#magic system ideas

[traderotales]

✨Trick or Treat! :3✨

🎃👻🍬

Hi Plupps!! As your treat, you get the building blocks of the magic system, and worldbuilding, that I'm cooking up for my Wild West Death story, which for anyone new I rambled about here :)

Essentially, the magic system is very mirror and reflection based, as likely will be the world itself. Why? I thought it'd be cool for one of my magic systems to be based on something physical this time, as I often do it based on concepts.

THE MAGIC

To start off, everyone has what's called an Primary Echo, usually just called an 'Echo' because of how strong it is. The Primary Echo is synonymous with the person's soul. People can have Lesser Echoes, which represent people they were and have been, or in some cases, also people they could have been, but these aren't seen all that much when looking at an Echo, not unless you try to dig for them. An Echo shows the true whole of a person, including fears, secrets, and other things they don't want to confront or show.

Echoes are made of Fragments, and these are always a total of 12 for a complete and whole Echo. Fragments can be added or lost to a person's Echo over time, as the person themselves changes over time. Due to this, Fragments being removed and swapped out has drastic mental effects on the person, as well as possible physical ones.

On Fragments, there are such called Core Fragments. These Fragments are a lot more difficult to remove from a person's Echo, as they hold the power to give people abilities, with one ability per Core Fragment, also totaling 12 different kinds. However, people have a maximum limit of only 3 Core Fragments in their Echo. They can have less, but not more.

There might also be more types of Core Fragments, to lead to non-powered people, because I've always liked only select few having the powers in fantasy novels.

Each of the 12 powers have an inverse of it, as another power, though currently I haven't decided on them all yet. Inverse powers, however, cannot be both naturally gained by a person at birth, as that's nature's way of not having people be too powerful.

Back to Fragments, again, there are 12 total, and I had the idea that there are 4 Quadrants of similarly typed Fragments within an Echo. Core Fragments would be one Quadrant, and I had the idea Personality is another, and maybe Appearance as a third one? It's something I need to hammer out, though my idea is it'd be two pairs of inverses. But with the 4 Quadrants, there's only 3 Fragments per. The third of each Quadrant is thus the inverse of another third, strengthening the entanglement and balance between them all.

THE POWERS

As a whole, I'm not quite sure what the powers, or the act of using them would be called. Replimancy? Echomancy? Prismancy? 'Echo' and 'Prism', maybe even 'Fragment' might be my best words to use, along with some suffix out there that has ties to using magic lol. I might not use '-mancy', but I shall search for others :D

[Future Trader here: I've seen others and have had the one off ideas of 'Echosis' or 'Echoism'? Fragmentism? -ism means 'the practice or system of' and -sis means 'action, process, or state of something' (i think). Tbh I'm gonna think on it more lol.]

Now, the powers themselves! Or at least- the ones I have lol.

There are 12 powers total, and each is a pairing of an inverse. I also had the idea that half are physical, the affect the user, and the other half is moreso mental, or anything non physical. They will also all have cool(er) names, and names for the people who use them :D

Powers I've Thought About:

Mirror Teleportation (temporary name of Reflecting): Using this, someone can travel through reflections; usually mirrors, as clearest reflections are easiest to enter, but it also extends to anywhere they see their own reflection. Upon entering it, they enter the lowest level of the Opposite. In the Opposite, their Echoes are exposed, and very vulnerable, as the Opposite is essentially the spirit realm. How they get out of it, and to their destination...I've got no clue yet, lol.

I did have the idea that there's different 'forms' of this teleportation. Like, one could stay near where they entered, if they entered their reflection in a moving object, and pop back out when the object was further on its path. And then there's the obvious go from one reflection to another.

Shapeshifting (temporary name of Refracting): These people alter their Echo intentionally to change themselves, mostly appearance wise but it could be personality too. This likely has side effects of becoming that person too much, and so they have to be careful about it.

