Hysh and its relation to stone

[Lord-Caerolion]

One thing that's been bugging me about the Storm of Magic spells is the spell "Assault of Stone". I just don't see how Hysh fits in with "create a mountain under someone". Hysh is supposed to be about wisdom, philosophy and truth, not 'progress', which is the vague excuse listed in the book. I know it's based on a much older spell of the same name from the Lore of Light, but surely something representing progress would come under the Lore of Metal, what with it being the representation of inventiveness, science and more concrete knowledge?

So, can anyone properly explain it for me? How does the spell fit into Hysh?

[Scalebug]

It has been like that since the colours of magic were introduced (IIRC during the last days of 3rd edition, leading up to 4th ed, as a preview of the upcoming changes to the game), around 20 years now...

The "wavelength" of magic that is Light Magic is the thinnest and hardest to grasp, leading to the wizards as you say being into wisdom and philosophy, as they can't do very bombastic stuff with their magic anyway...

...but it is also the case that the Light energy slowly builds up in the bedrock over time, and because of this a wizard good at his craft can occasionally cause earthquakes and stuff.

[Archmagus]

The poster above explains it very well. Back in the old days, the more powerful Light magic spells were earth-based as Hysh energy gradually permeates and stores within the ground. I believe the most powerful Light spell used to be "The Dwellers Below", creating a huge crack in the earth that released nasty subterranean gremlins upon the enemy, before it became a Life magic spell. This was before each lore became more clearly defined in its attributes - back then, Grey wizards controlled the weather and Amethyst wizards communicated telepathically.

Magic used to be ridiculously overpowered back in 3rd/4th ed. so it's a nice touch for GW to make references to it for the big spells in Storm of Magic.

[Sheena Easton]

I remember when Assault Of Stone was a Power 2 High Magic spell... fun times...

Stone Trolls magic resistance was said to be from eating rocks and absorbing the Light magic from them.

[unwanted]

There's also the fact that the Skavens' part in setting off the Time of Woe on the dwarfs was a magical machine built deep under Skavenblight, which was supposed to pick up the threads of Light magic coursing through the earth, and use it to open up vast caverns and tunnels. This predates the Lizardmen-books' assertion that it was the slaan who caused the eruptions and earthquakes, but a generally reasonable explanation is that the Skaven machine tapped into the Slaans' spell, causing it to go haywire and wrecking more than intended...