A rational magic system is one where every spell is guided by the same metaphysical laws. You need to lay down rules and follow them (which is where both Rowlings use of magic in Harry Potter and Lucas use of the Force in the original trilogy fail). As bestselling author Brandon Sanderson explains, most magic systems can be classified as hard or soft in nature. Those are just considerations, however, when it comes to flaws I only really see one. Spell description generator. When an earthbender is blocked by a mountain, we know that with enough effort, they could create a tunnel through it. In actual fact, some of the infected survive the Grey Death. So this sentence: What do you think? Magical effects will make a bigger impact on your readers if you use all five senses. It would foreshadow his powers at the end of the story, when he faces off against Voldemort controlling all types of magic. Start by looking for further implications of what youve already established. A system where the only users of this magic are at first the cultists until the Heroes learn it out of necessity and self-defence, and accepting the price that it separates them farther from the group consensus of reality which is the measure by which society defines sanity, and that in fact belonging to a species of animal as social as humans are means that diverging too far from your species in the way you perceive and experience reality carries certain risks and costs to it, more or less well understood to tradition and to the majority of systems of magic because what most of these theories agree on is that the more minds believe that something is So, the more difficult it is for one individual Mind to impose a different understanding than what the Many agree on EVEN IN THE PERSONAL REALITY the putative magician themselves inhabits, and CERTAINLY if they have to use the force of their personality, belief and magic to convince other individuals that what THE MAGICIAN believes as fact is in actual good and honest coin Really So in the shared consense reality they all co-inhabit by reason of their shared belief that they do in fact have at least some things in common in their universes, enough to make a Reality of and enforce/defend it by the power of your shared beliefs. Conduits gather energy but dont cast spells with it, Interferers cant gather but they can cast, so the two types of magic users have to work together to cast spells. The Lord of the Rings is a low magic setting, but it is a high fantasy setting. Maybe Im just saying this because Id defend Harry Potter to the ends of the earth. At the very least, you need to foreshadow that. It isnt a common thing among people of this world, but it is an esoteric art comprised of ancient secrets passed down through generations within a tribe of acolytes. The difference between the two is obvious as soon as you watch the show. I think rule based magic is important for worldbuilding, not novel writing. was really misleading. Can one person wield both of them or only one? There are hints throughout the story that its actually sci-fi. Their technology and motivations could be very different from human ideas. Talking of the wedding feast: Though thou get this, there is yet that which thou wilt not get. The law of magic that makes it so you cant summon food out of thin air feels like something invented by JK Rowling for plot purposes, not the logical result of a different set of physics like in Avatar the last Air bender. High Magic and Low Magic. Pick just one source; Ill discuss how to add variety to your magic system in the next section. On Way of Kings Shows Us the Damage Meta Mysteries Can Do. Also, I have another magic system that sort of more on the traditional side that Ive been wrestling with for my story. Thats a neat trick you used for replying even when the thread space has run out. Hope I did well! Being able to gain power is generally an often picked choice for story telling, first the hero is unable to defeat the villain, but after training or some other form of power gain the hero becomes stronger than the villain. The size of those continental plates and their placement on the planet would be an arbitrary effect of nature, and so the magic they generate might reflect those arbitrary characteristics. . After all the Vibrations have finished their process, they Ripple and then whatever combination the Vibrations have will affect our world. I know it could use some work, but a lot of this came out in the very act of me writing it in this post! In addition, the spells available for use arent completely based on nonsense, or taught completely irrationally. However, most people wont deviate from what they know to work to avoid wasting their time on a failed ritual or potentially hazardous consequences. Paint can carry genetic qualities as well. This same punishment theory may explain why humans are killed for trying to harness and redistribute sunlight. Muggles are not going to have much luck oppressing wizards. If I get this right, magic workers are using pieces of the infrastructure built to support their world for magic instead, at which time it is no longer helping to sustain the world, and by putting these pieces back in place, the protagonist is strengthening that infrastructure. After giving it some thought, I think the spirits will take memories as payment. Most of the time, magic hurts the protagonist rather than helping her, so the fact that we never understand the rules makes it even easier to empathize with her. Though a mages mana reserve grows as their body gets used to their energy loss, certain acts of magic that require large amounts of mana can leave a mage drained of energy and will require them to rest and recharge their energy. I dont write often in English or at all. Your body can hold a fixed amount of paint (This is the same for everyone but full capacity is rarely reached). Ask yourself what effects will help your protagonists solve the problems presented in your plot, and what effects will be fun to write about. Ask yourself what kind of problems magic will cause your protagonists, and whether your antagonist will use magic to achieve their goals. As I said, I was also inspired by depictions of psychic powers in fiction, so I used this idea to explain telepathy (immaterial minds were the same substance, so they could have a way to directly communicate with each other) and telekinesis (if thoughts could generate energy, then maybe they could create enough energy to affect outside objects as well). Magic systems can even serve as a vehicle for theme, exploring topics