Magic System Questions & Answers (Early Development)
Due to length, the full post is under the cut.
Questions from here.
What are the drawbacks of using magic? Does it have mental, physical, and/or emotional consequences for the user?
Rocks are like batteries that can be depleted, or rather their ability to channel magic needs to recovery. Mages can tire but their magic stores (tons of gems/jewelry) will usually deplete first— unless it’s a huge spell.
What tools are needed to harness magic? Wands? Spells? Magical artifacts?
Gems, rocks, and to a smaller degree, precious metals. Mages are decked out in jewelry: rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, brooches, etc, even hair ornaments. Some mages might have wands, but they are more of a personal choice rather than a necessity.
How do people learn magic? Instinct? In school? From family members?
It’s based on meditation and proximity to gem deposits. This is a culture that considers emotional intelligence and regulation through the practice of meditation. It is typically during meditations that magical skill becomes evident, however parents with stronger magic can usually know when their children have it. Parents or aunts/uncles tend to teach, but community elders, other mages, meditation teachers, etc. can and will take on the task if someone doesn’t have that familial or community connections. Self-learning is also an option.
Can everyone use magic or are only certain people capable of using it?
Everyone has some innate magic, however, mages have the strongest capability to access it. A random woman may have an innate ability to cook especially well— magic can translate into simple skills. It is common for most people to wear some kind of gem jewelry (except patricians, who reject gems and whose culture deviates by means of ostentatious decorative heave pieces and fashions). Meditation is a powerful tool and is the avenue most take to better access the energy that gems channel.
Is the capability to use magic hereditary? What about different ways of using magic (transformation powers, teleportation, etc.)?
It’s not hereditary, but it isn’t spontaneous either. It can be generational but also engineered. Parents who have strong magic are likely to have children who have strong magic. Visits to gem deposits for group meditations, living near deposits, or frequent meditations with a gem collection can create stronger bonds to their gem channels and to Magic. Powerful mages can sacrifice their senses to deepen their connections to the energy; the most common sacrifice is hearing and thus sign language is prevalent in this world.
What is impossible for magic to do?
Magic is a tool, it’s only as capable as the wielder. You can’t assess someone’s strength as a mage just by how much jewelry they’re decked out in. (To be elaborated upon.)
How long does it take to master different magical skills?
By the time someone is in their late teens, they should have a good grasp of their magic and have a personal arsenal of spells and charms. However, most of these are defensive, protective and trap spells. Offensive spells take longer to master, or takes more meditative practice.
Can creatures other than humans learn magic? Are different creatures better at using different kinds of magic?
Blood Charges are individuals with essentially an open channel to magic without the need for gems. Their powers are often elemental in nature and very unstable. They typically live away from towns or cities because of the volatility of their power. They can also perform a ritual that can open the channels to other mages Magic. Fae also have plant and or water-based Magic which mages do not.
Does it require spells to be spoken, written, or thought?
Finger tutting, hand/finger, body movements, and sometimes dance, and spoken words are all effective forms of magic. Sign Language is prevalent in this society to communicate with the Deaf, so many gravitated toward fingerspelling and tutting. Runes tattooed on the hands and arms with mineral ink can help mages conjure voicelessly, but that requires significant meditative practice.
Is it possible for someone to lose their magical abilities?
Not permanently. Traps and certain lodgings can block gem channels temporarily though. Magic use can deplete the gems and make Magic painful and difficult to cast until a period of rest is taken; great trauma can burden the connections and make wielding nigh impossible, but no one can truly lose their Magic completely.
How do characters’ emotions affect their ability to use magic? Do their emotions affect the magic’s intensity or controllability?
Emotional regulation is a major cultural practise among all peoples. Children are taught self-regulation and meditation from early on. Blood Charges can learn the meditation but their direct connections to the energy are so profound that it causes them to experience emotion with exponential rawness. Blood Charges are considered empathic on top of their elemental abilities, they are beacons for power and emotion and seeking one out opens the channels of Magic for a mage to a degree that makes emotion very raw and difficult to handle. Mages who are deeply attuned with themselves, which is a learned skill, are usually the best at using their Magic, however, some people have trained their Magic with a certain emotion instead of the balance of emotions which can be dangerous and lead to a corruption.
