Souls allow us to exist as Individuals, separate from the Aether. Magic certain individuals acquire the ability to issue new instructions to existing nanites, whether in the environment or within others bodies. Korra did it but that was more so of Avatar state then an Airbending technique. Those that survive the process emerge as a member of the Exalted (believed to have been chosen by a higher power) those that dont die screaming, bodies horribly twisted and in extreme cases, even dissolving into silvery, grey goop. Magic is part of an enormous range of stories, but finding 2 stories which use the same magic system isn't as easy as it may sound. Roughly, looks like extended noun+verb system, right? 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? What about Time? I was actually thinking of precursor aliens having set everything up, but that raises a lot more questions of motivation and the ability to remain undetected. Some kind of energy tentacles, if you want a picture. Youll have to figure out exactly what characteristic weft threads are adding, but thats completely doable. I was wondering if any of you could give your thoughts on it. Both Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender are hard magic systems, because they explain magic and its rules to the audience. I think that is arguable, but fine I personally want to read hard magic systems anyway. The answer to which one (or more) to pick is again entirely dependent on what you need from your magic in your story universe. I like your idea about the gods randomly interacting with the world. But, with the power of enough minds, things and beings could be transported to nearly any location instantly, as long as that location was also in the proximity of many minds (Minds were always at least somewhat tied to the physical world during life, so there would still be a range limit, but a vastly larger one for this teleportation, spanning many light-years). 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)? Do you need sage, or can you use oak leaves instead? Earth magic is strongest during Spring. Avatar works with four definite sources of power, which happen to be fire, water, air, and earth. How to Create an Amazing Magic System - ProWritingAid They cant use magic at all. Limits then usually come from the strength of the effects (a limit to the area spells can target or the number of spells a mage can use before resting). magic system. However, set guidelines for how people react to exposure. So there you have a source of energy for your telekinesis. Gaining power can be done through a whole range of methods, you could train, gain power through an artifact, channel power into 1 person or spell, enhance a body through magic (or other means), simply study magic and how it works, siphon souls from other magical beings, gain a blessing (or curse) of a god or demon and much more. Sandersons First Law Certain effects that were considered: Ive also seen your above comment. Because when you move, there is an accompanying sound? I would suggest that you make it so your gods just randomly interact with the world. But that doesn't mean all magic systems work equally well for stories. Its no surprise the avatar state causes plot holes during Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Having the users of this power (some of whom actually are human) be its creators wouldnt really work, as I was going with a technology level around modern times for my main setting and this would require extremely advanced technology. This is a pretty nice article, and it has inspired me to think more about the magic systems I create. Here are four common categories you can consider. You just feel the spell, you dont need to recite anything. Now, for your first comment about my magic system, it is true I might be overthinking it (people have told me that before). In fact, I suspect it might make more sense than what Chris Winkle says in the original article. Not that hard to extrapolate. Its way too easy for me to make everything very logical with a specific and predictable reaction to every action, which is why Im trying to challenge myself with a more whimsical(?) 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? Oh, and the fantasy series Im cooking up is called Fantasia. Absorb Project Summon Dispel Protect Destroy Restore. So it goes like this, everyone in the world can use magic though alot choose not to because they dont want to get caught up in the conflict with all that do use it. Muggles are not going to have much luck oppressing wizards. This works the same for all energy types. Thats a neat trick you used for replying even when the thread space has run out. But it technically isnt magic if you put yourself in the characters shoes. Some dimensions have a lot of energy and a lot of lines, others have few. It depends on how you build up your magic system. In actual weaving, warp threads keep tension during weaving and are the main structure of the fabric. As a quick example, just think about how many movies and books reuse the theme of elemental magicfire, water, earth, and air. Thank you Cay, for making me think more about what i want my theme to be. And I had trouble writing with what nature aspects nymphs, dryads, and naiads would relate to, so I went with that. ( ): Ask yourself what effects will help your protagonists solve the problems presented in your plot, and what effects will be fun to write about. Plus, itll make the villain look rightfully confident and in control, rather than stupidly arrogant for powering up his adversary, and itll build up their threat level when the hero at seemingly full power wasnt a match for him. The law of magic that makes it so you cant summon food out of thin air feels like something invented by JK Rowling for plot purposes, not the logical result of a different set of physics like in Avatar the last Air bender. My major problem is that the subtypes dont connect with the main types of magic (demonic and angelic). You can get away with a strange assortment if you have mechanics that explain it. Paint is everything and everywhere. For example, if your characters can telekinetically control objects, your story will be more interesting if each character can only control a specific type of object, rather than being able to control anything they want. The pulp could be made of something special that allows for different effects when treated differently. If there are intelligent creatures with thought processes different from humans in your story, it would seem especially weird that magic must follow rules that conform to human divisions precisely. A glove that gradually eats away at their flesh, or every spell they cast they have to pay a price to a demon, or something. You just