Are there multiple types of magic users? Get into religion and the systems of magical belief and practices really explodes. We learn the limits of the hard magic systems in the series, such as Sympathy and Sygaldry, while we never learn the limits of Naming. In Dune, those who are exposed to spice develop powers over time. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Become a patron and chat with us on Discord. From the other side, putting lot of fire energy into single point will produce real fire, moving air energies will make air blows. Different for the TV series, of course. Everything is what she deems fair. What can your high fantasy magic do as in abilities and cant do like limitations? 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. Other than that your spells can be pretty much anything, from destructive to healing spells, elemental to demonic spells and from conjurations to enchantments. The former is more mysterious, dangerous, and wild, able to do far more but without much control by those who have little experience. The steps of rituals are based on hearsay, so its hard to know whats actually necessary. I just wanted to run a few things past eyes that arent mine any feedback/critique/comments would be hugely appreciated!! Different fighters prefer different methods, so combining the ideas could lead to a larger variety and possibly a richer world. I wanted to try my hand at creating a really fleshed out magic system for fun, and never planned on making a story or doing anything with it. 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. Hannah is a speculative fiction writer who loves all things strange and surreal. Thelema, Goetia, Gematria, Thaumaturgy, Alchemy, Hermeticism? Motion/kinetic energy: you stop an object in its tracks. The Living Mother may hardly notice a tiny imbalance such as this. Humans have no idea. Fifty years after the war ends the younger generation make massive breakthroughs. Sophie, if youre having trouble with elements heres a few ideas but no need to add them. If spellcasters can run out of magic, itll be easy to put them in a tight spot when you need to. My magic system is based off of good and bad. Update/thoughts soon. 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. Caster is Hydro, Given is Ice Forms of magic include water magic, healing magic, potion making, and purification. I have recently, but have wrote before, in my world created a new magic systems. Kathy Ferguson Hello to anybody that sees this. This creative freedom is exciting, but it also requires a lot of world building work to invent a fleshed out and textured fantasy world. Here are some examples of magical sources: In Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan, magic comes from the gods. Its not enough to have a source of magic. Water was taken and later give back. In some magic systems, gods or other powerful beings are the source of all magic. Im sure theres a deeper meaning in this. Some plants and animals have magic inherently inside them, creating a variety of results. How do I come up with subtypes that would suit the main types of magic? Brought to you by Campfire Levi Johnson is a writer and content creator at Campfire. powers, and the theres a Chosen One, who has all the powers? 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. The questions which I usually ask myself are how difficult is it to inflict changes (which means does it take a two-day ritual or just a thought) and what are the costs (because if magic doesnt have a bad side, like the cost for a spell, there is no limiting it). It could also be from astral radiation or human emotion. This article is very normative and I think its furthers clich. And he will not give them of his own free will, and thou wilt not be able to compel him. And in the middle of this whole tale theres this wild, fantastic, wooly list about a page and a half long of all the Welsh heroes with their very Welsh names, and their daughters and retainers and wives and servants and shields and hounds and spears (their three spears were three gashing glitterers; their three shields were ) that Kilhwch invokes to King Arthur, his cousin, to beg of him the boon that he loan the services of the mythical heroes and knights who are Arthurs retainers, to achieve the quest of finding this maiden Olwen who hes hopelessly in love with simply because his jealous stepmother described her legendary beauty to him though no one in the world knew where she lived or how to find her and put upon him a geasa to have no bride but her. To the Avatar thing: the point is not using a scientific system for your magic. In essence, theme is nothing more than an answer to the question, What is this story about? Theres a good chance that your story already contains themes regardless of whether you consciously developed them. Here are some examples of magical effects: In The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.J. Jemisin, orogenes can manipulate the earth. Look at the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore in the fifth book/movie the one in the Ministry of Magic. :). The God of Parties, on the other hand, would be very chaotic. Magicians summon magical spirits, like djinni, and command them to do their bidding. Regardless, having nature spirits of various kinds that have power related to their aspect of nature is completely reasonable. Im finding that my worldbuilding and plotting inform each other more in this story than others Ive worked on. For example, your magic is powered by emotions, which also means that your emotions, if they dont get a new power source (more emotion), will disappear over time.
