I don’t know if this is the right sub-forum, but whatever.
Anyways, I was wondering if Fel magic has the same abilities as Arcane magic. For example, with the Arcane one can manipulate time, matter, and space; can a user of Fel magic (with similar proficiency to an Arcane wielder) also manipulate time, matter, space, and everything else Arcane has control over? Because, at least in my opinion it seems Fel can only cause destruction.
I don’t know. The lore says that Arcane magic can do pretty much anything, with enough concentration. It doesn’t say that about any other form of magic. I think Blizzard accidentally made Order the most powerful cosmic force, despite the Light and Void being considered the most fundamental forces. Titans are known to be associated with secondary cosmic forces, besides Order. Also, there’s no record of anyone manipulating time using Fel magic.
Tbf, Arcane is definitely the most fleshed out magic type in Warcraft. With the current direction of the story, I assume that the other types of magic will see more development and hopefully be on par with Arcane. Though I agree on the Fel part, which is why I am concerned because the story of Fel is basically at an end (unless we have a Sargeras escapes expansion) yet we still know very little of it’s capabilities besides causing chaos.
Time IS Order. Or rather, one of its key manifestations. Arcane energy is basically the magical force behind the laws of warcraft’s Physics. It is a personal thing of mine, but it is important to note that there is a difference between arcane energy and the magic that mages do. Arcane energy is simply the force of order, which follows regimented natural patterns and binds reality together. Balance druids harness arcane power too, but they do it by understanding the patterns of its natural flow and using them to their advantage. less flashy, for sure, but also safer.
Magecraft, on the other hand, is the art of understanding those hidden arcane patterns of the cosmos and bending them to force impossible things to happen. Order as a force abhors such violations of its norms, which is why it fights to restore its proper course and mages who loose control suffer catastrophic rebounds. The most famous rebound was the one that caused the sundering.
Chaos as a force is everything Order is not. It consumes and corrupts what it touches. Fel magic would likely not control time, it would likely /burn/ temporal energy and erase events which transpired—I actually somewhat wonder if that is why alternate timelines fade away; fel consumes them.
Druid spells are classified as arcane in-game, but there’s no explanation for that, and they actually might not be Arcane, since Night Elves outlawed Arcane magic.
No, they banished mage magic. Arcane energy is a natural part of Azeroth. Moonwells radiate arcane and nature energy. Balance druids in their tiny bit of official lore are stated to balance the forces of nature and arcane energies. Hence the name.
Its a distinction blizzard has never really cleaned up from its oldest lore, sadly.
We know fel can manipulate space at least. It was fel magic that was used to tear the fabric of reality.
If only studying Mathematics and Physics in real life allowed us to use magic.
oh well.
My guess it has to do something with Elune given that nearly all druid arcane spells are moon / star themed.
I do find it weird though that a single star is normally fire schooled, but a group of stars is suddenly arcane schooled.
We’ve seen Fel affect matter (look at most Legion zones, Felwood, etc). Warlocks can and do affect space on the regular via portals and suchlike. I’m not sure off the top of my head about time, but there’s probably examples of that somewhere.
I don’t know if Fel can reach the scale that Arcane can, but Fel magic does allow Space Demons to teleport around their Space Demon Space Ships, so scales may be similar.
I’d wager the real different comes from the byproduct of the energies used. We don’t see much in the way of Arcane corruption (though it does exist in a sense with arcane-infused areas, like in Azsuna), but we see Fel corruption all over the place where Fel magic is heavily used. I’d also wager that Arcane takes less of a toll on the wielder than Fel, given most powerful Fel users show heavy signs or being affected by their use of Fel.
I’m probably wrong on a lot of this, but just putting some thoughts and observations out there.
You are not really wrong at all,
Chaos (Fel) is an outsider force for the material universe, where its antithesis Order (Arcane) is the dominate force. Because of that you don’t usually see much Fel energy; when a world becomes too polluted with Fel it outright falls into the Twisting Nether, as if reality rejects its presence.
Warlocks practise a variety of magic. Some of it like the Destruction Magic can be argued to be arcane. Affliction Magic seems to be the corruption of Life Force itself in essence it creates a cancer within living matter, destroying it from within.
In some cases, such as when Gul’dan destroys Varian it’s a combination of the two.
Fel ultimately originates from Zereth Tumultus and Tumultus means Confusion & Disarray.
It was chosen by the First Ones to counter Ordos and they chose Tumultus(Confusion & Disarray) over Discordia(Discord) & Fortuna(Chaos) because the First Ones were too Orderly to tolerate Discordia & Fortuna!
You ask if it’s possible for fel / fel users to accomplish the same sorts of feats as arcane / users. I’d argue we’ve seen it done in game. Some of the warlock spells seem like the opposite of arcane ones (portal vs. closet) and seem to require more focus and effort to pull off (demonic gateway vs. blink). Yet, where we see a 1:1 comparison, being the Legion’s universe-crossing portals, there is a clear increase in cost. Arcane portals ask nothing but mana and focus. Demonic portals require souls. Even if I were to snap into forum RP, I’d shudder to think how steep the cost would be to alter time.