For the 8 colleges, its fairly simple what you see is the colour of the associated school. Dark magic would look black, High magic, I think is meant to look like a rainbow or is it white, hmm I need to read up on that magic from the books.

Unless someone found a novel describing Nurgle magic. I picture it to be a mixture of black for dark magic, green for jade magic, and having the green look sickly and rotten as its healthy nature is corrupted by chaos in some fashion.

Tzeencth is the one chaos god whos magic I would not know how to describe, as he is magic.

Page 15 of the Tome of Mysteries has a few pertinent answers to this. Worth the minute it will take to read.

Elsewhere, magic is described as "winds" so I would have it twist, flow, and move.

Each order has it's own color, and associated properties, which I would draw in to the description. Bright Order magic flickering like flames. Jade Order magic taking organic shapes, then drifting like discarded leaves falling ever slowly to earth. Amber magic skittering about like a busy little chipmunk, then suddenly standing stalk-still when it realizes it's being watched. Amethyst magic forming little skulls or ghostly hooded figures, then slinking off to hide in the shadows. Each order has it's own glyph or sigil, too. Some are basically arrows, so they may blow in a particular direction ceaselessly. Others are represented by concentric circles, so they may orbit or linger more. Again, the Tome of Magic is a great place to start. Chapter 3: The Eight Orders begins on page 17.

For the chaos gods, their magic would seem tainted, but maybe not obviously so. One cool way to do it would be to always start describing it as the nearest "proper" form of magic, and then describe how it's been twisted and distorted almost as an after-thought. Or, if you prefer, more over-the-top. Nurgle magic vomits and oozes, or flits about like ghostly flies. Slaneshi magic keeps making eyes at you, and has some hypnotic rhythm to the patterns of its movements. The magic of Tzeentch the great deciever constantly reimagines itself, cycling through colors and forms in a ways that other magic cannot. Magic done by Beastmen seems feral and adversarial, even long after it's casting. Magic of the Skaven hisses and runs away when directly observed. Ork magic bumbles and cavorts in an unpredictable fashion. I'm just making this up.

One thing I would bear in mind is that magic doesn't really create magical energy, so much as it gives form to and strengthens the magical energy that is already there. On the typical city street of the empire, there will be little wisps of half a dozen different winds blowing at any time. The dead rat in the gutter has beads of Amber on its fur, but as time passes they fade and an Amethyst mist gathers about it. The watchman passing by carries an old lantern hanging disused from his pack. It's not lit at the moment, but has been a thousand times before so with Witchsight you can still see it glow or smoke ever so slightly. His coin purse has only ever held brass or silver coins, but when viewed with Magical Sight it may seem faintly embroidered in gold or yellow. Magic blows, drips, and oozes throughout the Old World. Wizards don't walk around with Magical Sight turned on at every single moment of the day, and at least part of the reason is because it would be terribly distracting to do so.

I think. Like I said, I'm mostly making this up.

Edited just for formatting, which had been lost when the forums were converted to new software.

Page 15 of the Tome of Mysteries has a few pertinent answers to this. Worth the minute it will take to read.

Elsewhere, magic is described as "winds" so I would have it twist, flow, and move. (...) I think. Like I said, I'm mostly making this up.

For being just made up on the spot, that was pretty brilliant, and probably more inspiring than anything I've read on the subject. It really tickles my imagination, and I'd really like to keep it for later use. Mind if I copypaste it into a document?

Be my guest. It's absolutely free for your personal use.

And frankly, I ought to reread that post myself. Yesterday one of my players used magic sight on a building that was not enchanted at all, and my response to him was "yeah, it checks out, there's no evil magic here". While that was true and kept the plot from bogging down, it certainly wasn't as colorful or interesting as anything I wrote in that old post.

I second that. Quite brilliantly written Bergströ(o)m.

