#the maker speaking

[cosmicablog]

Magic works kind of like my two inspirations; the stormlight archive and the wheel of time. (Apologies if I misunderstand how the wheel of time's magic works because I've only seen the show)

Magic is accessible for everyone. It is an element that exists as something like a liquid and also light. It comes from a distinct source that is constantly pushing itself into the universe, seeping through the pores in the fabric of reality.

There is a realm where it all comes from, the headwaters, which forms the great streams and rivers of the worlds. (A realm of literal streams of light-essence, which can be traversed) The troughs that forms the streams and rivers of the headwaters were created as a way to channel the magic. Since all the magic wants is to flow unimpeded into the universe, pulling magic directly from the origin (notably not the headwaters) is dangerous. In the origin the magic is unrestrained and a foolish magic user could turn themselves into a magic nuclear bomb if they allowed that much unrestricted magic into their body. They might open a channel that they cannot close again.

Therefore pulling from the headwaters is safer because the magic user can better control how much magic flows in, and can close the gap behind it to stop the flow.

People who have taught themselves to attune to this element have a better sense of how to manipulate it. It is relatively simple to learn how to use magic, but it takes much practice to do it correctly and powerfully.

The Temple (name placeholder) is a religious organization which teaches its initiates magic. I do believe I decided magic can only be taught to women (like in WOT, but not because of the same reasons), because men are considered too emotional for it. There is a distinct relationship between religious belief and magic in this particular world, so magic users are also considered like priests, or holy protectors, and as such women are highly regarded.

It is considered dangerous for a man to use magic because of his temper, but this is actually not at all true, the temple has just perpetuated this idea to keep men under control. And to control the government, which is mostly men.

Women who are not initiates of the temple who do magic are not necessarily traitors, because some basic use of magic by women is alright (since magic is so accessible) but anything stronger, like learning and teaching yourself without the guidance of the temple, is considered sacrilege.

You may be wondering how this relates to my other inspiration, the stormlight archive. Well, I was playing with the idea that trauma can produce a unique way for a person to reach out to the magic. The temple has known about this, and was trying to study it, but then the government found out and forbade them from studying it more.

Basically when a person undergoes a deeply traumatic event, including near-death experiences, their body instinctively begins reaching out to something greater than themselves, and what they find is the headwaters. It is easier for such a person to touch the headwaters, but if they do not master their skill, it can become a dangerous threat to others. (This last part is also true for those who have had no such traumatic experience, and instead find they can touch the magic through chance. Power left unchecked will destroy them.)

This is why the main character Sitar gets hunted down by the government and the temple when he comes into his powers. He is not only a temperamental man wielding a weapon he doesn't understand, but he has also learned to touch the headwaters through trauma, and could lose control of his powers and harm thousands of people.

[cosmicablog]

Watching a video of an artist drawing some unique fantasy currency and it brought me back to thinking about the currency for Urutae.

I had initially been thinking about shape coins and the number of sides of a coin (triangle, square, hexagon, etc) represented the value. Perfectly circle coins were worth the most, and these long weirdly teardrop two-pointed coins were worth the least. They also had holes in the middle of them so they could be strung on string and stored.

If you had a lot of money I imagine you would have strings and strings of perfectly circle coins.

This is all heavily based on traditional Chinese currency, but I'm not sure I want to turn the strings of coins into their own currency in the way the "string of cash coins" was its own superunit.

I need to think about it a bit more

[cosmicablog]

Hi! Can you tell me a bit about cosmica?

Hello! Yes, thank you for asking :)

Cosmica is an original epic fantasy (teetering on science fiction) universe I'm writing inspired by Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere, and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, among other things.

Its primary story, currently also referred to as Cosmica, follows three main POVs.

A soldier wrongly accused of treason, named Sitar Amerati, is sold into slavery and bought by the priestess of the Temple to fight and die in her secret gladiatorial arena.

A Temple guard named Inyat Sahgal, is desperate to learn about magic, but the dark secrets she discovers beneath the Temple may irrevocably change her.

A Temple spy, Elwyn De La Luria, grapples with what her superiors have turned her into, forced to be the bloodied hand that carries out the Temple's dirty deeds.

Thrown together by chance, these three outcasts may hold the key to toppling the corrupted Temple regime, but what else will their actions unleash upon their homeworld Urutae? You'll have to read and find out!

While not the only story I'm designing for the Cosmica universe, it is the one I'm focusing the most on at the moment.

Magic within the story originates from the Origin, a realm beyond reality and understanding that bursts with magic. Magic users, called channelers, are able to use their own bodies as vessels to focus the magic into reality. Magic in Cosmica uses a lot of water symbolism and imagery, and as such wave iconography is representative of the Temple.

Magic and religion are closely intertwined, those who do magic are connected to the Temple, and they believe the Origin and the god Hatah are one and the same. Only women are permitted to do magic or serve in the Temple.

Magic is also used to travel between planets, via the great rivers. There are three main planets; Meliore, closest to the sun and tidally locked. From here is where the Sunlords came from (more on that shortly); Urutae, second from the sun, where the main Cosmica story takes place; Nimahael, a forested moon orbiting a gas giant, third from the sun.

So originally, a long long time ago, the Sunlords lived on Meliore and were mostly content. Nimahael and Urutae were also populated with their own races, and while the Nimians knew magic, those on Urutae didn't.

The Sunlords first discovered the great rivers, which is a space between planets with magic flowing from the Origin to the planets from it. They first went to Urutae and subdued the people there, taking control and basically establishing themselves as rulers.

After a couple hundred years, they ventured off again and found Nimahael, and established themselves as rulers over it too.

That's mostly what I have so far!

[cosmicablog]

Get excited cause I'm actually writing fr this time!!

[cosmicablog]

Im going back and forth between the genre of work this is. Is it fantasy? Is it sci fi? Where are the lines? Do they have nanotech? Are they in the middle ages?

I sure dont know!