need a set of guidelines that all of your spirits/nymphs follow. For instance, if you have chaotic magic, dark magic, and lawful magic, your audience will wonder where the light magic is. Making sense in case of magic means being constant. First of all, why would there be a spell to dodge? Further into the future two young men of solitude manage to unlock the greatest fighting potential by breaking mental barriers making them the strongest people to exist since Black and White but they have a fight on morality causing a great war. It isnt strictly necessary, as I could probably write something interesting without it, but it is extremely convenient). No matter what magic they practice, it all centers on the manipulation of their mana to connect to the natural forces they want to control. The Chinese traditional elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, a different classification scheme that is equally arbitrary. Many systems treat magic as energy similar to heat, magnetism, electricity, or movement. The cycle of plants harnessing sunlight and Mother taking it back everyday is no longer considered a mystery, but an accepted fact of life. 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. Since the universe as a whole tends towards entropy, where this world uniquely tends towards balance, fire doesnt always behave as expected), Water in its various forms (liquid, gaseous, solid; in redistribution it will always revert to its most common form in nature, that of liquid. As an example, look at the Force the way its used in the first few Star Wars movies (episodes 4-6 nowadays). Conduits take magic energy from their surroundings, and Interferers take energy from Conduits to do magic by adding a bit of energy to the system (making a gust blow harder than it would, for example). Energy-based magic is easy to use because it comes with limitations. As far as your magic/psychic system goes, I can understand why you put so much thought into it. There are clear limits of what they can do, and things like resurrection and time manipulation are some of these limitations. would even mathematically work, as all existing particles and forces seem to be related by deep mathematical symmetries. However, they are actually Ancient Greek classifications and not modern science-based, so they arent really natural. I would take a step back from good and bad, first of all. I just thought of something related to teleportation, however. The Taran movie also would provide examples for limits through the source with both the magic kettle (stops working when a living thing is sacrificed) and the crystal ball which doesnt work for the villain for some reason, although its owner does well with it. Another elite bending technique is Astral Projection since their are the most spiritual of benders. You make good points about the gap between different kinds of magic. As bestselling author Brandon Sanderson explains, most magic systems can be classified as hard or soft in nature. [The post scarcity podcast was also very helpful.]. While both of these magic systems have mysterious aspects, in general they dont invoke wonder because they are understood. If a villain is gloating about killing the heros friend, the hero gets really angry, they attack with powers drawn from their newfound fury, and then the villain *still* crushes them before mocking them for their pathetic temper tantrum, then the audience isnt going to establish a connection between sudden emotional outbursts and conflict resolution. You can make it as cool as you like; think Discworld, Middle Earth, Zamonia, etc. Now, if magic in Tolkien just went by power levels like a Pokemon duel, Sauron would have won this handily, being pure blood of an order of beings who if we looked at these things just on the power level dimension clearly outranked the mortal clay that was mixed into Luthiens veins. One of them is how I believe that the tips given may not be universal. Also I like the fact that the Mages of the world are very politically influential feels so real because thats what would happen! It tries to convince the reader the newly defined rational magic system is what every fantasy writer should strive for. This is what making sense means when it comes to magic. 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. Oh, I see what I missed last time. Then the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore (both of which also have that trait) would be a glance into the future of Harry himself. The biggest limitation is the training. Why you should create a rational magic system as a writer? A few generations later, some of them did discover the truth, but kept it secret for fear of being blamed by association for the fall, and of people fearing a magical plague happening again. What unusual methods and applications might they attempt? I would point to Ancient Magus Bride as an example where you have both soft magic such as that used by both creatures of myth and the various magi, as well as the more grounded hard sort practiced by sorcerers. The mystery is in the water that the Living Mother leaves behind on the plants when the sunlight returns again. This ancient Wise One observed the natures tendency towards self-balancing and saw it as an Eternal Law. I think, some of the gods will be more random and chaotic than others. 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. 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. 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. From the other side, putting lot of fire energy into single point will produce real fire, moving air energies will make air blows. I forgot to mention the Towers :(. Telepathy: You mention detecting the electrical impulses of the nervous system. In The Locked Tomb trilogy by Tamsyn Muir, using magic exhausts necromancers, and causes some of them to bleed. You could just, you know, move out of the way? Its easy to get excited and bite off more than you can chew, but youll do better if you focus on fewer things. I disagree. (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) If youre still reading, thanks for letting me ramble. But once characters learn about the spell to disarm and the spell to block, they cant extrapolate that theres also a spell to dodge. Can magic be used incorrectly or immorally? Fantasy Random Generator. The expeditions that have come back tell of fantastical landscapes, filled with mystic flora and fauna. How much of it might people attribute to the magic, and how much might they attribute to simply becoming blas in the face of so much death? If a character casts spells with a combination of substances, dance moves, and symbols drawn in charcoal, assign a role to each component. You need to place incense in a semi-circle in front of you, drink fresh blood, paint your face with the blood, and focus on the person youre looking for. 