How does a mage discover his abilities in TES?

[dzio]

Guys, these are farmers. Ordinary, simple people. In the real world, even in the most dangerous parts of the world and most dangerous periods of history, vast majority of regular people wouldn't know the first thing about sword fighting. You don't think about Tamriel realistically, you're looking at it through the eyes of your characters and imagine that every NPC you meet has the same kind of skills. They don't. They could talk your ear off about brewing ales or mending pots, but if you gave them a magic sword, they'd probably stab themselves in the foot.

I've always imagined that what we see in TES games is the vastly simplified version of the actual land. Otherwise none of it makes any sense, since there would be what? thousand people in the entire province? One clothes shop? A dozen taverns? Ten times more bandits than farmers? So the "real" Skyrim would have to be much, much larger, and it stands to reason it wouldn't be packed with dangerous and exciting locations, perfect for adventuring. The "game" Skyrim is a place where no sane person would try to settle and no settlement could function for more than a year or two, because they'd be so busy chasing skeevers, spiders and vampires that no one would have time for milking cows.

[DikaSmausha]

You are probably right, they always use 16x16 mile square for their provinces, which are way bigger than that.

[GoatLiver]

I think about it more in line with the older games where you actually needed a certain skill level in that magic school to even be able to attempt to cast the spell, rather than the half mana perks in Skyrim. Also Skyrim is pretty generous in terms of magicka and spell casting, in the older games that had attributes races like Nords, Orcs and Redguards would start with considerably less mana. Even in Skyrim the Dovahkinn starts with 100 in all three stats, the other NPCs have base stats of 50 so they already have way less.

[rpbraley868]

If you wanted to look at it from a more realistic point of view, i think magic casting would be based more on a persons individual knowledge on different things, and perhaps their knowledge of magic itself (similar to the Eragon books where a persons knowledge of the Ancient language would allow the same words/spell to take on different forms). While i think everyone would be capable of magic, not everyone has the mental capacity to achieve casting it. A doctor/healer might find they would be more adept at casting healing spells, because of their knowledge of the workings of the body, but wouldnt have any idea where to start for creating something as simple as a magical flame.

[Dark Spark]

The way I would see a mage find him/herself is during their childhood. Everyone in such a time babbles on to the world in general. Everyone dreams, everyone imagines things in such days.

For most, all that fades to memory as logic and practicality take precedent in the running of one's life.

But for the prospective mages, the dreams never fade. Your imagined friends linger just out of view when your turn back to look at whatever may have been following you. Sometimes, the world talks back.

[Raynil dralas]

Magic in TES seems to be a manipulation of natural forces present on Nirn and it can be done by anybody (even some lesser creatures are able to cast spells) Obviously some people and races are more naturally inclined to magicka than others and it would appear to take a degree of learning to cast things. The mages guild was set up to help even the common person to learn magicka so its implied that its possible for anyone to achieve it with practice.

[Pilaf The Defiler]

Galerion was sent in for magical training just because he was exceptionally bright, not necessarily because he cast a spell. Perhaps children with above average intellect are screened at an early age for consideration.