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In Ars Magica there are the four basic auras: Magic, Faerie, Dominion, and Infernal. Magi by their nature spend a lot of time in search of magical auras and regios. This stands to reason: magic is best conducted in such an environment. Most covenants are formed in these auras as anything else could cause magic to go afoul. Given these very fundamental considerations it could be reasoned that the setting most familiar to magi would therefore be the Realm of Magic. But unlike the other realms (and their connected auras and regios) we are given very little information about this realm. Indeed one is able to conjure all sorts of images for the other Realms, yet that of Magic is sorely lacking in the basic rulebook and its supplements (barring the old White Wolf book Shamans).
While certain individuals have determined that this is an unimportant consideration, I believe this strikes to the very core of the game. Consider -- magi are by definition scholars. Why is it, then, that there are no treatises on what the Realm of Magic is like, as opposed to all of those written on Dominion, Infernal, and Faerie. One would assume that there would be at least three or four mighty volumes out of House Bonisagus on the topic alone. As there is no Official Vision of the Realm (and likely never to be one), I intend in this article to present several possible notions of what the Realm of Magic may be like.
Pick and choose what may be most appropriate for your saga!
Under this view, the Realm of Magic is equivalent to the lands of Greco-Roman mythology (augmented by other myth-cycles as well, depending on the particulars of your Saga). This is a place of fantastic beasts, strange flora, and great deeds. Griffons, unicorns, sea serpents and the like would be nearly as common as normal creatures. The Realm itself would look very like our own world, but it would be sharper, more detailed, and a very human vision of perfect (as opposed to the divine vision out of Dominion). Equally it would be somehow larger, with greater distances to be crossed, greater heights to be climbed, deeper caverns to be delved. Unlike other descriptions of the Realm of Magic, this one would undoubtedly be populated with humans (of some sort or another; consider the such peoples out of Sir John Mandeville's travels -- the man might be out-of-period, but his belief in demi-humans at the edge of the world are not) actually living in villages and cities. It would be possible to find Herakles, King Arthur, and Cuchulain here, if one were to look in the right area; of course one could also potentially run across Hermes, Thoth, and Oengus Og, which might upset a few of the "all gods are faeries writ large" camp. Humans (or at least magi) visiting this version of the realm would feel relatively "at home" as everything would be on a human scale, albeit writ somewhat large. Personally this is my favourite view, but there are those who find it too mundane in tone.
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This is the vision taken more or less from Shamans (barring such oddities as "spirits of artifice"). In this case the Realm of Magic is much closer to Bjornaer's take on magic than the Mercurians'. This version Realm would be extremely naturalistic; even the rustic farming landscape would be out of place here. Indeed there would be no real human settlements or even much in the way of a human footprint on the world. Instead everything would be left "as it was intended" - mighty rivers, deep forests, wide plains. But spirits would be everywhere. Each blade of grass, each tree, each animal from the mouse to the lion would be invested with a greater spirit, one that might have to be bargained with for passage or alliance. One does not travel to this realm in mortal form, but rather as a spirit to deal with other spirits. The all-too-solid flesh of humanity is not welcome here. Of course if this is the True Realm of Magic, one wonders where Bonisagus' vision of the Order of Hermes came from. On the other hand it would make it easier to take your characters from Mythic Europe to the World of Darkness and back again (the author ducks at this point).
This vision would be very different from the others. The core of this realm would be the very stuff of creation, often in mere potential form. This might be envisioned as Plato's Forms and Substances before they are brought together, something which even the great philosopher was loath to imagine. It requires an intellect, a guiding spirit to create something from all this raw potential. The mind of the magus is such a guiding force, perhaps with aid of the Demiurge or some such greater mind. In this vision of the Realm of Magic, being a magus is the highest human accomplishment (at least outside of Dominion) as the Sensible Soul sees what is possible in mere raw material and creates it by force of will. Denizens of this realm would be myriad, but many of them would be, almost literally, half--baked, the beginnings of something else, the failed experiments, the forgotten bits that never fully developed. Certainly a visit to such a realm would be a disturbing experience.
As a variation on Realm of Potentiality, and perhaps more "rigid" in feel, it might be that the Realm of Magic takes fifteen forms, or is at least divided into fifteen "fiefs" or sub-realms, one for each of the Arts. Across this Realm there are areas devoted to Animal, Aquam, etc. Each of these sub-realms manifests the ultimate splendor of this particular element of magic. How mortals would treat with such areas is best left to the individual. Indeed while the sub-realm of Aquam might be envisioned, what would the sub-realm of Mentem appear as, at least to a mortal mind?
Of course underlying this is the possibility that what we are really looking at is some admixture of all of the above. By blending two or three of these notions together the Realm would become not only vastly confusing, but also beyond the limits of most human minds to comprehend. Or perhaps as a colleague of mine suggests (Thanks, Niall!) the Realm of Magic is not a single realm, but one with several layers, each possibly the "true vision" of the Realm in its own right, at least as far as that layer goes. Perhaps this is the very reason why there are no solid theories regarding the Realm of Magic.
After a while these ideas could pile up manically to the point where D&D's planes seem simple and sensible on contrast. Still, I believe that the Realm of Magic, even more so than the other three realms, requires some definition. Think carefully about your vision of magic in your saga, but don't let this realm merely exist as numbers for a lab bonus. To do this would cut out a large portion of the soul of the game.
Text copyright © Angus Macdonald 2003. Artwork copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 2003