Blood Magic

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>>52163077
THIS THREAD IS NOW AN ENEMY OF THE TEMPLAR ORDER.
GOOD DAY /tg/.

>>52163077
Depends on the culture. At least in the homebrew I made, there is a culture that explicitly uses blood magic. To them, blood holds the source of magic power. People can use magic as normal, but if you shed blood the magic can escape in a concentrated form.

Most people see this as something that these villagers do. A lot of magical scholars know that this is some powerful shit, but the detriment to the body is greater than if one were to just cast diluted energy.

Some people think this is abhorrent. That destroying the vessel from which magic flows is against whatever god or goddess they believe put it there.

This latter view of thought actually caused a split between the royal families of this village.

Normal blood magic also exists, such as rituals, sacrifice, etc. but nobody can actually recreate the power of magic that these villagers have.

>>52165475
>Some people think this is abhorrent. That destroying the vessel from which magic flows is against whatever god or goddess they believe put it there.
Do these people also consider regular violence with spears and so on to be abhorrent because of the blood shed? Relatedly, if you get sliced open without some sort of special ritual, as in a violent confrontation, can you harvest the same power?

>>52163077
The paragon of justice LG archetypal paladin goddess has blood under her portfolio. Magics related to or using blood are almost always related to healing. The most widespread spell that uses blood is a minor ritual used in many marriages because the aforementioned goddess of blood's husband is the god of love and does it as a gift to her. However, there is a nation that does blood sacrifices in her name as part of a deal they made with another (evil)god in exchange for receiving part of his power.

>>52163077
Arcane magic in my world is drawn from a different plane linked from a goddess when she saved one of the primitive gods, changing his outlook from war and glory to civilization and honor. So among the humans that's a parallel to ancient Judaism to a sort of more "modern" Judeo-Christian philosophy. Thus blood sacrifices would have played a huge role in getting spells for ancient clerics of humans, but not anymore.

Other gods might require it still in one form or another (the god of seas who also commands the majority of the orcs and their island/pirate cultures would like it, but primarily from animals, while the god of goblinoids would prefer conquest and battles to prove might).

Nature magic among druids certainly reqiires some sort of blood component, but again sacrifices and ritualistic draining of kills. It isn't so much the power of the blood itself as the respect for the process.

Among the arcane users (5e btw), it has no place except among necromancers and warlocks. Warlock blood is needed for many contracts, as fiends and old gods are sovereign citizens and really want their government bank account. Raising the dead and becoming ang form of lich definitely requires a lot of complex blood rituals in my world, but that's a fairly lersonal thing. I guess you could spill a wolf's blood when raising it (assuming it's still alive) instead of your own.

So I suppose USING blood in rituals isn't evil by default, but using it to raise the dead is pretty sketchy. And it isn't the blood as much as the symbolism or the life/death status.

>>52163077
Rituals that use blood call upon the sympathetic energies within. Life is power, and so giving up some of it grants you free power without all that book learning, or inherent birthright, or God's Chosen shit.

While it's true that the Quality of the blood is important sapient>nonsapient, for some specific spells Quantity has a Quality all its own. Butchering a thousand rats will work in place of one or more humans, but there's a point where you're just pissing into the sea. And spilling your own blood acts like a force multiplier, so it's more often self-sacrifice.

Blood magic has a lot of painful, vile rituals, and so most people don't want to associate with blood mages. In academic Wizard circles, Blood Magic is equated with unethical scientific practices; blunt force, non-viable, and generally a good way to get fucked.

Blood magic itself isn't inherently evil. Shit, some of the most self-sacrificing spells out there are technically blood magic. But most of its applications are definitely south of neutral on the old alignment chart.

>>52163077
blood is what gives us life, it would probably be quite sacred

Orc blood is more valuable than man blood in my setting because the orc god is a blood god. Only orcs can perform blood rituals and they are all divine acts.

>>52163077
Blood magic is frowned upon in my setting, but not evil per se. Using your own blood as an energy source is one thing, but pulling it from others (potentially against their will, it doesn't require consent) is definitely bad and will get the Ordo Magos on your head ASAP as soon as they know.

As to energy, it's the same, really. It has connotations of Defiler magic mixed with Dragon Age, but is not evil in all cases.