1206537

This doesn't directly answer your question, but I'd advise taking a look at these-

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Whatevermancy
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/Whatevermancy

The -mancy suffix actually means divining the future via whatever medium you choose, not wielding it as magic.

1206537 Chronomancy: Manipulation of time?
That's all I got.
EDIT: Listen to the guy above me. He knows his shit.

1206537 Pyromancy, manipulating fire. Other than that, no idea.

1206537
There isn't really a limit. You just take a latin root word, and attach 'mancy', and people will more or less figure what you're taking about. Also, Chrono pointed out what I was going to.

1206546
I'll go back to answering your PM now.
I'm so scatterbrai—Oh, shiny!

1206548 1206555

In a story, no one will care. The -mancy suffix has practically evolved into what modern culture uses it for. But in reference to a mage that specializes in conjuring and controlling fire, I'd refer to that as pyrokinesis (the ability to manipulate and direct heat). For ice mages, use cryokinesis.

After all, what do we refer to psychic powers as? Telekinesis. Not telemancy.

1206556

In your defence, the shiny thingy is likely somewhat more interesting!

1206560 Now that I think of it further, that might be so.

1206537
As Chrono_Ryono stated, -mancy comes from Greek manteia (divination), and there are plenty of words that you can add to it. Pyromancy would be art of divination by using fire, botanomancy by burning plants specifically and osteomancy will be one with using bones.

If you're looking for a suitable term, suffix -kinesis might prove useful. Telekinesis, pyrokinesis... geokinesis, perhaps?

Eh, it's part of geomancy, though geomancy usually is more about ley lines and places of inherent power. You're closer to things like alchemy or good ol' enchantment. The last time I'd actually seen that in play was an old Rolemaster book. They just called it the school of "essence."

Anybody have an old copy of GURPS laying around. The name for it should be in their Magic book.

1206537
I'd suggest that you not stick with the -mancy - it's severely limited. It's easier to simply create your own naming (BTW, geomancy is earth magic in general, not just gems and metals) system. Also, as the brilliant minds above me said, there are several other prefixes and suffixes to go wild with.

Here you are

any of these, suffixed with Mancy will do for what you're looking at.

However:

Litho- earth and stone
Ferro- iron
Metallo- (seriously) metal
Pyro- fire
Aqua- water

1206571

I wonder, would umbrakinesis be valid? Or luxkinesis?

(Manipulation of shadow and light; similar concepts with plenty of Fridge Logic in place if you consider what a shadow is.)

1206577
I've seen photokinesis, basically the same thing.

Two other fairly standard ones are:

Aeromancy, using Air
Aquamancy, using Water

Along with Pyromancy and Geomancy, all you would need is someone like Cadance to cast Heart magic and you could also summon a Giamancer, defender of the Planet!

1206583

XD

Supermancy brought a smile to my face, since it's inherently meaningless (prefix-suffix combo).

1206537
1206560
Necromancy is fun, because outside of D&D and its sphere of influence over fantasy, necromancy is more about communing with spirits and medium-type stuff. I'd love to do a high fantasy series that actually has decent necromancy, rather than "lololol zomgbies"

Anyway. Geokinesis would probably be your best bet, with a throw-in of geomancy if anyone's gleaning information from the crystals. I prefer to be accurate in my work, even if only three people will appreciate it. Yeah, I'm the guy who takes ten minutes to look up how much pressure it takes to crush a windpipe for a throwaway line...

1206577
Interesting question! If we look at light as electromagnetic radiation, and that it is being emitted in packets of photons, luxkinesis would be realigning those photons along the radiation wave, allowing to conceal objects, change intensity of the light, perhaps even something with colors.

As for umbrakinesis, the only thing I have is choking those photons to death.

1206601

As for umbrakinesis, the only thing I have is choking those photons to death.

Photocide.

We need more made up words! MOAR!

1206596

Yeah, I'm the guy who takes ten minutes to look up how much pressure it takes to crush a windpipe for a throwaway line...

Nothing wrong with that! It can be impressive when authors do their research.

One of the reasons I like This Platinum Crown so much is that it all sounds so authentic, due to Cap'n spending a lot of time looking information on nobility and feudal custom and such.

1206601 If umbrakinesis is manipulation of shadow (absence of light), then I think it would be more on the order of draining energy from the light (energy in packets of photons) than actually destroying the photons. I see it acting more like a nullifying type spell - unless you want to go the way shadow magic is always depicted - shadows becoming solid, etc etc.

