Saintly Saturday: St. Cumine the White

Today is the Feast of St. Cumine the White, abbot of Iona. Not much is known of this monastic saint. He was the seventh abbot of Iona, the monastic community on one of the Hebrides — a series of islands off the west coast of Scotland. He was nephew to Segenius who was the fifth abbot of Iona.

During his tenure, he visited Ireland about A.D. 661, the Synod of Whitby took place, which declared that Northumbria would follow the practices of Rome when it came to tonsuring and the calculation of when to celebrate Easter, and the Book of Durrow was completed.

The Book of Durrow is the oldest extant insular illuminated gospel, over a century older than the Book of Kells. While there is much academic debate over where this text was created, one of the contenders is the Iona of St. Cumine.

He also wrote the Life of St. Colum Cille.

He died in A.D. 665 after being abbot for 8 years.

The opening verses of
the Gospel of St. Mark
from the Book of Durrow

Despite the fact the St. Cumine’s hagiography is so thin on details, I find it so inspiring that I am actually going to have to limit myself. I could wax poetic on how the moniker “the White” sounds very Tolkien or how awesome something similar to the Synod of Whitby would be as background noise for a campaign.

Rather, I want to focus on the Book of Durrow and the power of language. In Scripture, words have immense creative power. God creates by speaking: “Let there be light.” God also asked Adam to be a co-creator with him by allowing Adam to name all the animals. When Moses asked for God’s name at the burning bush, it was an audacious act, so God gave him a name that cannot be contained by language: I AM — a sentence that is both complete and yet incomplete (I am….righteous, merciful, love, etc.). Several people throughout the Old and New Testament are renamed by God:

• Abram becomes Abraham
• Jacob becomes Israel
• Saul becomes Paul
• Simon becomes Peter

In addition, different languages bring different aspects to revelation. For example, in Genesis 3:15 God tells the serpent:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.

This particular translation reflects the Greek version of this verse, because it differs from both the Hebrew and the Latin. The “he” and “his” in the second half of the verse appear as “it” and "its” in Hebrew and “her” and “her” in Latin. All three are correct:

• The Hebrew reflects the eternal enmity between humanity and the devil.
• The Latin is a prophecy of the Virgin Mary.
• The Greek is a prophecy of Christ.

This all inspires me to re-skin the Vancian magic of D&D with two additional ideas in mind:

The retro-clone Delving Deeper has clerics memorize spells the same way magic-users do and I have always wanted the spell Read Magic to be something far more important than merely a spell every magic-user has because it uselessly is a prerequisite for writing spells into a spell book.

In this re-skinning, the difference between “divine” magic and “arcane” magic is not the source of the magic, but rather the language. In the same way that the Hebrew, Latin and Greek bring out different aspects of Genesis 3:15, the language used to do magic brings out a different “type” of magic. Arcane magic uses a complex language that is both difficult to learn and results in powerful magics. Its practitioners spend so much time learning the language that they don’t have the time to train with armor or most weapons. Divine magic uses a far more intuitive language that, while easier to master, does not produce the powerful magics the arcane language can. As a consequence divine magic practitioners do have the time to train with armor and (some) weapons. One could even extend this out to other various spell-casters like druids and illusionists.

Since the mechanism of all magic is the same — language written in spell books — this gives us the opportunity to give Read Magic a really interesting twist. Rather than simply being a spell that every magic-user has and is the mechanism for writing spells down in a spell book, it is a spell that can allow a practitioner of one type of magic to memorize a spell from another language — another spell list.

Due to the fact that this spell is being memorized via a spell rather than by actually knowing the language, the spell takes a spell slot one level higher than normal. For example, if a magic-user wanted to memorize Cure Light Wounds it would count as a 2nd level spell.

This, in part, explains why certain spells that appear on more than one list are different levels depending on the caster. For example, Hold Person is a 2nd level cleric spell but a 3rd level magic-user spell. In other words, this spell was originally in the language of divine magic, but was well known enough by arcane users to be translated into the arcane language — as a 3rd level spell.

Thus, Read Magic becomes a really important spell that every one will want rather than the spell that simply takes up space and no one bothers to ever memorize.

This re-skinning also offers all kinds of interesting possibilities in terms of how magic interacts with a campaign world. Rather than having different schools of arcane magic-users, the different schools teach different languages and therefore result in different classes. Each type of magic might bring with it a different culture. One could go so far as to have entire nation-states based upon a different type of language and thus a different type of magic.

Thus, a wizard with the name and moniker Cumine the White might be a magic-user, a cleric, a druid or an illusionist depending on the language he uses to study magic.

Meditating on Vancian Magic

The tomes which held Turjan’s sorcery lay on the long table of black steel or were thrust helter-skelter into shelves. These were volumes compiled by many wizards of the past, untidy folios collected by the Sage, leather-bound librams setting forth the syllables of a hundred powerful spells, so cogent that Turjan’s brain could know but four at a time.

Turjan found a musty portfolio, turned the heavy pages to the spell the Sage had shown him, the Call to the Violent Cloud. He stared down at the characters and they burned with an urgent power, pressing off the page as if frantic to leave the dark solitude of the book.

Turjan closed the book, forcing the spell back into oblivion. He robed himself with a short cape, tucked a blade into his belt, fitted the amulet holding Laccodel’s Rune to his wrist. Then he sat down and from a journal chose the spells he would take with him. What dangers he might meet he could not know, so he selected three spells of general application: the Excellent Prismatic Spray, Phandal’s Mantle of Stealth, and the Spell of the Slow Hour.

