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Understanding the Weave for Dummies
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Author: Owen Belmont, Captain of the Weave Knights.
Edited by Joon Danagast, Loremaster of the Orthodox Church of Oghma.

Magic; that one word alone inspires thoughts of phenomena that logic cannot explain. The word also conjures visions of fireballs, summoned demons and mad wizards destroying cities with a twitch of their nose. The concept of magic is so wide and complex that many people who do not spend years studying it never realise how simple the concept of magic is.

Wizards, bards and sorcerors alike all work with the great magical energy known as the Weave. They all know of its existance and they know how it is used. Try explaining it to the every-day men and women, though: you will only confuse them.

Using the Art is, indeed, very much like sewing or knitting. The goddess Mystra maintains a near infinite supply of energy threads that are very much like different types of yarns and strings. When a wizard utilizes "magic" he is essentially taking several of these threads and using his hands to knit them together into whatever he needs as a design (such as a fireball).

The time it takes to complete a Weaving project depends on the overall design that the wizard requires. Some designs take a while to finish, whereas others take a few seconds. There are also spells that take even days or weeks to complete. Using the threads that Mystra provides requires a lot of concentration and patience, and most wizards choose to speak aloud the names of different sewing manouvers. This is what people commonly refer to as '"incanting". The names (or incantations) of the different sewing methods sometimes vary from spellcaster to spellcaster, but generally the same names (or incantations) are used by the spellcasting community in general.

The other thing that often confuses the magically uneducated are the eight schools of magic, but these too are very simple to understand when using sewing metaphors. The threads that Mystra provides are not all the same color. The easiest way to think about it is that the Weave is made of eight different colored threads (one for each school) that a wizard carefully chooses when he decides to sew a particular design or shape. He might, for example, choose a red thread to create a fireball or a lightning bolt, or maybe a purple one for a spell to create a false image of a door.

Using the Weave is a lot like sewing, but the sewing techniques are complicated. That's why people often gather in magical academies to learn how to use the threads Mystra provides to create beautiful works of art.