Ethshar: Difference between revisions

* [[The Empath]]: One of the effects of witches' magic.

* [[Engagement Challenge]]: Played with in ''With a Single Spell'' where the erstwhile dragon-slayers were promised a bag of gold and a princess for defeating the dragon. Upon returning successfully, one of the heroes tries to refuse the princess and take the gold - only to find that it's a package deal. There are too many princesses and the gold is her dowry.

* [[Eye of Newt]]: Wizardry uses ingredients like this -- a raindrop caught in midair, for example, or the blood of an unborn child. There's even an expert -- a man named Gresh -- who looks for such things and supplies them to wizards for a living.

* [[Flat World]]: The entire world is said to be the end-cap of a cylinder.

** Ritual Song and Ritual Dance: [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin]].

* [[Shapeshifting Squick]]: Unusually, the shapeshifter is the one being squicked. In ''Taking Flight'', a man is enchanted to love and desire Irith the Flier, who is a shapeshifter with seven different shapes. It turns out that no matter the Irith's shape, the man still lusts after her, even when she assumes a shape of a horse. (By the way, one of the seven shapes is a housecat, so yeah, [[Memetic Mutation|a cat is fine too]].) Irith is seriously squicked by that.

* [[Sorcerous Overlord]]: Usually averted, thanks to Wizards' Guild. The Guild's rules expressly forbid any magician, wizard or not, to occupy any ruling position at all (the only exception are those positions that explicitly require magic, like that of a court magician). Punishment for breaking this rule is death. {{spoiler|Shame about Vond the Warlock, though. Vond became ''very'' powerful much too quickly, conquered a kingdom and even managed to build a small empire.}}

* [[Summon Magic]]: Demonology. Also, some wizard spells can summon otherwordly creatures, too.

* [[Taken for Granite]]: There are at least two spells for that. ''Bazil’s Irreversible Petrifaction'' turns someone to stone [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|permanently]], while ''Fendel’s Superior Petrifaction'' can be reversed with the right spells (that's why it's considered Superior). Both spells can be used in magical combat, but the reversible spell has some other, more exotic uses. {{spoiler|In ''The Vondish Ambassador'' it is used as a protection from a magical assassin.}}

* [[Tabletop Game]]: There isn't an official one, but [[Word of God]] states that many varieties of Ethshar magic, with their rules and limitations, were invented by [[Lawrence Watt Evans]] for a homebrew [[Tabletop Game]]. (And the idea of the novel ''With a Single Spell'' came when one of the players asked the author: "What is the minimum number of spells for a newly-generated wizard?" The answer was "One".)

* [[Vancian Magic]]: Wizardry can be like this. In ''Taking Flight'', two fire-and-forget wizardry systems are introduced, both with severe drawbacks. The first one lets wizard prepare any one (but only one) spell in advance, to be used once at his convenience, with practically zero casting time. Can be useful, as some spells need days to cast. The drawback is, until the spell is used, the wizard cannot do any other wizardry. The second system is a plot point: {{spoiler|wizard prepares about a dozen of spells, to instantly cast later as many times as he likes. The drawback? No other wizardry ever for that wizard, except for these spells.}}

* [[The Wall Around the World]]: Rather, the yellow fog/gas around the world.

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:Ethshar]]