1206630
So, if sucking the light can be a thing, we need creatures that feed on it. A new breed of Changelings, perhaps?

1206638
*cough*Plants.*cough*

1206537 Geomancy was my first impression as well. Go for it.

1206638 First name off the top of my head: umbralisks. Not very catchy. Although that concept is intriguing... Can I use them for a custom race in one of my universes?

1206630 1206638

The Fridge Logic kicks in when you remember that moving a shadow doesn't make sense.

To a move a shadow, you move the light source relative to whatever object is obscuring it (i.e. creating the shadow). In fact, light and darkness shouldn't even be considered separate disciplines for that reason.

The notion of "elements" doesn't have much of a basis in reality, sadly. Many things only exist as the opposite/absence of something - light/darkness and heat/cold being two prominent examples (although ice magic would involve drawing the water from somewhere, so arguably it's a hybrid of water and heat magic).

1206630
1206638
1206654
In before the Vashta Nerada. "Hey! Who turned out the lights?!"

1206652
I like the name, and I'm so using it.

1206654 If there are magics to grasp and manipulate intangible things, maybe we can pass the popular shadow magic as manipulation of the energy difference between lit and unlit places - although that would make shadow magic ridiculously weak.

1206652
Why do you even ask? As far as I'm concerned, you've just invented umbralisks! (and I have to say I'd gladly read more about them!).
Also, when I hear the name I see snakes. Slimy, lightbulb-crunching snakes.
1206644
You destroyed my hopes for Cryssi licking a 400W lightbulb quite expertly, sir.

1206678 Snakes weren't exactly what I had in mind... I was thinking something along the form of the Tyranid Trygon - oh wait, that IS a snake thing.

1206674

That's why when talking darkness magic, I often prefer void. That is a tangible thing, creating miniature black holes and/or altering gravity to compress things. Granted, both of these have huge rational problems, but they can kind of be excused with "duh, magic."

Creating fields with localized, modified gravity is believable. We can do it in real life (not like the gravity chambers in DBZ though; we need constant motion, if I recall correctly), so it's logical to assume that unicorn magic can simply replicate the effect.

As for black holes... eh. It's just creating an ultra-powerful body with its own gravity, if you ignore the fact that normally we can't see them and the idea of a portion of space (even on Earth) where literally nothing exists is difficult to perceive. You'd need to make them infinitely tiny black holes for them to be any use when it comes to small scale destruction, though.

1206674
Lasombra anyone?

1206694 Gravity magic in lieu of shadow manipulation... that's easier to explain, yes, but it doesn't exactly have a direct connection with darkness. We normally imagine the void as darkness simply because there's no light there, but if the void magic you speak of works the way I see it (a la gravity), whether it's lit or not, it's still functional - ergo, it's not as much shadow magic as it is extreme telekinesis.

1206705 Uhh... What?

1206709

That's my fault for overlapping void with gravity.

Gravity magic would include black holes, probably as its ultimate logical conclusion.

Void magic goes beyond that and into the realm of outright erasing portions of space-time to leave a (localized) vacuum, and we know that topic is a huge sea of "but how?" questions and head scratchers.

A sea I've found myself floating in without a flare gun or GPS tracker, as I've gone and made the villain in my story a void god. We'll see how that goes.

1206537 Mancies:
Hemomancy - Manipulation and control of blood as a tool/weapon (grim, ikr )
Pyromancy - Fire
Necromancy - Death/raising the dead
Hydromancy - Manipulation of water

Other:
Lichdom - Control over frost and ice, as well as death, whilst being dead oneself

All I got atm

Hydromancy - Water
Pyromancy - Fire
Terramancy - The earth (as in plants, trees etc, not rock)
Geomancy - Rocks, Stone, Gems, possibly metal, but I think that's a little farfetched.
Cryomancy - Ice
Aeromancy - Wind/Air
Necromancy - The ability to talk to the dead (or raise/animate corpses if you use the 'modern' version of it)

This is all I know of.

1206722 So by void magic, essentially you mean reality - based magic?

1206732

The ability to destroy matter and energy, yes. Not the inverse. Problem being that since that violates the law of conservation (of energy), we can't really predict what'll happen if we suddenly opened up a six-foot wide hole in reality where light, matter, energy and all dimensions no longer exist; it's literally just a little void pocket.

