If the story needs someone to tell Luke and the others on the Falcon something terrible happened at the other end of the galaxy, the Force can provide Obi-Wan with the necessary information through a vision of sorts. The brain does use relatively weak energy for thinking, so that would not reach far. If you want you can also make a difference between Nyads and Nereids the usual river and spring nymphs and large powerful Sea nymphs. But creating a consistent system that allowed for both these laws and my magical exceptions without, say, having the laws of physics change so much that there are no stable structures, or allowing for time travel, was difficult. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien uses the near omnipotence of the One Ring to explore the dangers of authoritarianism, which he fought as a British soldier during WWI. Hm, I had not planned on it, but it might be interesting. Can magic be used incorrectly or immorally? On Star Treks Mediocre Antagonistic Species. Fifty years after the war ends the younger generation make massive breakthroughs. In other words, readers need to understand how your magic system works to ensure its use feels natural and believable within the context of the story. All three should work together to create the magic system. EASTERN THUNDERER, based off of Eastern dragons in design, likely chance of getting weak to strong Shocker magic, rare-ish to moderate chance of getting magic of another Type as well, Learns magic a bit more slowly than other races. Just remember that great ideas are only the start, solid implementation has to follow, and learning that takes a lot of time and practice. ^.^ OK that was alot and I totally understand if you choose to use none of my ideas or stopped reading halfway through, these are just my thoughts based on my research on how our world works physically and metaphysically. a conspiracy to hide everyone selected (difficult to justify how they manage this). He has three great articles on building them, named after what he calls his three laws. As this energy is formless and intangible, it is naturally attracted to your body and stored there. Another possibility is that some kind of complex structure is involved that can navigate to a desired destination. Waving around a wand isnt as simple as you bang it out to be. If they are limited, its usually not by some universal magical law, but rather a handicap in their source of power. And finally, I was thinking about a story involving space travel, so FTL would be convenient to explain how the aliens managed to meet each other in a relatively short amount of time. Thank you so much for the reply! This generator gives you names for their various alliances, covens, and clubs. Using mana is no different from using up stamina, the more magic you use, the more energy that is used up. In the Matrix, lifting something huge is harder than lifting something small. Actually, the elite technique for Airbending is straight-up flight a la Superman. There's a reason why I write about fantasy magic - magic is my most favourite thing! As far as the potions are concerned specific plants have always been said to possess magical properties, which is why they are used in the potions. If only a portion of the population can wield magic it could also mean the magic wielders are either the elite or the lower class. Stoking fires sounds like a natural fit. Oh wow that turned out to be a lot of text. Other than that, most answers are really just what do you want? However, I will say that if magic uses up energy in the environment putting out fires and stopping movement for instance that would probably create some interesting scenes. That was confusing enough that I have difficulty figuring out what the posts premise is, but I THINK Disney Magic would be a better example. Actually, one of the principles of old-time portions-making was that a plant which looks like a certain body part is good for curing that body part (actual results may vary). Since the main character of the series starts as a member of a gang of thieves, the choice of theme is very appropriate. It's an important aspect to think about as it'll heavily affect your story universe. This is harder to work with, because the divine are technically spellcasters themselves, and incredibly powerful ones. Magic types: With very little people learning magic outside of their respective faction but its not a common practice. A basic form of mana manipulation is cloaking their bodies in mana to protect them from harm (sort of like Aura in RWBY). Character Power Generator I would say on a molecular level. They grow larger and in summer they enjoy the fullness of a mature plant life. Weft threads are what complete the fabric, what is woven through the warp to add the unique characteristics of the fabric (e. g., a 3/1 twill for denim or a satin weave for silk). Feats of telekinesis should leave your characters a little exhausted the more energy needed, the higher the exhaustion. So if you think multiple types would be cool, go for it, if you want to keep it simple, dont. Follow her work on hannahyang.com or on Twitter at @hannahxyang. I transfer energy into the boulder or to the air around it to move that boulder. As far as your magic/psychic system goes, I can understand why you put so much thought into it. Skill in this magic system is all about how little inspiration you need to produce your own energy; How many methods of create, increase or decrease you can do & How many energy types you can work with; and how much energy you can actually produce at once. I wouldnt work with spells with such a system. Color: the type of color determines what kind of effect the Vibration will have on the Physical World. This also gives some spirits incentive to become a mages familiar they get much more experience of the human world by being there than collecting random memories. Those who are consumed are called