#linguomancy

[gurlu]

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it.

Sapient lava people and their cities.

[gurlu]

Did I just spend 12 hours getting sidetracked and coding an entire spell maker for the wiki instead of working on commissions ? Maybe. Perchance.

[gurlu]

Never really expected to for my magic wiki to be nominated for the world building awards to begin with so I'm not sad at all to have not won the award

I already feel very warm inside for my work to have been seen by professional writers, and they thought it was worth a trophy :]

[gurlu]

When are you gonna link the wiki? 🥺

I'll provide it when it's presentable ! Haven't drawn for a week now. I might just not draw for a bit, I really wanna finish this while I can.

In the meantime, here's how the main page look >:]

[gurlu]

I am thoroughly enjoying your wiki on your magic system. I had a lot to say about it, but am scared of people, especially too scared to DM; but I saw you wanted conversations about it🤩

One of the first things I loved is the ever presence of magic. The fact that spells and sigils take the names of “idioms,” “nouns,” “verbs,” etc. was evidence enough that magic was incredibly common. Despite it being common, it still keeps the essence of ‘magic’—being a mystery despite how accessible it is.

Your name for magic being “Flux” is really nice. It being present or “flowing” everywhere—it also means continuous change, which fits with the “ever-changing universe” :D.

Souls existing inside of nearly everything, and one of the components for a soul to have consciousness, has me wondering if planets in our solar system are conscious, ancient beings in this universe.

Becoming a husk of your true self once the connection to your soul is severed is a unique take on ‘death’. What if the body was destroyed? Would that thing with a soul just be dead and gone?

Manipulation of another’s essence being neigh-impossible adds to the primordialness of Flux imo.

“Words” (simply being called that, again, gives off the idea of being really common :D) being essentially their own language to learn or study is an aspect I haven’t seen—probably not the best one to be seeing that as I haven’t seen too many shows/movies/books. And them being reshaped, more comprehensive, precise, and having improved clarity makes me wonder how exactly does this medium tap into Flux?

I’m glad you brought up, even briefly, how Idioms is not only important to sciences, but also has became culturally significant. The comparisons to everyday things really sells how normal it is to society. I also like how instead of just being able to learn multiple disciplines like it’s nothing, it takes time—and a lot of it—just for one to be mastered.

My question about how this medium taps into Flux was just answered. Being a talented wordsmith doesn’t just use one part of you, it uses every thing you got and I think that just makes sense.

“Words are the recipe, not the ingredients.” So, they’re like the instructions on what to do with the ingredients, right?

The Nouns themselves are something I could go on about. They’re simple but get across what they represent really well, like fire looking enough like a geometrical fire. Don’t know if it was intentional, but air looks like a mountaintop which I think is neat cause it’s the opposite of what earth reminds me of (some cavern or core to the Earth or something deep underground). They (Earth and Air) vaguely remind me of their alchemical symbols.

Woah that's a lot ! I am very glad that you're enjoying my magic system a lot, I put a lot of time and effort into it so it makes me genuinely happy that people are enjoying it as much. I'll try to answer the questions you asked. They should be already answered in the wiki, but I'll still provide more straightforward answers here :

What if the body was destroyed? Would that thing with a soul just be dead and gone?

If the body dies, the Balance is severed, and the other Strata will wither away. If the body ceases to exist, then the soul will quickly follow : the mind degrading then finally ending with the essence withering away. It's what a ghost is ! You could technically resurrect someone before this happen, but since the mind starts dissolving pretty fast, it's likely they wouldn't be the same. Unless the soul managed to be preserved through magical means, that is.

How exactly does this medium tap into Flux ?

You make spells by calling into the Stratas, channeling energy through your essence, willing it with your mind, conducting it through your body then releasing it into reality. That's why it uses all of your being to do so ! Words are just tools to help you with that by focusing your being into the meaning and idea. Whether it's a dance or a magic formula, these tools will help you get into the groove and align your being into the manifestation you aim for.

“Words are the recipe, not the ingredients.” So, they’re like the instructions on what to do with the ingredients, right?

Yeyp, just like I said in the question before, Words are just tools that help you focus your being. You could say absolutely anything or make any movement, so long as it's clear to you what you want to do. Like the instruction in a block of code or like the recipe to a dish ; all you need to cast an Idiom is to understand. You already have what you need inside yourself, you just need to grasp it in the correct way.

Don’t know if it was intentional, but Air looks like a mountaintop which I think is neat cause it’s the opposite of what earth reminds me of (some cavern or core to the Earth or something deep underground). They (Earth and Air) vaguely remind me of their alchemical symbols.

The sigil of Air was a bit tough to make, as it needed to correctly click with the other sigils to make the corresponding Nouns, all while making sense on its own. What I came to create is a symbol looking like a cloud. On its own, it's not completely perfect to understand what it is (like regular air), but once you merge it with other elements, you immediately recognize its presence. I thought this accidental little nod to Air's inherent invisibility was another clever way to represent it, so I kept it !

[gurlu]

Has anyone compared your rune system to the one from Tyranny by Obsidian? I find them both fascinating and I love them <3

I think I remember tumbling upon this system when I was researching magical elements, but I never realized it was using a similar spell and sigil structure until I already came up with my own !

Funilly enough, I remember liking how their runes looked like back when I was starting with this wiki around 5 years ago. I didn't come up with my own symbols back then ; but for all I know, along with other sources, it may have unconsciously helped in the square-ish design for the sigils of Linguomancy!