The ghost Nightmare in Grave Peril didn't steal some of Harry's power, it consumed part of Harry's soul, and with it some of his ability.

 

As Butcher explained once on his forums, magic in Dresdenverse is just like any other skill or any other ability. It's a combination of your inborn talent - meaning how good your genes are for that particular ability - and how much time did you spend on practice.

White Council Wizards are the olympic athletes, Mozarts and Einsteins of magic. They're a combination of great genes for magic with incredible amounts of practice.

So yeah, a "raw magical power" or "brute strength" of magic exists, in the form of genes. Whether that "magical power" is a tangible metaphysical force is hard to say, however what matters is that magic in Dresdenverse is more than just skill.

 

Yeah, like I said, I don't really remember exactly what happened.

 

You're trying to use logic to define magic. What the fuck is wrong with you all?

 

I agree with several of the thoughts Taure points out, but only to an extent. I agree, first of all that it's a curious thing, with a number of facets contributing to it.


Which leads me to agree with the sentiment that it is derived from a great many sources. That we know of, from within the practitioner themselves, their surroundings, emotions, life and death, people, and even celestial events and happenings.


The first point I find myself wanting to point out my disagreement upon is this;

I disagree whole heartedly on this point. While true exhaustion of the body occurs with over-use of magic and can be ignored to perform further acts, I don't think at all this means magic is limitless. Rather the opposite. Also, the first law that he doesn't take into consideration is the Law of Conservation of Energy:

Taure's example is Lara and Dresden in White Night. Lets use that for an example.


From what we can tell, Dresden's own personal supply of magic has be exhausted for the time being, until it has a chance to “recover” or “recharge”, but Dresden creates his shield, anyway. Assuming that I am correct and magic has a finite limit that varies, Dresden has exhausted his supply for the time, and turns to Lara.


Which is again where Taure and I agree. But on different sides of the argument. Dresden neither uses his own, or creates more “magic” or “energy” but rather converts Lara's emotions and transfers them unto himself to perform the feat.


I would be inclined to agree with Taure, where a further example not present in the form of the Beckitts and Victor Sells. Sells converts power form the Beckitts' emotions and uses them to call storms to drawl upon, as well as summon demons and other such uses.

To this part of the argument, I once more agree, which falls under the category of “the practitioner themselves”. Every person in the world has a different personality, and while you may find similar people, they're still different on a whole. A willingness to cause harm to get to their ends may find aggressive magics more their forte, while someone like the Gatekeeper would find it more taxing, but not necessarily more difficult or impossible to use.


We also know that non-practitioners still have an innate talent, in the example of the Alphas. None have shown any potential for learning magic, but they still have some potential to influence change on themselves in the form of shape-shifting. And again, notably different, are the Sidhe.

 

There are two different ways of thinking of magic in most fantasy:

1. A force which is innately mysterious and lacking a single rational explanation, though patterns can often be found. This is like HP magic.

2. Magic as a rational force of nature like any other, consistent and abiding by a set of rules. Dresden magic appears to be this kind, by all indications.

Either one is open to discussion, I think, but number 2 even more so than number one.

@What Vash said: Nothing in there I can disagree with.

 

From what I remember from White Night, Harry had Lara kiss him, which inflamed his sex drive, so Harry experienced need and lust, which he converted to magic to create his shield. I don't think he did any drawing of strength from Lara.

As for the Beckitts, while lust is used to power Victor's spells, I'm concerned about how 'pure' an example this would be. When Victor's wife participated she recounted to Dresden how, for a brief while, she forgot everything except for sex. This doesn't sound like a woman concerned for her kids and her husbands sanity. Sounds more like a little mind mojo to make sure nothing goes wrong with Victor's spell.

 

That came from Small Favor, its the only explanation I remember from the books about how magic did work.

I was sure this thread was closed... Wasn't it?

 

Yeah, something about a Mod not wanting this in his Dresden or something.

 

Yep, good thing Vash straightened that guy's shit out.