Post by Sej on Apr 7, 2019 20:01:22 GMT -5
Soren sat in a classroom with several others of varied races and backgrounds. Like him, they were members of the alliance who'd journeyed to Karasus to take the Drokagr initiative up on their offers of basic magic courses. Battle magic, the young man self corrected. He, and likely others as well, already knew basic magic. However, he hadn't trained for battle and there were areas in his knowledge that were lacking in that department.
This particular class was on shielding, something Soren knew nothing of. The ultimate goal being mastery, the class would gift him the basics. He could speculate about shielding, drawing on his basic knowledge of thaumaturgy, but that was useless on the field of battle. Or even off it, really. Though groups like this made him nervous, it had to be infinitely more efficient than reinventing the wheel on his own.
The young man had chosen a seat halfway back, left of center. He kept to himself while others socialized. Soren was there to learn, he told himself, but really he had a hard time letting his guard down. So entrenched in his own brooding thoughts, he almost didn't notice when the room quieted and a Drokagr woman took to the front of the classroom and began the lecture. She dressed like an academic and, although her face was relatively unlined, Soren would be uncomfortable trying to put a finger on her age or picking the woman out from a crowd of her kind. Drokagr were still new to him, his experiences small and knowledge of their culture nearly nonexistent. But still. The young man had traveled farther than he'd ever imagined to reach their city, hungering after the promise of magical knowledge.
"The most important aspect of shielding is efficiency. What is the point of a shield that drains more resources than it is worth? At that point, a mage might as well strap metal plates to themself much like fighters do and conserve their energy for more useful magics."
Whether or not that was meant to be a joke, Soren couldn't tell. It was delivered so dryly and with such severity that not a single person laughed and, during her pause, the instructor's eyes swept the room as though daring a single one of them to demonstrate even the slightest bit of mirth at her suggestion. She's serious, the young man decided. A spell that uses all your energy and still leaves you in danger was not a spell worth knowing. Soren could approve of such a philosophy.
"Even the simplest of spells hold efficiency at their heart to some degree. Overly intricate magics do no one any good. A shielding spell's purpose is to protect you. It needs neither to be pretty nor impressive to be hold. It only needs to get the job done. That job is saving your life from some beast's claws, some brute's sword, or a hostile sorcerer's spells. Any other effect it demonstrates is quite simply a waste of resources that could be used counterattacking or strengthening the shield complex further. Wasted resources will do none of you any favors on the battlefield."
"More complex shielding spells are capable of absorbing damage and returning some of the harm inflicted back to the enemy, covering both offense and defense. For now, all of you would do best to focus on simpler shields. The basics."
This particular class was on shielding, something Soren knew nothing of. The ultimate goal being mastery, the class would gift him the basics. He could speculate about shielding, drawing on his basic knowledge of thaumaturgy, but that was useless on the field of battle. Or even off it, really. Though groups like this made him nervous, it had to be infinitely more efficient than reinventing the wheel on his own.
The young man had chosen a seat halfway back, left of center. He kept to himself while others socialized. Soren was there to learn, he told himself, but really he had a hard time letting his guard down. So entrenched in his own brooding thoughts, he almost didn't notice when the room quieted and a Drokagr woman took to the front of the classroom and began the lecture. She dressed like an academic and, although her face was relatively unlined, Soren would be uncomfortable trying to put a finger on her age or picking the woman out from a crowd of her kind. Drokagr were still new to him, his experiences small and knowledge of their culture nearly nonexistent. But still. The young man had traveled farther than he'd ever imagined to reach their city, hungering after the promise of magical knowledge.
"The most important aspect of shielding is efficiency. What is the point of a shield that drains more resources than it is worth? At that point, a mage might as well strap metal plates to themself much like fighters do and conserve their energy for more useful magics."
Whether or not that was meant to be a joke, Soren couldn't tell. It was delivered so dryly and with such severity that not a single person laughed and, during her pause, the instructor's eyes swept the room as though daring a single one of them to demonstrate even the slightest bit of mirth at her suggestion. She's serious, the young man decided. A spell that uses all your energy and still leaves you in danger was not a spell worth knowing. Soren could approve of such a philosophy.
"Even the simplest of spells hold efficiency at their heart to some degree. Overly intricate magics do no one any good. A shielding spell's purpose is to protect you. It needs neither to be pretty nor impressive to be hold. It only needs to get the job done. That job is saving your life from some beast's claws, some brute's sword, or a hostile sorcerer's spells. Any other effect it demonstrates is quite simply a waste of resources that could be used counterattacking or strengthening the shield complex further. Wasted resources will do none of you any favors on the battlefield."
"More complex shielding spells are capable of absorbing damage and returning some of the harm inflicted back to the enemy, covering both offense and defense. For now, all of you would do best to focus on simpler shields. The basics."
