Share your Magic System

Substantial postings about constructed languages and constructed worlds in general. Good place to mention your own or evaluate someone else's. Put quick questions in C&C Quickies instead.
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Share your Magic System

Post by Škjakto »

For all you fantasy/sf conworlders, if you have one, share your magic system in the comments.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Pole, the »

There is a magic system I use actually in every conworld I make. It is built on four basic forces: weak, strong, heavy and light.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Pedant »

Likewise with any world I build, only this magic system is primarily focused around interactions of three-dimensional objects in four dimensions, and four-dimensional objects in three. I have to say, I really could use a hand from a quantum physicist or two to work out the details...

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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Jonlang »

Mr Edgar "Artifexian" Grunewald is actually in the process of building an interesting "magic" system. I think the only documentation of it is within the Artifexian podcasts, rather than written form. It's worth checking out.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Škjakto »

dyolf wrote:Mr Edgar "Artifexian" Grunewald is actually in the process of building an interesting "magic" system. I think the only documentation of it is within the Artifexian podcasts, rather than written form. It's worth checking out.
Artifexian is awesome. Do you watch Xidnaf?
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Jonlang »

Škjakto wrote:
dyolf wrote:Mr Edgar "Artifexian" Grunewald is actually in the process of building an interesting "magic" system. I think the only documentation of it is within the Artifexian podcasts, rather than written form. It's worth checking out.
Artifexian is awesome. Do you watch Xidnaf?
I've seen a few of his videos but I didn't find him as interesting as Artifexian.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by HerljosScheindorf »

There is no real magic on Nkakarak but le lerowukta believe in some shamanistic cult and in a vital energy flowing in blood, called tunaloki.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by kusuri »

The magic system for my current project is:

Advanced spellwork requires the power of all four cliche elements, but those with the potential to become mages start with an affinity for only one or two, and struggle with the most simple spells when they are young. Regular folk have an affinity to them all, and can easily do cantrips; however, they have supreme difficulty doing anything more. It's like too much of a good thing too soon spoils it for them.

Mage students learn to strengthen and control their own element by starting with one of the six traditional schools: degradation, regeneration, addition, subtraction, obfuscation, and detection. (The names don't quite touch on everything they encompass, but w/e). There's also two secret schools (space and time) which are the base of the forbidden ninth school (worldbreaking bullshit). The formers keep quiet and separate to prevent the latter's reassembly and abuse. With their bias, students are still very limited this early on, but this focus strengthens their control over time. An intermediate student can learn to invoke and control the other elements at the same level, and later, an advanced student can then specialize or dabble in elements and methods as they feel fit.


The other half of the system is the material: strong magic requires magic stones. They do not power the spells, but rather receive the waste - absorb the shock of doing magic, and pay for a small amount of the energy cost; mages would be short-lived without them. These stones are initially pretty bad at that, but can be used with any kind of magic; over time, they also become attuned -- they better circulate the kind of magic they are most used for, and become less efficient with others.

Spell scrolls, enchanted items, etc. which allow non-mages to do/use magic are made with the dust of stones which have been used for singular effects - these are typically made by students in their learning, e.g. an unnaturally sharp sword is dusted with the remains of a stone used by a student in their study of a particular form of degradation. The stones used by masters become so set they may even be 'tricked' into allowing lesser mages and regular people to do the spells the stones are used to.
All of this use quickly 'fills up' a stone. A set of master-fully degraded/subtracted/obfuscated or regenerated/added//detected stones, respectively, may be combined and put to use with time or space magic, respectively, and fully spaced and timed stones may be combined to facilitate worldbreaking bullshit.


And that's basically it. People in pointed hats spend 50+ years banging rocks together to learn to make really good sparks.
Last edited by kusuri on Tue Dec 27, 2016 6:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Vardelm »

valiums wrote:The magic system for my current project is:
Nifty. The bits about normal people being better at simple magic faster than "mages" and using rocks for strong magic are really nice touches. It gives the system a unique feel.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by kusuri »

Thank you. :-D

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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Ryan of Tinellb »

Each of my worlds has access to powers on a different plane of existence: emotional, physical, mental, and love magic.