Specters (im going with an evil theme for this one). You need to place incense in a semi-circle in front of you, drink fresh blood, paint your face with the blood, and focus on the person youre looking for. Because minds were immaterial, physical brain damage wouldnt really affect thoughts, personality, and so on, instead mostly things such as the ability to move and regulate basic bodily functions. Or just feel ridiculous. Is magic inherited, gifted, obtained, or learned? (As a side note, I mentioned teleportation because it would help get the various alien species in my universe together quickly so there could be stories based on interaction between them. Tolkien, we never find out exactly what Gandalf can and cant do with magic. So what do you think? And if they can add energy to it, it sounds like they have to absorb that energy like a conduit. but gods, spirits, and demons can. But, with the power of enough minds, things and beings could be transported to nearly any location instantly, as long as that location was also in the proximity of many minds (Minds were always at least somewhat tied to the physical world during life, so there would still be a range limit, but a vastly larger one for this teleportation, spanning many light-years). If you want to create a hard magic system, you need to create a specific logic that serves as the foundation for the entire system. 7 Unique Magic System Ideas to Bring Your Story to its Full Potential Other magic that is extremely rare is healing lethal injuries or bring someone back that was just killed (only have a certain amount of time to do it). The main exception is the avatar state, which isnt clearly linked to bending. There are multiple types of energies floating around everywhere in the world (some of those energies similar to Elements of nature Air, Water, Fire, Earth; plus Mana, Life, Mind and, probably, more) Check out my other generators I also specifically mentioned that I was not including conservation of energy in my system, but you assumed it in your comment. Since the universe as a whole tends towards entropy, where this world uniquely tends towards balance, fire doesnt always behave as expected), Water in its various forms (liquid, gaseous, solid; in redistribution it will always revert to its most common form in nature, that of liquid. Some people make a long-term contract with a particular spirit to channel its energy themselves, with the spirit becoming the casters familiar. I see the basis of a rational magic system there, and you have good limits. I also had the idea that there would be some very powerful, old spirits who have long-standing contracts with humanity as a whole. In the last forty-eight hours, this generator has been used to construct 2069 worlds and 9.7 GB of images. Finally, there are magic uses who seem to draw magic from the earth itself. In my example of magic that is acquired by consuming a plant, a clever alchemist might distill and concentrate the plant down to an elixir that is digested more quickly. And theres nothing less exciting than a story where the protagonists can escape from any danger just by wishing it away. Can they simply stretch their arm, make a gesture with their hands and shoot out a ball of fire or do they need a wand do direct the magic? Luckily for the majority of the population of the Voden Imperium, the nanites are happy to sit mostly dormant, quietly replicating away. You can make it mysterious just by hiding how it operates. Someone could gain double the magic in half the time. Magitech To create strange fusions of science and sorcery for your more unusual settings. Good luck with your universe. Which is why you need to attach a heavy price. This is the easiest part from technical point of view in my current design. that you realize that the magic system in Tolkien is actually much more a spiritual and religious system based on the two fudamental pillars of his sincere Catholicism and his strong distaste for the worlds of contemporaries like C,S, Lewis where the Christian allegory was blatant or at best obvious enough to leave the writer open to the charge of being preachy. Coins, gems, art objects, and magic items from the d20 SRD . Some rituals are inherently harmful, like the ritual thats typically used to find missing persons. (somewhere I have a document outlining Philosophical associations between Elements). If you want to go with something necromantic (as spectre and ghoul suggest), you might be able to find something more fitting in that area. Some feel cohesive; others feel random. sheer warp threads create plain physical structures such as a ball and weft webs can add fire and velocity to that ball. Have holy magic as something humans can gain through service to the gods, but have the gods as some random element that cannot be influenced at all. Perhaps they only manifest 1 (or 2?) You could just as well do the Magic The Gathering approach and use stuff like decay or nature as base for the magic (which would give you white magic based on life/nature and black magic based on death/decay). Mother wont take kindly to that. The latter, sorcerers, actually do not have magic ability. These energies are not strictly bound to non-magical air, water, fire and so on, but definitely could affect each other: real fire produces fire energy, in water there are lot of water energy and so on. Just watch out for the unaffected 1%. For a similar reason, simple exhaustion, without any other defined limits, is generally a weak way to limit an ability in the story. Tension and payoff are reduced if the reader feels like a solution to something is as simple as a character just ratcheting up their feelings. Theres a reason why RPGs with team-based fight systems (I use those when playing around with the RPG Maker myself) are often based around the Tank/Damage Dealer/Buffer principle. Here we will get into seven different bases to help you create your