On the Nature of Wild Magic

Day 28, Month 1, Year 126 - By Meridia of House Silverheir, owing a debt to the Arcane Tower for letting me peruse their library.

Section I: A Timeline of Magic

Ever since the Time of Troubles ravaged across Faerun, that fateful period where the Gods themselves was forced to walk the land, there has been slight changes in the way magic exists through the Realms. Most mages never feel this, except perhaps a faint, unexplainable tingle at times when they cast their magic.

A select few, however, can detect these faint changes in the very consistency of the Weave. An even fewer number lived through the Time of Troubles, and has attested to subtle differences in the very composition of the Weave itself, studying it.

But what exactly happened during the Time of Troubles, which event was exactly was responsible for influencing the Weave in such a way?

In order to fully understand this, we have to go further back in time, back to ancient time, when the Empire of Netheril was the dominant force in the Realms, and beyond. This day, we can only guess about the true extent of power held by the Netherese Mages.

It is written that during those days, the laws governing magic were different, and that spells existed beyond the limit of the tenth, which we know today.

As the Netherese Empire came to a slow decline, however, due to the resurgence of the terrifying foes, the Phaerimm, a single very powerful Archmage bearing the name of Karsus, saw fit to take it upon himself to save his people. To do that, however, he would have to wrest the mantle of divinity from the God of Magic at the time, Mystryl.

The Archmage had worked for a long time, developing the spell ‘Karsus’ Avatar’, which in theory, allowed him to sap the divine essence of Mystryl, in order to wield her divine power. As he released the incantations of the spell, he established a direct link to the Goddess, and as he had predicted, begun to take her power into his own body.

There were, however, one variable Karsus had forgotten to predict. Much like our own Mystra, the very existence of Mystryl, was the balancing factor that was able to keep the Weave under control. As she was drained of her power, the Weave spun out of control, the inundation of magic surged and fluctuated, and the effect of all things magical doubled for a time. In order to prevent this sudden surge in power across the Prime Material Plane, Mystryl sacrificed herself in order to save the Weave. She knew that following such a sacrificed, the divine mantle as decreed by the Overgod, would force a being into existence, governing the Weave.

In the short moment in which the Weave ceased to function, however, the Netherese Empire litterally crashed to their demise, their flying cities governed by powerful artifacts depending on the existence of the Weave, marking the end of the era of the Netheril Empire.

Section II: The Rules of Magic

Within moments, after the fall of Mystryl, the deity reincarnated as Mystra, as decreed by the divine mantle of a Goddess of Magic. However, having experienced the disastrous possibilities of mortal magic without boundaries, the Goddess defined some rules that all wizards must therefrom adhere to, mainly that there was to be no spell of the 11th circle and above, previously magic of the caliber to power entire flying cities, for example.

For many years, this was the reality practitioners of the Art had to accept – while spells up to the 10th circle are nothing to scoff at, the most powerful spells were barred, the framework to power them no longer present within Mystra’s Weave.

Fast forward to the turbulent period known as the Time of Troubles, the period where many deities were forced to walk the Prime Material Plane due to some internal conflict within their own ranks. Many deities were slain, others wise, and magic was chaotic, to say the least – divine spells flickered, and through the lack of a deity of magic to govern the Weave, arcane magic behaved recklessly, unruly and unreliable.

Section III: The Origin of Wild Magic

Most historians agree that this period were the origin of the proverbial ‘Wild Magic’. A discipline not entirely easy to quantify due to the chaotic nature of the font of power it would draw upon, nevertheless practiced wide and far by both scholars and madmen.

The exact nature of Wild Magic eludes us all to this day, often being dismissed as an inherent chaotic factor present within a certain type of somatic material preparation method, introducing the element of chance as a constant, thus disrupting the logical flow of otherwise plainly defined magical spells.

While this definition is not entirely incorrect, the more one delves into the subject, the more it becomes plain that while the element of chance seems a fundamental cornerstone when dealing with Wild Magic, there is a system of control beneath it, one of extraordinary power, which can be controlled by the studious Wild Mage with the knowledge of it.

Ultimately, the power and spells present in this underlying framework of magic, hidden beneath the archetypical definition of the ‘Weave’ as Mystra commanded it after Karsus’ folly, brings memories of the long-lost magic that were available to practitioners before the fall of Netheril, as there is simply no limit. Each spell cast with the element of Wild Magic involved in its component has untold potential.

A skilled Wild Mage is able to manipulate this outcome to his own choosing, thus in a sense revealing that the misnomer ‘Wild Magic’ is perhaps not entirely correct, instead having the practitioner granted access to magic, as it was before the rules of magic were imposed upon the Weave.

This is turns explain the increasing number of so-called Wild Mages across the realms, for which mage would not wish the freedom to dive into the untold mysteries of the Art, without restriction? The potential is unlimited for those with the skill and luck to survive long enough, without going mad in the process.

As a closing note, in my own humble opinion, it should be said that those of us who have reached some level of potential with this particular brand of magic, bear some sort of responsibility for its correct usage. Not only for our own sake, but also for the continued existence of the world as we know it. While one may not agree on imposing limitations of the power available to mortal men, history has taught us what can happen to majestic empires in one instant, if magic is allowed to run amok.