To me the discussion in OH 14: 26-27 on the problem of how to translate the various "realms" of magic from MERP and Rolemaster into feasible Middle-earth equivalents once again would seem to indicate that the respective concepts keep causing no little trouble to GMs trying to create in their campaign a "feel" of magic consistent with Tolkien's writings.
So, while I do agree with Luke Potter's view that with some more or less serious effort from the GM you may achieve a fair degree of consistency here, I am not sure that I would call this the "beauty of the system." While such a versatility is nice to have in a generic fantasy role playing game like Rolemaster, it certainly is not what I expect from a game designated as being specifically "Middle-earth." Quite the contrary; in such a case I should expect game mechanics to be well-suited to the background of the game, not mechanics in which I first have to put considerable effort in order to tailor them to the needs of that specific background myself.
Despite having first used the MERP rules in my campaign for quite some time, later switching on to Rolemaster, to me this particular dissatisfaction proved sufficient reason for abandoning those trials as soon as I came across Hârnmaster, the mechanics of which I found far more in accordance with a Middle-earth setting. As I tested the new set of rules, my first impression was confirmed in almost all respects, and not only for those rules concerned with magic. Thus for once I took serious ICE's indication that the MERP source material was suitable for use with "most other mayor role-playing systems" as well, and abandoned my previous trials with MERP, Rolemaster, and its various companion volumes for good.
I soon found myself replacing the many combat charts and tables familiar from MERP and Rolemaster by the one single (if somewhat more complicated) Hârnmaster table, which suddenly allowed combat resolution in a more realistic, if often a more deadly, way. Soon also, Sea Law gave way to the Pilot's Almanac, which made you feel that salty breeze coming in from Belfalas Bay, and, most significantly here, the Tome of the Shek-Pvar now provided a subtle, even "realistic" kind of magic, way more appropriate to the needs of Gandalf and his like than the rules I had used before. Sure, those new rules also needed some modification to adapt them to the specific needs of a Middle-earth campaign, but these changes were comparatively minor in nature and much more rewarding; at least that's what I felt at the time.1
One of the first things I did when I adapted Hârnmaster to Middle-earth was to invent an indigenous vocabulary for the various "realms" of magic found in Hârnmaster, where magic is conceptualized around six different "elements," which a mage then may try to manipulate. As Chris Seeman rightly pointed out in OH 14: 26, even MERP is lacking in specific Middle-earth names for its own concepts of magic, so quite apart from the problem of devising appropriate names in the particular case of adapting Hârnmaster terms to a Middle-earth environment, the following reflections might be of a more general interest.
The Six Ways
First, Sindarin terms for the six relevant "elements" themselves had to be found, for which I choose: gwelu - air, naur - fire, tinc - metal, cef - earth, nen - water, and fân - aura. Then, names for the various disciplines or "ways" a mage may follow, each dedicated to a specific element, had to be devised.2
The choice of such a discipline as a personal way of understanding the nature of Eru's creation is fundamental to each magic-user, because access to spells from disciplines other than one's own usually will be quite limited. Also, it has to be stressed that those disciplines really vary in nature; very few spells exist in six different shapes, according to the elements, showing identical effects when put into use, which means that there is no whole array of bolts (e.g., ice, lightning or whatever) from which to choose according to your discipline, but ultimately all boiling down to pretty much the same results.
The pad gwelu, the "way of the air," is thus linked not only to the direct manipulation of this element, but also to ethereal phenomena and illusions in general.
The pad naur, the "way of fire," may serve to produce all kinds of pyrotechnic effects, but its more sophisticated spells also are concerned with the control of ethereal flames. Perhaps the pad naur can be viewed as the most violent discipline of magic, certainly the one which harbors the highest destructive potential.