unique magic system. In Brandon Sandersons Mistborn Series, characters acquire magic by imbibing small amounts of metals and burning them once theyre consumed. Those are the things I thought about, let me know if it helped you improve! When the spell is done, the deactivated knots simply float around, unattended. Thats why we have a character (in the Silmarillion, and referenced in passing in the songs and stories Aragorn tells the hobbits on Weathertop and they later hear much more about in Rivendell: a character like Luthien Tinuviel, who inherited her power from her connection to both the mortal (in the sense of not being a divinely descended spirit who chose to take bodily form; Tolkiens equivalent of greater and lesser angels whom he sees as having a role in the world; her father was a powerful Elf king but still in that sense mortal) and angelic (her mother, who was a lesser angel who fell in love with her father and chose to take on bodily form enough to bear his child but still remained of divine race) lines in her ahcestry. Not at all. She holds a BA from Yale University and lives in Colorado. To have the power of the Towers, one must have originated from them, or been taken to it by someone from the Towers. lost nanotechnology (difficult to justify how that would be forgotten) They have averge control over their ability. I love the way this discussion has blossomed! What obvious flaws are there? The main question becomes who set this up, and why? If were told that a heros ability tires them out, but they can always push through their exhaustion when they need to most in the story, then we stop considering their exhaustion when considering whether we should be worried about them. Are all individuals able to tap into the magic source or only a lucky few? Substances like these make it easy to put limits on the amount of magic used just limit the substance. Other than that your spells can be pretty much anything, from destructive to healing spells, elemental to demonic spells and from conjurations to enchantments. Will have to give it some thought. The audience isnt sure if burning the leaches actually caused these deaths, making it mysterious despite having witnessed the magic ritual first-hand. Other beings and worlds exist on the other higher planes, essentially are in a higher state of Existence, or State of Being, determined by Spiritual Awareness, beyond what a mortal of our Plane can even fathom. The Towers will 3 pairs of contrasting ideas. Your Favorite Fantasy Magic Systems, Rated - B&N Reads Now, if magic in Tolkien just went by power levels like a Pokemon duel, Sauron would have won this handily, being pure blood of an order of beings who if we looked at these things just on the power level dimension clearly outranked the mortal clay that was mixed into Luthiens veins. How do I come up with subtypes that would suit the main types of magic? this is all super helpful! Perhaps theyd have to choose two which are not opposites (fire/water or earth/air would be opposites). By adopting a specific mentality and pairing that with martial art forms, they can move and manipulate their element. Reading this made me realize a plot hole before I even put it on paper, I cant thank you enough for the editing time youve saved me! Some dimensions have a lot of energy and a lot of lines, others have few. So there you have a source of energy for your telekinesis. At least not on earth, as far as we can tell. So, basically it will be a portal (or teleportation, in case if anyone makes the bond from surrounding air blob, for example). Even though there are no physical costs to using magic, being Grisha means losing their freedom to pursue the life they wanted. And there are laws to the magic, they may not be as strict as some novels and series, but they are there. ), Fire/heat (fire is a more fickle form of energy and as it is intangible, it is harder to hold on to, though not as hard as air. Are there multiple types of magic users? It does, although thats what I want to do. Aside from this, the only other limitation a mage has in magic is their stamina. Life is movement and if part of nature isnt moving (even the earth) then it resembles death and not life. I think natural disaster can be explained in this world as terrifying manifestation of the imbalances in nature, things that the Mother wants to avoid by seeking to restore balance always. Wand movements and spells serve to direct the magic, to tell it what to do. The villain in S3 of A:LoK achieves it. Another way to look at it is evolution. All benders in Avatar, safe for the Avatar themselves, can only control one element, one source of power. Magicians summon magical spirits, like djinni, and command them to do their bidding. So, for each point in environment will be possible to calculate the energy value. That would then explain why accidential magic can happen when someone is enraged or otherwise under emotional pressure its triggered subconsciously. A being of a higher Plane has the opposite effect, their presence and consciousness being far too much for the Universe to handle, and so it would just collapse on itself wherever the being would go. With that said, lava could still count as fire, so the point about magic being based on fire vs. ice might still stand. Its really creative and for the most part completely logical (and since the people in the story are acolytes, there is no scientific explanation needed since it all seems to fit within your model). ( ): a creative air bender could do a lot with access to elite skills. For your points about my magic system: yes, I know magic isnt real, so I will have to break some physical laws in my fictional world. However, you can also experiment with different techniques for accessing and directing the magic, each with upsides and downsides. For example, if your characters can telekinetically control objects, your story will be more interesting