A Historical Overview of War Magic - Today

A Historical Overview of War Magic: Today By: Miette Hartley; Jacksen Aiken

Today, nearly every army on the continent has some form of magic user amongst its ranks. What began as crude artillery forms has evolved over time into a specialized art form. While many mages have experience using magic in combat, only a select handful have the knowledge necessary to use magic effectively in large, pitched battles.

War mages are typically used in battalion sized and larger engagements. Most company sized formations also include mages, but these are not trained in large scale engagements. Instead these mages are used to support the company directly by raising magical barriers, providing physical enhancements to their soldiers and serving as mobile artillery.

Larger scale engagements employ mages attached to formations the size of battalions or greater. Magic in these engagements is more of a battle of wits between opposing armies, as the mage cohorts battle with one another to try to pierce the layered defenses placed around their respective armies. Abjurers typically cancel out spells before they can even manifest. The more skilled the opposing mages, the less sound and fury they often create. Skilled mages can defuse spells and craft defenses invisible to most soldiers and the arcane battle is often waged without visible manifestation of spells. Between less skillful mages there is often an exchange of spells that fizzle out mere yards from the opposing armies, often intermingling with arrow and projectile fire.

There are variations to this pattern of war magic, as armies that are less likely to engage in field battles such as the T'Nanshi Army, have less need for specialized war mage cohorts. In elven formations, mages continue to be closely integrated into unit formations where they serve a role just like any other soldier. The lack of large scale magic formations is often compensated for by sheer numbers, as T'Nanshi continues to have a larger number of mages overall than most army formations.

In M'Chek, individual regiments raise their own mages, and it is not common to see them fielded at larger levels such as the Brigade and Division level. As such there is more of an emphasis on integrating magic at a battalion and company level, with greater use of offensive magic as opposed to the defensive orientation of northern armies.

Imperial armies today still typically divide mages into companies, which are then deployed alongside a brigade level. Mages can be found integrated into companies as "company level mages" which consists of one experienced mage and three auxiliaries (typically two understudies of the mage and a non-mage specialist) or into "mage cohorts" of four mages and sixteen auxiliaries. In general Kurathene armies use mages in a more defensive role than most, preferring to use them to prevent long-range attacks and enhance protection than as weapons of mass destruction. This is partly due to the fact that most Kurathene armies are also equipped with effective field artillery pieces, such as cannons.

Naval Warfare Most navies utilize mages as their primary weapon, backing them with secondary weapons such as cannon, catapults and arbalests. The ability for mages to wield fire comparatively safely have made them a popular weapon against wooden hulled ships, although this strength has been gradually negated since evolving naval combat doctrine, particularly by the Imperial Navy and her immediate rivals. Most navies simply use land trained mages in an artillery role, rather than train them exclusively for naval combat. Only two navies in the world (the Imperial Navy and the Crullathian Navy) make use of specialist naval war mages.

In battle War Mages are responsible for protecting the ship from enemy magic, putting out fires, repairing sails or rigging using "Mend" spells, and adjusting maneuvers using spells such as Gust of Wind and Submerge Ship. War Mages will also engage in offensive casting when required, but modern warships typically have some defenses against popular mage spells such as Fireball and Lightning Bolt.