What is the source of magic in Elder scrolls?

[Umbro]

Just a curiosity that perhaps you Lore folks can answer for me; one thing I've always disliked a bit about Elder Scrolls lore is that magic seems to be fairly effortless, omnipresent, and have few drawbacks for the use thereof. This is based only on the portrayal of magic in the games, which is hardly a very solid basis upon which to decide if the setting treats magic very well. So the question is; from whence does Magic come? Was it a gift from the various Gods, is it a mysterious "Force", are there consequences or dangers from the use of it?

[Isabella]

Supposedly its supposed to be dangerous to use but that never showed up in the games. morrowind had a spell failure chance but no penalties. i used a mod that was based heavily on lore where you could cast higher level spells than normal but you ran the risk of stat and/or fatigue damage if it blew up in your face. i wish they would do magic that way cause it would make playing a psychotic mage more interesting if all you did was use high level spells from the get go and burn yourself to death from time to time.

[Anthony12]

The energy that showers down from the sun to be harnessed by mortals is magic. Given its origin, you shouldn't be surprised that it is readily available. Aetherius, where it all comes from, isn't just a ball of magicka, it's the orderly half of the universe that the Aedra come from, and more important than magicka is the matter of creative potential (creatia) that the Ayleids harvested and the Daedra lords use to construct their realms.

[Bricklayer]

It comes from the sun but mortals and Mundus are already saturated with it, so eight or nine hours of darkness every day doesn't dramatically decrease the readily available magic in the world. It's like the same concept as a solar panel or something. A powerful mage has lots of magic stored up at his or her disposal. The sun doesn't have to be shining directly on you to cast a spell or anything.

[Defender14]

I understood low-fantasy to mean science and the laws of physics govern the world, while high-fantasy is a world governed by myth and the laws of magic. In a low fantasy, magic is subordinate to science(!). In a high-fantasy, the gods do something, and, all of a sudden, there's magic. Apparently, my understanding was wrong. Cosmology says magic pours from the sun. Regardless of origin, the Spirit of Nirn is magic, and all humans share that spirit, so magic is truly from within; God is within, and it wants communication.

[Rily]

I didn't claim it was; in fact, I specified that I like the TES setting all the more because it's not just irrational "magic", it actually makes sense when you consider the creation of the world. I also think there's a distinction between high magic and high fantasy, so I'm not really sure how that conversation started. There's no denying that TES is very high magic, and is also high fantasy. I still mostly prefer the more gritty, dark settings, but when I get a hankering for something a bit lighter, the fact that TES seems to have a fairly rich storyline and background beyond what is convenient for the purposes of the game series makes it far and above the best choice I have seen so far.