A History of Magic: The History of Abjuration (D&D)

Contents

Previously: Evocation Subschools and Selected Spells

               The earliest outer path practitioners largely eschewed concerns regarding control and finesse in their craft. Consequently, a winnowing began to occur as the most powerful of their number began to experiment with what we would recognize as the earliest attempts at third level evocation spells. This encouraged a new level of care among their number. Coinciding with a renaissance in the inner path due to the breakthrough discoveries of the energy planes, a new group of outer-path researchers began working with inner path formulations for manipulation and control of magical power.

                The initial work of these new individuals would refine the wildest elementalism, pushing their usable spells into the third level. As the necromantic arts blossomed, and required still greater levels of control and refinement, some elementalists continued following in their footsteps. This would ultimately create a divergence between those who were, at most, attempting to integrate further control measures into their spells and a group of “shield mage” who had become fascinated with the potentials of these formulae with greater power.

                The practices of these shield mages would largely be recognizable by the abjurers of today. The creation of barriers, negation of effects, and even the banishment of enemies all arise from the basic control and defense formulae of these early casters. The rise of these specialists provided a much needed relief for mortals in these eras. Natural portals to the various elemental planes and intrusions from the outer planes predates the practice of divinations among mortals, though they were far less common. The result, however, was an era where magical threats were without counter and thus nearly unstoppable. This means the few casters likely to be in such areas were warlocks and sorcerers, who were virtually guaranteed to be connected with the interloper, or clerics who have always been almost universally reliably checked by their own counterparts. Meanwhile, the most potentially useful group to drive off such interlopers, the elementalists, were also the most likely recruits to become new vassals as sorcerers, warlocks, or through other forms of offered power. 

Next: Abjuration Subschools and Selected Spells

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Once I got through the energy and discovery tools the question of what direction basic research would take was difficult. I still had most of the schools but minimal reason to choose one direction over another. My final decision was influenced by a book I’ve read several times and love dearly; the Misenchanted Sword. There’s a discussion about how brief the expected working lifespan of a research wizard is, especially one working in combat magic. Given that two of the three branches of magic I’ve created are manipulation of raw energy that seemed highly applicable. Another note in the book is that one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, living wizard is known to be a defensive magic specialist; one of the guys who created the defenses used to extend researchers working lives into being measured in days…