All-out Thaumaturgical War

[Non Aligned States]

There were a number of others, including creation, transmorgification, and calling down the lightning.

Fair point. I had forgotten about that. Though they still haven't got any contingency, trap type magics insofar as I know.

Belgarion's never going to be the same if he reads some explosive runes neh?

Mainly through, they actually USED magic as opposed to not using it.

A lot of the contenders here do use magic. Some of them on a day to day basis.

Not to mention that Belgarion has access to a rock that can split the world in two.

Meh. Rand's got a statuette that let's him crack it like an egg.

[NERVUN]

Fair point. I had forgotten about that. Though they still haven't got any contingency, trap type magics insofar as I know.

There were a few "spelled" items so to speak, but the point was that the original caster had to still be alive for them to operate.

Belgarion's never going to be the same if he reads some explosive runes neh?

If he CAN read them. ;-)

A lot of the contenders here do use magic. Some of them on a day to day basis.

The thing is, a lot of the ones on the list are said to be powerful, but never really use magic to show it. That said, the magic system used in the Eddings universe, the Will and the Word, is limited not by how many spells you can cast in a day, but by the imagination of the caster only (And not being able to uncreate things).

Meh. Rand's got a statuette that let's him crack it like an egg.

Eh, given that it was suggested that Belgarion could literally write his name out in the stars with the Orb of Aldur if he really wanted to...

[Non Aligned States]

There were a few "spelled" items so to speak, but the point was that the original caster had to still be alive for them to operate.

I can't remember. Can you list any such items?

If he CAN read them. ;-)

I'm fairly certain he isn't illiterate, and it'd be a considerate mage who puts them in a language his intended target can read.

The thing is, a lot of the ones on the list are said to be powerful, but never really use magic to show it.

Well, I know Rand used a lot of flashy magics, fighting and otherwise. Lightning storms, melting hills, orbital strikes, portalling armies. And animating a silver statuette and then melting it down to create a silver cloth out of the streams is fairly impressive for a day to day sorta thing.

Gandalf was rather unimpressive most of the times.

Elminster on the other hand, not only had impressive magic, he made it look easy. And he was really nonchalant about it. Thayan battle mage out to blow your head to bits at the window? A waggle of the fingers while he sips the afternoon tea, and the only complainer would be his scribe over his flower bed occupied by toasted Thayan battle mage.

That said, the magic system used in the Eddings universe, the Will and the Word, is limited not by how many spells you can cast in a day, but by the imagination of the caster only (And not being able to uncreate things).

Wheel of Time has an edge here. Balefire erases objects from existence prior to their point of destruction, and no living object can survive it.

Eh, given that it was suggested that Belgarion could literally write his name out in the stars with the Orb of Aldur if he really wanted to...

Pish posh. Moving a few stars isn't very much.

[SD_Film Artists]

Granny Weatherwax all the way! Gandalf is just a conjurer of cheap tricks, only weilding a glorified torch/flashlight and stopping people from passing. Having done work experience with a lighting technician in Waiting for Godot, I also noticed that we still relied on electricity instead of his lighting-magic; thus bringing me to suspect that his magic powers are fake.

[South Lorenya]

Keep in mind that Belgarion slew a DEITY. Are you really suggesting that everyone on the list can match or exceed that?

[Cameroi]

probably none of those. maybe that guy in the dragon and the george by gordy dickenson, i forget his name. gandelf's got a pretty good edge of those i'm familiar with. i'm sure there are others i'd be able to name if i were more into fantasy then the kind of science fiction that interests me.

i'm not familiar with the harry potter setting at all. just something i haven't yet gotten around to. as for amber, i like the pattern and the shadows and even the logos and the trumps, but personas i can't think of any i really relate to all that much. lewis seems too much immersed in a perspective i have a hard time relating to.

well coyote, in spite of himself, he'd get his fur singed in some ridiculous way, but he'd still be the ultimate survivor. i think he'd even out do loki, kali, and the monkey king.

[Non Aligned States]

Keep in mind that Belgarion slew a DEITY. Are you really suggesting that everyone on the list can match or exceed that?

He stabbed said Deity with a sword with a universe creating entity (that incidentally also created said Deity) stone embedded in it. That's hardly very impressive.

