Sprezzaturra on the Breeze

The slowly evolving Enlightenment-inspired setting (White Hot Sparks, I suppose) includes, among other things, a desire to talk about magic and how it manifests in different ways, thus leading to theorising and speculation on the part of in-universe magicians. Thus, the appearance of magical prospectors and surveyors in recent posts: one is seeking for magic as one would search for a vein of metal, the other tracking ley-lines, assessing connections and distances. 

Part of me was concerned about running dry on ways to properly describe this sort of thing, but then I struck upon a useful source: the Winds of Magic in Warhammer Fantasy.

These are the most characteristic features of magic from Warhammer; a brief history of their appearance and treatment may be found here, courtesy of Joseph Manola. 

From The Empire army book from 2000, the 6th edition of Warhammer Fantasy. 

Image found via Lexicanum.

Men learned [from the Elves] how the raw power of magic blew from the northern realms of Chaos in the form of eight sorcerous winds that represented unique types of magic....

The magical energies of Hysh are the most effusive of all kinds of magic and quickly penetrate solid things and soak away even into the very rocks....

The magical energies of Ghyran precipitate like rain upon the earth, forming pools and eddies which only those attuned to the sight of magic can see....

The magical energies of Ulgu boil across the ground like a shifting mist.....evoking only a sense of mistrust and concealment to ordinary folk. It is the most affected by the mortal winds....rears into mighty clouds beneath the influence of storms and gales.

Aqshy.....gutters like flame in the breeze and runs wild over hot sands and sun-baked fields.

Well, that gives you some idea of the premise. These are the base sorts of magic, that some wizards combine. The Imperial Colleges of Magic teach only one each. In successive editions of Warhammer, the single-colour magics have become more prominent - to the point that Age of Sigmar, in its role as the successor to Warhammer Fantasy is characterised by the existence of eight realms, each named and characterised after a Wind of Magic.

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Why do I mention this, other than to cite it as an example? Well, it struck me that there was something well-constructed about the Winds of Magic as presented by Warhammer Fantasy.

Firstly, it doesn't feel over-planned. It has established the themes and flavours of each Wind without worrying over much about fitting it all together perfectly. Yes, Life and Death are there, but conceivably Light and the Heavens could be the same thing, likewise Life and Beasts. They haven't felt the need to balance out Fire with water or ice or what have you.

Similarly the names of the Colleges: The Light Order, the Jade Order, the Celestial Order, the Grey Order. They didn't feel the need to name each for a colour, or even to be have the names of the orders follow any one given pattern: gemstones, colours and adjectives all mix together.

Sprezzatura is the Italian term coined by Castiglione's Art of the Courtier, referring to a certain nonchalance on the part of the courtier: whatever effort and artistry has gone into your speech or dress, however many hours you spent on those verses, are not to be reflected in their presentation. 

Some measure of Sprezzatura - or something like it - goes into the presentation of the Colleges. They do not look overworked; there is a pleasing variety to them. The very names - 'The Amber Order' - provide a greater implication of subtlety and variety, over the abstract image of a single colour. The base ideas - alchemists, druids, astronomers - are gently twisted into a distinctly strange image. None of them are trying too hard to convey the Grave Import of their work: magical study seems insular indeed - though we are aware through the context of a wargame that these wizards are called up to serve in the field and lob fireballs at Beastmen, Goblins and Chaos Marauders. WFRP 1st Ed's Realms of Sorcery lays out more of this, as Manola discusses in the above link (unfortunately, I cannot find any good images of the black and white illustrations - far better than the technicolour depictions of the Winds found from later editions). 

Image of an Amber Wizard, found via Lexicanum.
Not a man who cares how people look at him in the street.

Anyway, to contrast this with other grand arrays of magic or cosmic powers, this is quite unlike the bizarre conglomeration of ideas that were combined for the various Lantern Corps of DC Comics. Likewise, however beloved Avatar: the Last Airbender might be, the elevator pitch for it sounds moderately hokey. I suggest that Warhammer's Winds of Magic and Colleges are slightly more compelling (at least, in bare-bones lore terms) because of their relative 'artlessness' and ramshackle demeanour.

Consider the naming of institutions. Oxbridge colleges, founded over many centuries take on several different types of name. They are named for religious figures (St John, St Hilda, &c), places (Girton, Newnham, &c), founders and donors (Balliol, Downing, Queens', Queen's, &c) - or simply as University or New College. What is more, there is ample crossover between names. Cambridge sports not only Christ College and Jesus College, but also Corpus Christi College and Emmanuel College. Likewise, there is not only Trinity College, but also Trinity Hall. There is St John's College, but also Peterhouse...named for St Peter.

To take another example, see the naming of (Association) Football clubs. Certainly, they are named for their city or district but with various additions: City, County and United (Coventry City, Derby County, Leeds United) will be familiar enough, but see teams named for the day of the week their founders had off work (Sheffield Wednesday), occupations (Queen's Park Rangers, Bolton Wanderers), plants (Partick Thistle), works of fiction and fictional characters (Heart of Midlothian, Tottenham Hotspur).

The point being drawn is that for any fictional organisation or group of such to be too neatly symmetrical in its structure or conventions looks rather odd. The neat regularity of American Football team names strikes me, at least, as slightly comic and rather on the nose. 

Well, that's probably an opinion you can safely ignore, but ask yourself: is there any city in Christendom that named its first twelve Churches after the Apostles? (It sounds like something Umberto Eco might confect: the twelve districts of a medieval city are named for the Twelve Apostles, the four colleges are named for the Great Doctors of the Western Church, each gate into the city is named for an Old Testament Prophet....) But while I haven't gone so far as to check terribly hard, I would warrant that no such thing took place. However neat the scheme might be, other Saints loom larger in the Christian mind - the letters of St Paul cement his place above the lesser-known Apostles, the Virgin Mary has a status all of her own, and this leaves aside the appeal of local or national Saints. 

The point I'm driving at is probably clear by now. Overmuch uniformity can strain credulity, no matter how well-concieved it is. Consider including some redundancy or clutter in your world-building. Of course, planned cities or perfectly square-bordered states or revolutionary calendars have all been known. Further, the scientific marvels of the far future or visits to other planes of being could maintain such a state beyond human frailty or expectation: the very alien-ness of such a state could be apt, aside from the potential for GRAND COSMIC UNDERSTANDING. (In successful media doing this sort of thing, I always suspect that a certain amount of arbitrariness is the key: 'Look, old boy, there's seven of them and they all begin with D, just go along with it.')

But I'm acting under the assumption you want to include a human level of understanding and history and mess in your work. In this regard, the Colleges of Magic, being both evocative in name and irregular in nature are a fine example.