#magic spreadsheet

[sycamorality]

so i was trying to figure out how to meaningfully distuingish ice and water as different types of magic in a magic system, because obviously ice is just frozen water, so how would you justify a water magic user not being able to cast ice or an ice magic user being able to cast water

the conclusion was a magic system that uses states of matter and temperature as a basis

[silverwhittlingknife]

you guys

listen

i have created a spreadsheet & i'm very excited about it

my spreadsheet tells me

which comics a character appears in (according to DCWiki) (for all the Batkids, Bruce, and some Titans/YJers)

which comics *two* characters appear in *together*

the cover dates of the comics so i can sort chronologically

the top 10 list of “characters this person interacts with most often” (or more precisely, “characters who appear most often in the same comics as this character and who you will therefore be familiar with if you read comics with this character)

FOR EXAMPLE

did you know that

Conner and Bart are both each other’s #1 interaction (within YJ)

Cassie and Tim are both each other’s #1 interaction (within YJ)

(this is actually unsurprising once you remember that Conner and Bart were dead for a while, but it surprised me anyway!)

among the sometime Teen Titans, the #1 interaction for Kory, Wally, Roy, and Dick is all the same person

it’s Donna

(Donna’s top interaction is with Kory)

since he’s in the JLA, post-Crisis Wally interacts with Clark, Diana, and Bruce way more often than he does with the other Titans (as an adult, he interacts twice as often with Bruce as with Dick, which is interesting to think about character-wise)

now i just need a script which will scrape the dcwiki to tell me the writer of each comic and then i will be INVINCIBLE

[sycamorality]

crystal/radioactive could be ekanite! according to my research its naturally radioactive :) i was originally thinking of the phenomenon of uranium glassware but nah its just uranium in them. no variations with radioactive porcelain or anything. its just the uranium doin the work.

for crystal/light my mind instantly jumped to mirrors, but im not sure if that would be considered a gemstone material... mirrors are also made up of glass so it would just technically be a repeat of crystal/force unfortunately. therefore, maybe a gemstone with an adamantine luster? since its common for people to describe that sort of thing as being 'mirror-like'... some adamantine gemstones include zircon, pyrargyrite, and proustite.

i understand why you're filling out this spreadsheet now. this is fun to concept for.

oh i like these lots. i think i will go with zircon i like how colorful it is it feels very fitting. also yes ilove filling out spreadsheets its wonderful. even better if you let other people contribue also

[sycamorality]

So, to expand on my idea for force magic.. I feel like it can be used as an alternative to some forms of kinesis, like a mastery of it is also a mastery in deception, but it's not a flawless concept. It has it's own weaknesses. It's not as versatile as actually using other magics but it can give the illusion of a basic understanding of those magics but also aid them in the sense that, because it's only the physical interaction, it could have a larger range and could help with getting materials in range for the more complex tricks you have up your sleeve.

And perhaps blood-light can be regeneration, and blood-shadow could be decay?

nodding. adding the notes to the sheet

[sycamorality]

same anon from like 40 minutes ago im still on the research grind at the moment. i am Not 100% confident with this pick but crystal/ice could be labradorite? i was trying to figure out whether there are any gemstones that are commonly found wayyy high up in mountains (line of thinking being high up in mountains -> usually colder, stereotypically covered in ice/snow -> thus possible crystal/ice or crystal/snow gemstones) and i spotted labradorite in some of my lists. an interesting thing abt labradorite- nearly every article has a section that talks about an inuit legend, claiming that it was a frozen fragment of the northern lights. im not sure how true this claim actually is (no sources on any of the articles unforchies) but its an interesting connection you could make to claim it as crystal/ice... also saw some comments saying the study of the crystal helped understand magmatic cooling rates. cooling -> ice, yknow. shrug.

snow and cloud are really hard ones to think of crystal mixes with tbh. the only thing i can really offer is just throwing out potential leads for others to follow down... i feel like you could find crystal/snow through a throughline following the formation of the fractals on snowflakes? something something gemstone with fractals. crystal/cloud could be something relating to pressure and/or condensation. either that, or you could interpret 'cloud' through the lens of 'fog' and try to find gemstones known for being found in foggy places..???? im really stumped on cloud to be frank.

oh thats really interesting. i tried looking up actual sources on it only to... well, also no avail (only found websites advertising the gemstone for sale using the legend to get people to buy it, i guess). if anyone could actually confirm or deny this being an actual legend that'd be awesome

i'll probably see if i can find any crystals with fractal structures... i was thikning something similar but just don't have time for it currently. and honestly for crystal/cloud i was thinking aerogel but that is very much, not a mineral of some kind, so. who knows. i'll probably go digging on some old lists of gemstones i have see if there's anything that's my fancy for it

[sycamorality]

could neutral/plasma be radioactivity or something similar to it? i dunno, something about radioactive decay being a natural process for certain types of material/elements. and plasma is already related definition-wise to particles (though idk if you have a more specific definition for plasma in your table). maybe its just the magic of "messing with molecules directly" to align nicer with the other neutral magics..? also plasma is the name of a type of green quartz apparently and radioactivity is usually portrayed as green !! (not an actual reason just a funny coincidence while researching lol)

i dont have any specific definition for plasma other than "not solid/liquid/gas" its some secret fourth thing /silly i do really like this idea though, i'll add it to the sheet

[sycamorality]

i remember seeing poison as a magic to be added earlier in the thread... did that ever get added? or is it too close to life/death magic and is thus excluded?

if it hasnt been added yet but is to be done i suggest it being a mix of blood/shadow. blood is healing magic, thus poison would be a corrupted version? playing into the stereotypes of how poison magic is usually presented? harming magic... idr if you ever said that 'shadow' and 'light' are the stereotypical good and evil magics though... if shadow isnt evil magic and is instead more focused on actual shadows, you could instead make a case for blood/mercury being poison. with the existence of 'mercury poisoning' as a widespread phenomenon and mercury literally being used in older medicine (thus leading to disfigurement and poisonings from said medicine).

that never got added no, and blood/shadow is decay, which i think is probably close enough? both cause harm in similar ways