if each character can only control a specific type of object, rather than being able to control anything they want. (The more kinetic energy in the object, the harder it is to stop, as remember, you are the cork and you are the one who must withstand the energy that you are withholding from the tendency towards balance. Hope I dont sound like a rabid Potterhead but I dont think its irrational! thanks for the feedback! When the nanites were first created, their creators by which I dont mean their society, but their specific inventors failed to contain them, resulting in a plague similar to the Grey Death. Project | Fire | Destroy | Item Your success depends on your knowledge of the gods, your relationship with the god, and your ability to make an appeal. Ocean: Ocean magic draws power from the ocean, and by extension the rivers and lakes that are born from and eventually lead back to it. Ask yourself what effects will help your protagonists solve the problems presented in your plot, and what effects will be fun to write about. If youd like additional guidance as you build your storys magic system and other facets of your fictional world, then be sure to check out World-Building Warrior, a workbook that will walk you through the world-building process step by step. Certainly using more types adds complexity that might be a burden in shorter stories, but I think you could start with the type of thread that is most prevalent, and explain more rare threads as the story progresses. Im going to flatly say your premise about the HARRY POTTER magic system. I just finished the entire creation story because of these questions as well as creating a more refined system of magic in my book! Sky: Sky magic draws power from the vast sky, movement of the winds, and from thunderstorms. Even with a teacher it takes years to become proficient. Honestly, I cant think of a reasonable or cohesive cap on what it can do so I hope the limitations will balance it out. Mages trained in a world with little power usually are very strong in one with more power, because they can make a lot out of a little. I think Tolkiens magic also confuses people because, as you say, its not until you read in the unpublished material and the material that WAS unpublished at the time of Tolkiens death but has since been released as the Silmarillion, etc. * When Jon Snow kills a white walker with Valyrian steel, it makes sense even though we havent been told that could happen. You can get away with a strange assortment if you have mechanics that explain it. All people that use magic are split up into different yet powerful factions. That means every control over them would be on the molecular level, manipulating the molecules and atoms to speed up or slow down or (for changes) change their configuration. Moreover, the party must complete the quest without killing anyone. Absorb Project Summon Dispel Protect Destroy Restore. The plants arent like people, the magic doesnt just happen to them. Terrifying. The key traits of a soft magic system are outlined in the graphic below. Its implied humans discovered the thread and abandoned technology altogether, becoming more and more dependent on magic over the next few hundred years. Is there a cap on the users' magical abilities? Is it connected to religion or religions of your world (since something based on the principle of good and bad [if you have to keep that, use evil instead of bad] should have a connection to religion)? I would also like to point out that alchemy is not a religion, but an admittedly partially superstitious precursor to chemistry. Just because there are rules doesnt mean theyre rational. However, most people wont deviate from what they know to work to avoid wasting their time on a failed ritual or potentially hazardous consequences. High Fantasy and Low Fantasy. It could range from absolutely anything to a single effect such as moving objects or pausing time. No, the water is surely a curse and warning from the mother, who draws the water from the plants themselves as a punishment for stealing the most precious of energy, sunlight itself. If you only specify one source of magic, you cant suddenly drop someone into the story who uses something different. Decay would be speeding up entropy, life would be slowing it down or trying to instill some kind of anti-entropy into the world. Hell make it rain if your rain dance impresses him, but he wont strike someone with lightning no matter how impressive your dance is. Thank you! Sympathetic spirits will take pity, accepting minor payment (maybe even the painful memory of seeing said loved one get shot). Then they could connect to the energy of the other brain. Also Im thinking about the idea when none of characters can store those energy. There are a few online articles about this: the ones I remember off the top of my head are Universal Fire and Universal Law, found on LessWrong. Technically, anyone can use holy magic, but it takes years to become proficient. Magic is one of the essential elements of any fantasy story. People will accept that magic exists in a universe like ours, even though magic doesnt exist (as far as we know) in our universe. The jammers are slowly getting weaker, and the nanites, while the have mostly settled in these past centuries, slowly encroach upon the population. Last, heres a fun chart showing the details of magic systems in the most popular works. Nevertheless, you will always introduce something which, as far as we know, does not exist in reality. Sometimes you just get turned into a chicken. A curse rang out as he knew he should of just got up instead of trying to weave when he was too tired to focus. They weave certain spells out of the fabric of reality. Lets say powers are granted by a changing lineup of gods, and the ocean goddess has three children that control the wind, waves, and depths. One or all could be part of the system and manipulation of the