Magic Circles; Goetia Grimoire Key of Solomon Pentacle

I can see SOTA's lore being directly inspired by the late middle ages in many ways but one sticks out to me, the medieval style magic circles. SOTA's magic circles are clearly not the generic pentagram modern pop culture has focused on, their design is clearly inspired by the 15th century grimoire known as 'The Key of Solomon'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_of_Solomon

A key feature of The Key of Solomon is a magic circle called 'The Great Pentacle'.

The grimoire claims to date back to the ancient times of King Solomon but there's no evidence to support this. It surfaced in the late middle ages, 14th or 15th century and was likely a medieval hoax. Hoax or not it was used and believed by the sorcerers of the late middle ages and this practice was popular enough to spawn similar grimoires that were used throughout the renaissance.



Look a little familiar? SOTA isn't the only game that is inspired by The Key of Solomon's 'Great Pentacle' many wizard themed games have used similarly styled circles including the popular children's MMO Wizard101.



I think the magic sigils and circles in Shroud of the Avatar are cool, I like them and the fact that they are even remotely similar to purported magic circles from spell books used in the late medieval times and the renaissance makes them more interesting to me.

I don't believe magic books are actually magic but to this day there are some that believe and practice with them. You can see some of these rituals on youtube, with no evidence of them working of course but from an objective perspective it's the type of thing that's interesting to learn about but probably not fun to practice. It's like studying the history of pirates, I'm a fan of the history of Blackbeard but I wouldn't want to become a pirate in real life, the same goes with wizardry.

Magic in video-games is totally harmless and I look forward to the magic system and spells in SOTA. I do prefer playing a mage in RPGs and will likely max my avatar's skills with as many useful magic skills as possible.

 

And the summoning circle in Ultima 8:

 

The UVIII circle is a simple pentagram, the one on the box cover, the most common of magic circles. The magician's goetia circles are complex in comparison, sacred words all around, with a sacred geometric symbol within, usually involving a triangle with a circle within. The magic of the medieval ages and the renaissance was very real to the people of the time, it was apparently popular but it's use surely was dangerous for the practitioners who performed these rites in underground hidden areas away from the eyes of the monarchies who would put to death those found guilty of such crimes of sorcery. The magic books or grimoires of the time would have been difficult to get your hands on as a normal citizen. The underground orders were very real and thanks to the age of information we can now freely see what all the secrecy was all about.

 

Fire, air, earth, water