common magic

[marycatelli]

So we have a magocracy where the upper classes have the powerful mages. Usually. They work hard at co-opting lower class mages of power, and those born to high rank without great power often marry them to give them the status.

Do the ordinary lower-class people have any magic?

I think so. I hate the trope where super-special snowflakes can get magic, and everyone else is out of luck. But, still, magocracy is the central trope. . . .

They can do lesser magic. In fact, they can do more useful magic earlier, because they spend less time mastering the power and can get into the subtlies earlier.

I think they are also going to have to have a fair amount of anti-magic. You devise a clockpunk device, you want it to be strong enough to cope with a malicious fracturing spell.

Comments

[jbellinger]

Friction? They can resist the powerful ones. An individual gets overwhelmed quickly, but a group can withstand one of the mages. With enough pushback, the mage is not just resisted but temporarily confused/disarmed. I'm not sure how a "group" is constituted here, but that could be worked out if the notion is useful.

[marycatelli]

Nah, this is going to be adventures of the upperclass and the complications in a magocracy that aristocracies did not have.