paper in . Reading this made me realize that while Ive got the source pretty nailed down, I dont actually have much else figured out yet! dragon glass can kill them and both weapons were forged by dragon flame. Sandersons Third Law. When youre brainstorming magical costs, try to be creative. Professor of Political Theory in Star Trek, contradicting something shes already invented, distill and concentrate the plant down to an elixir, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, heres a fun chart showing the details of magic systems in the most popular works, Building the Raksura: How Martha Wells Fell Into Toxic Tropes, Five Tips for Using an Arbitrary Magic System, Building Wings of Fire: How Sutherland Propped Up Her Plot, Building Hyperion: How Simmons Scattered His World, Building Roshar: How Sanderson Bungled Culture, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_hcwB8i64, https://mythcreants.com/blog/how-to-create-an-eclectic-magic-system/. You can either post it here or use the contact page. Different fighters prefer different methods, so combining the ideas could lead to a larger variety and possibly a richer world. Are their any parts youre confused about? If there are no downsides to using magic, your protagonists might soon become overpowered, able to solve any problem with the wave of a wand. Everything is made up of atoms and molecules, so someone with the power to influence those could, theoretically, create new stuff in a heartbeat. In many worlds such as Star Wars, this force is generated by living things. Its no surprise the avatar state causes plot holes during Avatar: The Legend of Korra. I know some of the basics for the magic in my world but have been having a hard time making them cohesive. First, think through what magic is capable of doing in a theoretical best case scenario. Those rules are established within the story (unlike underlying rules with Rowling might have for her magic or Lucas might have had for the Force), so at least one character must know them or learn about them as the plot develops. It flows through all life and can be controlled by any sentient object. Real transformation would be something like lead to gold, influencing the molecules to give up their bonds and settle into a new configuration (gods, it has been ages since my last chemistry lesson). Frequency: The core strength of a Vibration, determines how far and fast it travels Most of the time, this yearning leads them to the Towers, where they are never seen again. Everything is what she deems fair. I checked it out, and indeed it seems to just be another name for obsidian. The willpower to make changes, no matter what kind of powers or tools are needed in addition. However, a few fantastical powers can go a long way toward livening up many fantasy stories. And if so, is it because their culture is different and they learn to wield it in different ways, is it because they simply cannot wield it the same way due to biological differences or is it because they use different sources, like blood magic and magic pools? And sorry about the length of this comment. a disease caused by the nanites Energy-based magic is easy to use because it comes with limitations. Something as seemingly insignificant as a casting time thats five seconds longer has a huge impact on whether mages can handle unexpected problems. Forms of Sky magic include air magic, lightning magic, and weather magic. Slytherin still could breed dark wizards and witches perhaps they have a tendency towards dark magic. Cool system, sounds like it has great story possibilities. This was implemented to further refine (/complicate?) Divine magic is often more powerful/useful, but isnt always reliable. This type of magic is tricky and potentially dangerous, as the faerie in question could seek out loopholes that benefit them and take more from the person than what was agreed. So a Mage might give as payment a concrete memory, like their first day of school or attending a particular play, or something more abstract like the taste of chocolate cake or the pain of stubbing ones toe (spirits are interested in all experiences, even if humans see them as negative). Disadvantages: it makes your paint harder to control, if your will is weak your contractor could go against you, your contractor gets to present you with the deals and if you dont like them there is nothing you can do about it, harm to your contractor results in harm to your soul. Chris Winkle mentioned Avatar as an example of a rational magic system, because its elements (fire, water, air, and earth) are natural classifications. Its not uncommon for people to have phantom sensations or memories weeks later. With so many spec fic books, its not unusual to have such coincidences. If your characters will use magic to resolve that conflict, then establishing a clear set of rules for your magic system is necessary to avoid cheapening tension via contrived magical solutions. There are plenty of stories where power just keeps building and building, which eventually makes the characters at the beginning of the story weak in comparison even though they were seen as incredibly powerful at that time. Thats not exactly what I mean Im talking about low-level How. . Im using the elements as chemical states and even nature transforms between them (ice to water, water to steam, or the other way around for water). Sorry, Im not quite understand this Could you please describe some spell example with such system? Visit her new website . Hard magic systems provide interesting limitations that allow your protagonist to solve problems using their own wits, not raw magical power. A single push, that turned out to be a shove, pushed the still air into a rising gust of air.

Keith Zlomsowitch Net Worth, Can You Bench Press With A Herniated Disc, Heritage Christian Center Scandal, Wingback Chairs For Sale Craigslist, Satans Slaves Mc Dorset, Articles F