Different types of magic

[meyerm]

I'm pretty new to Warcraft and its lore and immediately got sucked in, wanting to know as much as I can. What particularly caught my eye was the different types of magic and what powers them. From what I can tell, there are (at least) 4 main types of magic which are drawn on by different schools. There's the holy light and its antithesis, void, and arcane and its antithesis of fel.

That is what I think I pretty much have nailed down, but there's other types of magic wielders that seem to use forces outside of those 4, or mixes of different ones. Fel-wielding warlocks and demons using void energy and such.

Necromancy is particularly confusing to me. Is the death powers of necromancy its own type of harnessed energy like how mages use arcane and warlocks use fel, or is necromancy just a blanket term for anything involving raising the dead, be it with void, fel (if it's possible), etc.

Druids and shamans also seem to be beyond the scope of the 4 main magic types. Again I wonder if elemental or life magics draw on their own unique energy or if it's just how one of the 4 is applicated.

If life, death, and elemental magic are indeed their own forms unique from fel, arcane, light, and void, how do they all play together? I've read of necromancers using void, fel, and unique death energy depending on the source, and arcane often being mixed with light, fel often being used alongside void, etc. Is it clear cut what can be used together and what's incompatible?

[Friendlyimmolation]

The chronicle really helps with this.


@Aquamonkey probably has a thousand blue posts on the stuff.

[Wyrt]

Death is its own magic group, though Blizzard has done a really poor job of separating Death from Shadow.

[Aquamonkey]

Death is its own magic group, though Blizzard has done a really poor job of separating Death from Shadow.

To be fair, it is something they just invented in Chronicle.

[zlygork]

Welcome to wow lore
We are as lost as you are to be honest, given that the 6 schools of magic as shown in the picture above have only been clearly separated about two years ago and not all of them have had enough development to this day. It would seem that life and death are indeed their own schools of magic as evidenced by druids and shamans as you say and seeing as the light and void come from their very own dimensions, so to say, I personally expect the same to be truth of the other sources of magic.

There seems to be a strong connection between the Arcane and Titans, seeing as arcane seems to litterally be the blood of titans. And just like there are the void lords, most of us speculate there being some sort of light lord, possibly the night elven goddess Elune.
I would bet that there are also "arcane lords, fel lords, nature lords and necromantic lords" of some sort that have yet to be even hinted at which could be developped in future expansion packs, but that is merely my fan speculation.

[A Chozo]

It is said that if you merge Holy and Shadow magicks, you get Twilight.

...That's all I know :V

Oh, and if you ever get to see the Chronicles chart: some of the stuff there ARE NOT oposites. Earth and Fire don't hate/nullify each other. And no other knows what's the deal with the fossils on the edge of the chart.

[Leodok]

Necromancy is particularly confusing to me. Is the death powers of necromancy its own type of harnessed energy like how mages use arcane and warlocks use fel, or is necromancy just a blanket term for anything involving raising the dead, be it with void, fel (if it's possible), etc.

Yeah, it's a bit confusing sometimes. It seems you CAN raise undead through Fel, Shadow or Arcane, but Necromancy is still its own thing.

[huth]

I think undead raised through Arcane or Fel are more flesh golems than true undead, while Void probably creates some sort of mockery of life.

Druids and shamans also seem to be beyond the scope of the 4 main magic types. Again I wonder if elemental or life magics draw on their own unique energy or if it's just how one of the 4 is applicated.

Nature magic is it's own force. Shamans are... complicated. Think diplomacy and bargaining rather than casting spells.

The chart does not show relations between the various types. It's just an unsorted list.

Also note that the ingame spell schools have absolutely nothing to do with this. They're an abstraction for the purpose of gameplay.

[meyerm]

Welcome to wow lore
We are as lost as you are to be honest, given that the 6 schools of magic as shown in the picture above have only been clearly separated about two years ago and not all of them have had enough development to this day. It would seem that life and death are indeed their own schools of magic as evidenced by druids and shamans as you say and seeing as the light and void come from their very own dimensions, so to say, I personally expect the same to be truth of the other sources of magic.

There seems to be a strong connection between the Arcane and Titans, seeing as arcane seems to litterally be the blood of titans. And just like there are the void lords, most of us speculate there being some sort of light lord, possibly the night elven goddess Elune.
I would bet that there are also "arcane lords, fel lords, nature lords and necromantic lords" of some sort that have yet to be even hinted at which could be developped in future expansion packs, but that is merely my fan speculation.

Yeah, I was trying to figure out better ways of explaining it. Light, void, and fel seem to be associated with their own unique planes of existence and are drawn from said planes, and the emerald dream I guess would be considered life magic's parallel to those planes. I'm unsure if the other forms come from separate dimensions or are more like the force in star wars where it's just kind of everywhere and only needs someone capable of manipulating it.

