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[sewvi]

Something I would be interested in seeing would be, when magic is eventually implemented, an effect of different schools of thought pertaining to the origins of magic on the actual spellcasting itself. Magic is often portrayed as a very scholarly affair in fantasy settings, so it would be quite appropriate if you ask me. Some examples:
Different theories as to the exact nature/origin of magic affect the traits required and the processes of finding new spells, i.e.

- magic is seen as a form of communication between mortals and the gods / natural forces, this school of thought emphasizes faith in gods, language and communication skills, its spells are often violent and uncontrollable, derived from forces of nature and bordering on "miracles", potentially also a focus on healing magic. Methods of casting are incantations, rituals, prayers etc.
- magic is seen as the language from which the world is constructed. This is a more "structuralist" approach and allows the construction of more specific spells, albeit less potent ones. This school of thought emphasizes logic skills, reading and writing and possibly mathematical and physical knowledge. Its spells are complicated and specific, but often more immediately useful than "divine miracles".
Methods are scrolls, "words of power", runes, seals etc.
- magic is seen as a physical force to be controlled by physical contraptions, this disallows the creation of "spells", which are ignored as random miracles, but allows the construction of potent magical devices and artefacts. Strong emphasis on physics, mathematics and chemistry etc. Possibly frowned upon by the gods.
- magic is seen as a psychological phenomenon. Followers of this school will be highly resistent to magic but will only very slowly be able to construct new spells, if at all. Creating new spells requires a lot of experimentation and the spells are often weak or bizarre/useless. Optionally believers of this thought refuse the usage of magic altogether. Methods could include use of magical "substances", experimentation, hypnosis etc.
- magic = life essence. This school of thought equates magic to the life force driving all beings. The emphasis is on balanced living and healing magic, and users have a strong understanding of the cycles of life and death. (Necromancers?) Users require high willpower and discipline and a keen eye. This also brings up the possibility of "evil" and "benign" interpretations of the same school of thought, so evil believers of this school = necromancers, benign users = healers. Methods mostly involve manifestation of willpower, meditation and medicinal substances.

etc. etc., maybe you could even randomly generate schools of thought.
Basically, a school of thought in regards to magic would be made up of:
- theory of origin/nature
- theory of spell dynamics (the laws that limit spellcasting)
- methodology (the exact processes of casting spells, this knowledge is the most closely guarded)
- ancient knowledge (spells whose exact workings are perhaps unknown but are known to work)
- outward stance, i.e. secretive and arcane or open and welcoming to newcomers or even a feeling of divine superiority towards others.
Some schools of thoughts may omit certain parts, perhaps only caring for spells that are known to work and not about their exact workings.

Some dwarves could secretly be members of magic circles (basically mini-offshoots of schools of thought), seeing as magic is probably generally frowned upon amongst dwarves. In races such as elves, magic will probably be commonplace and most elves will practice magic to some degree in their spare time. Honing magic skills should be quite difficult then to prevent every idiot from being a nigh invincible archmage. Malign secret circles will perhaps try to sneak in magic books and pass them around their members, maybe resulting in the odd demonic hell-gate spawning in your fortress after a failed incantation

I just think this would be really cool.

[Waparius]

Necromancers already write loads of books, and presumably the ones about death and zombies and the like are the equivalent of magic theory, so this makes sense for when other magic comes in. (I like the way necromancers work as a template for later wizardry, with other divinely-scribed secrets providing other powers - not that artifacts, elven wood-growing et al should be ignored).

Generating schools of thought seems to fit in with the upcoming origin-of-the-universe stuff.

Since dwarves are going to have to start leaving the fortress eventually, one way this idea could interact with fort mode is for scholarly dwarves to get obsessed with a particular magic secret after reading a wizard's books in the library and run off to find them. (Wizards should try to keep their secrets locked away in their towers).

It could, very rarely, be possible for a particularly clever scholar with access to a lot of books about a given Secret to decipher it, but to prevent industrialisation dwarves would probably have to drive out practicing wizards or otherwise keep them from spreading their teaching (unless somebody mucked about in the raws).