Paradigms are how a mage perceives energy and thus its use. As said in the overview, every mage has one...every person who uses magic has a familiar way of casting it and perceiving it, and that is what the paradigm is. For instance, a priestly mage may believe that all magics come from Dargotten; thus when he casts, he calls upon his god to empower him. A shaman may believe that a certain spirit-dance will convince the spirits to do something for him. A hermetic may believe in ritual correspondances and equations; a witch might believe effigies and symbols to be the path to power.

A paradigm is perception only, not a function of the magic itself. One mage may see a spell as a rainbow of colours; another will see the same spell as a string of magical words. Most mages learn their paradigm from their tutors, though it will be changed and unique simply because two people think in different ways. A mage can learn a different paradigm that either supercedes or joins with his previous one, but this is somewhat difficult and usually requires a kind of revelation or significant work.

When casting magic, the most powerful spells are those cast using a paradigm: mages who cast outside of their paradigm are at half or lower effectiveness. For instance, a mage who "sees" magic should paint it, draw it, or trace it in the air; a mage who uses only imagination to visualize the spell will be less effective, and a mage who simply throws energy without visualizing its shape is less effective still.

Paradigms have more effect on magic than simply roleplaying and power of casting; paradigms are invaluable when choosing focuses. A priest, for instance, may be able to use a holy symbol for all his magic simply because his paradigm is that magic comes from his god. It would be well in this case to get a very high-quality holy symbol, because when a focus absorbs a surge, its ability to absorb future surges is lessened.

The chief use of a paradigm, however, is for roleplaying; it adds flavour to your character and description to your magic, increasing the quality of your writing which makes things interesting for all those who read it...which is, ultimately, the reason to play the Kingdoms of Telgard.

Your paradigm need not be created at character creation; beginning characters have no knowledge of how to use magic and so having a paradigm is mostly useless. However, once your character has 'Awakened' it is adviseable to begin thinking immediately about your paradigm...your character's teacher will be using one and you can copy it if you wish, or you can visit the 'Templates' section for ideas.