Hi,
So I have an idea for a Vulpera “wavecaster” type, with inspiration from the Jinyu waterspeakers.
First of all, can a shaman summon water when there’s none around? Where does it come from?
Secondly, we know mages use ice magic and can summon water elementals, would it be possible for a mage to learn how to heal with water magic?
Per the Thrall-focused novels from the Cata-MoP era, its largely from moisture/water in your surroundings. Although people often go for the “just summon from the Elemental Planes bro” angle, we virtually never see that being the case for mundane shaman calls.
Every time people directly tap into the Elemental Planes, bad things happen. Especially where fire elementals are concerned, as its been reiterated a few times now that they hate mortals.
This is further reinforced in the Darkspear Rebellion arc when Garrosh had the Dark Shaman prematurely corrupt the elements around Durotar and the Barrens to counter normal shaman from calling upon the elements in their surroundings. If it’s as trivial as just tapping into the Elemental Planes, this plan wouldn’t have worked.
But it did.
No. As we see in the Vanilla shaman class quests, it’s not water itself that performs the healing, but the Spirit of Life. We see later in the Thrall-focused novels that shaman heal by calling directly on the Spirit of Life quite frequently (in fact it’s the primary form of healing!) What the Vanilla shaman class quests teach us is that water is naturally rich with life energy, thus making it a necessary function of life.
Water is fuel through which shaman release the life energy, and it’s (usually) a resource that’s readily available. Mages would have to learn to manipulate the spirit of life itself to heal; water by itself doesn’t do much more than get the person wet. Although not an impossible thing (see Tidesages; a mage/shaman hybrid), you wouldn’t be purely a mage at that point anymore.
Arcane flavoured to be cold and frozen.
IIRC this is the same boat as fire mages casting, say, fireball.
Telaryn is free to correct me on this if I’m wrong but fire mages unknowingly enslave a fire spirit in their fireball spells with the arcane (Tides of War touch on this).
So it’s possible Water Elementals mages can summon are the same, unknowingly tapping into those elemental spirits and binding them in physical form with arcane.
Yeppers. When Jaina throws a fireball at Thrall, he hears the spirit of fire screaming out. He tries to plead it to stop and not hurt him, but it couldn’t break free from Jaina’s control. Best thing he could do is limit the damage the fire dealt to him, resulting in burn wounds instead of getting ashed on the spot like the marauders from earlier in the novel.
Which also implies that a sufficiently proficient shaman can convince fire not to harm them!
Later Jaina then rips the spirit of water out of Thrall’s reach, and with only wind at his command at this point, he pulls the air out of her lungs to prevent Jaina from spellcasting. Thus regaining control over the elements back while she’s breathless.
As Medivh explained it way back in 2002 to Khadgar: the idea of mage fire being “arcane manipulated to take on the properties of fire” is one of the few objectively wrong conclusions, despite the fact that the true mechanics are a forever mystery to mages due to their lack of ability to hear the spirit of fire’s voice. Mages do not know this, but their fire is true elemental fire, spirit and everything.
Medivh says that the true answer is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. You cast spell and fire happens. But when pressed by Khadgar he offers two solutions:
In MoP’s green fire questline for Warlocks, we find out that the Black Harvest deviced a technique for stealing the flames of Firelands, which is the canon explanation for most warlock fire spells. That, or Hellfire, which in The Last Guardian is demonstrated by an orc warlock who cuts his hand open and combusts his spilled blood to create a red, demonic flame. Unfortunately(?) he got nuked out of existence by Medivh before he could unleash it, so we don’t know precisely what Hellfire is capable of. But it sounded particularly dangerous.
Bit of a ramble there, but 
magic lore
Thank you!
It makes more sense when you know it’s spirit energy and not water itself 
I did the shaman orderhall resto quest and we learn that Azshara had the scepter to control the water so I assume that was like you meant, a mage have to have something to manipulate the life spirit to be able to use the water for healing?
In Vashj’ir there’s naga who use both ice lance and riptide, and shaman have frost shock so they have “frozen water” abilities as well, so is that the elemental spirit of water and life spirit and not arcane?
There used to be a glyph for ice block - Regenerative Ice - which healed mages in Ice Block, and I believe they have a conduit that does the same thing now.
As is typical for mages, their healing was entirely selfish, but there is some mechanical support for the idea they can heal themselves at least.
Eyup, conduit that’ll heal a BIG % of the mage’s HP when Iceblock is up (Which is pretty much a full heal if you time it right)
Gonna miss that
Thank you, it’s starting to make more sense in my head.
My basic idea is a Vulpera who at some critical point in her youth heard whispers and got helped by I guess some water spirit and after that started to shape some form of reverence and connection to the ocean.
Correct. There’s only elemental water. Mages use arcane magic to enslave them to their will, while shaman call on the elements for their aid with consent.
The naga, with their closeness to the sea, likely learned to manipulate the very spirits as well in conjunction with arcane magic, which is doable. Tidesages blur the line between mage and shaman on the regular.
A very valid origin story! That’s how Nobundo got his start as a shaman too - he heard the call of the water first, because it’s what resonated with him the most.
I can’t help it, but I think this would be very hilarious to see happen in rp.
Mage: Casts fireball at shaman.
Shaman: “Please no hurt.”
Spirit of Fire: 
Mage: Surprise pikachu face
Thanks for the help! 
That’s how I feel every time I use combustion on a shaman and they just press grounding totem. 
I think someone needs to tell Shamans that sometimes a campfire is just a campfire and to stop trying to talk to it.
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