Thanks DarthDadaD20!
BlueByLiquid - I appreciate what you are saying sir. Here is our "official" story explanation as to what happens during summoning, in case you are curious:
When a creature is summoned in Mage Wars it is a magical construct copy of a real creature. It is a magical myrmidon, a basic copy of the species being emulated.
It is a real creature in every sense. For example, when you summon a Timber Wolf, your Mage is creating a copy or clone of a real Timber Wolf. It is alive, it is every bit as powerful and vulnerable as a real wolf, and it behaves and acts like a real wolf. Its mind is adjusted to obey the commands of whomever summons it.
The creature is not “picked out of the nearby wilderness”. It is magically created. It has a temporary existence, and will dissipate back into magical energy shortly after an arena battle. If it dies during combat, its corpse will remain for awhile before dissipating later. Necromancers can make use of these clone corpses during the course of a battle.
Each Mage may summon the same creature with slightly different variations. My Timber Wolf clones will each look a little different from each other, and will look a little different from yours. The basic species is being replicated, but not in the same exact detail.
A Mage can easily learn creature spells from another Mage, at the academy, without having ever seen that particular creature before.
Summoning Legendary creatures is a little different. In this case you are creating a magical clone or copy of one particular creature. You are not creating a generic Timber Wolf, you are creating Redclaw, Alpha Male wolf.
In order to summon a specific creature, and make an exact copy of it, you must borrow from the essence of the real creature, and also have a bond or connection to that creature. Because of this, two Mages cannot cast the same specific creature spell at exactly the same time, and this is why only one Legendary creature can be summoned at a time.
Some other properties of Legendary creature spells:
The creature being cloned must actually be in existence. If Redclaw, Alpha Male was to die in real life, it can no longer provide the special essence and bond required to create an exact clone in summoning.
The clone has no connection to the actual creature, in that if it is harmed, or dies, or gains some powers in the arena, its real-life counterpart is unaffected. As a clone, it will dissipate shortly after the arena battle, without having any effect on its true counterpart.
In order to learn Legendary creature spells, a Mage needs to have actually met and bonded with that creature at some point. A Priestess might do this with volunteer subjects, whereas a Warlock might capture a victim to create his spell. Some creatures like Adramelech will not permit just any Mage to form the special bond required to be able to summon them as a clone.
Legendary spells are harder to learn because of these requirements, and are usually a much higher level.
Hope that helps.
