The term «sorcerer» and «sorcery» is used consequently in MYFAROG, when talking about what many would instead refer to as «magician» or «wizard» and «magic». Sorcery as a term originally means “lot”, “fate” or “oracular response”, from the proto-Indo European root *ser-, but is today most often understood as simply the art of casting spells or to exercise supernatural powers through the aid of spirits. Sorcery can be benevolent or malevolent but it is inherently neither “good” nor “evil”, like nature is neither “good” nor “evil”.
Sorcery in MYFAROG is a very “fairy tale” like thing, and it is heavily based on European customs and traditions, but although it has a special European feel to it, it is still not very different from the sorcery of other fantasy games. So again I don’t try to re-invent the wheel.
Sorcery in MYFAROG is real, powerful and very much a factor in society. The world is actually still on a technologically rather primitive level (at least from our modern point of view) because of sorcery! Why would you e. g. need planes when you can ride through their air on your sorcerer’s staff, or summon a giant bird to carry you wherever you want to go, or make a hamr («shape») of a flying creature and fly yourself? Why would you need fast land transportation when you can cast a «Seven-Miles-Boots» spell on your boots and run like the wind? If you have sorcery you really don’t need technology…
There are no «Spell Points», «Mana», «Powerpoints» or anything of that sort in MYFAROG. Instead the sorcerer simply grows tired from casting spell – meaning he will spend the same SP (Stamina Points) he would have spent if he performed some other physically exhausting activity (like fighting with a sword). To regain them he needs to rest. As simple as that. His Willpower determines for how long he can continue to cast spells (or perform other physically exhausting activities) when he grows tired (and he grows tired sooner or later, based on his Constitution) before potentially even passing out from exhaustion.
The sorcerer can learn spells rather freely, but he can only ever learn and remember a certain number of spells (based on his Intelligence). He improves his spell proficiency just like he does with his skills, and in relation to each and every spell. Fumbling when casting spells can lead to interesting results, and he can achieve not only a success or a failure when he casts a spell, but also a critical success or a critical failure. Casting a spell on another sorcerer is often a very risky business indeed, and especially so if he knows the spell you are casting on him (it can even backfire!).
A character can – when he after some time manages to gain the role of sorcerer – chose a speciality, meaning he will be better at some things at the expense of other things, or he can chose not to have a speciality.
A sorcerer can only cast spells using his sorcerer’s staff, and if you manage to catch a sorcerer all you need to make him forget all his spells is to cut his hair, beard and nails. If you do he will need some time to “re-remember” them.
Sorcery is not realistic, from our point of view, but I have tried to make sorcery realistic from the Þulêan point of view. If sorcery is real in Þulê, then sorcery is indeed realistic… in Þulê. So basically I have instead simply tried to make it believable, and to make it resonate with what we know from our European fairy tales, myths and traditional legends.