ScrollsOfTamriel
New Member
I've been stuck on this for weeks. Every time I try to write a character who leans into Illusion magic, they either end up spamming invisibility for the entire fic or they become this weird mind-control villain. But there's so much more to Illusion than that - Fury, Frenzy, the fear spells, all the utility stuff - and I feel like nobody writes it.
Has anyone here managed to make Illusion feel like an actual viable school in a fic without it just being "character turns invisible and backstabs people"? I want to write someone who uses it tactically, who understands that making two bandits fight each other is way more interesting than just sneaking past them. But I keep running into the problem that it feels... passive? Like the character isn't really doing anything if they're just casting Mayhem and watching enemies tear each other apart.
Also curious how you handle the lore side of it. The Illusion perks in-game are kind of vague about how the magic actually works - are you messing with people's minds or creating fake sensory input? Does it matter for the writing? I've been reading some of the in-game books about it and they're weirdly philosophical, which is cool but doesn't always help with the practical "how do I make this scene work" stuff.
Has anyone here managed to make Illusion feel like an actual viable school in a fic without it just being "character turns invisible and backstabs people"? I want to write someone who uses it tactically, who understands that making two bandits fight each other is way more interesting than just sneaking past them. But I keep running into the problem that it feels... passive? Like the character isn't really doing anything if they're just casting Mayhem and watching enemies tear each other apart.
Also curious how you handle the lore side of it. The Illusion perks in-game are kind of vague about how the magic actually works - are you messing with people's minds or creating fake sensory input? Does it matter for the writing? I've been reading some of the in-game books about it and they're weirdly philosophical, which is cool but doesn't always help with the practical "how do I make this scene work" stuff.