[Non Aligned States]

well coyote, in spite of himself, he'd get his fur singed in some ridiculous way, but he'd still be the ultimate survivor. i think he'd even out do loki, kali, and the monkey king.

I think the translation was monkey god. His was a more physical sort of magic, but you certainly can't deny that he was one heck of a nigh unstoppable ruckus raiser in the Celestial pantheon.

[Cameroi]

well coyote, in spite of himself, he'd get his fur singed in some ridiculous way, but he'd still be the ultimate survivor. i think he'd even out do loki, kali, and the monkey king.

I think the translation was monkey god. His was a more physical sort of magic, but you certainly can't deny that he was one heck of a nigh unstoppable ruckus raiser in the Celestial pantheon.

sure enough. god or king, monkeys pretty cool. him and old coyote both. both bein kind of more then half way gods themselves.

[NERVUN]

I can't remember. Can you list any such items?

Off the top of my head? (Noting that it's been a while since I last read the books given they are all at home) The Mrin Codex had that unreadable spot due to the Will and the Word. Belgarion's lances in Guardians of the West and the Seeress of Kell were enchanted to not break (And while Garion was holding HIS, Zakath's was also set up to be unbreakable). And IIRC, there are various instances of Belgarath getting various items to do things by will alone in Belgarath the Sorcerer.

Wheel of Time has an edge here. Balefire erases objects from existence prior to their point of destruction, and no living object can survive it.

It's a nice idea, but really now, given that Belgarath can make you go boom by just THINKING it... Do you really need to be removed from reality?

Pish posh. Moving a few stars isn't very much.

Yeah, but can someone else match it?

He stabbed said Deity with a sword with a universe creating entity (that incidentally also created said Deity) stone embedded in it. That's hardly very impressive.

Er, point of order here, the Orb was half of the stone that was at the center of all creation, it didn't create the Universe, UL did that.

[Non Aligned States]

Off the top of my head? (Noting that it's been a while since I last read the books given they are all at home) The Mrin Codex had that unreadable spot due to the Will and the Word. Belgarion's lances in Guardians of the West and the Seeress of Kell were enchanted to not break (And while Garion was holding HIS, Zakath's was also set up to be unbreakable). And IIRC, there are various instances of Belgarath getting various items to do things by will alone in Belgarath the Sorcerer.

The closest any of the above come to as a contingency/trap type magic would be the Mrin Codex. The lances don't count because they're technically not augmented, just sheathed in a kinetic barrier that Belgarion was maintaining.

It's a nice idea, but really now, given that Belgarath can make you go boom by just THINKING it... Do you really need to be removed from reality?

If you mean exploding people with thought, meh, WoT has that too. The Seanchean and Ashaman use that as their standard attack.

Yeah, but can someone else match it?

Who knows? None of the other candidates have had a big enough ego to want to do that, so it never came up.

Er, point of order here, the Orb was half of the stone that was at the center of all creation, it didn't create the Universe, UL did that.

Ah, so I got it wrong.

Either case, it's still unimpressive. The Orb did the heavy work, Belgarion was just there to get it from scabbard to chest.

[Greed and Death]

i thought blood magic was tied to vampires.

[New Illeria]

Since he got no votes sofar, and a valid point was made, I have removed Ged and replaced him by Albus Dumbledore.

People can change their vote if they want

Wait, you replaced Ged with Albus? Swapped out a guy who can go all the way through death and come out the other side with a two-bit hack who can do a few fancy effects?

Ged forever, my dear sirs. (If nothing else, I recall he learns the Word of Unmaking at some point, so even if he goes down, everything else will go with him)

you know dumbledore wields the elder wand a.k.a the death stick, the wand of destiny etc. which makes his atacks way more powerful?

[Intestinal fluids]

Its interesting that Gandolf is doing so well in the poll. He does virtually no magic in the entire trilogy. He does minor stuff like making himself look taller when he was mad, he talked to a moth, called a horse, made some light and broke some rocks under a Balrog and gets his ass kicked by Sauramon., thats pretty much it.

Rand Al Thor in comparison killed thousands with his magic.