The pad tingril, the "way of shining metal," is a very artifact-centered (one might even say "alchemical") approach to magic. This is the art in which first Mahtan and Fëanor, and later Celebrimbor and the Elven-smiths of Eregion, most excelled. By this art the Rings of Power were wrought, although in the making of the One Ring, a great deal of naur, as well as some bits and pieces from other disciplines, were involved. As the spells of the pad tingril deal with the handling of minerals in the widest sense, this also is the only discipline in which Dwarves feel comfortably at home.
Exercising the most immediate influence over animate nature, the pad cuil, the "way of life," or pad cef, the "way of the earth," according to reading, perhaps should be viewed as the most ambiguous discipline of all. On the one hand, it lends to its practitioners great powers of healing over Kelvar and Olvar alike, so the effects of most Elven magic are brought about wandering the pad cuil. On the other hand, the pad cuil also might be followed with the dark purposes of necromancy in mind.
Apart from being concerned with the direct manipulation of water as a natural element, the spells of the pad nendin, the "way of silent water," generally deal with dampness, darkness and slowness, diametrically opposed to those of the pad naur, but hardly less devastating in their potential effects.
Finally there is the pad turbeth, the "way of the powerful word," the most immaterial discipline of all, dealing with ideas, thoughts and spiritual concepts. In spite of its name, the spells of the pad turbeth are not to be mistaken for Words of Command, which are an entirely different thing, overriding the usual divisions between the disciplines, capable of exercising power over all six elements alike. Rather the pad turbeth is really the most subtle discipline of all, subtlety not being precisely an eminent feature of the Words of Command or peth gano.
Likewise not chained to any of the above disciplines, but certainly more accessible than Words of Command, are the spells of the pad mithurinath, the "way of grey mysteries," most of which simply influence the way spells from the other disciplines work, either neutralizing or reinforcing their effects. Some scholars, however, hold magic or lúthas to be an element in its own right, thus counting the pad mithurinath among the elemental disciplines as well, but this view, at least during the latter half of the Third Age, seems not to have earned universal recognition. Concerning this problem also see the fragments of Meneldil's treatise below.
For ease of reference, the following table gives both the common Quenya and Sindarin names of the above described disciplines or "ways" of magic, together with their English translation.
|
QUENYA |
SINDARIN |
ENGLISH |
|
tië vilyo |
pad gwelu |
way of the air |
|
tië náro |
pad naur |
way of fire |
|
tië tincorilyo |
pad tingril |
way of shining metal |
|
tië cuilëo |
pad cuil/pad cef |
way of life/way of the earth |
|
tië morihellëo |
pad nendin |
way of silent water (Q. way of dark frost) |
|
tië túrequetto |
pad turbeth |
way of the powerful word |
|
tië sindinuldaron |
pad mithurinath |
way of grey mysteries |
However, the concept of six distinct disciplines of magic, based on the manipulation of different elements, and showing their respective relations to each other, as well as to the common "grey" discipline of the pad mithurinath, is best illustrated by a wheel-shaped diagram, the usual way of representation in treatises of a magical or alchemical nature throughout the Third Age. The example reproduced here (fig. 1) is assumed to have been taken from the treatise "On Magic," written by the scholar Meneldil of Minas Ithil, who lived during the reign of King Eärnil II. In Tengwarin characters it gives the Quenya and Sindarin terms for each discipline, as well as the Cirth-initial for the Sindarin name of the corresponding element.
Meneldil's treatise carries no exact date, but obviously was written after the fall of Khazad-dûm (TA 1981), to which it refers as a recent event on various occasions, and certainly predates the sack of Minas Ithil (TA 2002), in which Meneldil was killed and most of his works perished along with him in the burning of the library. For this reason, only few fragments of his writings survive, but at least they do shed some light on the use of magic in the realm of Gondor at the time:
"Magic, it has been said, is the art of mastering the elements, but this only is half the truth, because verily, in order to make proper use of an element, you first have to construe it in your mind. In order to perceive its true nature, you have to understand its essence, as it was brought into being by the will of Ilúvatar, through the Song of Creation. And if a disciple does not listen well enough to the echo of the voices of the Ainur—an echo still resounding from each of the six elements alike, although from each in a different way—all too easily may he be deceived by the tune of Morgoth, and his mind be corrupted. So before a disciple may try to cast his first spell, for many years he will have to listen to the echo of the Song, and even before that, during many years he must learn to listen truly well. [...]"And if a disciple's gift is great, and if he learns faster and seems to understand his element more readily than others, beware and take great care, lest insolent pride take possession of his heart, to lure him into trying and force the element to his own will. For this is not the right way, no matter what thine element, and working magic with contempt and insolent pride in thy heart means committing blasphemy by flouting the will of Ilúvatar. [...]
