There is a set science about how magical techniques are performed, and knowing about the what and the how behind these techniques is important. 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. Despite that, it can still be used to many different and wonderful effects, think like some of the stuff Aang does. Heres a couple ways to mix it up while retaining a consistent feel. This is only my second serious piece of writing, so its really encouraging to hear stuff like that from someone like you. 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. As far as using body energy outside of the body is concerned, this is something you will have to wing. If I knew that I could kill every jerk i know unapologetically and without remorse, and be assured that someone would be returned to life as a result of that action then whats stopping me from just killing indiscriminately all the time? Its said more than once that really powerful wizards and witches can do wandless magic or even do magic without saying the spells. As this energy is formless and intangible, it is naturally attracted to your body and stored there. You will always need to wing it there, because you introduce something which has no base in our worlds reality. I really hope you go through with it! Ask yourself if your antagonist will be a magic-wielder, and if there will be magical creatures in your story. Vibrations function is fundamentally the same as electric signals in the brain, in that there are millions upon millions of different signals being sent and working together to achieve something, even something as simple as moving your arm. Hey there and welcome to my site. To build this logic, start by thinking about three things: the effects, sources, and costs of magic. Different kinds of people use magic in different ways. 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. But think about trying to hold water cupped in your hand; its still difficult. If you think about it, youll realize theres no reason not to have a rational system. Magic wielders might be shunned for being different, perhaps even dangerous, or they could be praised for their abilities. I dont write often in English or at all. The cycle of plants harnessing sunlight and Mother taking it back everyday is no longer considered a mystery, but an accepted fact of life. Worldbuilding, Avatar, Magic Magic Systems Magic systems vary from colorful bears with tummy badges to ritual blood sacrifices. SO, strangely inspired by a Looney Tunes skit, staring Daffy Duck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_hcwB8i64 ), I came up with a system of Runes that could be strung together to create different spell effects that way, through their understanding of the Runes (and the underlying mechanics, which was NOT immediately revealed to the Player), Players could effectively reverse engineer opponent spells, Counter-spell and undertake other such wizardly endeavors. This type of magic is tricky and potentially dangerous, as the faerie in question could seek out loopholes that benefit them and take more from the person than what was agreed. Pick just one source; Ill discuss how to add variety to your magic system in the next section. What can your high fantasy magic do as in abilities and cant do like limitations? a conspiracy to hide everyone selected (difficult to justify how they manage this). They can only work through people that do their will voluntarily. This is true even if weve never seen anyone craft a tunnel before. Hard magic systems feature a strict set of parameters explained within the story to ensure that readers understand what characters fantastical powers can and cannot do. So, if we want to maintain conservation of energy, we need to assume another power source. Why you should create a rational magic system as a writer? 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). (Note- it is a lot easier to learn the Other Methods of Create, Increase & Decrease of the same energy type than it is to learn how to use other Energies- but if you work hard enough it can be done) I also thought about adding elementals (People that impersonate a specific emotion and can change when overloaded with emotion) and some lore. powerful mages who control transportation but do not rule (again, difficult). So, this sheet is meant to help fantasy world-builders (for any media, not just writing) create the magic systems for their worlds. Soft magic is vague, undefined, and enigmatic. This works the same for all energy types. And thanks to Oren for asking the obvious question and fueling my train of thought. Generate random names for characters, events, taverns, etc. Shapechangers all use either the strong or weak nuclear forces, and telekinetics and poltergeists use gravity. This description generator will generate a short random description of a spell, including its effect, appearance and inventor. All people that use magic are split up into different yet powerful factions. Possession can only occur between a creature that has magic and one that is magic. The other is one of my own magic systems, as I want to hear what others think about it, especially in terms of this article. Overusing their magic can cause them physical harm. Update/thoughts soon. First, if its similar to someone elses that is purely coincidental. For Time and Space, Keeper will be the name. Mistings have to ingest and burn these metals in order to use their powers. Some people make a long-term contract with a particular spirit to channel its energy themselves, with the spirit becoming the casters familiar. Regardless, having nature spirits of various kinds that have power related to their aspect of nature is completely reasonable. (Currently called Reformancers, Defining and Refining) The act of changing your sight so you see physical objects as they are, without needing light (eliminates glare and shadows), and the act of changing your sight so you can see a person's inner qualities. powers, and the theres a Chosen One, who has all the powers? Soft magic systems are the opposite of hard magic systems: they dont need to have a clearly defined set of rules. 