What do you think? You might want to read them. Overusing their magic can cause them physical harm. It takes decades to master a Type of magic, and some mages (any magic user, human, dragon person, whatever) spend their whole lives perfecting one spell. Group A (Comment if you have a better name), They cant stop their emotion from changing surfacing and tend to be extra emotional. In Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, magic comes from specific metals, like copper, tin, or aluminum. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Become a patron and chat with us on Discord. Project | Fire | Destroy | Item You might need more development in the how magic is accessed and directed area. Just dipping my toes into this whole writing thing for the 1st time, and as Im sure most of you have experienced, I started out vibrant and full of ideas but am quickly beginning to feel overwhelmed. I made myself wait until morning to reply That means Rowling doesnt have any guidelines to keep her from contradicting something shes already invented or from creating a spell that makes the plot pointless. Hey! (For example, no effects that cover too large an area or are too far from the caster or use too much energy). You would paint specific patterns in the air in front of you while at the same time your mind involuntarily forces the molecules to obey and move into a new pattern, speed up, spread out (going for solid to liquid or liquid to gas), heat up (going from any other state to plasma). For Interferers to use magic energy, they have to maintain physical contact with a Condit, and if they lose contact they have to use up their remaining energy quickly, as it will burst out of them randomly otherwise (in a few minutes). Just because the system has volumes of lore and backstory to support it doesnt make it a rational system, though it does help to make it more believable. Group A (yet to be named) uses magic as soon as they feel it, even if they dont want to and are by far the rarest. Internal logic, that is, otherwise thered always be that magic doesnt exist bit to fight against. To the Avatar thing: the point is not using a scientific system for your magic. The first and probably most important aspect of magic is its source. Professor of Political Theory in Star Trek, contradicting something shes already invented, distill and concentrate the plant down to an elixir, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, heres a fun chart showing the details of magic systems in the most popular works, Building the Raksura: How Martha Wells Fell Into Toxic Tropes, Five Tips for Using an Arbitrary Magic System, Building Wings of Fire: How Sutherland Propped Up Her Plot, Building Hyperion: How Simmons Scattered His World, Building Roshar: How Sanderson Bungled Culture, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_hcwB8i64, https://mythcreants.com/blog/how-to-create-an-eclectic-magic-system/. BORNE: obtain magic through genetics. Because minds were immaterial, physical brain damage wouldnt really affect thoughts, personality, and so on, instead mostly things such as the ability to move and regulate basic bodily functions. There is a bit more magic involved in the storyline, but just for that part, do you think that all makes sense? I checked it out, and indeed it seems to just be another name for obsidian. They can only work through people that do their will voluntarily. For example, if you need a magic source which is unlimited a good choice would be a magical power given by the gods or magical energies within the air. Other than that, most answers are really just what do you want? However, I will say that if magic uses up energy in the environment putting out fires and stopping movement for instance that would probably create some interesting scenes. Here are some examples of magical sources: In Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan, magic comes from the gods. Just because there are rules doesnt mean theyre rational. I remember a HP fan-fiction where Harry developed two spells into some kind of magical arms he could call up at will to help with magic or protect himself by picking up half a dozen objects he could throw into the path of a spell or weapon. You could just as well do the Magic The Gathering approach and use stuff like decay or nature as base for the magic (which would give you white magic based on life/nature and black magic based on death/decay). They are not related in any way. suggestions? If an elemental mage can only use elements which are not opposite, they have to choose between the four elements when they start training. Sophie, if youre having trouble with elements heres a few ideas but no need to add them. Now, to those who contain their power. That wall of gobbldygook was as far as i got (there were a few story bits though; going to one of the factories and contending with the burgeoning AIs, people with unflattering mutations being exiled or outright killed, fear of the outside and of the disease, the worry that the holy artifact gifted by the gods(the jammers) is growing dim, whatever). In the fourth book, Harry doesnt know any flying spells, so he uses the Summoning Spell to call his broomstick. would even mathematically work, as all existing particles and forces seem to be related by deep mathematical symmetries. Meanwhile, most people selected for magic by the nanites didnt know what was happening they might have been able to make better guesses than people now, but next to surviving the end of their world didnt devote a lot of thought to it. You should take a look at Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.Google search it; itll come right up. In this guide I will cover the major aspects part of most magic systems, hopefully it'll help you create your own magic system and provide you with a checklist of sorts to make