"Those, however, who call the results of magic a miracle sent from Aman do little justice to the disciple who has labored long and perchance has taken on great peril to work the spell; likewise they show little esteem for the Valar, who need no one else to do their will. [...]
"So, while none of the six ways may be easy to follow, the greatest effort of all is needed to master the grey path. And for this reason also I think that those who maintain the pad mithurinath to be a way just like the other disciplines, and lúthas to be an element just like gwelu, naur, tinc, cef, nen, and fân, perhaps only more difficult to understand, are mistaken. If they were correct, why then should only the other elements be opposed to each other the way they are, so that a disciple of the pad gwelu with some effort also may master spells from the pad turbeth as well as from the pad naur, even, if his gift is great enough, from those two disciplines closest to the pad cuil, dedicated to the understanding of tinc and nen, but never ever from the pad cuil itself. And so no disciple can ever work spells from a path directly opposed to his own element, but the pad mithurinath is open to all, even if very few indeed ever manage to understand the nature of the mithurinath itself. Also, no one may follow this most difficult path of all, without first mastering one of the other six elements, and I have not heard of any house of wisdom exclusively dedicated to this way.3 [...]
"Thus it is that none of Ilúvatar's children or any creature of the Song may master all of the disciplines, so that among those who wandered the face of the Middle-earth since the changing of the world, only the Ithryn and the Enemy himself may command all of the elements. Nevertheless, even those are said to excel in one discipline more than in the others. So it is said that Mithrandir is the true master of the pad gwelu, Pallando of the pad turbeth, Alatar of the pad nendin, Radagast of the pad cuil, and finally Curunír of the pad tingril. But none of the Ithryn ever mastered the pad naur like Gorthaur did, and for this reason it is held by many to be more corrupting to a disciple's mind than the others. But of this I am not sure, as it may also be that from the beginning those minds most easily corrupted are drawn by this element more than by any of the others. [...]
"Also, I do not believe that the colored robes of the Ithryn stand for the elements or their disciplines, because the colors of the elements we do know from their respective rings, where red is the color of Narya, while white is the color of Nenya, and blue is the color of Vilya, and also because the color of the pad mithurinath is grey, while grey, too, is the color of Mithrandir, whose element is not the mithurinath, but the gwelu.4 [...]
"Whereas during the days of old the greatest masters of the pad tingril in Middle-earth could be found among the Noldor of Beleriand, today it is Aulë's children who excel in this art more than others, even though with the fall of Moria much of their craft has been lost. Some scholars now hold that the Naugrim of Hadhodrond dug and tunneled ever deeper not only in search of the true-silver, which can only be found there, beneath the summits of Caradhras, Fanuidhol and Celebdil, but also that along the veins of this most precious of all metals a stronger source of naur could be felt than anywhere else on the face of the Middle-earth or below it since the waning of the Elder Days. And if it is true that this source greatly aided them in their mastering of tinc, and that it was because of this they surpassed any of their kin in those arts, what was the reason for their rise also would have brought about the downfall of Khazad-dûm, mightiest kingdom of their race. [...]"
While Meneldil's writings present a good guideline if you are willing to try and adapt the Hârnmaster magic rules to your Middle-earth campaign, always remember that what he wrote is not to be understood as set in stone; for although he certainly possessed a great knowledge of things magical, much of what he says is mere theory, and on several aspects he might have been wrong.