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. Remember the problem with any kind of existing lore: someone out there whos reading your stories is an expert in it and will be pretty annoyed if you just wing it and your version has next to nothing in common with reality. Angelic and demonic can stay, but dont over-simplify things. Hard magic systems provide interesting limitations that allow your protagonist to solve problems using their own wits, not raw magical power. To the Avatar thing: the point is not using a scientific system for your magic. Im working on setting up a writing blog on WordPress, mirroring it to tumblr. I think I mostly understand, but Im not exactly sure what Interferers cant an cant do. 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. Not at all. the interactions between spells of opposing Wizards. Only one. Its implied humans discovered the thread and abandoned technology altogether, becoming more and more dependent on magic over the next few hundred years. If I get this right, magic workers are using pieces of the infrastructure built to support their world for magic instead, at which time it is no longer helping to sustain the world, and by putting these pieces back in place, the protagonist is strengthening that infrastructure. 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? Martin or the show writers lean hard by revealing how it works, I think theyll reveal something thats logically consistent. I guess its similar in its outward effects to the Avatar magic system, but youll see that its actually quite different. but humanity is creative and designs massive jammers that are able to disable the nanites that enter within X radius of them. Human variation in magical ability is determined by how much excess soul they have, after running all of their brain activity. I just made it up, I had no idea there was a magic system out there that was so similar. You can certainly use that, even though information might sometimes not be easy to find. 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. Preview. 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. In Dune, those who are exposed to spice develop powers over time. Magic isn't real, so it can be anything we want. The audience has no idea what they can do other than what theyve been directly told, so if they do anything new in a crisis, it will look like a deus ex machina. The old magic is, of course, pretty coincidental, and used in specific ways that drive the plot. There is a set science about how magical techniques are performed, and knowing about the what and the how behind these techniques is important. They arent all knowing like gods so you have to talk to them directly. Nullify and boost it? Is it light and full of wonder? I love your blog a lot, but Im annoyed with your bashing of the Harry Potter series in almost every article. Creating a system from scratch can feel incredibly overwhelming. It could also be from astral radiation or human emotion. They instead study the laws of nature and learn to manipulate them. 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. They have to learn magic to use it. Or you could think of the world like a house, a house has wood beams to hold the roof up, pipes to run water, electrical lines to power appliances, etc. As the reader, you may never truly understand what can and cant be accomplished with magic, but thats okayyou dont feel you need to in order to enjoy the story. If you're using this generator, you might also find the Magical Artifact Generator useful. And that should be all, if anyone can help me with the names of the entire concept, please do. Divine magic is often more powerful/useful, but isnt always reliable. The houses are merely there to spark rivalry, they have no deeper meaning for the magic or the story. Sympathetic spirits will take pity, accepting minor payment (maybe even the painful memory of seeing said loved one get shot). Theyre more afraid of the death of their world than their own personal death, however. This article was extremely helpful to me in figuring out my magic system. Following is a list of all the abilities that can be generated by the Abilities Generator. More so they come out on the other side changed What about pine trees and the like, since they are always green what explanation could be given for why the mother does not retaliate against them? Does the wielder have to be careful not to tip to one side to much? My main question is whether you think the weaving should be specialized; i. e., should I break it up into different types of thread/weaving style/knots? 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. Because the powers are not very hard to control, Givens are feared and supposedly taken care of by the government. 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. They grow larger and in summer they enjoy the fullness of a mature plant life. and not to be messed with lightly, as they can have devastating effects. Could perhaps some or all of them be elements alongside the classic four? Were he an adult already, thered be hardly a limit for him, apart from morals. 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. The key traits of a hard magic system are outlined in the graphic below. 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. Start by looking for further implications of what youve already established. Eventually, after many long and cold nights, Mother returns the sunlight and the heat, for even in just anger she cannot maintain an imbalance. Some extra stuff: There could be plots in which some would try to exploit/affect this source of energy but there could be a mental cost, such as suffering and being unable to think straight, for those who had to provide it. I will admit my system does need more development to round it out some. If you can't say something nice, say something thoughtful. Here are some examples of magical sources: In Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan, magic comes from the gods. Nature as a such comes in every now and then as well. As far as using body energy outside of the body is concerned, this is something you will have to wing. I transfer energy into the boulder or to the air around it to move that boulder. Superpower name generator. If the mage could deal great damage, at the same time protect themselves, and had no limit in the form of mana, either, why have any other party members at all? He has three great articles on building them, named after what he calls his three laws. The differences come into play when various factions go to war. Then use the answer to characterize all of your nature spirits.