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

Contents

Previously: Transmutation Subschools and Selected Spells

As research on the inner path developed into necromancy its practitioners were intimately aware of the power the energy they used had over living beings. As this awareness expanded, they discovered a variety of ways that the nature of the links between living creatures could be manipulated to produce sympathetic effects. One of the earliest innovations, long before the discovery of the negative energy plane as a source of power, was the means to influence the mind of living creatures.

These practices were almost ideally suited to development in this energy poor environment. As all wizards know, the level of all spells are determined by an arithmetical calculation adding the complexity to power, with higher values corresponding to higher level spells. This also means that, at a given level, you can plot an arc at the frontier for a level of spell with those requiring greater power and less finesse (your archetypal evocation) at one side, those which require high levels of skill and less power to the other (the products of the inner path), and the majority of modern spells falling on some distribution between. Even among the products of the inner path, the spells of this tradition fall to the far side of finesse, representing only a few degrees of power. In fact, the delineation between the two sub-schools of enchantment, charm and compulsion, is a perfect dividing line at the halfway point between the far extreme of finesse over power and a point less than a quarter of the arc towards the extreme of power over finesse. At this point compulsion seems to fail in a spectacular mess of the subject, caster, or, most frequently, both dying as their brains are seared by magic power.

Because it was so well suited to the age it proliferated wildly, leading to a variety of abuses and staining the name of the inner path. Unfortunately evokers, with their more direct solutions to nearly all problems, were ill equipped to deal with the problem. This prominence ended abruptly, however, with the discovery of the energy planes. The necromancers, viewing themselves as the true heirs to the inner path, in cooperation with their peers among the early diviners and elementalists of the age deemed practice of enchantment antithetical to the moral use of magic. The result was that those who chose to practice it openly were shunned for using black magic, much as necromancers are today. Obviously the practice has shed this taint over the eras that have passed since. The largest shift in opinion being a result of swift and strong support provided against rogue summoners during the wide ranging conflicts of that period. 

Next: Enchantment Subschools and Selected Spells

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This seems pretty self explanatory. Enchantment has always been one of the most well defined schools. I did consider combining enchantment and illusion, because there are edges where the two overlap. However, they both have their clear, defined areas of work that didn't seem well served overall by that sort of change.