The Name of The Wind - Themes

Themes

In The Name of the Wind, multiple types of magic exist, with different limitations. The first type of magic, called "sympathy" is essentially a combination of thermodynamics, quantum entanglement, and voodoo dolls. It is described as using a special force of will called Alar to create a sympathetic link between two objects, to enable a shift of energy between them. In this context, the magic remains limited by the laws of thermodynamics. For example, lifting a pair of objects using a sympathetic link takes more force than the total weight of the two objects, because energy is lost in the form of heat into the objects themselves, into the sympathist, and into the space between the linked objects.

The second variety of magic, naming, involves no such semi-scientific limit; it is instead limited only by the ability of the namer to awaken his "sleeping mind" to find the "true name" of some object or element. When a namer finds the true name of a thing, that namer temporarily wields the power to call that thing to do whatever the namer wills; yet because names cannot be understood directly by the conscious, calling the true name of something is possible only with great effort, or in circumstances dire enough to rouse the sleeping mind.

There are at least two other types of magic in the world of The Name of the Wind: sygaldry, which is essentially sympathy that is inscribed using runes (which makes it a mechanistic, almost medieval-steampunk, style of magic); and alchemy, whose limits can perhaps be best understood as an alternative line of chemistry (though one of the characters does make it abundantly clear that alchemy is nothing like chemistry.) For example, one of the compounds that can be produced by alchemy is mostly non-flammable if put in a little water, but highly flammable once heavily diluted (contrary to the patterns observed by chemists in the real world).