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). Does that all make sense? Characters could control those energies by some kind of telekinesis (Thoughts & will) plus Mana energy. Used by the Matrix and Mage: The Ascension, some magic systems are based on the idea that reality is more malleable than it seems, allowing some to bend it out of shape. Here are some examples of magical sources: In Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan, magic comes from the gods. Now, I havent seen anything about your system, apart from what youve written here, but one easy distinction to make would be to give the angelic side healing magic and the demonic side something like destruction or seduction. When you look at all your categories together, you shouldnt find any large gaps where a category should be, and two categories shouldnt be unusually similar. How do I come up with subtypes that would suit the main types of magic? Knowing what spell-casting is capable of is pretty important, if you havent decided that, I would think on it. Imagine if Harry Potter could vanquish Voldemort in the first chapter just by making up a spell called antagonist defeatium. Magic isn't real, so it can be anything we want. That guy was supposed to be a REAL nasty bugger in terms of, you know, nobody whos ever gone to hunt this creature has ever come back alive, and all that jazz? That means every control over them would be on the molecular level, manipulating the molecules and atoms to speed up or slow down or (for changes) change their configuration. As Sanderson explains, magic primarily exists to create conflict in fiction. Humanity loses control of the system, the factories start belching out nanites into the atmosphere, these new nanites containing instructions that are corrupted, missing a few bytes here and or even having added a few. That can create an interesting dilemma if a person primarily driven by a particular emotion starts to lose it, how likely are they to remain committed to their goals? It sends a positive message to the reader when the magic being performed is a positive being paid for by a regrettable negative but sends the wrong message when its a cheat or lethal act that is only being rewarded or reinforced with a positive. What do you think? 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. There are two types of magic systems: hard magic systems and soft magic systems. It violates local conservation laws and relativity (whats simultaneous in one reference frame is not in other frames). However, if your magic system serves more to create a fantastical ambience than to resolve any major conflicts, then explaining how magic works on the page likely isnt necessary. And if you use an elemental magic system be creative, inform yourself what elements are overused already. If youre at a loss, take a page from Brandon Sandersons Mistborn series. So you already know that unraveling a knot has the opposite effect as weaving one. Another way to look at it is evolution. And the thing that makes up all of the energy is spiritual Vibrations. Ill be talking more about it in another post, if someone wants to here it, of course. No, the water is surely a curse and warning from the mother, who draws the water from the plants themselves as a punishment for stealing the most precious of energy, sunlight itself. Ask yourself what effects will help your protagonists solve the problems presented in your plot, and what effects will be fun to write about. Cool system, sounds like it has great story possibilities. It flows through all life and can be controlled by any sentient object. Eventually, after many long and cold nights, Mother returns the sunlight and the heat, for even in just anger she cannot maintain an imbalance. The air swirled out into the hallway, successfully blowing out the lit torch but haphazardly knocking it off its supports. Money? SO, questions: where is the magic energy coming from in the environment? 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. Our physical universe is merely the extent that we can see with our mortal Perceptions limits. Are there other applications that would make sense? Your answer could have huge ramifications for your world. Broken cities, old equipment, enchanted odds and ends from modern society. I thought, What if energy isnt conserved after all? Since the protagonists are on this side, it would remove a lot of tension. 