Literally just the Mirror Dimension from Marvel: I very obviously haven't hammered this one out, lol. But, it'd essentially be throwing up a barrier of sorts, where anyone caught in it has their actions inversed, and the surroundings also visibly inverse. It's very disorienting for people unaccustomed to it. it can also probably do a thing where it changes the person's perspective entirely, depending on where the user is in relation to them when they activate the barrier? So for example, if the user activates it above the victim, the perspective of up is now down. Would this affect them physically--like say, there's a roof high above their head, and it flips, would they fall down into the ceiling? Yes, probably, because that's cool >:D

Miscellaneous Ideas:

Scrying through reflections/reflective surfaces

Communication through reflections

Illusions/cloning

Controlling the angles of reflections, and maybe somehow getting rid of them entirely to stop a Mirror Teleporter?

Reading people's Echoes via reflections

THE MONSTERS

Unfortunately, I must remind you that this setting is apocalyptic. Fortunately, that means I get to make monsters :D

These monsters are called the Shattered. They are turned into monsters due to the fact that their Echoes are incomplete, and have gone feral because of it. The more Fragments missing from their Echo, the more powerful and feral (and likely larger) a Shattered is. Shattered also have mirrored limbs, which leans into the body horror I wanted, and is likely also affected by how many Fragments one is missing.

[Art done by the glorious @muggyweather]

I do very much like the many mouths idea, utterly horrifying :)

The Shattered also tend to kill people, but it's moreso in eating their Echoes, in a futile attempt to repair their own. And in separate the victim's Echo, they turn that victim into another Shattered.

Now, as for why the Shattered have been appearing, and even started? I haven't figured that out yet--it's a mixture between maybe a virus? Or like, evil people interference? But, I have a plotline to remedy that.

LORE (so far)

For as long as this world has been alive, Death has overseen it, with their sibling Life, and their superior, God. Will God's name be God? No, but that's their title so I will use it for now.

Long ago, God sent Death to the world with one mission: figure out why The Shattered were becoming as they were, and to save their Echoes. When a person Shatters, their Echo is trapped within their body, and so Death has had to manually free their Echoes and help them into the afterlife, which is currently called the Opposite, or at least, the afterlife is the deep recesses of the Opposite.

For Death to go to the Physical Realm, they needed an Echo, as they are a sort of tether to the Physical Realm. Both Death and Life never had one, being forces rather than human people. God created an Echo for Death, then sent them on their way.

But while Death had been on their mission, God was dying, and no amount of Life's help was able to fix it. During one of Death's few visits back into God's domain, God had sent Life to the Physical Realm as well, at their request to try and find something to help God, and also help Death's quest of finding out why the Shattered numbers had grown even larger, and taken over half of the continent, and to try and find a way to reverse it rather than just killing the Shattered. God stressed the importance of said quest, and Death only had enough time to pay a few respects to their parental figure/mentor before being sent back.

Death hadn't been there when they'd felt God die. And now, they can't return to God's domain, for whatever reason. Years, maybe even decades, after God's death, Death is still roaming the world, dead-set on completing their last mission from Them. That, and finding their sibling, Life, who they still haven't seen since God sent them away.

A third mission has made itself known to them, in these last few years; people haven't been dying properly. Alongside freeing the Echoes of the Shattered, Death still does their duty of guiding Echoes of the dead into the Opposite and its depths. And they've noticed that, as the years pass, a few individuals haven't died. They've been immortal, somehow living long past their Time to die. And Death has taken it upon themself to hunt them down, and figure out why.

WORLDBUILDING

I don't have many ideas for this, but I have a few. These are all sort of on a physical sense.

I had the thought of iridescent clouds or rain would be neat, with the entire world being based off of reflections.

As due to that, had the idea that somehow, someway, a lot of things in nature could be symmetrical

^Just a lot of non-earth fantasy worldbuilding elements would be cool I think

There were originally more cities across the continent, but when the story starts it's been taken down to six, at the center. Everywhere else is pretty much Shattered territory, and villages near it have to do their best to not get eaten.

Annnnd I think that's it! If you guys have any sort of thoughts or ideas, please let me know, I've been having a blast with this :D

[lavender-town-radio]

when u use magic ur palms glow with ur magic color. glowing paw pads 4 humans.