The Zhaladi and the Fezhlê would be very surprised to hear you call it ‘magic’: humans so easily pick up oscillatory (sound) and electromagnetic (sight) signals; why is it so surprising to be able to sense another's emotions? The Brequèn may or may not agree - it depends if I give them full telekinesis, or just heightened physical senses. Tsarins are telepaths with a hive mind, but they probably don't think about it much. And the Solajin: who knows? Even I'm not sure what exactly ‘love-magic’ entails.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by CodeTriangle »

I haven't really made a conworld yet, but if I do, there are some things I've thought about including. In fact, I've even thought about how magic could work. This thought popped into my head one day and I'm honestly not sure where it came from. It's not even a full magic system, just one small element that could set it apart from others. I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

So, the source of all magic would be the planet, and mages can tap into the planet's natural magic source to cast their own magic. But to use it, some part of your body directly has to be touching the ground, or another natural material, like a tree. It can be any body part, as long as a barrier like clothing doesn't get in between the source and the receiver. Different kinds of magic expend different magical energies from the planet. Like, casting a fireball spell would cool down the planet slightly, summoning a tornado would make the wind die down a bit, building a wall of water would drain a little from the ocean, freezing someone would take a bit of ice from the poles, etc. This all would lead to the eventual demise of the planet, since after so long, the wind would not blow at all, the planet would be cooled to dangerously low temperatures, there would be no water left, all the ice and snow would be gone, etc.

Again, this is just a random idea that I came up with, but it could lead to an interesting worldbuilding situation where magic slowly gets drained from the environment over thousands of years, starting with a prosperous society where magic abounds but leading to a post-apocalyptic scenario where the last humans are trying to survive on a planet where everything is terrible.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Zaarin »

One of my side projects has an extremely intricate system of magic. The short version is that it's based on hermeticism, which is to say that magic is "tiered" and must be learned in order: alchemy, fate-reading (through astromancy or geomancy), and spellcasting. Humans do not actually possess the power to cast spells, however; the power must be channeled from a patron Fae, who must be willing and can be notoriously whimsical. Oh, did you need that fireball at that particular moment? Well, too bad, your patron Fae was curious what you'd do without it. There are higher and more reliable Powers than the Fae, but attracting (and keeping) one's attention is extremely difficult. One can also cast certain basic spells through necromancy, channeling the spirits of the dead, but this will corrupt the caster and is about the most evil thing you can do. Necromancy also only works for the most basic spells.


I would love to one day create a setting where the world itself is bristling in magic, yet the magic is subtle and mostly passive, much like Lord of the Rings, where even the resident wizard doesn't exactly go spell-crazy and typically relies on his sword and wits more than his magic.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by mèþru »

Lord of the Rings' lack of active magic was based on the idea that men shouldn't wait for Wizards (who are based off the angels) to save them. A lot of Tolkien's work had hidden spiritual meaning.
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Re: Share your Magic System

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mèþru wrote:Lord of the Rings' lack of active magic was based on the idea that men shouldn't wait for Wizards (who are based off the angels) to save them. A lot of Tolkien's work had hidden spiritual meaning.
I disagree in principle if not in practice. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and his deeply held beliefs influenced his legendarium throughout, but from my many readings of both his works and his life I don't believe he deliberately wove in allegorical messages the way he (rightly, IMO) condemned Lewis for doing. That being said, the effect is still the same: of course his point was that, in the Third Age, the fate of Middle-earth was in the hands of Men. The time of the Elves had passed; they no longer cared what happened to Middle-earth. The Dwarves and Hobbits were too few in number. And the Istari had been sent to offer counsel only, as Gandalf repeatedly points out; they were not permitted to directly intervene in the affairs of the world. (Of course, Saruman and the two Blue Wizards didn't seem to mind breaking that particular directive, but that's why they're not heroes. And of course Radagast wasn't sent to help the people at all; Yavanna was worried about her growing things...)
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by snappdragon »

Sharing my Magic System would first require me to:

1) Finish my fantasy conworld.
2) Finish my language families.
3) Explain the rules of the conworld.
4) Explain the Magic System.

