Lore

History and Lore of the Will-Shaper - by T.A. Saunders ©2010 v1.5

Will-Shaping vs. Magic

A question posed by many scholars on the subject is ‘Is Will-Shaping Magic?’ Essentially, the answer is no. The phenomenon of Will-Shaping in no way involves channeling mana. The Will-Shaper will bend reality to their will, forcing the desired outcome to happen through sheer willpower. It is less like channelling arcane, divine, or mystic energies, and more akin to the ability of deities to impress their will upon reality, though to a far lesser degree. The mechanism which allows Will-Shapers to do this is sometimes even referred to as a ‘divine spark’.

1. This offers the Will-Shaper certain advantages over use of arcane magic :
2. Will-Shaping is unaffected by starmetal or moonsteel.
3. Will-Shaping is unaffected by chaos disruption, such as in the Burning Lands
4. Will-Shaping is unaffected by mana disruption, such as Feedback Burst.
5. Will-Shaping can still be used in dead-magic zones.
6. Will-Shaping is particularly effective at bypassing magical shields, such as abjurations or Mana Shield, though they have no particular benefit against conjured shields.
7. Attempts to detect magic or magical residue will yield no results on a Force of Will talent.

These advantages are balanced by the limitations of Will-Shaping - namely, the exhaustive price that Will-Shaping takes on the mind. Will-Shapers using their Force of Will talents away from their body - such as shooting a stream of fire from the hands or lifting a person from the water with telekinesis - taxes their mind, and brings them closer to exhaustion and possibly mind-snap if they don’t take care. In the case of Metamorphs, this takes the form of any change to the body that would be ‘unnatural’ - changing into an animal form, or using a partial shift.