Stop making boring magic cultures

[Danja]

I feel this trend has become dull, and to me it makes world building feel little more than shallow set dressing. I think it would be both more realistic and more interesting to see desert nomads that are masters of ice or water magic, or northern barbarians who survive in the frigid tundra because of their exceprional pyromancy skills.

There are some intriguing story threads here (How would ice dwellers learn pyromancy? Are they introduced to it by an alien civilization?)

 

[corruption]

There's also the other, more "magical" option.
Since they live in the freezing environment, they are better adapted to survive there. They are attuned to the element of ice, it permeates their bodies and bloodlines, letting them survive without reliance on fire and making them better at ice magic, while conversely making them worse at handling heat and using fire magic.

Reading this I immediately thought of Ice Witches from Japanese mythos
If they don't stay in area that are basically freezing, they die from being overheated or even melting.
Some could argue they had become part Ice Elementals instead of Elementalists

I would like to see people have Healing being used as an Intro to corporal Necromancy. Both focus on making the body work and understanding it.
Basically, Necromancers are Healers who just won't stop when a patient dies.

 

[Arkus86]

Necromancers are Healers who just won't stop when a patient dies.

Reminds me of a joke:
"How did you become a pathologist?"
"So I was performing a surgery, and suddenly I noticed I'm doing an autopsy."

That said, I'm pretty sure I have seen the concept of necromancers as healers somewhere... now only if I remembered where...

 

[Zagaroth]

Mixed is always best.

A desert dweller would want sand/earth magic so that they can use the sand all around them, whether to convert into building materials, flatten a line across large dunes to make travel easier, forge into glass weapons (or glass art to sell), etc. Sand is an incredibly useful starting material, magic would make it easier to use.

But they would also want water magic for the simplicity of finding water sources and maintaining their freshness/cleanness. They would probably focus on the most basic and necessary water magic, as using water magic for fighting or such would be wasteful of a precious resource.

Similar logic would apply to other environments.