sure you're not forgetting an important part. If every spell casts creates a knot that must result in the opposite effect happening then the incentive to kill becomes too great. It could make for some interesting stories devout priests who get power from their deities versus irreligious wizards who use their own will as magic, bio-mages who draw upon the weak but flexible power of living organisms versus geo-mages who draw upon the mighty yet unsubtle power of the land itself, Incidentally, all examples you have given, Cay Reet, are about how (most) magic-users cannot use all types of magic; do you think that a system in which magic-users could learn all possible magic (at least theoretically) but what is possible for magic in total is strictly limited could work? There are 4 main types of magic systems in fantasy. If one were to observe the Vibrations and the way they Flow(this is another process, different from the other Four Laws) it would seem whacky, but they are extremely intricate and complex. They dont pay with utter exhaustion or even by losing several years of their life, because of the power they wield. However, you still need to put in the work to create a unique and compelling system that will serve the needs of your story. 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. With so many spec fic books, its not unusual to have such coincidences. WESTERN VOLCANO, based off of western dragons in design, very likely chance of getting weak to strong Combustial magic, very rare chance of getting another type of magic as well. Oh, I see what I missed last time. If you teleport, you have to control that energy while your whole body is nothing more than energy, too. However, those impulses are weak, and air is not a good conductor, so I dont think such a detection would work (Im not even sure in water). In my example of magic that is acquired by consuming a plant, a clever alchemist might distill and concentrate the plant down to an elixir that is digested more quickly. The four elements are chemical states: solid (earth), liquid (water), gas (air), and plasma (fire). The nanites of this future continue their work, though they are many generations after the initial outbreak and the AIs have calmed them. Re: hollow mages this is the fate of the previous mage who had the protagonists familiar she traded away bits of her life in order to extend it, until she ends up functionally immortal but with very little of her original self left, (she breaks the bond with her familiar in the process in order to make deals with more powerful spirits). In some cases, the answer might already be obvious given the world your story is set in. This is where your magic system will become unique, even if it shares elements with existing works of fiction. 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. Because water is more tangible than air and fire, it is likewise easier to hold on to. In the TV show Im writing, there are dryads, nymphs, and naiads, which are all parts of nature. Lets say powers are granted by a changing lineup of gods, and the ocean goddess has three children that control the wind, waves, and depths. Spells are also incredibly varied, which makes adding randomized details a . Demonic magic is based on bad and Angelic magic is based on good. A puddle could be vaporized at will, only to have the water redistributed at a later time, again at the will of the one controlling the exchange. I shall now splurge it out here If you like it, and you think you can bend it to fit your idea, then go for it!! What I dont agree with is the idea that there is somehow an objective way to determine whether the rules of magic make sense or not, as magic isnt real and what is considered natural is culture-dependent. For example, a character could bind own mind blob to a fire blob and basically then he will control those fire, while his body will unconscious. Magic systems can even serve as a vehicle for theme, exploring topics such as power, privilege, oppression, and greed. Paint can be collected from the surrounding area into your body and be channelled through your bloodstream. what could they have that the Mages need/want? By making sure magic has costs, you can force your protagonists to be clever and resourceful when they solve problems. The first to discover this art was a man who observed that water disappears on its own and returns later as rain. So thats where the other two paragraphs of my previous comment come in. Can one person wield both of them or only one? These structural integrity threads can be used to apply physical force to something. Stars: Star magic draws power from the vast expanse of the cosmos, and is primarily psychic in nature. Whether with words, gestures, complicated rituals, or just pure thinking, the idea that someone can control reality with their mind is at the base of every magical system. If you use magic (or psychic powers) like a Deus Ex Machina, enabling your magic users (or psychics) to do whatever the story needs, without any understandable reason why they can do all this, you have something else. lost nanotechnology (difficult to justify how that would be forgotten) Making sense in case of magic means being constant. Thank you the idea about energy. Varren slumped into his chair, a curse leaving his lips as he had forgotten to blow out the torch in the hallway. SWAMP, kind of based off of iguanas in design, rare chance of getting magic. If a character casts spells with a combination of substances, dance moves, and symbols drawn in charcoal, assign a role to each component. ), the rarest of the three. The lich controls the power and consumes it, the specre is consumed by it. If there are no downsides to using magic, your protagonists might soon become overpowered, able to solve any problem with the wave of a wand. Do you want to bring in some elemental