such as power, privilege, oppression, and greed. Sorry about the comment length and the long worldbuilding paragraph. The protagonists wording must be airtight, because the djinni will look for loopholes. For a similar reason, simple exhaustion, without any other defined limits, is generally a weak way to limit an ability in the story. These individualized magic systems can be a great way to make characters stand out, but they also come with their own challenges. This person, the Avatar, bends all four plus spirit energy. Forms of moon magic include illusion magic, shadow magic, and spirit magic. If most people are one or the other, and Conduits are rare, then most Conduits will also be the children of Interferers. In real life, cold is not a thing but just the absence of heat, and ice and fire dont seem to be fundamental opposites. This is only my second serious piece of writing, so its really encouraging to hear stuff like that from someone like you. To give them an exceptional ability that stands out from the masses, change or break one rule youve established for your magic system. I made myself wait until morning to reply As long as you dont change fundamental things in the universe, theres no problem with making enough changes to slip your magical or psychic powers in. If a villain is gloating about killing the heros friend, the hero gets really angry, they attack with powers drawn from their newfound fury, and then the villain *still* crushes them before mocking them for their pathetic temper tantrum, then the audience isnt going to establish a connection between sudden emotional outbursts and conflict resolution. Mana is the clean energy, without any attunement. Or some other options?.. In another world (a fantasy high-magic setting), I havent fleshed out quite as much, but I do know that magic is powered by your soul, which is also needed to run all brain activity. Each blob of energy could be bound to the other blob of the same type of energy and it will result in kind of quantum entanglement from real physics everything what happens with on blob will happens with other blob. I love it. Humans access it by eating a special plant that bio-accumulates it. For just one example, Magoroh Maruyama describes several different possible paradigms of science, which Robert A. Freitas Jr. mentions in the book Xenology in relation to extraterrestrial minds. Now, to those who contain their power. Its crazy long but definitely adds logic to the system :D and its a nerdy heaven. Side note, can anyone contact the spirits, or does it require a special gift.. One of the most common elements in these books is a magic system. How to Create an Eclectic Magic System For those who want casting to look or work a certain way, I created another method that starts with the casting and works backwards. For more inspiration and guidance in creating your magic system, I recommend these articles and resources. They cant use magic at all. I think that is arguable, but fine I personally want to read hard magic systems anyway. However, a few fantastical powers can go a long way toward livening up many fantasy stories. A waterbender cant control air or earth or fire. However, they are actually Ancient Greek classifications and not modern science-based, so they arent really natural. Perhaps then these powers could actually be based on nanobots or even totally new forces and particles that are not visually detectable. If you figure out exactly what each type of thread is doing to hold the world together, you can not only extrapolate what magic they can do when woven, but also predict the damage that the world will suffer when too many of them are used. Really Smart that would make a great power for the Apaths. Youll have to figure out exactly what characteristic weft threads are adding, but thats completely doable. Wizards arent included in this; as far as we know, you cant just simmer a wizard in a pot for a few days and end up with a magic potion. Naturally, youll want a few people in your setting with powers that are unusual among magic workers. The definitions for these are as follows: I would suggest that you make it so your gods just randomly interact with the world. Grab a sheet of paper and brainstorm a list of magical effects that fascinate you: ones youve already seen before, or ones you come up with from scratch. Not that hard to extrapolate. Not sure what I mean? Harry Potters magic is not irrational. I also like the conspiracy, theres not many like that in high fantasy which makes it cool. Well, there is the Restricted Section, which includes books on the Dark Arts, I made a magical system right after I read this article and this is what I came up with: Magic is powered by emotion and certain emotions affect your environment in different ways. The random Magic Type Generator is a free online tool that lets you generate random Magic Type content for your fantasy or writing project with the click of a button. Regardless, having nature spirits of various kinds that have power related to their aspect of nature is completely reasonable. Stuff falls down, not up, for instance. Could you perhaps link the tides and the moon? The thread is being used up at such a rate that the next generation may have none at all. Ive since abandoned it and am working on something that, while in a similar vein, is quite different. To build this logic, start by thinking about three things: the effects, sources, and costs of magic. Some well-known examples of soft magic systems: In The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. E.g., player can only use some energy from the environment, depending on available amount and the players skills. Other than that your spells can be pretty much anything, from destructive to healing spells, elemental to demonic spells and from conjurations to enchantments. Yeah, I think your fabric metaphor works great. Those who do contain their power are called Gluttons, based off of glutton for punishment (could someone help me with the names, im horrible at naming things). That was confusing enough that I have difficulty figuring out what the posts premise is, but I THINK Disney Magic would be a better example. There are 7 types of energy that all link with one another (the first two I made up as a pseudo science which explains the workings of Life & Sentience in a pre-modern scientific age), Sentience Reading this made me realize a plot hole before I even put it on paper, I cant thank you enough for the editing time youve saved me! Human variation in magical ability is determined by how much excess soul they