I'm not even done with Step 1. And steps 3 and 4 would have to be done in a separate topic.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by mèþru »

Its not as much as allegory in the way of CS Lewis as a belief that his world should follow the same rules as he believed this one did.
ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!
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Re: Share your Magic System

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mèþru wrote:Its not as much as allegory in the way of CS Lewis as a belief that his world should follow the same rules as he believed this one did.
That I can agree with. That's also why Middle-earth is nearly devoid of religion, save for some disparaging references to Morgoth-worship (and Sauron-worship, to a lesser extent), a single hymn to Elbereth, and the quasi-religious ceremony practiced by the Men of Gondor wherein they face Númenór before eating. I chiefly objected to the idea of "hidden spiritual meaning," which in my mind is more along the lines of Lewis's allegories than what Tolkien intended. (Incidentally, despite being a Christian and despite having the deepest respect for Lewis as an apologist, theologian, and scholar, I've always found the Narnia books to be in poor taste. For me specifically, it's not even the transparent allegory--I can find a Medieval morality play amusing enough--but the complete lack of characterization. Edmund and Eustace are the nastiest children imaginable; the rest of his characters are blandly good. The only character, ironically, who really gets more depth than that is the White Witch, and only in The Magician's Nephew [which would probably stand out as the best of the series did it not invite negative comparisons to Tolkien's Ainulindallë--it's safe to say that, in my opinion, whenever Lewis and Tolkien did something similar, Tolkien did it better...].)
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by spanick »

Zaarin wrote:I disagree in principle if not in practice. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and his deeply held beliefs influenced his legendarium throughout, but from my many readings of both his works and his life I don't believe he deliberately wove in allegorical messages the way he (rightly, IMO) condemned Lewis for doing.
mèþru wrote:Its not as much as allegory in the way of CS Lewis as a belief that his world should follow the same rules as he believed this one did.
Tolkien wrote: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like "religion", to cults or practices, in the Imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism" (Letter 142).

So, yeah... He imbued the legendarium with the ethos of Catholicism. It's not an allegory, but a world view. And when it does come awfully close to allegory Tolkien would probably say no, it's merely an applicable interpretation:

"...I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Zaarin »

spanick wrote:
Zaarin wrote:I disagree in principle if not in practice. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and his deeply held beliefs influenced his legendarium throughout, but from my many readings of both his works and his life I don't believe he deliberately wove in allegorical messages the way he (rightly, IMO) condemned Lewis for doing.
mèþru wrote:Its not as much as allegory in the way of CS Lewis as a belief that his world should follow the same rules as he believed this one did.
Tolkien wrote: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like "religion", to cults or practices, in the Imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism" (Letter 142).

So, yeah... He imbued the legendarium with the ethos of Catholicism. It's not an allegory, but a world view. And when it does come awfully close to allegory Tolkien would probably say no, it's merely an applicable interpretation:

"...I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."
Yes, this is precisely what I was trying to say in a much less clear way.
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by snappdragon »

Part of me just thought of the hilarity that would come if someone made a magic system based off of politics.
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Re: Share your Magic System

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snappdragon wrote:Part of me just thought of the hilarity that would come if someone made a magic system based off of politics.
If I wanted to start a flamewar, I'd say that a religion is a magic system based off of politics.
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Re: Share your Magic System

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Pole, the wrote:If I wanted to start a flamewar, I'd say that a religion is a magic system based off of politics.
Apparently you DO want to start a flame war, because you just said it.

:P
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by snappdragon »

No flame wars please :3
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Re: Share your Magic System

Post by Pole, the »

Vardelm wrote:Apparently you DO want to start a flame war, because you just said it.

:P
But I merely posted a post that said that I'd say that, not that I said that. :<
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