What is opening a channel?

[Alila]

Hi,
Here I am, asking more annoying questions. ;)
Could I know what is happening when you open a channel--hydromancy, cryomancy, or so forth? I've tried to do my homework: channeling is the wilpower component for any kind of magic, but the mancy is...for elemancy maybe it's holding that pattern in your mind's eye? But what is it for sorcery, cryomancy, or thaumaturgy?
More specifically, is there a lore specific reason for the visual effects and why they always seem to be focused around the hands? Even aeromancy has one, even if it's super sneaky stealthy for everyone else!
Oh wait, thaumaturgy seems to be a halo. Oopsies :D
Okay, so for the most part the visual manifestation of an open channel seems to be centered around the hands. Why is that, and why do they happen in the first place?
If the answer is "because it looks pretty" that's an entirely valid reason, but everything on Clok seems to have lore and...
I will be honest--I was considering being selfish and requesting a donator thingy next month and I wanted to make sure the request didn't break any non-obvious lore-ly things. Don't judge me too harshly pleasy :(
Also on my archeological dig there were these old posts about channeling instead making your hands glow with pretty colors. Was this changed for the current messages because they are more in line with what magic should be?
And one last thing--have magical flourishes ever been considered?
Sorry for the all-over-the-place-ness of the post, and thank you for pushing through!
Thank you,
-Alila
;)

[Rannveig]

I am performing sorcery on this thread because I like these questions.

[Rias]

channeling is the wilpower component for any kind of magic, but the mancy is...for elemancy maybe it's holding that pattern in your mind's eye?

Right, at its most basic, elemancy is envisioning a specific glyph (or "pattern") in the mind's eye accurately, and then sort of channeling one's will through that pattern to make the conjuration happen. The second part of that is pretty vague, but that's magic for you. I like to think it also involves some basic knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of the specific glyph/conjuration, and perhaps some kind of additional sort of vague mental proficiency/affinity for channeling that specific thing, so it's more than just "being able to envision a complicated visual pattern really well." It involves some semi-science-y nerd knowledge about that particular element. Hence, we have many Elemancers studying the elements themselves and not solely the practice of conjuring and channeling of them. The better the occult-science-knowledge of an element, the better the elemancer can channel that element.

But what is it for sorcery

It's kind of like establishing a mental communication with the nether itself. There are some theories among sorcerers that it can be advantageous to think of channeling more like communing with the nether rather than just forcibly conjuring the stuff. Like elemancy, it's also advantageous to better understand the capabilities and limitations of the conjuration as well as the properties of the nether itself.

cryomancy?

This one is honestly kind of up in the air. I made fun of how vague elemancy was a lot, but cryomancy was at least as vague lore-wise. They both were essentially Rule of Cooled in (no pun intended) when I first was coming up with the game and didn't have much of the setting's lore figured out yet. Ruminating on it more recently though, I'm leaning toward this when it comes to Rooks: it's kind of like a separate branch of sorcery that's specifically utilizing the heat-diminishing properties of the nether.

thaumaturgy?

This one is another toughie. No one claims to have solid knowledge of how exactly thaumaturgic channeling is accomplished, and individuals who have that "Aha!" moment and become able to channel thaumaturgy always seem to have difficulty putting into words how exactly they do what they do. The general consensus is that thaumaturgy at least benefits from a complicated combination of many things: having a simultaneous sense of self-worth and selflessness, a respect for all life and the world itself and so harboring a reluctance toward violence or destruction, a strong sense of compassion in general (not just toward humans), a willingness to sacrifice, the ability to accept failure while also learning from it, a natural (not grudging) sense of modesty and humility and lack of aggressive ambition or sense of entitlement, a willingness to accept that one may fall short of one's own hopes while also managing to respect oneself for what one is able to accomplish. Focusing on all those things in some way and sincerely feeling them is the catalyst. It might vary from instance to instance based on the situation. In more emergency-like situations it's often more a focus on what the thaumaturge wishes to accomplish as a result of sincerely feeling those things, rather than a meditation on those ideas as concepts in calmer situations. The Templar do a lot more of the former, and Monks the latter, but it's still a mix rather than an exclusive "one or the other" situation.

(Note: Snipped a tangent about player character thaumaturges being more along the lines of "emergency thaumaturgic jump-start grace period" channelers since they didn't go through several dedicated years of disciplined ascetic training to break through with their thaumaturgic connection to the Inner Light - I'll put it in a wiki article instead.)

is there a lore specific reason for the visual effects and why they always seem to be focused around the hands?

The visual effects are simply indications of the beginning of a conjuration of that element/energy/whatever. As far as being focused around the hands, it's just the way it's worked since time immemorial. Many channelers theorize that it's a subconscious result of the tendency for humans to psychologically associate manipulation of something with their hands, but this is just a theory. And while I don't intend to ever have a player character be one of the exceptions, there are historically some tales of people who have managed to alter the origin location of their conjurations. Though thaumaturgy might appear at first to be an exception to the "originate at the hands" thing, as opening a channel causes a halo of light to surround the whole body of the channeler, you'll notice that most of their abilities still originate from the hands - a spear of light bursting from their palm, or gesturing with their hands at a wounded individual to begin a thaumaturgic healing.

there were these old posts about channeling instead making your hands glow with pretty colors. Was this changed for the current messages because they are more in line with what magic should be?

Yes, if I recall correctly the original colors thing was just a lazy way to get some placeholder messaging in, and was also from that time before a lot of the setting's lore had been established very well.

And one last thing--have magical flourishes ever been considered?

That could be pretty cool!

[Sneaky]

With sorcery, it's like establishing a mental connection, this makes me think of the ESP network and how we need the artifact pendants to do so. Is this establishment with the nether a similar ordeal? I know in COGG sorcerers needed foci to channel sorcery, but in CLOK they don't. Is this going to remain the case? If so, could we say the foci being used to channel are the souls of the sorcerers? Hence why sorcerers happen to have their souls tainted frequently.

[Alila]

Fascinating. Thank you so much!