It makes me sad how little innate magic there is in WoW lore

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By “innate” I mean magic that’s there by default in the player character. Not magic that they get from some outside source or higher power / greater being / whatever.

If you think about it, most classes that use magic are not magic themselves, they’re given their magic by some other force:

  • Mages don’t actually have magic, they use formulae, rituals and science to basically manipulate reality by coercing order magic to do certain things. You can listen to mages in Stormwind talk about it.
  • Priests and paladins are not themselves magic, the light (which is a semi-sentient thing) gives them magic if they play by the rules.
  • Warlocks are stealing demonic magic. I know the least warlock lore, can’t say much.
  • Evokers are not innately magical, nor are most dragonkin, their magic was put there by Neltharion, and it’s likely aspectral magic. Dragon magic is order magic though, the same magic that mages use, dragons just do it more by “feel” than the scientific approach mages take.
  • Shaman are given their magic by elementals, and can lose it just as easily if the elementals decide they don’t like you anymore.
  • Druids are channeling the magic of the Emerald Dream, which is yet again more order magic. They do so more ritualistically than mages, but more intentionally than dragons.

Some magic is seemingly innate:

  • Rogues use some minor shadow magic, though they don’t do anything like shadow priests do and embrace the void or anything. So it could be just there as a result of training.
  • Hunters have some nature magic, and it COULD be channeling the Dream, but it doesn’t seem like it.

I think there’s only one example of truly innate magic, with that being monks.

Monks use Spirit (Chi), which is the same magic that Shamans use, but instead of using that magic to ask the elements for help, they internalize that magic and augment themselves to do all the acrobatic stuff they do, where mistweavers directly manipulate it to heal people. They can also manifest spirits and duplicates of themselves made from magic. I think monks are the best case for innate magic, since Spirit is in everything that’s alive.

And that’s 1 class out of how many? 13? I get that WoW is based a lot on DnD, but I’d like to see more innate magic in the future. Not that anyone cares.

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Whats stopping you from just making up a story where that happens? Like a paladin that is using their wedding vows as their source of power? Rather than a god or loa or naaru?

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'cause that’s not how the lore in WoW works?

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shrug

If its a story only for you, does it really matter?

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It’s not an RP thing. So it doubly doesn’t matter. \o/

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Pretend that all your chars have their own innate magic.

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Do you have some examples from other games for that?

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Yeah I’d like to see some form of magic that was originally innate or could be, but was ceased by some force. Would make for a neat story.

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Considering Dracthyr were made with the essence of the dragonflights from birth, that makes an Evoker’s magic, by definition, innate. Unlocking and mastering their magic takes time as most forms of mastery would but the power they wield is pretty much baked in to who they are.

Using D&D tropes, Evokers are pretty much the only ‘Sorcerers’ born with magic. Everyone else either learned (or stole) the power over their lifetime.

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I can tame a wild animal that was gonna attack me within seconds and now they’re my forever companion. Sounds pretty magical to me.

Also, constantly coming back from the dead isn’t without magic.

The other things you talk about make more sense though because magic is having/being granted the supernatural powers to manipulate natural things and use their energy to produce magic. Mages don’t just have scrolls and spells. Someone who isn’t a mage wouldn’t be able to produce anything magical by reading the scrolls or saying spells. They have to have some innate magic to be able to do magic. All the tools just strengthen it. Same with all the other in your face magical classes. You can’t just create energy out of thin air, you need a source.

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Literally all of us are gifted by Azeroth herself, it’s why we’re heroes in any capacity, and why we’re able to wear the Heart of Azeroth.

And why we’re able to come back from the dead, because it’s ‘not our time’ yet.

And no, you don’t just ‘create magic’ lol. At least that’s not how magic forces work in WoW.

The magic was always there, you’re just tapping into it for your own use.

Kinda like electricity, gas, or plumbing lol. Just the systems the magic comes from are extremely ancient, older than mortal races.

If we could create our own magics, we’d be gods. I think tapping into it is better, because we’re really just mortals using it as a tool.

God-like beings and forces beyond our understanding created the magic, not us.

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I don’t really understand how normal people would have just innate magic powers or how you would make it a class. Someone just born with magic powers because reasons?

Closest you’re going to get is Evokers and they were made and infused with that magic.

