Paint can be collected from the surrounding area into your body and be channelled through your bloodstream. Or maybe have subtypes based on the seven deadly sins and heavenly virtues? Fire, transformation and order are strongly associated with this system of magic. Absorb Project Summon Dispel Protect Destroy Restore. I think rule based magic is important for worldbuilding, not novel writing. was really misleading. The primary purpose of a soft magic system is to contribute to the atmosphere of your story. Life Everyone is also born with it. Its the same way you need to build your world logical for a novel. I made myself wait until morning to reply As such, a being of the Physical Plane cannot exist in a Higher Plane, as their Consiousness isnt on a high enough leven to be able to sustain itself, you wouldnt even be able to think of yourself as an actual being, and so you just, cease to exists. As you can see there's a lot to explore, but if you're looking for names you're at the right place. Become a patron. This is only my second serious piece of writing, so its really encouraging to hear stuff like that from someone like you. Weft threads are what complete the fabric, what is woven through the warp to add the unique characteristics of the fabric (e. g., a 3/1 twill for denim or a satin weave for silk). Magical creatures all have an innate connection to one of the forces, which they can use in ways dictated by the kind of creature that they are. Soft magic systems are the opposite of hard magic systems: they dont need to have a clearly defined set of rules. None of those energies could be stored by characters themselves, so they can only use energies from environment. The knots must be undone, causing the reverse effect as the original magic, and rewoven into the fabric of reality. In the same way that you can learn to control your emotions, you can learn to control the magic that comes from those emotions. Dont feel discouraged by the problems of your first draft, remember that you will solve them later. Probably best if I give you an example. Brandon Sanderson has a knack for creating alluring, original magic systems that immerse the reader into the fictional universe. All three should work together to create the magic system. But thats not the way Rowling goes. Fast forward a couple thousand years and some genius manges to find a way to control paint by collecting it into a special bottle. Wand movements and spells serve to direct the magic, to tell it what to do. Instead, I would work on getting the rational rules for how this nanite magic work nailed down really well, and make sure you have lots of limits, and ways in general for that magic to stop working. Last, heres a fun chart showing the details of magic systems in the most popular works. Its crazy long but definitely adds logic to the system :D and its a nerdy heaven. (As a side note, I mentioned teleportation because it would help get the various alien species in my universe together quickly so there could be stories based on interaction between them. Nevertheless, you will always introduce something which, as far as we know, does not exist in reality. Its mysterious. And finally, I was thinking about a story involving space travel, so FTL would be convenient to explain how the aliens managed to meet each other in a relatively short amount of time. Its easy to mix up rational magic with whats often referred to as hard magic. Everything in Tolkiens world is carefully designed to avoid being preachy; but most of it also has a carefully thought out moral and spiritual basis, and certain elements (like whether orcs have free will, and are therefore capable of redemption, and the implications of what that means in terms of how the good characters treat them and the conflict with the literary need for a clearly identifiable group of bad guys) troubled him to the end of his life and which he was never able to resolve to his own satisfaction. Mind energies are bit different: they could be bonded with any type of energy. Because there is no sunlight and no heat, the water is frozen and white, and blankets the ground. Theres things like creating food out of thin air, which means magic can add something to the world which wasnt there before (alternately, some people have all the rotten luck and their fridges are constantly empty and they dont know why). Why are some people spell book readers but not others? The tricky thing about powering magic with emotions is that it generally leads to magics power being as fickle and arbitrary as emotions, which often makes problems and solutions stemming from its use feel arbitrary. The job is dangerous. SO, questions: where is the magic energy coming from in the environment? Here are some examples of magical sources: In Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan, magic comes from the gods. It worked well, but it had to be named before it became important to the plot. How to Create an Amazing Magic System - ProWritingAid 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. However, most societies dont have the resources to crank out wizards. Perhaps people born with an innate power to do so or maybe they're chosen ones hand picked by a god. However, I am suspecting my response to it will be pretty long, and I have other things I need to work on. Also, how is this energy directed to a specific object and not blocked by everything in the way (including air?) In The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, magic is like law. Most magic systems used in medievalish fantasy have groups of people with