Among the details I really enjoy writing, when it comes to a character, is their spellcasting style. Ingame, out of character, the spells are relatively flashy, yes, make no mistake, but there's a certain level of capitulation to the limitations of how a game works, vs how RP works. Ingame in skyrim, for example, you might see your character holding a mote of flame, and when you hit the button, you just... fling a firebolt.
From a writing perspective, let's be honest, that can be... kinda boring! I love writing drama, and stuff like this can really build out a character, especially considering there's discussions in-character about spellcasting styles. To wit:
Are you absolutely certain Josajeh interfered with your research?
"I am. Magic is an intensely personal exercise, initiate. No two mages weave their spells in exactly the same way. Like painting or sculpting, each artist has their own distinctive style. Josajeh's style is difficult to miss."
- Loremaster Celarus, A Breach Beyond the Crags
(taken from https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Loremaster_Celarus )
I view a spellcasting style like a classic Mage: The Ascension take on a paradigm - it's an expression of how your character understands the world. A more learned spellcaster will probably use formulae and theorems to create a spell, whilst a reach witch will likely invoke spirits or similar.
When El was being taught spellwork, it started from a beginning perspective of the world as a weave of cloth - both made *of* magicka, and containing magicka. Everything is just a different sort of thread.
So, when she begins to cast, her spellwork manifests as literal threads of magicka she draws between her fingers, and she weaves them almost like a cat's cradle or similar. Complex, more difficult spellwork manifests as increasingly complex weaveworks, until she's ultimately built the spell she's working on. It's extremely heavy, in D&D terms, on somatic components, but very light on verbal cues.
When she's healing, for example, this manifests as golden threads woven between her fingers before being laid across the wounds of whoever she's working on. In effect, she's patching over the weavework of the magicka of someone's body, putting them back together like some sort of a ragdoll.
(That this lets me get away with RP dialogue whilst she's casting, which is useful for healing scenes and the like, certainly doesn't hurt.)
A fireball, though, manifests very differently - threads are woven loosely, ends frayed, as if she's just lashing magicka together in a hurry before flinging it out at someone. The flames are a manifestation of the structure's breakdown on its way to the target.
ICly, someone would be able to tell that this magicka work was hers - it's shockingly structured and orderly like a well-woven piece of cloth would be. It's relatively conservative, too, in terms of magicka usage, not being so much about brute force as a tailored (hah!) solution woven against whatever she's up against. It's a straight-up manifestation of her understanding of the world, put into glowing fingers and descriptive RP posts.
...I may also just enjoy writing details like this.
(Bonus: This is also why her practice is called The Healer's Weave. :D)