As a matter of fact, such an element-centered approach for magic in Middle-earth as described above might not find everybody's approval. But at least I consider it one way to explain the magical effects referred to by Tolkien in his writings more readily than by the realm-centered approach known from MERP and Rolemaster.
However, one of the most serious problems the MERP/Rolemaster-rules present in relation to magic is not really overcome by simply switching to Hârnmaster. Since in the world of Hârnmaster there are no Elves or similar race, neither do its rules offer concepts or mechanics to deal with the particular magic of the Eldar in a really convincing way. The pad cuil with its according spells is about the closest thing you will find there, but when trying to translate into game terms the magical songs of the Elves, I do not find this approach wholly satisfactory.
So, while I certainly can recommend Hârnmaster to everyone looking for a "realistic" set of role playing rules, inspired by actual life in medieval societies as well as by the original heroic mythology of Europe ( whence in the end Tolkien received his inspiration), for this particular problem the reader might want to look for different solutions. Personally, to remedy this weak point, I have been experimenting with the SAGA magic-rules, which I found so versatile that recently I even started to give up completely using Hârnmaster for resolving magic in my campaign, but which unfortunately will only be of any immediate use to you, if you are sufficiently familiar with the German tongue, as currently there is no English translation available of this work.5
Footnotes
1. As far as I understand, currently the Hârnmaster rules are under revision, which will give them a format somewhat more familiar to users of the latest edition of Rolemaster, the core rules appearing in a binder, with revised magic, naval and other more specific rules to be added in the near future.
2. The Sindarin and Quenya names used in this article are based on the index of Elvish terms found in The Silmarillion as well as on the Elvish glossary from ICE's Middle-earth Campaign Guide. Note that the English equivalents not always translate the full scope of the rather complex concepts brought to expression by the original Elvish terms.
3. Meneldil here employs the Sindarin term bar-en-lúthas, which may refer to the disciples of a certain „way" as a whole, but also can mean a specific order of mages, like the Nólehildi from ICE's Arnor: The People sourcebook. Especially during the second millennium of the Third Age, several such orders seem to have existed in Gondor as well as in Arnor and its successor-states. Probably they were founded after the example of the Heren Istarion, the order of the five Maia-wizards sent to Middle-earth by the Valar. Some of those orders even claim to have been founded directly by one of the Istari (e.g., the Nólehildi by Mithrandir); while this seems doubtful, some kind of patronage indeed cannot be ruled out. In all likelihood, there never were more than a couple dozen of such orders, rarely with more than a handful of members each. For the later part of the Third Age we no longer have any indication of their existence, probably because first with the ruin of Osgiliath, then later with the fall of Arthedain and the sack of Minas Ithil their most important centers were destroyed. Likewise, no mention of an earlier date than ca. TA 1050 survives, even if some might try to view the Gwaith-i-Mírdain of the Second Age as a kind of predecessor for the later orders dedicated to the pad tingril. Due to the lack of surviving documents, also the presence of similar organizations already in Second Age Númenor cannot really be ruled out; however, at least Meneldil would seem to have had no knowledge of their existence.
4. While the three rings of the Elven kings seem to have possessed powers not exclusively related to their respective elements, they indeed provide one of the best indications that Tolkien himself might have thought of an elemental background for at least some of the magic he describes in his writings. As for the need to explain why there were only three such rings (while we really reckon with six different elements, using the Hârnmaster rules as a guideline), I choose to assume that Celebrimbor initially may have planned on making three more rings, but that, when he learned of Annatar's deceit, he of course would have abandoned the project.
5. For those interested nonetheless, this is the bibliographical reference for the SAGA magic rules: Jörg Hertwich & Stefan Städtler-Ley: Zauberei, Magieregeln für Rollenspiele (SAGA Reihe, Band 15) Zirndorf 1995: Gessnitzer & Städtler Verlag (ISBN 3-925698-58-2).