Quote:
Originally Posted by lonnarin  It's not like an aerospace engineer's going to forget how to do his daily job if he misplaces his college textbooks. |
College textbooks are not the engineer's main tools. The main tools of engineers are calculators and CAD programs or T-squares and triangles, and without them he would not be able to do his job properly. An engineer may be able to do simple equations accurately and give rough estimates for moderate equations without a calculator, but would never rely on that for an actual project.
Spellbooks, traditionally, are the main tools of trained mages, just like swords and armor are the main tools of warriors and lock picks are a main tool of thieves. While trained mages may be able to produce light sources or a few sparks without thinking too hard, they probably wouldn't do any
real magic without the proper preparation and tools.
Layonara doesn't have to follow the traditional fantasy setup, of course, but spellbooks are a nice way to differentiate between trained and natural mages anyway, so they shouldn't be tossed away lightly.