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. . Look at your three lists and try to find patterns and connections. That means the stories cant foreshadow spells prior to their explicit introduction, and when a protagonist has to face a tough problem, they cant get out of it by inventing new spellwork. It requires words of power, and a magical energy called Deathlight, which is obtained by killing ghosts. To the audience it will feel like every part fits together, even if theyre not precisely sure how. Theyre usually gifted to devout followers, but anyone can use them once they figure out how it works. ): 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 Its a solid premise, and Im sure youll do amazing things with it. 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. Some prices for their cooperation can even be steep, such as sacrificing something precious or offering up ones soul. In my mind, rituals are the middle ground between divine magic and holy magic. I know its been a whole since you made this post, so I was just curious to how things have developed since then? 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? Paint is a very volatile substance that if held can burn off skin Im going to flatly say your premise about the HARRY POTTER magic system. It would foreshadow his powers at the end of the story, when he faces off against Voldemort controlling all types of magic. Notes on the world: humans are at a hunter-gatherer to city-state level of development, gods are real but you can never talk with them, spirits are everywhere and run on fae logic, and demons are corrupted spirits that will ravage towns/cities and curse people. The willpower to make changes, no matter what kind of powers or tools are needed in addition. It sounds like youre going the scientific route with energy. However, scholars and Wise Ones know that harnessing sunlight is possible, for virtually every plant known to this world is more than capable of harnessing sunlight, and does so continuously, every day. ), revising, scrapping, re-revising, Because I never seem to do anything by halves, my original idea for my book has spiraled out of control into a series, set in a Sanderson-esque system of loosely connected worlds. The term magical effects refers to the ways in which magic influences and alters the world around it. Using items means a disarmed magic wielder might be powerless, it could also mean every magic wielder has an item unique to that person, perhaps even with their own unique abilities. A basic form of mana manipulation is cloaking their bodies in mana to protect them from harm (sort of like Aura in RWBY). In general, creating a system that is more limited in effect and creates more problems with casting makes for better stories. There are 2 other different types of magic to do with Time/Space & Meta Magic of youd like to hear more about the magic from the novel I wrote. I love your idea Madden, however if i may point out one significant flaw that you will very quickly need to address. I do hope that this comment will help you understand the angle Im coming from. Thats cool. 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. 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. Not at all. The power can be anything reasonable, but behind its use is an action that they used to love. Because water is more tangible than air and fire, it is likewise easier to hold on to. Visit her new website . Kristen Kieffer is a fantasy fiction writer and the author of Build Your Best Writing Life and Self-Publishing Simplified. However, even if we have energy available, there is still always the problem of directing it. So this sentence: The dryads control water? Someone else is needed. Now we go back to the Beginning. And of course, if magic is viewed as an alternate system of physics theres no reason why physics has to match the naive categories of intelligent beings; think of how weird quantum physics seems, for instance. the frequent earthquakes that break up the surface of the earth and reshape it releasing gasses from below. You make good points about the gap between different kinds of magic. 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 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. The only way around this that i can see is if killing Voldermort brought Hitler back to life. But that doesnt mean all magic systems work equally well for stories. In The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, practitioners of the Skill can communicate to each other telepathically. However, Im not sure whether adding a new field, force, particle, etc. Depending on where the clusters are and how they are structured different effects emerge: 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. If you don't combine spells you'll have 2 (or more) people fighting together, but not as one being. I gave the most basic rundown I could. Second, look through all the essential pieces of spell creation and casting, and think how the casting process might fail at each step. also just a thought, you also could have mentioned the Eragon series which uses language as the limitation for casting, and physical energy for fueling spells. Without this action, the person is consumed by the power, turning into a brute beast, only wanting to destroy those with more power then themselves. Its easy to get excited and bite off more than you can chew, but youll do better if you focus on fewer things. I also had the idea that there would be some very powerful, old spirits who have long-standing contracts with humanity as a whole. Some well-known examples of soft magic systems: In The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. All spells require a minimum level of power to run, though many can be empowered further. Technically, anyone can use holy magic, but it takes years to become proficient. Apoglies if it comes off as confusing, Im not very good at conveying my thoughts and ideas, will explain in greater detail later. In The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, magic is like law. 