The Sword And The Sorcery

Why you might need both

I once read someone grumbling about why on earth would you have swordsmen in a world where you had sorcery.

It struck me as ironic that he had a military background, because I was able to immediately offer the reason: for the same reason that modern military uses both nuclear submarines and rifles, namely, that they had different uses. All that takes is some art in world-building. (Granting, of course, that magic works like technology.¹ Also that the instruction to use sorcery is not so intensive as to price it out of market.)

It's a point that can stand some explication, and so I will explicate here, and specifically for the context of war.

The armed forces here will have both swordsmen and sorceresses. Not because the world-building in the setting I discuss requires that the women sling the spells, but because it means the pronouns will prevent confusion.

But what could this sorceress do, while still leaving room for swordsmen to do things? (Or these sorceresses; it's possible every one I mention below is a separate woman. Or several women working in concert.)

Even in time of peace, she can enchant weapons.² Presuming such enchantments can be worked with some degree of permanency, as otherwise it would have to be cast closer to the battlefield, if not actually on it. Though, I suppose, some peace-time temporary enchanting would be needed to train each swordsman in wielding enchanted weapons.

Perhaps she could enchant food to preserve it, and keep it in storage. Which may be needed, depending on what else she does. (More on that later!)

Other useful magic might be prepped, as well, whether as potions and other consumables, or more permanent objects. Anything that can do what is listed below, perhaps. (Which ones have mighty world-building implications is something to contemplate.)

Once the war is on, she could do intelligence. (And need protection by swordsmen, every step of the way. All of these support roles require it.) Historically this is a major need even with modern technology, and without it, she has many ways to be useful. Lug along a crystal ball, prepped before the war. Conjure a pool into a magic mirror. Gossip with the sparrows and possibly even send them flying over the enemy camp. Find out which roads lead where and which are too muddy to use.

Then, perhaps, she can make the road less muddy. Or even conjure a road up, a highway through the hills. And a fortification at the end, giving your swordsman more time to rest after the march.

Notice that if these constructions are permanent, the sorcery will have enormous effects on the construction industry in your world. And that will have ripple effects. You may want to make them temporary just to avoid that. If it's not for a night or two -- the sorceress conjures up a wall to protect the army, perhaps keeps on conjuring it, and all the swordsmen turn mason, building up a mundane but permanent fortress inside it, and she can finally give it up.

Then, you may want her to move your troops by flying carpet or magical gate or the like. Besides the peaceful use of such magic, you should also notice that the really important thing there is moving not the troops, but their provisions. For millennia, kings and emperors marched their troops, but in all that time, food was a crucial problem, because unless you could get it by water, everything that carried food also ate food. Thus, your supply had to be local.

Therefore, your sorceress is a real game-changer when it comes to provisions.

If she can conjure food out of thin air, she will change warfare more than any actual invention has in all of history. (Also the peacetime effects are staggering. Consider this one carefully, for difficulty and cost and then for ripple effects, before you use it.)

If she can conjure food from the warehouses where she stored and preserved it in peacetime -- remember that? -- she will have limits that will still change warfare more than any actual invention.

If she has to go to the warehouse and pack all that food in magical container that must be carried with them, she will still be as impressive as trains or trucks.

She can also replace radios.

One thing that could, in theory, alleviate the food problem is sending different forces by different routes, but that introduces powerful coordination issues. Good enough scouting may let your forces be defeated in parts.

But sending messages as quickly as radios would make a major difference in this. Not enough to entirely prevent defeat in parts, but enough to prevent it in many cases. It also allows them to coordinate arriving in locations.

Even if her message are slower than radios, as fast as a bird can fly, perhaps. (This, particularly combined with intelligence magic, would have enormous effects, especially if long range. Particularly in centralizing power, because now the king can reach his outermost provinces with the same speed as his own region.)

She can also use that message ability in battle. True, the heat of combat means it's difficult, the commander can't receive a complex message while he's fighting for his life, but historically, messages in battle have necessarily had to been as simple as a pre-arranged waving of a banner, or at most a bugler. She can do more than that.

(And she needs a guard of swordsmen all the more in the heat of battle.)

More actively, if she could do fortifications, perhaps she could muddy up the field where the enemy stands. Or raise walls to channel his attack.

Then there comes the sorcery that throws around fire balls. This still does not make the swordsmen useless. The spells could be the magical equivalent of archery: dangerous, lethal at a distance, crucial only in some battles and even then needing support. The swordsmen still have to take the fort, though the sorceresses can pick off the men on the ramparts.

This level of damage can ramp up into solidly artillery range without changing the factors much. Also, both the archers-level and the artillery-level need swordsmen to prevent their being taken down by charges from other swordsmen.

Then there are the flatten-the-army spells. Those can easily require the swordsmen because it takes time and effort to cast the spell, and being spitted by a sword one second before the end puts it all to waste. This has the added bonus in limiting the world-building effects, so that not any old malcontent can blast whatever he wants to smithereens.

Then, the very power of the spells may limit their usefulness. The sorceress who can turn an army into ashes can also turn the city into a smoldering heap, but to preserve the city in some degree of intact utility, with some survivors, the swordsmen must fight building to building, possibly with the sorceress putting out the fires, not lighting them.

Perhaps there are some spells so powerfully destructive that the use will be universally condemned unless the sorceress can produce witnesses that, say, the valley was ruled over by a venefica whose poisons were so pervasive that the blasted wasteland is better, because while uninhabitable, it won't seep poison.

Or else, during the fray, she stays behind the lines and heals the injured. Very useful skill. Still requires body-guards, especially if she can heal the injured quickly enough to get them back into the fight. (If you actually want sorceresses, perhaps the healing magic doesn't work for people who inflict wounds. Specialization is therefore needed.)

Finally -- go, look over the entire list again.

Then, remember that your enemy can do them all, too. Your sorceresses may be completely bent on protecting you from all of above.

Including the food and the healing. If your enemy carries his food with him, it may be easier for the peasants along the way, but it is easier for him to conquer.

And healing -- if a sorceress can keep healing ten swordsmen, they may be able to conquer an army of thousands. She, and not they, is the real danger. Such is war.

And if you want to see what such thoughts can lead to in fiction, I offer

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Smashwords, and many other fine venues.

1. See

2. If feasible. See