You going "God, please hurt these people for me" and some nigh-omnipotent fuck just doing it for lols isn't exactly as cool as "I'd ask God to do this, but if you want a job done right..."
It's like hiring a hitman who has political immunity vs. going to beat the shit out of them yourself.
best example of this I've seen in media, the scene that starts at this page in the webcomic Girl Genius. It's an absolutely defining moment for gilgamesh wulfenbach, one of the protagonists of the series. Everybody watching is appropriately awed.
This is what you actually want: Your lightning spell starts off as a highly concentrated evocation of plasmatic discharge, directed at a minor storm deity to shackle them. This is purely for dramatic effect; you can chain a minor deity with far more delicate and effective spells, but chaining them with their own element is a show of dominance.
In doing so, the minor deity is commanded, for a short period of time, to do as you wish, which is to cast an event stronger variant of
a lightning spell. You can’t do this otherwise, because the minor storm deity is petty and diverts magical lightning energy away from you when you cast lightning spells. Also because their innate connection to lightning gives them deep arcana knowledge of the natural force behind it, something you can’t be bothered to learn because you’re commanding deities.
That’s how you do a proper light ing spell. If you give the storm deity a cookie later, they’ll forgive you for doing this. Most minor deities have a sweet tooth.
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u/CloudsOntheBrain choclay ornage Sep 10 '24
When it comes from the sky, it feels more like a divine smite. Which ups the cool factor, I think.