[aquadestinyswriting]

Magic and Emotion: Over-Channel and Miscasts

Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday everyone. I have been having thinky-thoughts about this subject since it's come up quite a lot in my writing recently. Have a super-long article about it.

Tags: @druidx, @sparrow-orion-writes, @ashirisu, @blind-the-winds, @philosophika, @the-down-upside-finch

The Basics of Magic

I have briefly explained how and why magic users in Titan can cast magic to begin with in the article about Burnout. However, I will provide a basic summary of that explanation here so that we are all on the same page:

The population of Titan has developed an extra layer of cells over their nervous system that exists purely to allow for the transfer of magical energy through the body. This extra layer exists in 99.7% of the general population, meaning that almost anyone in the world can learn magic to some degree. This extra layer of cells is referred to as an aetherial sheath, or Arcane Channel in common parlance. Those individuals who find it easier to manipulate magic have a thicker layer of these cells than average, though whether these individuals naturally have a thicker layer or whether the layer became thicker due to using magic is a highly contentious topic.

Now that we know how the people of Titan can channel magic, let’s look at where magic comes from.

Magic has three main sources in Titan; 

Natural magic is simply the magical energy that was left over from the world’s creation. It is found in nearly every living thing and is the most readily-accessible kind of magic in the world. This type of magic is incredibly volatile and easily affected by the emotional state of those capable of casting spells. This is the magic that makes up the ‘magical weave’ that all casters, no matter what kind, can sense.

Arcane magic is the next most readily-accessible form of magic after natural magic. Arcane magic is even more volatile than natural magic and is, as a result, harder to manipulate correctly. It is currently believed that Arcane magic is some sort of corruption of natural magic, though what caused said corruption is unknown. It is also the most powerful type of magic naturally found on Titan, which makes it extremely useful and sought-after for a large variety of different purposes. 

Divine magic is gifted by the Gods upon those who heed the Call to work in service to one or more of Them. While it is the hardest to access, it is also the safest type of magic to channel, as the amount of power a divine caster can put into any one spell is dependent on how much power a God, or Gods, are willing to grant at any given time. This type of magic is still affected by a caster’s emotional state, though it tends to be less volatile in this regard than either Natural magic or Arcane magic due to the ritualistic nature of casting.

A fourth source of magic does exist, Demonic. However, due to its very nature, it is a difficult type of magic to study in any great detail. All that you need to know, dear reader, is that this type of magic has been far more corrupted than even Arcane magic, and using it is extremely hazardous to any caster that is themselves not a demon. What is known, however, is that it is easier to manipulate and just as powerful as Arcane magic, making it an extremely useful ‘shortcut to power’ for those who don’t care about its corrupting influence.

Magic and Emotion

We have previously established that all kinds of magic are affected by the emotional state of spellcasters, simply due to the fact that magic can be manipulated by imposing one’s will upon the ‘weave’. Many are the stories of young children that have an innate ability to cast creating minor magical explosions during a tantrum. Most spellcasters grow out of this stage fairly quickly as they learn how to control their emotional state, though Sorcerors tend to experience a second surge of this kind of activity once they begin puberty. 

Sorcerors aside, most spellcasters feel drawn to one magical discipline or another from a young age. Wizards feel a calling to study the magic in the world and how it works, Bards will feel compelled to make music, tell tales or sing and share that joy with others, Druids and Rangers will feel a connection to the wild places of the world and Clerics will be Called into the service of one or more Gods. Paladins are a little more tricky; some feel a Call to serve the Gods, while others feel a compulsion to protect those weaker than themselves, or hold themselves and others to a strong moral compass. All of these casters are trained not just in how to manipulate magic, but also how to control their emotional state. Strong emotions and magic are very often an accident waiting to happen, especially as the caster grows in power and strength. 

