New School of Magic: Shamanism
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Earlier this week, @Meiki thought of two wonderful ideas—an independent school of shapeshifting, based on my idea for adding an ability under druidcraft called "Wild Shape", and another school focused on shamanism, and together, I think came under an agreement that those two schools could be flavored to work together under "Shamanism". I wanted to share it here since where we discussed it is unfortunately not able to be viewed by public eyes without a certain Founder's tier.
Shamanism is a religion that is focused on the worship of the soul and spirituality—the spirits of animals, esoteric energies, and nature by extension. These practitioners utilize totems to respectfully harness the powers of these spirits for blessings or curses. They also evoke the spirits of animals for the purposes of divination (including omens).
For this school, I considered combining the principles of shapeshifting and shamanism into one under a school called "shamanism" by allowing the player to call upon the spirits of animals (beasts in Fractured) to temporarily manifest parts of their bodies onto the character's own body as spiritual energy to perform an attack or de/buff. Here are examples of attacks that could be done through shamanistic invocation:
- Alligators in real life can use their tails to defend themselves by whipping it at their assailants. A shaman could invoke the spirit of an alligator to manifest an alligator tail onto their own tailbone that can be used to perform a quick tail whip (cone area-of-effect) or a tailspin before disappearing.
- We don't have many avian creatures, but for the purpose of this example, a shaman could manifest the wings of a "hawk" onto their arms to buffet a target with wind by bringing their arms together before disappearing.
- Bears swipe with their paws to eviscerate their prey with their claws. A shaman could invoke the spirit of a bear to manifest their paws onto their hands to swipe at an enemy for slashing damage.
- Wolves are known for their pact instincts and their tendencies to howl. A shaman could invoke the spirit of a wolf to temporarily increase their own movement speed or to howl which would frighten enemies around them.
- The spirit of a warg could do the other or give the shaman the ability to do a quick snaring lunge by manifesting their face or teeth onto their own as spiritual energy.
- Mammoths are large, wooly, and very durable. A shaman could call upon the spirit of a mammoth to increase their cold resistance and their maximum health.
There are many other possibilities and the draconic breath spells are already the epitomes of the above examples. They, along with the totems, could be recategorized under the school of shamanism. In addition to the above, shamans could perform ritualistic dances to buff their allies and could summon the spirits of beasts to temporarily assist them in combat—temporarily meaning that they will vanish after a certain amount of time passes.
This school would be able to provide a similar feeling to partially shapeshifting one's body but through the spirits of beast instead briefly manifesting their body parts made of energy onto the shaman's body for a specific purpose of the ability. It has the potential to be a supportive school of magic as well as a suitable alternative to druidcraft.
