#i'm sure it will not and i will still have to do the arcanum mega-meta

[kradogsrats]

so I have like four posts in my drafts with notes and outlines for some kind of arcanum mega-meta but I realized I can just say what I want instead of having to go full academic citations on everyone so:

An arcanum is a connection to a primal source that allows access to its power. Arcana are usually innate, as in magical creatures and elves, but can be learned by humans and (implicitly) elves. (The only elf example we truly have is Aaravos, though... so who knows.) Mages strengthen (or IMO a more accurate word might be "focus") their arcana to access primal rune magic, a system of drawn runes and spoken Draconic words that draw power through the arcanum to produce spell effects.

It's very, very difficult to learn an arcanum—otherwise we'd see elves doing it much more often. Or rather, I think it's very difficult to learn a first arcanum—i.e. the first one you don't have naturally—and after that they get easier, because you know what it feels like to do it. It's also basically impossible to teach an arcanum, since learning one is similar to reaching a state of enlightenment—you can try to tell other people how you did it, but they won't be able to do it the same way. However, you can get a boost:

Now, it may be kind of a moot point as to whether Callum would be able to understand the Sky arcanum without having had the primal stone, because at that point you're changing the scenario so much that it doesn't make sense, anymore. BUT we actually have a similar case:

Villads describes the "sailing sense" of an experienced captain as a connection to the wind and the weather. Could he bridge the gap to Sky magic, if he knew it was possible? Ehhhhhh... but he at least seems to be in a similar-ish place to where Callum is, at that point. That is, a place he has taken a lifetime of sailing to build up to, and that Callum has reached in about a week.

Through using the primal stone, Callum has experienced channeling the power of the Sky primal from nothing, and that channel remains just the tiniest bit open. He still needs to go through his epiphany regarding understanding the Sky, as well as having felt it, but the two aren't unrelated.

(See what I mean about how you can't teach an arcanum? Yeah.)

Callum doesn't need an Ocean primal stone to learn the Ocean arcanum, because he has already figured out the experience of understanding/connecting with one—now he "only" has to do it with a different primal source. It's like... waving your arms around aimlessly in the dark, versus feeling around for something you know is there.

Anyway, here's the point:

This kind of magic is explained to us (courtesy of Tales of Xadia) as an effect of dark magic use—dark magic corruption allows for "parlor-trick" spells like lighting candles without a reagent or incantation. It's implied that primal rune mages are also able to cast similarly small spells without runes.

Not to get too tinfoil-hat about this, but Tales of Xadia specifies that dark mage characters can do these kinds of spells without dice rolls, and that they do not run the risk of gaining Corrupted stress. Now, in terms of the game rules, this is effectively saying "they won't do literal damage to themselves" since stress is the system's equivalent of damage. But.

I do think it is true that significant dark magic corruption allows access to dark magic abilities that are otherwise impossible, but that's not the same. For one thing, none of the instances of this "snap" magic that we see include any markers of dark magic—no purple glow or blackness of the eyes, etc. It may not even be dark magic at all, it's just that only dark mages ever do it.

With the primal stone, Callum is able to experience the channel between himself and a primal source, and later recreate it. Given the relationship between dark magic and "deep" magic, could the act of casting dark magic spells—not the corruption, necessarily, but the experience of magic—open a small connection with deep magic that humans as of yet don't recognize or really know what to do with?

I know other people have done "snap magic is deep magic" before, but now I have said my piece on possibly why and how and maybe this will finally let me fucking rest.