Spell Development History -- An Essay

This is a little thought experiment I wrote a while back. It has little relevance for players, except those who are interested in world building. Unless the gods are the beings that snapped spells into being, the world builder must at least consider where, when, and how spells came into the world.
So, this is NOT required reading, but is here in case anyone is interested.


Few people have asked "What was the first spell? How did this large body of spells get developed?" This document aims to shed a little light on that subject. Of course, once the basics are covered, the precise development pathway (the order of discovery, if you will) will be highly variable, depending upon a myriad of factors. Each culture will have its own set of discovered spells, with some overlap and sharing of knowledge.
This document assumes that the standard magic system is in play, with some room for modifications. (For example, the Alternate Magical Rituals rule makes perfect sense in this case: since the spells haven't yet been known well enough to be optimized, the caster won't necessarily know what the proper somatic gestures and ritual words are. Only after a lot of experimentation and observation will the first mages be able to begin the optimization process and find out that they need to wiggle their big toes while saying "Kazaam!" in order to cast it properly. Until then, they are at negatives to cast.) I am also assuming that the first spells are cast subconsciously; that is, an effect was desired, but typically unavailable except to certain people, some of the time ("Make sure you take Thag with you when hunting mammoths...he seems to know where to find them better than anyone else for some reason, and he couldn't track a sabertooth if he saw it munching on his leg!")
In a world/universe with magic in it, everything will be affected by it (magic being a part of the local physics, as opposed to Power By Deity Whim). So, like extremophiles using odd energy sources like hydrogen sulfide and gamma rays, life will use mana. So the following sets up the order of difficulty for mana manipulation, and has some bearing on the order that spells will be discovered and developed.
Mana Use Evolutionary Pathway: sensing mana; getting nourishment from mana; storing mana (first as an energy source, then as a more complicated system manipulating mana (simple, few steps), manipulating mana (complex, multiple steps).
In general, magic would tend to be used to augment yourself/your companions, and only later would magic be used offensively. This is sort of the "Make me better" rather than "Make you worse" school of thought. Since early man looked up to great warriors and heroes, they would tend to make their heroes better rather than reduce the need for heroes in the first place.
Note: this document assumes Human development in Earth-standard environments (as opposed to Dwarves living in the Hall of the Mountain King or something similarly esoteric). It also assumes that magic begins influencing Human lives when they are hunter/gatherers (TL 0), before an agricultural revolution happened.
There are a few things that will make spell discovery more difficult: spell difficulty and complexity, number of prerequisites, Magery requirements, and, most important, utility and lack of a mundane substitute. Also, mundane technologies may need to be a certain level before it would make sense for a magic spell to be developed. One example being the majority of the Plant spells, which require permanent settlements (and thus an agricultural revolution).
Here is the first pass, giving general thoughts without placing a specific order on anything:
Air College: Pretty late development (there is little need for Seek Air, and few uses for Purify Air; there is plenty of good air under most conditions).
Animal College: High chance of early development. Beast Soother (via Animal Empathy) is likely.
Body Control College: Probably a late comer due to complexity of living systems (Climbing being an exception, as it might be developed subconsciously, and not be recognized as a spell to begin with).
Communication/Empathy College: Sense Life is probably the first spell discovered, followed by Sense Foes, Sense Emotion.
Earth College: Another late comer.
Enchantment: Very Late.
Fire College: Ignite Fire and Seek Fire are probably pretty early.
Food College: Probably late. It isn't really necessary to Test Food until poisons are common. There are pretty commonly known ways to detect bad or rotten food. Seek Food is a possibility for early development.
Gate College: Very late.
Healing College: Lend Energy (via Empathy), followed by Lend Vitality and Share Energy. Recover Energy would probably be a lot later. Share Vitality, then Minor Healing.
Illusion/Creation College: I would think pretty late, but I could buy Simple Illusion showing up around the fire during storytelling time.
Knowledge College: Detect Magic might be in the first set of spells discovered, because it is a mana sensing sort of spell, but then again, Magery gives this ability, in a limited form. Until there are a lot of spells flying around, Detect Magic may not be necessary.
Light & Darkness College: Light is pretty handy, but it doesn't really do much more functionally than a torch can do. Light would be one of those late comers, I think.
Making & Breaking College: Due to its nature (being "based" on constructions) and being based upon the Elemental Colleges (which are late comers), this college won't show up for a while. In fact, it requires first the agricultural revolution, and large settlements to be developed first. I would go so far to say that this college of spells is developed in response to construction needs.
Meta College: Very late comer. Possibly later than Enchantment. Requires a pretty good idea about how magic works on a fundamental level.
Mind Control College: Keen Senses would show up pretty early, and perhaps Alertness. Rear Vision would be a bit later, as would Dull Senses and Dullness. Foolishness would probably be even later than that.
Movement College: Haste could be pretty quick, followed by Quick March and Apportation. Grease, Hinder, and Slow would follow that. Jump and Lighten Burden might also show up at that point.
Necromantic College: Death Vision might show up rather early, as might Sense Spirit. Summon Spirit requires Magery 2, so there will typically be a lot less people able to figure it out, so it will take a while.
Plant College: Like Animal College, this would be one of the first discoveries. Seek Plant and Identify Plant would be early discoveries. Shape Plant and Heal Plant require an agricultural revolution, and permanent settlements rather than hunter-gatherers. Of the two, the Heal Plant pathway is much more likely than Shape Plant.
Protection & Warning College: Block, followed relatively quickly by Hardiness, will be found pretty quickly, but the rest of these spells will come some time after the Elemental colleges, and will probably start with Weather Dome, rather than Apportation-->Deflect Missile. Shield will come a bit later, as it requires Magery 2.
Sound: The spell Sound is quite possibly the very first spell discovered. Why? Humanity's second oldest profession--storytelling. This is one of those spells that may be discovered only after it has been subconsciously cast by the storyteller who really gets into the story, transporting his or her audience into the worlds he or she creates. A little ambient/background sound effects would really add to the experience. Voices (meaningful sound effects) would come shortly after. The others would be quite a while in coming.
Technological College: Way late! (The only ones you might get before TL3 are the Metal spells, via the Earth College.)
Water College: Of all of the Elemental colleges, this is the one that would probably be discovered first, specifically, Seek Water, especially in desert regions. Purify Water would follow pretty quickly, and relatively soon after that, Create Water. While the utility factor is high, in most areas, water isn't terribly hard for hunter-gatherers to find (unless in the aforementioned desert area).
Weather College: Being based on the Elemental colleges, it will be a relatively late comer.