If the players would run with that as well, wizard players can bring even more tension and mystery to the group. Skilled wizards could see even more details making the world live up even more.

great description, r_b!

hi Mexorlon! I also have some ideas for you.

first, have you read the Discworld collection by Terry Pratchet? if you have, I find that his descriptions of the color of magic are quite useful for describing the winds of magic in Warhammer.

about how magic works in the world of Warhammer... (most if this is fluff from the second edition, which was really rich in describing this stuff. you can look for more inspiration in Realms of Chaos and Tome of Corruption.)

the Aethyr is a parallel dimension where there is no form, no matter as we understand it. it is a dimension of unformed possibilities, energy without any attachment. in other words, chaos in it's most raw.

in the natural state of the universe, the energy of the parallel dimension would migrate to the common world as the creation of things, of everything that exists: every molecule, every connection, every thought and emotion. it migrates as creation and it's the energy that fuels every change of substance and of being. so it's like the Aethyr is the raw essence of everything that is.

the problem is, that is not the only way Aethyric energy comes to the world. there is a breach in reality itself to the north of the Old World. through that breach, the energy comes in its raw state.

the first time that happened, when the breach appeared, it was wild. the world itself came very close to collapsing. the raw energy of chaos leaked and changed everything it touched. the beastmen came to be that way: the energy meddled the human ancestors with animals, creating not exactly a race, but a creature that is a possibility of being. I don't know if beastmen procriate among themselves, but a child can be born a beastmen, and some turn into beastmen as a random mutation or even later contact with the energy of chaos. beastmen are like a specific form of mutation, one that has some definition, even if with a lot of variation.

that occured because the raw energy of possibilities was itself changed when it passed the leak: it had to function in relation to the laws of the world, or else, they were in a world that had laws. when raw possibilities enter in contact with any kind of law, it changes them. bend them, torn them. and eventually break them utterly.

everything in the world was affected. and, as the chaos energy touched everything, it was touched by anything. it shaped dreams and feelings, but it was also shaped by them. its not clear if daemons were beings in the realm of possibilities where they came, or if they were aspects of that realm that became attached to nightmares and fear and rage.

it was the elves that saved reality. the thing is, that same raw energy that now leaked wildly to the world was before harnessed by old mythical beings, called the Old Ones. they were the ones the started the breach, and they could control it for some time (ages, maybe). they literally shaped the world as it is, and also had a touch in every living being. the elves were their servants, and from the Old Ones they learned how to manipulate the raw energy. until something happened, the control was lost and the Old Ones disappeared.

the elves then created a vast ritual. it's said that a lot of elven magicians were lost in this ritual. and with it, they created the Vortex.

what the Vortex do is filter the energy of raw possibilities, giving some attachment to it, some translation to the reality, or else, it gives focus to some of the aspects mixed in that raw energy. and that's how the eight winds are created: they are a connection from the raw energy of chaos with the created world.

magic works this way: some gifted individuals can see the aethyric energies. some can even manipulate them. in the Colleges of Magic, some few chosen ones (the gifted ones that are found when children) are taught how to tune themselves with one of this aspects that the Vortex harnesses. that's the safer way known to mankind to manipulate magic: to be tuned and even formatted to interact with one of the aspects of raw possibility. and, if you manipulate the energy of possibility, you do magic.

elves, in the other hand, has a deeper sensibility with aethyric energy, and they sure have a much deeper and complex mind. they can safely deal with a lot more than humans can. all the elder races are immune to mutation, that is known. the elves are also able to control the harnessed energy of chaos as no other.

what the elves do is that they make the different aspects of possibility work together in an harmonic way. so their magic is much, much powerful than the greatest human magister. this high magic, that works with some or all of the winds in harmonic union, is called Quaysh. and it's the complete opposite of dark magic.

in the third edition, by the rules, there can only be human apprentice wizards. in the second, you could play with an elf. what was said is an elf started working magic like the humans do, attaching themselves to one single wind. when they became the similar of a human magician lord, they were called back to Ulthuan to be teached how to woven more than one wind. but I think that Yepesnope's elven book has some rules about how elven magic would work at player level.

that are two types of perverted energy. and, actually, both can be considered opposite to elven magic. the most common type to get in touch with is the mixture of more than one wind. that is Dhar, different winds working in a dissonant way. it is corruption, and the way most hedge wizards, witches and even bray shamans do magic. it could potentially be a lot stronger than the magic from the Colleges, but few creatures can withstand dealing with it in a powerful level and sustain any consciousness or even corporality.

but there is also the raw stuff of chaos, leaked directly from the breach or brought by some ritual or demon. that is True Dhar. that is a corruption that could alter one's soul, that could reconfigure a being into turning itself to a demon.

warpstones (also known as wyrdstones) are condensations of the winds coming together in a dissonant way, and becoming matter. it could also be True Dhar assembling quiet in some spot and being decanted into reality. you should be creative describing it. it could be felt and sensed in a lot of ways, and it would, slowly or quite fast, turn everything it touches.