Why are casters shunned?

[Fourshakes]

I'm not up to speed on Elder Scrolls lore, so I'm wondering why the majority of NPC's despise casters. I would love to be clued in.

 

[Quanah]

Because they think magick is for little girls.

 

[Zoridium JackL]

your in skyrim, home of the nords, which means almost everyone (even those not of nordic blood) has been raised in the nordic way, and nords don't usually believe in anything that can't be swung with the power of a thousand ancestors.

 

[Neriad13]

Nords are afraid of magic. They don't understand it. Their culture isn't one that commonly utilizes it. And it's powerful too, in ways that a warrior society cannot equal. So, they fear the thing that baffles them and deride users of it in order to assuage their own fear.

 

[Xiomn]

I guess news of the ;Great Collapse; got around and everyone blamed it on the College of Winterhold and i guess because magic is usually associated with dark arts like necromancy.

 

[Jeff the DragonBorn]

Because science can be proven whereas magic and religion are just speculative

 

[Mikk]

Because science can be proven whereas magic and religion are just speculative

In the world of Tamriel, gods and magic are very real, visual, dangerous entities with active, regular effects on the land and it's people. In a world of dragons and talking lizards, science is irrelevant.

That's why the native people of Skyrim, the barbaric Nords who value strength and honour over intellect, are scared of what they don't understand. Neriad13 said it perfectly.

 

[Mystalvision]

Because science can be proven whereas magic and religion are just speculative

In elder scrolls, magic is a science that professors do experiments and research with. Religion is not speculative either. The shrines give actual buffs, daedra interact with you, and daedra are defeated with the power of divines.

 

[Mystalvision]

Redguards are interesting in that they hate certain schools of magic and like others, as evidenced in Oblivion but I haven't seen a reference to this in Skyrim.

 

[Quanah]

The Dwarves are the scientists, but were exterminated. If they were still alive Skyrim would be a futuristic landscape.

 

[XbSuper]

The Dwarves are the scientists, but were exterminated. If they were still alive Skyrim would be a futuristic landscape.

The dwarves weren't exterminated, they simply disappeared. No one really knows what happened to them.

 

[Su8tle]

Dwarven bird flu I heard.

 

[Necromis]

I think in Skyrim it is because of the Thalmour. No one likes them and their persicutions and they are seen as all being mages of some sort or another. That plus the Nords fear of magic/unknown is why magic is not popular. I would love to see the dwarves come back in VI or a later Elder Scrolls.

 

[Jaeger]

I guess news of the ;Great Collapse; got around and everyone blamed it on the College of Winterhold and i guess because magic is usually associated with dark arts like necromancy.

Or illusion magic that turns shield-brothers against each other (rage), turn a raging nord into a prancing fairy (calm), or make a big hulking nord fear a milk drinker (fear).

 

[theminstrels]

All you really have to do is go to the town of Winterhold and ask them what they think about mages. They will tell you the whole spill.

 

[Magey McFireball]

Casters are shunned because they are not understood. What happens when something is not understood? Underestimation and fear. People underestimate what casters can do because they have the big swords, and mages, wizards, warlocks, witches, etc. are running around in robes reading books. Unfortunately, due to this being a game, they still don't get the picture when you have a giant ice sculpture dent in their head.

Though there is a game in development which is reflective of what I'm talking about and it has amazing AI. A random NPC will attack you, until you pull something bigger, and they realize "Oh sh!t, I'm gonna die" and stop attacking you, put their hands in the air, etc. I wish this was the case instead of:

"you never should have come here"
*fireball*
"is that all you got?"
*fireball*
"I cannot best you!"
*1...2...3...*
"you never should have come here"

*sigh* In a perfect world...