— Turjan of Miir, Jack Vance

I have always really liked the idea of Vancian magic, but have never been sold on how D&D handles it. Don’t get me wrong, from a purely mechanical point of view, D&D does a good job of simulating the way Jack Vance describes how Turian of Miir uses magic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the feel. If someone had never read Jack Vance and had no idea of how he describes the spell as an almost living thing that frantically tries to leap off the page of a spell book, there is nothing in D&D that shows players that this is what the mechanic of memorizing spells is supposed to represent.

My other issue with spell casters in D&D is that I am someone who much prefers the utility spell over the combat spell; however, D&D almost dictates that a magic-user will always take Sleep over Read Languages. On an average dungeon delve, a player can almost be guaranteed to be able to use a combat spell, but that utility spell may or may not ever be useful. I find this boring, in a way.

To be honest, when I play a spell caster, it is almost always a cleric or a bard because I can get away with having utility spells more often because these classes can pull their weight in a fight sans spells. I have only ever played a straight-up magic-user once and a straight-up illusionist once. I much preferred the latter experience because of the sheer frustration about having spells like Enlarge in my spell book and having really good ways to use it, but having to go through the whole “I gotta rest, re-memorize spells and come back tomorrow” only to have the party try some other way to solve the problem. At least with the Illusionist, the very nature of illusion magic requires creativity and problem solving skills with every spell cast. I found it much more satisfying to take out a pack of gnolls with Phantasmal Force by “moving” a pit and getting them to fall in than I ever was shooting lightning bolts or fire balls.

When I got into the nitty-gritty of the classes in 5e, I really got excited bout the potential of the the Warlock as a utility/problem solving kind of spell caster. They have enough combat punch with Eldritch Blast to justify using utility spells. Couple that with the Pact Boon Book of Shadows and the ability to learn some Cantrips off any spell list and the potential to collect and use ritual spells from any spell list and you’ve got a spell caster I’d love to try and play some day.

Unfortunately, whereas the Warlock does a good job of making utility spells justifiable and does a good job of making magic feel dangerous, it largely abandons the Vancian model of magic. Therefore, in terms of trying to make a BX magic-user class that does Vancian magic “right,” the Warlock is inspirational, but not exactly what I am looking for.

I recently managed to get my hands on a second edition copy of Runequest. I have always wanted to love Runequest, but my experience of it was always tainted by the Avalon Hill edition, which is just badly written. I could never get my head around that magic system. The second edition, though, is a transitional version that bridges its OD&D roots and the Chaosium BRP system it would become. Here is a version of Runequest I finally get and its magic system is something I finally understand. Unfortunately, it, too, turns away from the Vancian model; however, it presents with a mechanic that makes magic feel really dangerous and could be coupled with a Vancian model. Certain types of spell casters capture spirits and bind them into items in order to help them cast spells. The danger is in the combat to capture the spirit: if the spirit wins, the caster is possessed and the PC becomes an NPC.

This got me thinking about how to incorporate this level of danger into a magic-user class while maintaining a Vancian model and allowing players fuller access to the utility spells that litter the spell lists. Normally, the limiting factors of spell use in FRPGs are one or more of the following:

• memorization
• number of spells known
• power/mana points
• class level

Of these, the only one that is expressly Vancian is memorization. Therefore, if I am to move towards a magic user that satisfies my desires for an arcane spell caster like the Warlock does but remain true to the idea of Vancian magic, there needs to be a different limiting factor than one presented.

If one assumes that arcane spells are more of a living thing — a kind of semi-sentient energy being — and that spell books and arcane magic are a way of coaxing these beings to do what a spell caster wants, then there is a limiting factor available that is already suggested by the game: money.

The idea here is similar to the way scrolls work: the magic-user spends gold and time on getting the materials necessary to have a spell “in waiting” ready to cast without having to memorize it. Normally, this is relatively expensive (100gp and a day per spell level, for example) and, with some exceptions like Holmes, not an option for 1st level characters.

My thinking here is to couple the gold/time with spells known (as per INT in Holmes) as the primary limiting factor for magic-users. If they would be allowed to bind spells to disposable objects (like runes) for a relatively low price, then they could go into an adventure stocked up with all manner of spells. It would also incentivize adventuring as a primary occupation of magic-users. Right now, I am positing 10gp and about an hour for a 1st level spell. This cost would go up exponentially with spell levels, adding a zero for each level.Thus, a 6th level spell would require 1,000,000 gp worth of materials to bind.

There would also be an option for binding spells permanently to a magic-user. It would work like this: make a saving throw vs. magic and add the magic-user’s CHA bonus and subtract the spell level. If successful, the spell can be cast at-will by the magic-user. Failure, however, means that the magic-user has been possessed by the spell itself and is now a Chaotic spell-casting monster that will be hunted down and killed by Civilization.

The risk involved in binding spells this way could be mitigated by having other magic-users aid in the binding: they get to add their CHA bonuses to the roll. This, then, places a kind of cultural limiting factor on the practice. Whereas a Wizard’s Guild would have little issue binding a Detect Magic spell to a fellow magic-user, they might have something to say about a magic-user who was interested in binding a Lightning Bolt spell. This also implies that there would be magic-users out there that would seek alternative ways to mitigate these bindings in order to gain power. The whole idea of a magic-user just got a whole lot more dangerous: imagine an adventure hook where the Wizard’s Guild has put a bounty on the head of that magic-user who successfully bound his Lightning Bolt spell…

This way, I get my Warlock (bound utility spells) and my Vancian magic (prepared “burn” spells) all in the same class. Thoughts?