control? Every action we take, even the most mundane has a profound effect on the Flow of Creation. Whether you use the force, a principle like Yin and Yang, some nano-bots, the aether, or something different, is up to your kind of story and what you like most. The farther an individual cause the needle to drift towards imbalance, the more force shall be exerted on that individual until the balance is restored through redistribution. The way the magic of my world works so far goes as follows: Magic is based in blood, the eight types of magical blood found in fantastical creatures and humans (Light, Dark, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Mind, Body), and the way people gain magic is either by taking that blood from the creature or being born with it, so either a Linear or a Pureblood. LEARNED: obtain magic through studying. Theres not much description sticking in my mind about the details of the contest, which tends to indicate to me how orders-of-magnitude outclassed of a mismatch Tolkien considered this one on the spiritual level he viewed as most important, since if theres one thing Tolkien excels at, its birlliant and poetic description of the details of those elements he viewed as important to convey in his work, which he approached with the carefully thought out professionalism he drew from his years in the academic world as professor and often chair of various university departments, most I believe relating to linguistics and literature, in particular of the Anglo-Saxon and Norse cultures (though the Welsh Mabinogion seems also to have influenced the development of Middle Earth and in fact some of the names, particularly of the Dwarves, were lifted directly from there check the Mabinogi of KILHWCH AND OLWEN; OR THE TWRCH TRWYTH, which basically explains the collection of the legendary royal treasures in terms of a pig hunt which in turn was demanded by the Bad-guy Ogre Father of the Heros Love Interest (basically because he was prophesied to, um, you know, DIE when his daughter was married, so he was REALLY interested in being as difficult a crusty old bastard as possible in terms of legendarily impossible tasks he was going to demand of his prospective son-in-law as the bride price. There are roughly two magic systems. If you think of the Sea of Energy as like the actual ocean, than the Planes of Existence can be compared to the different depths, and the deeper you go, the more pressure that exists. In most, if not all movies, there clearly arent rules for magic, or if there are, there arent many. That source has to be available to a spellcaster, and that spellcaster needs to direct it to accomplish specific goals. Specific effects include communicating with others, working together as a group, and riding inside the minds of others. They instead study the laws of nature and learn to manipulate them. Its implied humans discovered the thread and abandoned technology altogether, becoming more and more dependent on magic over the next few hundred years. I agree that a spell to dodge doesnt make much sense on first glance, but Ive also just realized that thats only true if we assume that the hostile spell were interested in dodging in the first place were as part of the basic nature of magical reality totally incapable of moving any faster than a theoretical average apprentice level user of magic can move without having recourse to their wizardry. How could a magic user be defeated? Its no surprise the avatar state causes plot holes during Avatar: The Legend of Korra. The duration for using paint is limited and if your paint bottle runs out life will slowly start to sap out of you. and much if not all this her non original content that she is taking from is founded in actual fairy tales with absolutely no magical or rational system. Humans cant curse (or maybe they just didnt figure it out yet!) Maybe Im just saying this because Id defend Harry Potter to the ends of the earth. Could a small group of magic wielders defeat an army of non-magic wielders? Nevertheless, you will always introduce something which, as far as we know, does not exist in reality. Your answer could have huge ramifications for your world. Many systems treat magic as energy similar to heat, magnetism, electricity, or movement. Ive used term spell in a broad sense, I mean just an example of what you can do with such system So, basically, you mean just the same system as in Avatar (roughly, just moving the substances physically) plus transformations between substances (earth to water to air to fire and so on)? I went through this process recently with an RPG Ive been working on. Using mana is no different from using up stamina, the more magic you use, the more energy that is used up. However, most people wont deviate from what they know to work to avoid wasting their time on a failed ritual or potentially hazardous consequences. So then, my idea was that even though minds were separate from bodies, they were normally closely tied so they could interact, which was why telepathy and telekinesis had things such as limits based on physical distance. Do you prefer planning things out logically (hard magic), or going with your gut (soft magic)? Are there multiple types of magic users? As fascinating and logical as this system is I think it loses points on merit and morality and doesnt set a good example to children. That would certainly make them dangerous to magic users. There are medieval books detailing how to pluck a mandrake from the ground because it was thought that they screamed when unearthed and could kill everyone who heard the scream. By adopting a specific mentality and pairing that with martial art forms, they can move and manipulate their element. Though some have tried since the beginning, it has been deemed impossible for a human to harness and redistribute sunlight. 