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. Thanks! Theres a lot to figure out about the basics, before you can think about sub-types. The most well known curse is the Demons Mark. I suspect it might be possible; after all, there are plenty of mathematically worked out theories involving new particles and forces, but Ill have to do quite a bit of research. I would start with some metaphysical idea about exactly what functions these threads are performing to hold the world together. Give me your thoughts! Stoking fires sounds like a natural fit. Im not a novel writer, but I am a worldbuilder. At first thanks a lot for this article, it helps to organize some things in my head. And the Aether is born from our Thoughts and Actions, more specifically, our Souls. A water line would provide energy for a water mage, an earth line for an earth mage, and so on. I dont like giving writers a formula for magic systems. Is magic (or the source that fuels it) a limited resource in your story world? E.g., player can only use some energy from the environment, depending on available amount and the players skills. Lich could do for those who contain the energy, as liches go on living long after they should be gone, so essentially containing life energy past their due date. This same punishment theory may explain why humans are killed for trying to harness and redistribute sunlight. What obvious flaws are there? Vindictive/less scrupulous ones will take the opportunity to ask for more than youd normally give. It doesn't have to be something natural either, it could be a machine or body enhancement, like a tattoo. Mother takes away the gift of sunlight and its heat and sends all of the water down upon the plants to punish them in their death. Youll need to set guidelines for how these beings operate so that you can explain why they do or dont answer prayers whenever theyre asked. If you want to create a soft magic system, I have some good news: you dont need to come up with a set of systematic rules, or even an underlying logic. To have the power of the Towers, one must have originated from them, or been taken to it by someone from the Towers. The flavor might be of magic based on communication with spirits, although these spirits do have to obey at least some physical laws. If it was merely about Harry learning magic more of that logic would be needed. Theres nothing wrong with using classic tropes, but if you want to stand out in the crowded world of fantasy, youll need to learn how to use them in an innovative and unique way. Thats what its all about. Ill have to remember I can do that if necessary. One of the things I noted in that comment is that what seems to make sense differs between individuals, cultures, and even species. 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. To me, it seemed like I had everything figured out and I could write a story now. mental enhancements, the nanites acting as auxiliary brains. Its been a tremendous influence on pop culture, especially conceptions of ghosts. Or does it speed up molecules/atoms to heat up an object (if we have mostly realistic world)? If one person grows wings and another teleports, your system will feel arbitrary. The Chinese traditional elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, a different classification scheme that is equally arbitrary. There are roughly two magic systems. (A quiet lunch with my friend is much more repeated/repeatable than when I first met my best friend). I forgot to mention the Towers :(. Just remember that great ideas are only the start, solid implementation has to follow, and learning that takes a lot of time and practice. You can certainly use that, even though information might sometimes not be easy to find. Magic does exist and it follows rules is the first rule of a rational system. And after all of this, there are still problems of how the signals dont get mixed up when a lot of beings are around and why organisms havent already evolved impenetrable defenses against mind-readers and how the information is processed and how the telepath knows what to find. If you can't combine spells you'll have to work together perfectly, time spells one after the after and make sure you're not in each other's way. Thats what I mean when I say Dumbledore and Voldemort should have paid for their enormous use of power at the ministry of magic in Harry Potter. Its easy to handle in books, because author can just describe the effects. They should be able to deduce, if they want to, what a magic user (or a psychic) can or cant do and you shouldnt suddenly throw someone in who can do something that should be impossible by the rules you set down and showed before. Post time-skip, with my second protagonist, magic is rarer due to shifts in the spirit world and how humans access it. A waterbender cant control air or earth or fire. 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.