What happens to a spell during when the caster is experiencing a particular, strong emotion varies wildly. Generally speaking; stress/desperation and anger tend to make a spell much more volatile and uncontrollable; though also much more powerful in effect, sadness and anxiety tend to cause spells to falter and fail, panic and fear most often lead to blind bursts of magical energy rather than the spell that may have been initially intended. 

Out of all of these, stress and anger are generally deemed to be ‘useful’ emotions for spellcasters of all types, especially those who regularly cast in combat situations. Despite the drawbacks of casting a more volatile spell, most casters agree that in desperate situations, more power is much more useful than a spell fizzling out altogether. Unfortunately, due to this, some spellcasters who are regularly placed into stressful situations while casting end up developing anger management issues; preferring to get angry rather than upset or scared even in situations where anger is not useful.

Even when not actively spellcasting, all casters will draw power towards themselves when strong emotions are present. This is a purely unconscious response to stress and is likely a response to an increase in adrenaline; the draw of power basically being a way for the caster to fight back, create cover for them to hide or flee or to manipulate the emotional state of the person or people causing them stress in order to avoid confrontation altogether. In all cases, if the drawn in magic is not dispelled or released in a safe manner, it will explode out from the caster in a non-aligned concussive blast. How large the explosion is and how much damage it causes is dependent on how much power was drawn, and how much power is drawn is entirely dependent on how extreme the adrenaline response is. Even relatively weak spellcasters can create a concussive force strong enough to knock unprepared people over if their stress levels are high enough.

One unfortunate side-effect of a significant draw of power by a caster who has not yet developed the capacity to safely store large amounts of magical energy, is over-channel.

Over-Channel

Over-channel, as explained in the article about Burnout, is a condition that occurs when a caster channels too much power through themselves at once. This damages the aetherial sheath and can, if handled improperly, lead to permanent disability or even death in the most severe cases. 

In the most minor cases, Over-channel leads to pain, usually in the hands and arms, and fatigue for a few days. More severe cases may end up with the caster losing consciousness and requiring weeks to recover. The severity of a case of Over-channel depends on several factors; how much power the caster channelled in comparison to how much they can normally safely channel at once, how long any power drawn was stored in the caster’s body and whether the power drawn was released via a controlled cast or was a blind blast of energy. The most severe cases of over-channel happen when a caster has drawn in a far larger amount of power than they can usually safely cast, the power has been stored for more than a minute and when the drawn power is released as a blind blast. As noted above, these conditions are usually found in cases where the caster was experiencing extreme emotional stress. This is why training in how to manage one’s emotional state is so important for casters of all types. 

The only instance where a caster may not experience over-channel despite all three conditions being met, is where a cleric is used by their God to channel Their Will. It is thought that, as the God is the caster, They temporarily bolster the body of their cleric in order for Their Will to be known physically. These displays of power are both awe-inspiring and frightening to behold. In these instances, the cleric is usually left only slightly fatigued by the experience.

Miscasting

Miscasting is another kind of magical accident that can happen when a caster is in an emotional state when casting a spell. It typically happens when a caster is panicking while trying to cast a specific spell, or becomes distracted in the middle of the cast. 

A miscast spell is simply a spell that is not cast correctly. It may be the result of a mis-spoken power word, a rushed prayer, an incorrect hand gesture or the caster trying to switch to another spell in the middle of a cast. Alcohol and other such substances can also affect the chances of miscasting a spell, so care must be taken not to overindulge to avoid any accidents.

The result of a miscast depends on the spell that was intended and how far through the spell the caster got. Some miscasts may result in an entirely different spell than the one the caster intended, while others may just result in the spell fizzling out altogether. In any case, the emotional state of the caster is usually a major component in why a spell was miscast.

As miscasts are more common in those spellcasters who are still training, anxiety is usually the largest contributor. Confidence is key when it comes to casting spells; after all, magic is first and foremost about imposing one’s will on the magical weave of the world. You cannot expect a spell to complete if you are not confident in your ability to cast it in the first place. 

Wizards also have the added difficulty of learning to speak, read and write a whole new language, typically draconic. Learning to properly pronounce and enunciate the verbal component of a spell takes time, as does learning how to write out the spell in the first place. Add on learning any somatic gestures and what magical spell components to use then is it any wonder that miscasts are most commonly seen among young wizards? 