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). actuallydragon glass is NOT made from dragon fireits just some rock that forms naturally: obsidian. Both have always existed since the beginning of time and revolve around each other in order to exist. The old magic is, of course, pretty coincidental, and used in specific ways that drive the plot. That can have a lot of applications. Yeah, I think your fabric metaphor works great. Heres a couple ways to mix it up while retaining a consistent feel. It is not genetic, and it depends on the persons natural ability to feel/ synchronise with the energy type and become familiar enough with it that they can produce their own from the Ether. Spells that affect another persons soul are the strongest and are pretty much all purple level. Motion 7 Ways To Create A Magic System For Your Novel 1. Muggles are not going to have much luck oppressing wizards. Practitioners are all female. In The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, magic is like law. I transfer energy into the boulder or to the air around it to move that boulder. Thats because we know dragon glass can kill them and both weapons were forged by dragon flame. Witches and wizards need to learn each spell individually and practice speaking their enchantments in exactly the right way in order to achieve the intended results. Eating it makes them very sick, but because of this immune reaction, they can cast more powerful spells. So far, the types of energy that can be manipulated in this way are: Air/wind (although due to its constant motion and near-intangibility, air cannot in most cases be held, but is almost always instantaneously redirected. 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. Jinora does it at some point. You could explain telekinesis (telepathy, too, I guess) with having invisible energy arms which are connected to your body and grab the object in question (or create a connection to another being for telepathy). Vampires are electromagnetic, which is why they are hurt by sunlight (photoelectric effects), are solid but turn to dust when killed (they actually are dust, and their solid form is a magnetic shell), have superstrength (they can easily lift metal objects, and can use opposing magnetic forces to move their own body quite forcefully). It would foreshadow his powers at the end of the story, when he faces off against Voldemort controlling all types of magic. Relocating energy (in telekinesis or telepathy) is, however, less of a problem than dissolving a body and recreating it at another place, to its not the same as full teleportation. Many horror movies use soft magic systems to create a sense of fear and dread, while childrens books might use soft magic systems to create a sense of excitement and adventure. And if they can add energy to it, it sounds like they have to absorb that energy like a conduit. Casting also generates colors based on how much power you drew upon to cast it. Maybe there are a few things that the sorcerer cant do, but basically its just whatever they want to happen, happens. The only difference is Life energy contained in every living creature, and every creature has own Mind ball in place of real brain. One thing to keep in mind is how much power somebody can gain. Like species in our world evolved so did the magic in their world, with their ancestors using a specific type of magic and pased it down it just became a part of them. While your categories wouldnt be any fun if they were identical, they do need consistency. See the LessWrong articles Universal Fire and Universal Law for one explanation of how all physical laws are tied together. Although, to be fair, I do see the magic in everything - nature, science, writing. Other limits include magic types (fire versus water for example), power restricting energies (magical or other), bodily energies (lack of food/sleep/etc), skill level, curses and much more, most of which will again depend on your story universe. Caster is Hydro, Given is Ice but humanity is creative and designs massive jammers that are able to disable the nanites that enter within X radius of them. To avoid adding a sense of arbitrariness, your choice of categories must feel natural. All are well known for changing things theyre associated with into other things or even changing other women into one of them, so that can be fun. As bestselling author Brandon Sanderson explains, most magic systems can be classified as hard or soft in nature. this is all super helpful! Now we go back to the Beginning. The costs of magic can be physical, societal, or even financial. In the Harry Potter universe, magic works in several different ways: These three sets of rules dont appear related to each other. This same punishment theory may explain why humans are killed for trying to harness and redistribute sunlight. My protagonist would be one of the paranoid who wants to conserve the thread. If you combine spells you'll get something similar to fighting together as one being, shield against shield to maximize the defense and striking with swords at the right time (like Roman armies did). Precursor aliens might do the job if they had certain motivations (such as wanting to set up a certain situation to see how it develops), but this raises questions of how such a large group made of many different individuals could all stay hidden for such a long time. Their powers go far beyond what has ever been shown before and theres no repercussions for them. This sounds intriguingly cool, although if youre designing it for use in a computer game, might I ask how are you handling the problem that (I would imagine) youd have to assign EVERY object/environ in your game world a energy attribute/variable, dictating how much player the Player can draw upon, and what happens when the Player hits that limit? However, a few fantastical powers can go a long way toward livening up many fantasy stories. In Avatar, most benders can only manipulate pure water, earth, air, and fire. To do this, I would need to work out whether adding the sorts of new particles and forces needed for this scenario to what exists in real life can be done in some mathematically consistent way. Its easy to mix up rational magic with whats often referred to as hard magic. There are hundreds or even thousands of magical techniques and spells that a magician can learn. Shocker (electric) A rational magic system follows rules, thats what makes it a rational system. Occult Network-- The magic Internet. And that should be all, if anyone can help me with the names of the entire concept, please do. 