Seventh Sanctum: Magic Generators All life on Terra (my world) is born with a connection to one of these Primals, and what magic they can perform depends on the Primal theyre connected to. The brain does use relatively weak energy for thinking, so that would not reach far. If youre working with leylines and the fabric of reality you should model the whole earth as a living thing(as it is)but not necessarily conscious, although that could add tension and the leylines and threads could be like vains in an interconnected system that gets clogged from the knots relating to all manner of natural and unnatural disasters/phenomenon and just like any living thing this system would naturally resemble a circulatory/lymphatic system with currents and nodes to regulate and cleanse said currents. Like this, the Avatar system makes it clear where the limits are, for everyone but the Avatar. Hope I dont sound like a rabid Potterhead but I dont think its irrational! We accept that our universe works the way it does without necessarily knowing which physical law is at work at any given time in any given thing happening. You just feel the spell, you dont need to recite anything. However, not understanding Gandalfs magic doesnt detract from the story, because the protagonists have to undergo most of their journey without Gandalfs help. All spells require a minimum level of power to run, though many can be empowered further. some sort of selection criteria the nanites have How was magic created? Thank you Cay, for making me think more about what i want my theme to be. The first step is building a metaphysical framework for how and why magic works. How might someone with an unusual background or extraordinary dedication take magic either a step further or a step in a new direction? You just need a set of guidelines that all of your spirits/nymphs follow. Astral Armor-- "Though spun from strands of glamor and mana, the protection it offers is no illusion." Magic Formula-- Yep. Following is a list of all the abilities that can be generated by the Abilities Generator. Look at your three lists and try to find patterns and connections. The World we perceive and interact with all stems from the Energy, called Aether, and the Vibrations that come from it, all make up our world. If they need hand gestures to do magic, they cant do it while tied up. Paint can hold curses that are also genetic (curses can make a person stronger but the price is extremely high) However, Im not sure whether adding a new field, force, particle, etc. I would think about the ways that physicists would classify energy kinetic energy (movement), electrical energy, heat and let your characters manipulate those. Basically at the begining of the universe the two forces (or gods) Chaos & Order struggled over which would have dominion over the world- Order appeared to win with the natural world as it is ordered and follows laws of physics ect. Those rules shouldnt be arbitrary, like fire magic doesnt work on Tuesdays or you cant cast an illusion spell in months without an R in their name. The rules need to make sense within the system. Can a magic user be identified by their clothing, appearance, or some other distinguishing physical factor? As mentioned, Im still working on the plot details, but I was thinking the decrease in magic availability from protagonist 1s time to protagonist 2s time had to do with spirits withdrawing from the human world and not dealing with mages. In the Matrix, lifting something huge is harder than lifting something small. The value of the memory is determined by how much it affects the mage, and whether its repeatable or replaceable after the original is given up. ( ): Last, heres a fun chart showing the details of magic systems in the most popular works. This isnt a formula for magic systems, but a guide for those not sure where to start or what exactly is a magic system. First of all, you need to figure out what both types of magic can do. It would also bring a limit, because the ley lines dont exist everywhere. I think youre overthinking things a little in your example. Ill be talking more about it in another post, if someone wants to here it, of course. Are humans the only species capable of doing so or are elves, trolls or even some or all animals able to do so as well? Theyre more afraid of the death of their world than their own personal death, however. Learn everything you need to know about grammar. The Given is normally in for 3-7 year. Spell lists ala D&D can be fun, but spell creation in a limited system can be very flavorful. Generate random names for characters, events, taverns, etc. He focused his will and the energy that boiled in his mind, letting it out like smoothly flowing water into the air. You can also use that fickleness, maybe, and some other things this answer mentioned, to weave in logical limitations on emotion-based magic that will make it perhaps more palatable to your readersin fact, in ways directly related to the example of exhaustion. In addition, there are no boundaries on what magic could theoretically do in the Potterverse. What dangers does magic pose to the user, whether directly or because the use of magic is scorned or envied by society? For Light and Darkness, Shade will be their name.
Worldbuilding sheet: Magic systems - v2 - DeviantArt There are many assumptions in this article, it only focused on a small, known part of magic. In The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, the magical discipline of Naming is a soft magic system. Coins, gems, art objects, and magic items from the d20 SRD . Dispel | Spiritual | Fire | Creature One world I thought of involves magic based around Life, Metal (mostly magical machinery), Water, Mind, Soil, and Dragons (the rarest), and many in-universe cultures consider these natural divisions, but I suspect Chris Winkle would consider this system non-rational. Though some have tried since the beginning, it has been deemed impossible for a human to harness and redistribute sunlight. Some dimensions have a lot of energy and a lot of lines, others have few. Most magic systems fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. The key traits of a hard magic system are outlined in the graphic below. This is because an all-powerful antagonist makes the story more exciting and perilous, while an all-powerful protagonist achieves the opposite effect. 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). And they were given this power, making them enhanced. The main exception is the avatar state, which isnt clearly linked to bending. Then use the answer to characterize all of your nature spirits. Even without understanding the details, it feels like it all fits together. And theres nothing less exciting than a story where the protagonists can escape from any danger just by wishing it away. However, as we are all well aware humanity and its constructs are fragile things and some event happens that upsets the norm; war, a terrorist attack on these factories, solar flare, etc Regardless this event causes a change within these factories, the main computer systems get a little bit fried, perhaps even gain a modicum of self-awareness. If you dont have enough power to spare, the spell fizzles. If you think about it, youll realize theres no reason not to have a rational system. 