And if you count infusion as innate then death knights, demon hunters, void elves, and lightforged would also count.

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But it was put there. In DnD yeah they’d be a sorcerer, but sorcerers are also just manipulating the weave in DnD, it’s not some internal power they have.

If Neltharion didn’t implant the dracthyr with magic, they’d just goofy dragonkin.

Plus dragon magic is just order magic. I want more magic from OUR realm, that was developed by people from our plane of reality (in-game). An expression of inner power, rather than control over an exterior one, y’know? Monks are the only one so far, with a few other potentials. I donno if something like a warrior counts as magic.

Magic in Skyrim. Everyone’s played Skyrim, right? In Elder Scrolls, magicka just kind of inundates everything. People can shape that magicka, and the magicka in themselves, to cast magic. They’re not borrowing magic from some other entity, it’s just in / around them anyway.

And GW2, magic is also just kind of everywhere and in everyone, but it’s categorized into certain “types” of magic. Basically every class in the game uses magic, even martial classes (they augment themselves with magic basically). People who are sensitive to magic can manipulate it, and dragons in the game even eat it.

The way monks use chi is quite literally magic coming from your own body, and every living thing has the potential to do so. It’s a matter of training to be able to do it.

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They get their magic from the Celestials. They literally invoke their power and summon lesser versions of them. Chi is the same thing that shamans use.

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Are Void Elves themselves innately magic?? Also once something becomes corrupted by Fel, it’s innately magic now right?

Why is Alleria able to open portals and rift walk and all that bull?

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So, I’m confused then. Mages in the Elder Scrolls are like Mages in WoW or Wizards in D&D, they are just manipulating things that already exist in the world around them by learning the methods in how to control it via ritual or “magic science.”

Saying dragon magic is order magic is kind of a misrepresentation, they aren’t channeling it from an outside source and asking the Titans to do a thing like a Priest would ask the Light to do a thing or a Shaman would ask the elements to do a thing or a Warlock would tell a demon to do a thing, it is pretty much infused into what they are.

There is probably some distinction somewhere but most magic isn’t from Azeroth aside from the magic of the planet itself and at that point you’re just dealing with Titan magic again.

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I think not having innate magic is perfectly fine. We’re mortals, manipulating the world and crafting tools to become OP is our specialty. It fits. The only thing I would say needs more magical depth would be warriors but that’s personal preference. I don’t find warrior’s truly being regular guy with sword compelling or realistic against demons, demigods ect. just feels like power fantasy to me.

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No, they are not the source of a monk’s magic. The Celestials are just powerful spirits.

They can do this though, yes! Just like in kungfu, lots of attacks are modeled / named for animals, emulating what they do in nature. If we had giant spirits, we’d do the same for them too.

Chi and Spirit are the same type of magic, yes. Chi is just what the pandaren call it.

Where the shaman use spirit to commune with the elements who then give the shaman elemental magic, monks just straight up use spirit itself. Unlike order magic, spirit is in literally every living thing, and monks train and train to use the spirit in themselves as a weapon or a tool to heal with.

It’s like all the cheesy kungfu movies, Shaolin monks and etc., y’know? There’s energy within you and energy without, and you can use the energy within to do super things, and you can draw in energy from without to keep you going.

Yes, but by intervention. I’m talking innately magical just by default.

From what I understand of the lore, all these people coming into our plane of reality (which is unnamed for some reason) kinda flood it with particles (magic) from their reality, and people can figure out how to manipulate that. Order magic in particular is in EVERYTHING because of how much meddling the Titans have done on Azeroth.

And no, Azeroth is not a Titan, they want her to become one.

In a lot of games, warriors kind of subconsciously beef themselves up with magic as they fight, despite not being able to actively cast it. Maybe that’s the case in WoW too.

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…and why is not having this an issue exactly?

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That’s Hermetic-style magic.

The light is within everything, both priests and paladins have to rely upon their own willpower.

Fel can be used by anyone learned enough and willing to risk working with pure disorder

So… draconic bloodline sorcerers?

Shamans have their own magic, they just need others to cooperate with them. This is a thing in many “magical traditions”

They channel the magic of nature because they are nature.

To borrow from my favorite TTRPG, Mage the Ascension, Magic is just the art of will-working filtered through a paradigm. The specifications of the magic being used matter less than the actual results.