Thankfully, unless the spell being cast is dangerous to the caster to begin with, most miscasts are relatively harmless. However, care must always be taken when casting destructive spells as miscasts of these may result in collateral damage that is not intended, such as a Fireball exploding too soon, a Flamestrike targeting the wrong area, or ending up on the wrong side of a continent or getting stuck in a cliff during a Teleport.

Summary

To conclude: while emotions are an intrinsic part of being mortal, care must be taken when attempting to cast while experiencing extreme emotions. Even when not actively casting, spellcasters must learn to become acutely aware of how their emotional state affects their environment. Learning how to effectively manage an unintentional draw of power is an absolute necessity in order to avoid blind explosions of magic and over-channel. This does not mean that every caster must avoid their feelings, if anything that would make the situation worse. Bottled up emotions require an outlet, and in spellcasters that tends to lead to a much larger draw of power and subsequent explosion of said power, leading to a severe case of over-channel that, as noted, can result in death. 

The safest thing any caster can do to manage this risk is to find healthy and safe outlets for their emotions, particularly anger and fear. Having healthy relationships with family and friends who can notice when a draw of power is occurring and who can then step in to help the caster safely release said power is probably the best way to manage any risks associated with this subject. 

[redd956]

Magic system ideas I want to explore

Language = the magic, maybe language is how you cast it, maybe everybody is born with a body language base magic, but other languages increase it. Different regions speak different languages because that magic is attuned to their way of life or culture. Or maybe the language comes first, new dialects slowly drifting into new groups of magic.

Industrial/Military inspired magical abilities and enhanced powers, that are assigned to every child at birth deciding their role in society. Soldier children are never allowed to leave the military, and dodging it is an even greater task. Imagine siblings watching the other be whisked away for war, feeling guilty that they were assigned factory helpful magics instead. They have the choice to sign up and use their fire ability to perhaps aid their sibling in war, but that would lead them down one of the most brutal military paths. (military craft = alive???)

Magic comes from killing powerful magic beings. Becoming magic from doing so doesn’t make you a powerful magic being, but instead a mortal with magic. Eventually the mortal will die and the magic will leave the realm alongside them, a group finds that magic is evenly dispersed across them. The strongest amount a mortal can get is to kill a magical being alone. No one knows where these magical beings come from, and if they’re slowly hunting them into extinction for magic to never be seen again.

Familiar magic system, simple as that children find their familiars someday, and magic and whatnot comes with that. Familiars would primarily be beautiful immortal spirits that are animals, but I'm not against the idea that perhaps they could be something else. Something even wilder.

[persnicketypansy]

You may bring humans back (from the dead). Humans have souls. Humans come back intact (minds preserved) (able to reason). Your loved one was well cared-for by the veil, and will remember your name and their name and the names of your children.

But you cannot reanimate animals. You must not. Animals have no souls. Animals will come back wrong (minds preserved) (able to reason). Animals wandered somewhere you have no word for, and they will come shells, carrying something else inside them. Animals will be hungry. And will remember their name. And your name. And the names of your children.

[cepheusgalaxy]

Thinking about how it seems that spells, in most magic systems, are cast by speaking them, right. You spell a spell and it's cast. So it's kind of like the magic resides in the words? In the sound?

But it's sorta funny. What a coincidence, that spells are the language people in this setting can speak. And then I was like "wait. What if spells were cast in something humans can't even speak...?"

So I raise you: Magic system in which the spells are to be cast by sounds that... human vocal chords can't make. There's a few animals that can, but they don't have the sapience to. This way the only way people can spellcast is by using machines (imagine if magic was "discovered" relatively late because of that) or musical instruments.

[cepheusgalaxy]

Fantasy idea: You have a fairly hard magic system with set rules, perhaps a bit flexible, but nobody in your setting understands them so they treat it like soft magic

[cepheusgalaxy]

Wait.... i need True Names in my magic system