Setting out on the initial design of my Heirs of Argax Fantasy Campaign setting for our home Swords & Wizardry campaign, I knew I wanted a sword & sorcery theme intermixed with an early medieval societal aesthetic. Whilst the "sword" aspect is clear to most, the "sorcery" component seems much less defined in the eyes of readers and gamers (as I found out on a recent question I posed on X). How I approach magic in my setting, in particular in the province of Gertania would be key for my campaigns.
Some of my favorite sources for fantasy magic are the stories by Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, and Steven Erikson. Arcane magic-users are tapping into something far beyond themselves. Nearly nobody seeks these powers for entirely magnanimous reasons. There are certainly no magical colleges or detailed centralized orders in my world, at least not in Gertania. This borderland region is one that draws the loner. The magic-user who wants to draw out the arcane powers far away from prying eyes, or ones who seek lost lore.
There are established, "civilized" magic-users dotted across the various settlements of Gertania. PCs need tutors after all. It's a key aspect of classic D&D that PC magic-users need someone to teach them new spells, on top of them finding spells, and/or contracting out the writing of scrolls. Therefore, I needed to plant some of these individuals in a variety of locales. There are also those who have taken up residence in the wilds and once abandoned keeps. But magic is not ubiquitous. No magic item shops. No magical tavern games. Magic in this world is beyond the ken of 99% of the inhabitants, although they are very well aware of its existence and keep away from it for those reasons.
By the nature of classic D&D, magic-users are fragile and seldom survive long enough to attain true power. Most sane people would never choose this path, thus making old-school Vancian magic a scarce commodity unto itself.
In Vance, and Leiber to a degree, most wizards lean into the forces of chaos, power, and corruption. They tend to be a selfish lot, amassing secret knowledge (oft forbidden). These sorcerers also tend to lose something of their humanity in the process of harnessing arcane spells. Swords & Wizardry does not necessarily cater to this aspect, but it easy to add a non-mechanical roleplaying element to the setting to reflect this process. Simply by making more dangerous and powerful spells harder and more dangerous to attain, you can easily lean into this theme, which I have in the campaign. Non-lethal or non-mind corrupting spells are easier to learn from a tutor, whereas spells that cause physical harm (e.g., magic missile) or warp the mind (e.g., charm person) are rarely (if ever) taught. PCs that wish to attain these spells must seek them out...on adventures...or through research (funded by adventures). There's no way of getting around the dangers of adventuring for the magic-user wishing to attain true arcane mastery and power.
I also imagine the magic in my setting to not just be pseudo-science (as in Vance) or darker rituals (as in Leiber) learned over time, but it must also come from somewhere. Here is where the influence from Steven Erikson comes in and his use of "warrens" in his amazing Malazan series. Arcane magic in my setting is drawn from a place...a dimension...beyond our own. Casters translate this power through their formulas and rituals, but it still has a place where it is born from. This extra dimension is not empty space. It is a place of strange creatures, demons, and possibly worse. They can seep into the material world through rare fissures in reality, but when a magic-user casts certain spells, these being could latch onto the spell being drawn and then materialize somewhere in the world. Spells that risk these extra-dimensional piggy back rides are those that tap right into another dimension. These include such spells as Phantasmal Forces, Dimension Door, any Conjure/Summon spell, etc. Once cast, I make a secret d20 roll. If the roll is equal to or under the spell level, then some randomly determined entity has entered the world...somewhere.
This mechanic is obviously a little arbitrary in the sense of where I would plop the being, but I take my guidance from the campaign and situation...I make a referee's judgement call in the moment. Adding this rule certainly makes magic dangerous and is another reason why so few pursue this path in life.
I hope this short post properly highlights how I handle arcane magic in Heirs of Argax to give it that certain "sword & sorcery" edge.
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