access to the same spells and abilities, though their talent with magic will vary. Nature as a such comes in every now and then as well. Casting also generates colors based on how much power you drew upon to cast it. Brings back memories of the magic system I was working on for a really trippy book not really super Lovecrafty per se, but set in modern day Maine among a world of dark magicks and secret cults, so in that sense an echo I lost track of back in my 30s and am just now remembering. Perhaps broken fingers mean you won't be able to wield magic or maybe magic itself can block another form of magic or the magical energies within a person. Powers are similar to Borne, but are not very draining. If everybody is capable of wielding magic they will likely use it for everything, from war to daily life, but if only a portion of the population can wield it it means magic will be handled differently by those who can and those who can't wield it. Most magic systems fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Sure, go ahead. dragon glass can kill them and both weapons were forged by dragon flame. If it was merely about Harry learning magic more of that logic would be needed. And if so, is it because their culture is different and they learn to wield it in different ways, is it because they simply cannot wield it the same way due to biological differences or is it because they use different sources, like blood magic and magic pools? Ask yourself how you can prevent the magic-wielders in your story from becoming too powerful, and what costs would post interesting challenges for your characters. There are 4 main types of magic systems in fantasy. For instance, some animals can also cast magic, and they do it pretty much the same way people do. 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. Some people are good at magic, others are not. a disease caused by the nanites One might be cost, but only if your magic source is limited. 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. Even with a teacher it takes years to become proficient. Ill be checking this site for updates everyday, so thank you in advance of letting me share my crazy idea with you all. Just watch out for the unaffected 1%. Ill consider what you said and make some changes. If the story needs someone to tell Luke and the others on the Falcon something terrible happened at the other end of the galaxy, the Force can provide Obi-Wan with the necessary information through a vision of sorts. Magic types: In the Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away, the entire spirit world operates under a soft magic system, from the magical bathhouse customers to the killer paper airplanes. So, for instance, lets say you decide water spirits are more powerful than plant spirits because their aspect is more basic and elemental, whereas plants are more complex organisms that feed off of water. Light However, you can also experiment with different techniques for accessing and directing the magic, each with upsides and downsides. You could use a rock-paper-scissors relationship where earth beats air, but air beats water, water beats fire, and fire beats earth. Your body can hold a fixed amount of paint (This is the same for everyone but full capacity is rarely reached). A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. The protagonists wording must be airtight, because the djinni will look for loopholes. 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). If by the end of your story the hero has reached twice or more times the power of the strongest person at the beginning of the story, how come nobody ever reached that same level? 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. In a rational system, there would be an explanation for how magic works where it comes from, what limits there are, how it is used. What do the spirits get out of it? But in the real world, moving out of the way would be easier; since spells have straight paths when cast, why use magic when theres an easier non-magic method of avoiding harm? Not that hard to extrapolate. For a similar reason, simple exhaustion, without any other defined limits, is generally a weak way to limit an ability in the story. The first and probably most important aspect of magic is its source. Thats a larger imbalance. So eventually, after a little Silly Putty work with words and concepts, I wound up with a magic system where believing something was considered a form of observing it with your mind in the state that you want to be so; that all that I read in the quantum physics book was true and intermeshed perfectly with the various descriptions of magic as being any system where a strong mind or majority of minds is able to influence reality through the strength of its being perfectly itself (e.g. The cosmic balance is set up to where the Aether and Souls rely on eachother, Aether creates and maintains the World and Aether flourished and continues to exist through our Actions. Do note that sharing elements with other works of fiction is near impossible to avoid, magic has been used in so many stories so the chances of whichever power you think of not being used already are very slim and those which haven't been used might not even be worth using in the first place. 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. All those rules are allow to create literally any classic spell, except teleportation/portals. Real transformation would be something like lead to gold, influencing the molecules to give up their bonds and settle into a new configuration (gods, it has been ages since my last chemistry lesson). suggestions? 