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. A rational magic system is one where every spell is guided by the same metaphysical laws. Awesome, thanks! When picking the powers and spells for your magic system you'll have to keep in mind a few things. All of the Aether and Souls stem from the Sephirot, and at the same time are all one and the same. There are plenty of sources you can use, like bodily energies, energies in the air, power bestowed by the gods, powers within blood, pools of magic in the world, a worldwide life force, magical artifacts and so on. There are hints throughout the story that its actually sci-fi. ): magical technology (uses the "uses of a spell casting focus/item" cost in addition to any others) fiendish/evil divine the far realm a mutation that is part of the users spirit-related natural limbo/the elemental planes unknown There are pros and cons. If most people are one or the other, and Conduits are rare, then most Conduits will also be the children of Interferers. If Luke needs to suddenly call out for help while hes hanging below a floating city, he can make contact with Leia (without their relationship already being an item). A mages magic can be stronger or weaker depending on how much access to a Primal they have at a given time. Anyway, the original inspiration came when I read an article about the philosophy of mind which claimed that interactionist dualism (the idea that the mind is immaterial and the body is material, yet they interact) couldnt be true, with one reason given being that such an interaction would violate conservation of energy. The Living Mother may hardly notice a tiny imbalance such as this. If there are important mines in your world, for example, it might make sense for magic to come from metals. This is the first step in learning magic, for depending on what Primal theyre affiliated with, their magic may not be useful at all times (a Sun mages magic is severely weakened at night, and an Earth mage is practically useless out at sea) and they need to rely on their mana for defense and offense. Vindictive/less scrupulous ones will take the opportunity to ask for more than youd normally give. While it can be fun to have wacky spells, wouldnt it be even cooler if you could reveal how your wacky spells all click together? Eminently true and a tension-building moment to remind your readers that your heros magic depends on this very emotional energy that is at this point of crisis so much more likely to be BURNED OUT or at the very least, already at their maximum ability to deal with well, EMOTIONALLY even without the added stress of having to consciously Tap Into Them EVEN MORE to get them to the point of directed personal connection to the whole of your entire current being which is necessary to actually use them magically. Magicians summon magical spirits, like djinni, and command them to do their bidding. Ones that havent made many contracts and dont know much about human emotion yet will be much more objective. Obscuring the rules is easier if the cause and effect can be separated by space and time or the cause isnt directly observable. This is only my second serious piece of writing, so its really encouraging to hear stuff like that from someone like you. But that doesnt mean all magic systems work equally well for stories. Anyway, just to throw MY 2 cents in A while back, I was trying to design a magic system for a Skyrim Mod some friends of mine were attempting That ultimately went nowhere. The Mages dont rule, but merely maintain a beneficial relationship with those that do, but the Empires form of transportation (and thus commerce) is almost entirely dependent upon magical meansSo what does the Imperium bring to the party? How would a non-magic wielder fight a magic wielder? I like the fact youve got a cool new way people gain magical abilities- FAR FAR FAR to many high fantasy novels just have it be the usual theyre born with it (theres nothing wrong with that way- heck Ive even used that, its simple and the easiest way to have it)- but I love seeing unique ways besides just being born with it. Dryads represent trees but usually can move about unless they are hamadryads which are locked to a particular tree than a tree type. There are a few online articles about this: the ones I remember off the top of my head are Universal Fire and Universal Law, found on LessWrong. I gave the most basic rundown I could. Color: the type of color determines what kind of effect the Vibration will have on the Physical World. Yes, its arbitrary which items have magical powers (though many plants have historically been said to have magical powers and Rowling obviously researched these). Another elite bending technique is Astral Projection since their are the most spiritual of benders. Sometimes, as in the example I made, other natural processes, such as life and death (or decay) or day and night are added. And the HPMOR fanfic mentioned above is about a Harry who does want to find out this why although I dont think it succeeds at conveying this particularly well in the story itself.).
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