How does the strength of a person’s magical abilities change as they age?
A magical ability needs to be honed throughout one's life. Even if someone is not actively casting, their meditation brings them closer to the energy and makes channelling magic through gems more natural.
Can people normally perform any kind of magic or can they only perform things that fall under their specialty? Are their exceptions?
All Magic is accessible to those who take the time to learn it. The only distinction is that mages access the energy through gems, fae access the energy through plants and water (mermaids are considered fae).
What rules restrict magic use in society?
Patricians have rejected magic and live as far from gem deposits as possible, high in the mountains. They associate with metals which without gems are not particularly useful for channelling magic. They shun Magic, and the use of it, to them, means acknowledging The Child. Patricians call their children cubs as a further rejection of The Child’s threat (Patricians are like climate change deniers). Outside of patrician society, Magic is not regulated so much as social rules are so strong that few dare to break the codes. The people of the ground honour Magic and each person’s connecting to the energy. Murder, curses, maiming, coercion, etc, are all illegal, but duels are legal.
How do people’s magical abilities impact their career prospects?
Mages are important people. But given the threat of The Child, the mastery of the mage is what is most highly valued. Mages draw most of their power when they are on land, being at sea means being a great distance from the core, and thus only particularly powerful mages ever venture out with pirates. Pirates can often have magic themselves, and the better the cohesion and ability of a crew the more likely they are to be successful. But honestly, magic is so much a part of this world that it’s woven into everyday life; it’s used in cooking, and gardening, and infrastructure and medicine, and even play.
What kinds of magic are the most feared or seen as the most powerful? Which are seen as mere jokes?
Some people think it’s selfish not to train one’s magic, especially if someone seems to have a strong affinity for it. Blood Charges are feared, and it is considered dangerous and reckless and desperate to seek one out, and a social taboo to solicit The Ritual from one. Emotion-driven magic is also seen as bad, but some of the most powerful mages have connected more deeply with the energy by meditating through their grief, anger, happiness, sorrow, etc.
How do people use magic to help with everyday tasks?
Cooking, building, farming, medicine, clothes making, etc.
Can magical energy be stored for later use?
You can channel and charge any gemstone. Mages wear tons of jewelry in order to have stores of Magic ready.
What objects or other factors can amplify someone’s magical powers?
Any object made with gems and metals and sometimes wood. Metals are not helpful on their own, but when gems are bound with metals certain mages can channel more easily.
When do magical abilities initially manifest? From birth? At a certain age? Under certain conditions?
By the time a child is 4 or 5, their connection to the energy is known. Some children have more affinity for it than others, it is a practiced skill and meditation is the most valuable way to manage it.
What is the first spell a character is likely to learn?
It depends on their upbringing, but usually mending spells for clothes, or cooking spells, seeking spells (like finding food or water), and preservation (health and cooking). Protection and defensive spells usually follow. Offensive ones are usually later. But physical spells, like pushing, lifting, scattering, throwing, turning, etc, are among the first. Babies can rock their own mobiles and have reflexive magic, in this way parents are able to communicate their children’s needs.
What happens if a spell is performed incorrectly? Nothing at all? A weaker version of the intended results? Pain?
You can practice an axe manifestation spell a million times but you may fell a tree with one strike the third time or make a little dent the fiftieth, it is almost always based on connection to the energy. Finger tutting is merely another means to manifest it but people without hands are just as able to cast as those who do. Similarly, there aren’t catalogues of spells; families have spellbooks, friends share methods, people create their own.
Can different spell casting methods be used to obtain the same result? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
Different areas may have different colloquialisms including how they sign something. If the sign for a letter is different but two users are both using that letter in their spell, or even the same word (sign letters, and sign words differ regionally) then it will work the same way. If a sign is different (say for the word ‘dig’) but two users can create a digging spell with the different signing. If one user is not familiar with a colloquialism then their disconnect from that will hinder their magic.