It's arguable whether or not a creation god is capable of erasing as well as creating. And by arguable, I mean "there's no standard and any writer is free to define it how they wish."

(Again, my story actually splits the two by having a void AND creation god, and the former is basically a glorified demolitions expert for when the creation god needs to reboot a dimension).

1206537 I think manipulation of stone and minerals in general is named geomancy.

1206737 Whenever I have two opposing forces that powerful in anything, I tend to create something else to keep them both in check - a sort of fail - safe without a mind, simply there to trigger when the time is right, but I digress. If we give the power to destroy matter and energy, the balance would be upset - you're basically crushing physics. So there has to be some "safety measures" built in to the magic - perhaps the void is localized by its being bound in a pocket dimension that just exists in the same space as where it was cast.

1206795

Whenever I have two opposing forces that powerful in anything, I tend to create something else to keep them both in check - a sort of fail - safe without a mind, simply there to trigger when the time is right, but I digress.

Funny you should mention that. My story (again!) balances it with the creation god being the strongest (of four gods, Discord being one), while the void god is kept under his control. He can only destroy when allowed to.

The overall conflict is created when he breaks free, and the creation god can't stop him due to being dead. Since now creation is gone, but destruction is running rampant, balance can only be restored by removing him.

So, we both digress.

1206833 My balance mechanisms aren't divine beings, they're hardwired into the universe itself, but I don't have any origin stories for the balance systems - were they put in place by some primordial order, a pantheon of gods above those that make and unmake the universe, or are they an unspoken, unknown instrument agreed upon by the creators and destroyers?

I feel we've gone way too far from the topic at hand...

1206869

Aye, there are some elements you just can't make origin stories for. Some are just so profound that nothing you make up comes across powerfully enough to do it justice. At least in my case it's simple - four gods (creation, destruction, order, chaos).

And yes, we have deviated from the topic. But that won't continue, since I'm going to bed. This has been an interesting discussion, but goodnight to everyone with whom I've conversed in this topic.

1206886 Hush now, quiet now - yeah, I'll shut up now too.

I'd use anythingmancy or anythingkinesis in a story if you want, even though -mancy means divination and --kinesis means moving things around (telekinesis means moving things at a distance, so pyrokinesis would be what NASA does if we're being literal).

It works as a shorthand that the readers would understand. If you want to be immune to nitpickers, you might go for thaumogeosis or something like that, but you'd almost have to have some character stop and explain what that is.

Then again, I've used "cakesliceomancy" (albeit lightheartedly) so these are just my two bits as well.

1206718
It's a clan of vampires that manipulate shadow. After a little practice they can teleport from shadow to shadow. Allowing them out maneuver pretty much anything. Eventually they can animate shadows and have them choke you to death or rip away your ability to cast a shadow and drive you insane.

1206560
Actually, Pyrokinesis and Cryokinesis are more the purview of specific psychic powers, rather than magical specialties. The -kinesis ending is more often in reference to psychic manipulation rather than magical manipulation, which uses -mancy.

Take a look at the Paragon RPG, it does a pretty good job of defining this kind of thing.

Anything with -mancy is going to sound magical. Basically, decide what you are manipulating, find the latin word (or root) and add -mancy. Simple, not always effective, but it usually sounds right. However, since your magical manipulation involves metals/crystals rather than the earth (geo), which would be like ley lines, the ground, and power drawn up from it; I would go with something more specific. For crystals, the latin word is Crystallum (with an accent on the 'a' if you want to get really particular) and the word for metal is metallum, however, in most cases the metal was specifically refereed to, as in 'ferrum' for iron and 'aurum' for gold. So, that would leave us with Crystamancy, Metamancy, Ferrumancy and Aurumany. None of which sound very good. *Shrug* There are combinations that could be made too, but all in all, just pick something you think sounds right.

1206548
I ran a superhero RPG campaign a while back, and one of the NPCs was called "the Chronomancer". (Well, okay, he was more of a plot device than a character. He was too powerful to be involved in the action, but he was able to point the PCs in the right direction now and then.)

1206886 1206893 Aw, I was hoping you would continue

I have a story that features a dragon mage who can control Void. He can do other stuff too, but that's his thing.

So yeah, I was basically stealing ideas