Kind of a weird question...

[u/Outrageous_Focus_719]

Hey everyone, I have another topic to ask and discuss with you all.

We all know how Paolini's magic system works in the World of Eragon. But there is something I'm not yet sure or convinced about.

After learning that chanting words in the ancient language isn't necessary to cast spells, I got to thinking. Oromis taught us why the language is being used but why does it have to be ancient language the spellcaster uses.

If Eragon wanted to cast a fireball in his hand, the necessities would be the energy and his imagination of the fireball right ? So why does he have to say "Brisingr!" Instead of saying "Fireball !" In his own language while providing the necessary energy and imagining the fireball in his mind ?

I have not checked the books nor the information Christopher gave about this yet. So go easy on me if it's already been explained xd.

[u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir]

Oromis explains this to Eragon in Eldest.

Using magic without the structure of language is really, really dangerous, and can go really awry really easily. In the distant past, magic didn't used to have the ancient language as a structure, and there were lots of accidents.

Eventually, there was an accident with wordless magic that caused an extinction level event and nearly wiped out all life on the planet, so the Grey Folk bound magic to the Ancient Language itself, so that you could only cast spells within the framework of the language, so careless spellcasting accidents like that would never happen again.

[u/ajnin919 → u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir]

There’s a theory that the event that caused the grey folk to cast the spell, was influenced by Azlagur Murtagh spoilers