Magic in the series involves tapping power from inside the mage, taking power from spirits, or most commonly using the power of a Warren or Hold. The effects created varies depending on where the magic is taken from, how it is combined, and the intent of the mage. Warrens are themselves complete realms or worlds containing sentient and non-sentient creatures, geography and a ruling creature, usually a god. The power of warrens are theorized to come from dragons, each of whom have an aspect the same as the warren. Most races have a racial Warren that exhibits particular effects or properties; humans generally tap Warrens based on an innate preference that produce limited or specific effects. The books have stated that Warrens are best described as closed doors in the mage's mind. Accessing the power behind it requires careful, and deliberate opening to unleash and shape the power within. Controlling an open Warren is a draining process, and to open the door too far is to invite madness, physical harm, or death upon the mage. Racial Warrens are Elder, unavailable to humans in most cases, and significantly more powerful, in addition to being immune to the magic-deadening effects of otataral.
Read more about this topic: Invading Races From The Malazan Book Of The Fallen Series
Famous quotes containing the word magic:
“You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion.... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat’s meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)
“Without, the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind’s moody madness—
Within, the firelight’s ruddy glow,
And childhood’s nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)