Magic as taught by the Tuath

Metaphysics

For the Tuath, the concepts or "truth", "reality", and "history" are mutable. Saying something is true makes it true, at least for those who believe it. Singing (or playing) the essense of something makes it even "more true".

Both magic and music have inherent structure, meaning, and power. When you put the two together, the result can create tangible reality. The world was created and is continually created by "singing" it into existence - change and stability are both based on the structure of what some people might call the music of the spheres.

Each group or category of things has a basic theme and each individual instance has its own variation or melody based on the theme. If you can discover the song for something (it's True Name - not just the words but also the music associated with it), you can control it.

The Tuath language itself is musical, and the words in it are closely tied to the metaphysics of their beliefs. All spoken spells are in Tuath - you don't really have to understand the multiple meanings in a word to make use of its powers, but the more you know about the language, the more powerful each word is.

Finally, it's important to remember that the Tuath are individualistic, independent, ornery folks. The following restrictions describe "orthodoxy" - there are plenty of heretics and those who have created their own variations of the school... And then there are those who learned from the heretics and added their own twists, based on their experience in the world of Others...

Theoretical bonuses/restrictions

Since the world and everything in it was sung into existence, those things that affect the world most closely -- Animals and Plants and the Elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water) are very easy to manip- ulate. +2 on these.
Things which affect other sentient minds are forbidden. This doesn't mean that these kinds of spell songs aren't possible - Communication/Empathy and Mind colleges are simply disallowed. (Notice a change here from previous BBY.)
Druids concentrate on things that are in front of them. Moving rocks, starting fires, making rain, important things. Illusion spells don't make any sense to a group that doesn't believe in illusion - if you create something, it's real. Maybe only temporary, but real. Therefore Illusion spells aren't for- bidden, they just don't exist at all in the Tuath school of magic.

Moral Restrictions

All the world must be kept in balance. No more plants than the animals can eat, no more animals than other animals can eat, and so forth. Toward this end, Tuath are very practiced in the Animal and Plant Colleges. +2 on each of them, as mentioned before.
Making a thing that itself continues to bend the world around it -- that is, an item which is inherently magical -- is a very dangerous thing and much to be avoided. Druids are taught they should never, ever, under any circumstances use enchantment magics. Make/Break spells are also forbidden.
Things which stop the course of nature, or which bend it too badly to be recognized are bad and greatly to be avoided. Death and Life are equal partners - if one is removed from the Balance, the world suffers. Therefore Necromancy is forbidden.
The Tuath are a very healthy people (those who are chronically unhealthy don't stay around long). Body and healing spells aren't used very much because the Tuath believe you are responsible for keeping yourself whole and hale in the first place. If you are injured or get sick, you probably weren't properly caring for yourself, and you should reap the result. Besides, the Earth provides any number of non-mag- ical, easily renewable resources that are appropriate for healing. As a result, very few Tuath have spent much time studying the Magical Healing Arts. (See also Tuath teaching about maimed/etc. folks.)

Traditional Restrictions

The avoidance of Necromancy, Enchantment, and the Meta colleges have led to a point where all of these are lost to the Tuath. None know how to cast or teach them.
In general, there is the belief that manna is a resouce like any other and that you shouldn't waste it. That is, never try to do magically what you can accomplish without magic.
Many of the Tuath can toss off a little Light/Dark spell. Those that do a lot of travelling outside the Enclave (mainly Bards) also know a Protection spell or two. These kinds of spells are more for conve- nience than anything else.
A tiny number of the more powerful Druids are able to cast Knowledge Spells (primarily Divination, using a natural water source for scrying), and/or Movement spells. Neither of these colleges is com- monly taught to those without a Need to Know.

Outward signs.

Spells are done by song. Some may be very short (just a note or two), but you'll never find a Druid who doesn't have at least some musical skill. Bards, of course, have more than average musical skill, and can do at least some magics with it. Even Vitae use music for their little magics, singing to the crops, per- haps playing a little flute to calm a crying baby... The simplest spells require only simple chant-like music; 3 or 4 notes and a simple rhythm. The more complicated the music's structure, the more compli- cated a spell can be hung on it - and the more powerful the spell is.
Songs need not have words. An interesting character would be someone who uses this sort of magic and does all his or her spells, say, on a flute.
Obviously, the abbreviations for songs (to cast a spell in seconds) is not as potent as the full song itself. So, to make up for the schools they can't use at all, we add the option of "ceremonial" magic -- that is, a full spell song that takes one minute of continuous singing for each point put into the spell. Such spells are cast free of charge.
At festivals and other special occasions, and to work certain major spells, a whole group of Tuath sing and play together - the Vitae and Bards add power, while at least one Druid coordinates the effort and directs the spell. The resulting spell can literally change the world. The music's not bad, either.

Spell lists/programs

The full Tuath-taught course of study is a 20 year experience. It's a lifestyle they teach from when kids are very young.

Tuath spells are taught entirely by rote. You can't happen upon an old book of lost Tuath spells - there isn't any such thing. The only way it would be possible to rediscover lost spells would be to come across someone like Wood who knows them - and then get him to teach them.

However, it *is* possible to create new spells, just as it's possible to create new forms of music. (GM Fiat holds here.) On the whole, the Tuath are conservative, however. Experimenting with new forms and sounds isn't something many would even think of.

Since a great deal of Tuath instruction, not only magic, uses songs, a long list of instructive stories/songs is probably a good idea for a Tuath character as well.

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