[Mirkana]

GIMME AN X!
GIMME A Y!
GIMME A K!
GIMME AN O!
GIMME AN N!

XYKON!

Of course, this is all until Willow Rosenberg shows up. She may not be the wisest, but she's packing so much raw power it isn't funny. Are any of the other combatants capable of DESTROYING THE WORLD?

[Deus Malum]

Since we have numerous "battle of the sci fi series" topics, it is about time we also had one for that other genre: fantasy

10 powerful mages will confront eachother in a massive showdown of ULTIMATE ARCANE POWER.
Ahem.
So who do YOU think will outmagic the others ? Feel free to back up your claim with something called "reasoning". Or fireball.

I'm torn between Raistlin and Weatherwax.

*sigh* *flips coin*

[Khithali]

Only ones I know are Gandalf, Rand, White Witch, Dumbledore and Granny Weatherwax.

Gandalf does so little for a demi-god that it's actually funny. Unless he's hiding is power, which I seriously doubt, then he is weak as anything.

Rand is really powerful, as practically everyone has said, but he's got several disadvantages. WARNING SPOILER ALERT He's got a deadly wound in his side that cannot be healed that breaks open every time he exerts imself. He's lost his sword hand. He suffered unspecified injury to his eyes, but it seems to indicate that his vision is now all fuzzy. He's got a madman in his head that fights him for control of the source (magic). Oh, and he's got a link with Ishamael (big bad's 2nd in command) that means that everytime either of them channel (do magic) they go all woozy and possibly faint. So yes, he was baddass until Robert Jordan went all sadistic on him.

White Witch can pretty much only turn people to stone. Anything else requires a bunch of preperation and tends to backfire. And her wand got destroyed by Edmure. So, na...

Dumbledore.... Malfoy. That's all that needs saying.

Granny Weatherwax is just pure badass. I don't want to spoiler anything but she is just one long series of awesome moments and quotes. So yes, her.

[Megaloria]

Granny will just LOOK at them disapprovingly, and they will all suddenly feel compelled to apologise and go home.

Somewhere miles away, Rincewind will fall down a hole or something.

[Cameroi]

Are any of the other combatants capable of DESTROYING THE WORLD?

forrest gump is capable of "destroying 'the' world". unintentionally of course.
totally beside the point of being capable of tryumphing over each other.
which i think was sort of more the question.

yes the whole point of gandelf was the practical reality of not flashing more then a fraction of what you can do. a policy i've always considered sound in my own somewhat more humble and mundane sort of life.

[JuNii]

Assuming he gets serious about it, Belgarath, or Belgarion if he has his sword handy.

Nah, they seemed to be limited to line of sight attacks, though they can trace an attack back from beyond the horizon, but that's about it. They also lacked any kind of fast movement capability, though there was that one off teleport Belgarion did. Come to think of it, their capabilities were pretty lacking in sophistication too. Aside from shapechanging, they seemed to use pyrokinesis, telekinesis, illusions and hmm... that's it I think.

No ability to lay traps either from what I've seen, or contingency magic.

There were a number of others, including creation, transmorgification, and calling down the lightning. Mainly through, they actually USED magic as opposed to not using it.

Not to mention that Belgarion has access to a rock that can split the world in two.

other things that they've done. transmorgrification of others, summoned Demons and controlled them, access to divine magic (Polgara has affected muscle control in others the prophet of min's neice's eyes for example, summoning Aldur, summoning her mother, etc...) Teleportation of self and others, weather control, dispelling other's 'spells' and affecting their phsysical qualities (removal of shadows for example) speaking with animals, Telepathy, mass sheilding from scrying, etc...

and don't forget those attacks that they 'rebuffed'.

[JuNii]

The closest any of the above come to as a contingency/trap type magic would be the Mrin Codex. The lances don't count because they're technically not augmented, just sheathed in a kinetic barrier that Belgarion was maintaining.

you also had the kidnappers enchanged to have their minds broken should they get close to realizing the truth, several 'traps' zandramas laid down that Poledra lead the group around, and the curse around Kell and Turin reef.

Ah, so I got it wrong.

Either case, it's still unimpressive. The Orb did the heavy work, Belgarion was just there to get it from scabbard to chest.

actually, all the sword did in that fight was keep the sword light. but the Orb did heal a dead body.

