Wizard's Fire

Wizard's Fire is a fictional spell cast by wizards in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

Description

The casting of Wizard's Fire is a common ability of most wizards. It is created using additive magic by taking the heat from the air and adding to it and multiplying it. When cast, the wizard throws his hands out, fingers extended. Wizard's fire then shoots from his fingers and shrieks through the air. The fire grows and tumbles as it travels, illuminating everything it passes, and becomes a blue and yellow ball of liquid flame that continues to expand as it wails through the air, like a thing alive. It travels very quickly and will usually reach its victim within the space of a breath. The blue and yellow flames wash over the victim, enveloping it and surging through it. It is a fire unlike any other, burning, sticking, searing, and alive with purpose. The fire sizzles and snaps everywhere on the victim, consuming it. The victim disappears into the blue heat and is gone. Usually a hazy smoke remains in the air. Even a single droplet of wizard's fire can burn straight to the bone. Few victims survive being burned by wizard's fire; any who do will, unsurprisingly, seek revenge, as in the case of Darken Rahl.

It should be noted that wizards of various powers have various levels of Wizard's Fire. For example, when Richard first learned to use Wizard's Fire, he summoned a ball of it perhaps 4" in diameter at most. On the other hand, his grandfather Zedd, wizard of the First Order and First Wizard of the Midlands, summoned a ball of fire against the Imperial Order's army that was said to be more than 5' in diameter.

Wizard's Life Fire

Though it has not been directly seen in the series, Wizard's Life Fire is supposedly much stronger than Wizard's Fire. It is created when a wizard puts all of his life force into the Fire, and it leaves a special sort of ash. When the Life Fire is created in defense of another, the ash is sweet. When it is created to save the wizard, or to just kill his enemies, the ash is salty and sour.

ubtractive Magic

It is known that wizard's fire can be created by wizards with only additive magic, like Zedd, but readers are not sure whether it can be made with only subtractive magic.It can be touched by subtractive magic, like in Debt of Bones and explained in Wizard's First Rule--Zedd's massive ball of Wizard's Fire touches the boundaries, touches the underworld, and the Wizard's Fire gets stronger by what is apparently an order of magnitude, and seeks out Panis Rahl from hundreds of miles away, annihilating him instantly and seriously damaging Darken Rahl.

word of Truth

In Wizard's First Rule, Shota creates an illusion of Zedd casting Wizard's Fire at the witch woman. Richard jumps in front of the ball of flame, and puts the sword of truth out horizontally in front of him, the point facing at the Wizard's Fire. The flames dissipate, and later Richard learns from Zedd that the makers of the Sword of Truth put that defense mechanism in there, so a non-wizard Seeker could defend against an evil magic-user.