have, after running all of their brain activity. Technically, the limitation is actually the minds belief that lifting huge objects is difficult. (I wont deal with it here and now, as this reply is getting too long already and you never mentioned it in your comment). Stars: Star magic draws power from the vast expanse of the cosmos, and is primarily psychic in nature. Once youve figured out what kind of system you need, its time to start building! However, we can only identify that its missing because the system is logically consistent as a whole, even if it isnt perfect in every depiction. It does what it needs to do in the books. I hope this is a reasonable explanation. some sort of selection criteria the nanites have Thats a larger imbalance. One of my characters is able to beg the Storm God for help without making a proper appeal because they danced nearly every day for 5 years. But its repeatedly said in the series that spells can be cast when the user feels strong emotion, so it could possibly be connected in that way to the old magic. That means that divine intervention is a possibility (a deus ex machina in the true sense of the world), but theres no way your regular human MC can rely on it. LEARNED: obtain magic through studying. Limits then usually come from the strength of the effects (a limit to the area spells can target or the number of spells a mage can use before resting). They will seek their own openings and create them for the other, distract the enemy when needed and surround him at all times. Rewriting and revising is what turns the idea into something worth reading. Kristen Kieffer is a fantasy fiction writer and the author of Build Your Best Writing Life and Self-Publishing Simplified. Everything is made up of atoms and molecules, so someone with the power to influence those could, theoretically, create new stuff in a heartbeat. I also had the idea that there would be some very powerful, old spirits who have long-standing contracts with humanity as a whole. If an elemental mage can only use elements which are not opposite, they have to choose between the four elements when they start training. Untold masses dead, fear, uncertainty you get the idea. It is believed in this world, at least by this group of acolytes, that the nighttime is caused by plants absorbing the sunlight, and the dawn only comes because the Living Mother has taken it into her hands to manually restore the balance and takes back the light. Certainly using more types adds complexity that might be a burden in shorter stories, but I think you could start with the type of thread that is most prevalent, and explain more rare threads as the story progresses. Every person who attempts this dies, without fail. You might want to read them. Using this site means trees will be planted. I just finished the entire creation story because of these questions as well as creating a more refined system of magic in my book! Most often, your audience should see the effects of magic but not the cause. Theyre part of a task force to reweave the knots. And theres nothing less exciting than a story where the protagonists can escape from any danger just by wishing it away. Maybe as a counterpart to motion? Perhaps, the basic power influenced by the caster is stronger at a certain time of the month (new moon or full moon for instance) or of the day (noon, midnight, sundown, sunrise). BORNE: obtain magic through genetics. You have the tank, often a warrior, who has great armour and a lot of health and will draw attacks and take the damage. In a way you can see it as choosing between having 2 (or more) people using normal weapons to fight an enemy together. If a mage has no limit to what they can do, why not simply find one who solves all the problems for your hero with the snap of a finger (or a well-conducted ritual)? That also means that magic is an entity of its own, hence experimenting with it can be highly dangerous. I would point to Ancient Magus Bride as an example where you have both soft magic such as that used by both creatures of myth and the various magi, as well as the more grounded hard sort practiced by sorcerers. The second Twist to my setting is that the magic in my world is in fact technological in origin, Yep, Im doing the whole forgotten tech trope :-), The Grey Death is in fact a invasive form of Nanotechnology, accidentally released into the public. Bestselling Author Joanna Penn Compares, How to Write a Book: The Best Creative Writing Courses Online, Self-Publishing 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Sharing Your Idea With the World, ProWritingAid Presents: Crime Writer's Week, Free Giveaway: The Ultimate Crime Writer's Toolkit, The 25 Best Fantasy Books & Novels of All Time: Our Top Picks, Omnipotent Characters: Why Marvel Sidelined Thor, Vision, and Captain Marvel, Six Tried and Tested Methods for Writing a Novel, How to Outline Your Novel With Scrivener's Outliner and Corkboard, Fantasy Writers' Week Premium Hub: Presented by ProWritingAid, Hear from bestselling authors and educators like, Learn from bestselling authors and educators in live sessions, Master outlining, writing, editing, publishing and more, Meet like-minded fantasy writers in networking events. Magic is one of the essential elements of any fantasy story. However, as mentioned at the top of this article, magic can also serve as a vehicle for theme (i.e. Absorb Project Summon Dispel Protect Destroy Restore. By making sure magic has costs, you can force your protagonists to be clever and resourceful when they solve problems. There could be just one type your system is already very interesting or more than one. More like youre a easily broken, magical gun (Aim, shoot fireball, repeat.) Now we go back to the Beginning. Awesome, thanks! Gaining power can be done through a whole range of methods, you could train, gain power through an artifact, channel power into 1 person or spell, enhance a body through magic (or other means), simply study magic and how it works, siphon souls from other magical beings, gain a blessing (or curse) of a god or demon and much more. Specific effects include waking the dead, sending dead spirits back into the afterlife, and binding the dead to follow their commands. Each house is limited to one type of magic and students are not sorted by their character at the age of 11, but by what magic they have an affinity for. Moon magic: Moon magic draws power from the spirit and energy of the moon. powerful mages who control transportation but do not rule (again, difficult).
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