[The Romulan Republic]

Only ones I know are Gandalf, Rand, White Witch, Dumbledore and Granny Weatherwax.

Gandalf does so little for a demi-god that it's actually funny. Unless he's hiding is power, which I seriously doubt, then he is weak as anything.

As I recall, he pretty much is hiding his power a lot of the time. Aragorn says as much to the hobbits in The Fellowship of the Ring. As best I can recall, one of the requirements the wizards had to abide by when facing Sauron was that they could not directly oppose him with force or somesuch.

Probably the only time we see him go anywhere near all-out is against the Balrog, though most of that fight occurs after he falls from the bridge and is only vaguely described by Gandalf later. However, he survived the fall, into a freezing lake, and then a running battle for days back to the top of the mountain. The conclusion of the battle was suggested to have resembled a thunderstorm from a distance.

Also, in the book he fights the Nazgul on Weathertop (yes, all nine). The hobbits and Aragorn are a couple day's walk away or so, and they can see lights on the hilltop at night even from that distance. When they arrive later, the whole area is burnt. Gandalf incidentally retreated, drawing off some of the Ringwraiths, which was why their were only five there when Aragorn and the hobbits were attacked.

Note that both these battles occurred in his supposedly weaker "grey" form.

Rand is really powerful, as practically everyone has said, but he's got several disadvantages. WARNING SPOILER ALERT He's got a deadly wound in his side that cannot be healed that breaks open every time he exerts imself. He's lost his sword hand. He suffered unspecified injury to his eyes, but it seems to indicate that his vision is now all fuzzy. He's got a madman in his head that fights him for control of the source (magic). Oh, and he's got a link with Ishamael (big bad's 2nd in command) that means that everytime either of them channel (do magic) they go all woozy and possibly faint. So yes, he was baddass until Robert Jordan went all sadistic on him.

Hmm, I hadn't reached the end of the series yet, so I didn't know about the fainting thing. I did know about the nutjob in his mind, the wound, and the loss of a hand, but none of those things will stop him leveling a city.

White Witch can pretty much only turn people to stone. Anything else requires a bunch of preperation and tends to backfire. And her wand got destroyed by Edmure. So, na...

Well, she did commit genocide with a word once. But that was in her own world. She seems to have suffered a power downgrade when she entered Narnia, though I can't recall weather that's actually canon or not.

Dumbledore.... Malfoy. That's all that needs saying.

Let's be fair to the old man here. Malfoy caught him when he was sick, weak, and distracted. Under any normal circumstances, Dumbledor would have kicked Malfoy's ass. If you walked up to a crippled Karate master on his death bed and knocked him out, would that make you a greater martial artist?

Anyway, the above means nothing unless you demonstrate that Malfoy was an exceptionally weak wizard. Yeah, he's sixteen, but he's also

a Death Eater by this point, or at least working for Voldemort.

[The Alma Mater]

Since he got no votes sofar, and a valid point was made, I have removed Ged and replaced him by Albus Dumbledore.

People can change their vote if they want

Wait, you replaced Ged with Albus? Swapped out a guy who can go all the way through death and come out the other side with a two-bit hack who can do a few fancy effects?

Ged forever, my dear sirs. (If nothing else, I recall he learns the Word of Unmaking at some point, so even if he goes down, everything else will go with him)

Then I will ask your permission before I replace the impopular Milamber by none other than Merlin from the Arthurian legends. Living backwards through time - which is an intruiging problem for balefire

BTW - Rand seems to be enormously popular, yet has only 1 vote. Intruiging

[The Romulan Republic]

Possibly because Rand is more or less mortal, while a number of his opponents are not? Hence, perhaps people feel that he is the most powerful in terms of destructive capability, but that the others will keep coming back until they get him eventually?

[JuNii]

Anyway, the above means nothing unless you demonstrate that Malfoy was an exceptionally weak wizard. Yeah, he's sixteen, but he's also

a Death Eater by this point, or at least working for Voldemort.

to be fair, so was Crabbe and Goyle.

and Malfoy was made a Death Eater so that Voldemort could use Draco to punish Lucius for his many failures.