i think we might have mentioned this before a few months ago but wouldn’t it be cool if (in the magisterium series) mages suffered various physical/mental effects from over-using magic?? like if, instead of just snapping into a devoured state or feeling exhausted, some other things happened to the magic-user?
a healer (earth magic) might find the tips of their fingers hardening, like compacted soil, if they overdid it. during the war against the enemy of death, because there were so many injuries, did healers often end their shifts with a marked sense of less dexterity in their hands? and if they continued to over-exert themselves, did the problem become permanent? are arthritic mages frequent customers of the newest generation of healers? do they bemoan the burden they pass on, or do they warn others not to over-work themselves as they did?
a prophetic mage (fire magic) could struggle with seeing entirely. smoke might cloud their vision after a session of prophesising, prevent them from spotting certain details before them, or even great sights in the distance. it would narrow their world down to themselves and the visions. but only in the short run. until someone subjected themselves to repeated sessions, perhaps in an attempt to figure out the mage community’s future during the war with the enemy? and so, in call’s time there might be middle-aged, or old, folk suffering from cataracts and other serious sight problems. spending a lifetime looking for something beyond what your eyes normally allowed you to see surely can’t end well.
a makar pushing their limits might find their veins darkening, or frankly even growing more visible to begin with. they might, if they continue, watch as their fingernails blacken, become like fragile charcoal, and their heads throb with the drone of possibility calling to them from another world: the void. like a siren, did it call to constantine, and all the other makars before and after him, and indulge them all in their desire to do more, to create more? and so, although the other elements have their physical warnings signs, same as chaos, they might not have that little, needling voice that convinces you to pay not heed to caution. perhaps that, and not merely the near-unrivalled power accorded to them by having access to chaos, is part of the reason why so many makars seem to have gone slightly crazy with void-power.
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