If you're interested in what Brandon Sanderson has to say about magic systems, check this out
Realmwright: Nullus Deus Ex Machina
The magic of the Westerlands is definitely a soft system. It's nature based in the 5 elements of earth, water, air, fire, and spirit/energy. I thank Robert Jordan for planting that seed years and years ago. I chose this specifically so people would be awed by nature, but able to manipulate it as well. People (or in the gaming case, players) either have a natural aptitude for magic or they don't. Some have very little spark and must fan it into flame through years of careful study and practice. Others have dangerous, raging torrents of magical ability and strive to control it so it doesn't kill them.
The realm of Spirit is entirely unexplained/unexplainable. A very rare few are gifted towards this "element" and it allows them unpredictable powers like telepathy or an ability to see the dead. If they practice practice practice they can eventually commune with the dead via their thought process. This is never entirely clear; however, as the conversing with spirits leads to flashes of premonition either waking or in a dream state. These "dreamers", if noticed at all, are generally identified as very young children who have "over-active" imaginations, talk to "imaginary friends", or flat out tell people the converse with the dead or bluntly and unexpectedly tell people what they are thinking. As is understandable, this freaks a lot of people out to have a little kid say aloud what you're thinking as you think it. One character/player [Laurie's] in particular must meditate long and hard, which is both physically and mentally draining, to reach the necessary trans-trance.
Such practices are revered by some and absolutely forbidden by others. Almost everyone is curious to know more about death and the other side, but lots think you shouldn't go monkeying around with it either. The spirit world knows no sense of time or physicality, but recently passed spirits remember more of their living lives. Ancestral spirits recall less an less as they "age" (while not actually aging) on the other side. This meshing of the incorporeal spirit realm and the tangible physical reality is very mysterious even to one who has devoted their life to its workings.
When I first knew that I'd be using an elemental system of magic I wasn't sure if wood would be one of the schools/talents. As I thought about it more and more I decided that growing things would be a combination of every other magic. Trees grow from the earth, drink up water and sunlight (fire), and breathe air. There is no doubt that they are alive: therefore, contain an unexplained spirit. Trees are basically thought of as ancestors to the elves. In fact, the legend is that the Eldar (near ageless elves from the beginning of time, and the greatest mages ever known) implanted (pun kinda intended) themselves into trees when they felt their time in the emerging order of the world was at an end. They were so in love with the earth and their time upon it that they transmogrified their wise and eternal souls into trees. Had they not done so, life as it's now known could not have arisen because the trees wouldn't exist to produce the air all life breathes. Wind in the trees is eerily called the Breath of Death, when it is in fact the breath of life. Elves judge that those made afraid by a forest wind are evil and/or ignorant of life's magic. Those that revel in the clean smell of earth and leaves are good/pure souls.
Today exceedingly fewer and fewer of the Eldar Trees remain. The elves are of course fiercely protective of them in particular, and consider it a heinous crime against nature to cut down/harm a living tree. A tree that has died naturally is okay to be used for firewood. To cut down a living tree for shelter or tools is less offensive because it is giving its life to improve another's. But to truly avoid offense the cutter must ask the tree's permission to use it, give it a clean and respectful death, and they must plant a seedling (preferably from that very tree) to replace the life taken.
Autumn is a very sad time for elves because the falling leaves (especially red ones) remind the elves of the Eldar blood that was shed to settle the world. The skeletal trees of winter are stark reminders of the death and bygone glory days of the first elves.
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