as a random mixture of the winds of magic, where High Magic requires perfect balance between the Eight Winds. It can come into being spontaneously using nothing more than brute force manipulation. Dark Magic is also hideously dangerous, a force corrosive to existence that leaves the unskilled or the unwary as dead, mutated, mad or some combination of all three. Aside from the tricks and techniques of Necromancy (itself derived from the energies of Dark Magic), the only sure way for a mortal to wield Dark Magic is through pure and relentless willpower, the absolute and arguably insane belief in one's own dominance over the fundamental forces of the universe.

High Elf Mages view Dark Magic as reckless and dangerous. Dark Elf Sorceresses (and the few Sorcerers who do exist - Malekith did outlaw them, but a few remain in spite of the law, and Malekith himself is an extremely potent Sorcerer) view High Magic as overly-cautious and unambitious.