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). You need to lay enough groundwork and hard rules and be consistent enough that it doesnt feel like a character getting angrier will suddenly allow them to start winning a climactic battle, at least not without significant buildup to such a thing happening. If a mage forms a contract with a water faerie, they can use water magic, even if their Primal isnt the Ocean. All three should work together to create the magic system. EASTERN THUNDERER, based off of Eastern dragons in design, likely chance of getting weak to strong Shocker magic, rare-ish to moderate chance of getting magic of another Type as well, Learns magic a bit more slowly than other races. I agree. A being of a higher Plane has the opposite effect, their presence and consciousness being far too much for the Universe to handle, and so it would just collapse on itself wherever the being would go. There are also spells and counter spells, and characters know when to use themtake for example when Harry accidentally levitated Ron (using levicorpusnot hard to figure out the root for that one). 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? Once youve figured out what kind of system you need, its time to start building! Im now looking for consistency. Our Plane falls on the 3rd Dimension, being far away from perceiving the World. SWd6 System Generator. Im glad youre feeling encouraged! Furthermore, it is meant to be mysterious in-story and something that not everyone has. The cycle of plants harnessing sunlight and Mother taking it back everyday is no longer considered a mystery, but an accepted fact of life. And, by the way, you actually can use parts of wizards in potions, and theyre used in pivotal parts of at least 2 books: the Polyjuice Potion uses part of the person you want to transform into, and the potion used to give Voldemort a body has bone of the father flesh of the servant [and] blood of the enemy. Sympathetic spirits will take pity, accepting minor payment (maybe even the painful memory of seeing said loved one get shot). Magic can be taught and learned, but like the Arts or sciences, whether someone is good at magic or not depends on their inherent skill, talent, and dedication to their training. The mystery is in the water that the Living Mother leaves behind on the plants when the sunlight returns again. With that said, lava could still count as fire, so the point about magic being based on fire vs. ice might still stand. This generator will give you 10 random super powers, which can range from many different types of powers, including magic and superhuman powers. In Avatar, there is one person every generation who violates the rule that people can bend only one element. World-Building, Prepare to Write, Revising for Publishing, As bestselling author Brandon Sanderson explains. And the One became Two, Two became Three, and Three became All Things, (Actions) I also specifically mentioned that I was not including conservation of energy in my system, but you assumed it in your comment. Anger Heat. Either way, the recipients of the power lose whatever memories gained before or during their stay at the Towers. I see the basis of a rational magic system there, and you have good limits. They instead study the laws of nature and learn to manipulate them. As fun as fantastical powers can be to write, crafting your magic system with care is key. Everything is made up of atoms and molecules, so someone with the power to influence those could, theoretically, create new stuff in a heartbeat. There are others who feel this way as well. 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. The reader needs to be able to understand the basics and rely on that understanding throughout the story. It is the rarest of the Primals to be connected to. Second, look through all the essential pieces of spell creation and casting, and think how the casting process might fail at each step. Untold masses dead, fear, uncertainty you get the idea. If you want to create a hard magic system, you need to create a specific logic that serves as the foundation for the entire system. 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. 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? Obscuring the rules is easier if the cause and effect can be separated by space and time or the cause isnt directly observable.
6 Key Questions To Ask When Creating A Magic System Since there are clear rules in the Harry Potter series, we dont wonder why Harry doesnt just make up an all-powerful spell. If youd like additional guidance as you build your storys magic system and other facets of your fictional world, then be sure to check out World-Building Warrior, a workbook that will walk you through the world-building process step by step. Neither hard magic nor soft magic are a fashion. Moreover, the party must complete the quest without killing anyone. He shrugged and complained, feeling too tired to trudge away from comfort. As an example, look at the Force the way its used in the first few Star Wars movies (episodes 4-6 nowadays). 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. People connected to the Moon and Star Primals are the only two that are common in a single place and can be found in any nation or culture. Are their any parts youre confused about? In Brandon Sandersons Mistborn Series, characters acquire magic by imbibing small amounts of metals and burning them once theyre consumed. 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)? It violates local conservation laws and relativity (whats simultaneous in one reference frame is not in other frames). One of the most common elements in these books is a magic system. Im sure there are phenomena of nature that are plot holes in this magic system. Making sense in case of magic means being constant. 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). 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. I would use something else than Gluttons. Last limitation is that the caster has to concentrate on what theyre doing. Project | Fire | Destroy | Item Mages trained in a world with little power usually are very strong in one with more power, because they can make a lot out of a little. . Some of them, such as the Breath Weapons have been condenced a little bit for shortnesses sake. If youre curious about the source Nature as a such comes in every now and then as well. 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). 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. There are clear limits of what they can do, and things like resurrection and time manipulation are some of these limitations. For instance, some animals can also cast magic, and they do it pretty much the same way people do. Balance being an essential figure in most fantasy pieces, this works on many levels! Brandon Sanderson has a knack for creating alluring, original magic systems that immerse the reader into the fictional universe. As far as the potions issue, again, these are based off historical ideas about magic and potions. 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.