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 actuallydragon glass is NOT made from dragon fireits just some rock that forms naturally: obsidian. So the way the world works is that this physical world we see and interact with is one of an infinite number, which exists on one of the 12 Planes of Existence. For every energy type, there are only 3 things you can do with the energy. Disadvantages: it makes your paint harder to control, if your will is weak your contractor could go against you, your contractor gets to present you with the deals and if you dont like them there is nothing you can do about it, harm to your contractor results in harm to your soul. Because that makes it much more obvious and harder to forgive if you do need to break a rule for plot. Thats cool. By making sure magic has costs, you can force your protagonists to be clever and resourceful when they solve problems. Our physical universe is merely the extent that we can see with our mortal Perceptions limits. Your answer could have huge ramifications for your world. Light? Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. However, Im not sure whether adding a new field, force, particle, etc. Even within one category, theres no way to extrapolate new spells because the rules are so eclectic. Like something to do with the changing of the victims skin? I also specifically mentioned that I was not including conservation of energy in my system, but you assumed it in your comment. Readers know little, if anything, about the nature, origin, or limitations of the characters fantastical powers. Common People (Theyre so common that they dont really have a name.) You don't have to have an exact cost, like making the average human able to cast 20 fire balls before being tired, but having a cost relative to each other spell will help make sure your magic system is at least relatively realistic in the sense that there's a logic behind it. 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. Magicians have no power of their own except through the spirits they command. Choose the right magic system for your fantasy novel without the headache. By adopting a specific mentality and pairing that with martial art forms, they can move and manipulate their element. Could you chip in? I want the magic of the world to feel whimsical (or horrifying) and ever present, but not the cure all to every problem. If you choose a framework that is broader and vaguer, youll need to add less obvious limitations to it. I think the easiest way to explain how magic (any kind, really) affects the world is through will. ( ): How does this constitute a magic system? Look at the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore in the fifth book/movie the one in the Ministry of Magic. Hydro (water) 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. Were he an adult already, thered be hardly a limit for him, apart from morals. Create a crater-sized hole in the earth to later redistribute the soil, though, and you might have some problems. Im probably a little late, but I saw this post and couldnt help but respond. Sandersons Mistborn series and Stormlight Archive both contain excellent examples of hard magic systems. Prime / Mana worked a little differently, in that each rune slot had a certain number of Mana-Points that could be applied, up to a value equal to the Players skill/level. You can either post it here or use the contact page. Or some effect it has on the world? Thanks to this article I have been able to advance my magic system up from the basics and I just want to run this by someone who is not me: My magic system is called Paint. Which is why you need to attach a heavy price. 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. SWAMP, kind of based off of iguanas in design, rare chance of getting magic. Not at all. Another aspect of it are the Akashic Records where all the information of Creation is stored. It would foreshadow his powers at the end of the story, when he faces off against Voldemort controlling all types of magic. Internal logic, that is, otherwise thered always be that magic doesnt exist bit to fight against. Youre deluding yourself if you think that. Magic would be cheaply acquired from soil the plant cant grow in, and they wouldnt have to worry about getting sick from overeating it. I think natural disaster can be explained in this world as terrifying manifestation of the imbalances in nature, things that the Mother wants to avoid by seeking to restore balance always. That can have a lot of applications. It will allow to make some zones where one or other magic will not work, or otherwise where will be much easier to cast specific spells. This generator gives you names for their various alliances, covens, and clubs. There is a certain logic to the magic in Harry Potter, too, but its never completely explained, because the magic only serves the purposes of the story. Nonhumans might think in ways that make little sense to humans. While its more difficult to tell whether a soft magic system is rational, I suspect Game of Thrones is using a rational magic system. Telekinesis, telepathy, and teleportation are not something people can really use in everyday life, so you will find it hard to justify their existence through science alone. Here, you would have to add something else, perhaps a boost a telepath receives (again, remember the unused potential of muscles, if you want to), which allows for them to reach out and tap into another brain.
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