But they do seem to be their own kinds of magic, which is good to know, and again makes me wonder about the combinations in which they can be used. For example, warlocks and demons themselves have been observed using void magic in addition to their signature fel, even going as far as binding void creatures to their will. Gul'dan dabbled in necromancy to enhance his fel powers and create minions, and Ner'zhul as an orc seemed capable of combining shamanistic, fel, and death magic. Are there limitations to this? Can opposites like death and life and arcane and fel be used together?

I've already seen the chart shown above, but I can't make much sense of it, like how those forces interact and whatever is up with the elemental powers.

[zlygork]

Yeah, I was trying to figure out better ways of explaining it. Light, void, and fel seem to be associated with their own unique planes of existence and are drawn from said planes, and the emerald dream I guess would be considered life magic's parallel to those planes. I'm unsure if the other forms come from separate dimensions or are more like the force in star wars where it's just kind of everywhere and only needs someone capable of manipulating it.

But they do seem to be their own kinds of magic, which is good to know, and again makes me wonder about the combinations in which they can be used. For example, warlocks and demons themselves have been observed using void magic in addition to their signature fel, even going as far as binding void creatures to their will. Gul'dan dabbled in necromancy to enhance his fel powers and create minions, and Ner'zhul as an orc seemed capable of combining shamanistic, fel, and death magic. Are there limitations to this? Can opposites like death and life and arcane and fel be used together?

I've already seen the chart shown above, but I can't make much sense of it, like how those forces interact and whatever is up with the elemental powers.

While definetly related to life, it would seem that the emerald dream was created by a titan watcher. No idea where the shadow lands came from, although the spirit healers are "rogue" Val'kyrs.
We have seen in wow that the same beings can weild both fel and void (although if memory serves, it is said to be a dangerous/unstable combination for the user?
We also know that evil beings can weild the light at least if they truly believe in the purity of their cause (ex: Scarlet crusade).
Discipline priests also show that it is possible to use both light and shadow (void). My guess would be that any being can use any combination of these magics at a certain cost (for example, undead wielding the light are said to recover some of their senses and thus feel excrutiating pain as they feel their rotting limbs and the maggots eating them, etc)

[huth]

Combining Life and Death probably doesn't lead to much of use, while Fel and Arcane repel each other, which does have upsides. Demon Hunters actually use both, Fel for power, Arcane for containment.

[meyerm]

While definetly related to life, it would seem that the emerald dream was created by a titan watcher. No idea where the shadow lands came from, although the spirit healers are "rogue" Val'kyrs.
We have seen in wow that the same beings can weild both fel and void (although if memory serves, it is said to be a dangerous/unstable combination for the user?
We also know that evil beings can weild the light at least if they truly believe in the purity of their cause (ex: Scarlet crusade).
Discipline priests also show that it is possible to use both light and shadow (void). My guess would be that any being can use any combination of these magics at a certain cost (for example, undead wielding the light are said to recover some of their senses and thus feel excrutiating pain as they feel their rotting limbs and the maggots eating them, etc)

I would imagine that mixing certain magics would be very unstable and potentially very powerful. High risk, high payoff. While others might be incompatible or just cancel out, like life and death.

An idea I had though, which may or may not be true, is that mixing one could be an enhancer for another. Like, necromancers using death magic but boosting it with void or fel to create stronger undead, or perhaps feeding off of one to fuel another.

But what about beings physically imbued, like demons? Demons have been observed using void and death magic. Being that their essence is essentially composed of fel (from my understanding), would they react differently to trying to use different magics?

[Deleted]

Combining Life and Death probably doesn't lead to much of use, while Fel and Arcane repel each other, which does have upsides. Demon Hunters actually use both, Fel for power, Arcane for containment.

Life and Death
Arcane and Chaos(Fel)
Light and Void

These all cancel each other out, the inner elements can combine with each other tho. That's basically how it goes.

And when I say cancel, I mean as in the caster trying to combine them. They can of course be used against each other and the stronger force will most likely win out. Light is both strong and weak against void, for example.

[Wildmoon]

I think it's possible that nightmare magic is void-twisted nature magic.

[huth]

Life and Death
Arcane and Chaos(Fel)
Light and Void

These all cancel each other out, the inner elements can combine with each other tho. That's basically how it goes.

And when I say cancel, I mean as in the caster trying to combine them. They can of course be used against each other and the stronger force will most likely win out. Light is both strong and weak against void, for example.

Light and Void don't cancel one another. In fact, combining pure Light and pure Void created the entire multiverse.