Almost all of the magic in Avatar: The Last Airbender is clearly linked to the same rules. SO, questions: where is the magic energy coming from in the environment? o_o. Hope I dont sound like a rabid Potterhead but I dont think its irrational! Been developing a magic system for a story of mine thats in its early development stages. A grammar checker, style editor, and writing mentor in one package. In this guide I will cover the major aspects part of most magic systems, hopefully it'll help you create your own magic system and provide you with a checklist of sorts to make sure you're not forgetting an important part. I will admit my system does need more development to round it out some. Notes on the world: humans are at a hunter-gatherer to city-state level of development, gods are real but you can never talk with them, spirits are everywhere and run on fae logic, and demons are corrupted spirits that will ravage towns/cities and curse people. In most, if not all movies, there clearly arent rules for magic, or if there are, there arent many. Maybe its impossible, and I dont know, although Ive tried to figure out. All of the Aether and Souls stem from the Sephirot, and at the same time are all one and the same. Maybe they are all for structural integrity, without them the world explodes outward into the vacuum of nothingness. However, it makes it harder to build tension when power levels can change at any given moment as needed, especially at climaxes, where emotions will naturally be high. There are hundreds or even thousands of magical techniques and spells that a magician can learn. Spirit? Because when you move, there is an accompanying sound? The Living Mother may hardly notice a tiny imbalance such as this. Perhaps Mages can use all the magical abilities, but CHOOSE to specialize? Astral Armor-- "Though spun from strands of glamor and mana, the protection it offers is no illusion." Magic Formula-- Yep. Is it dark and scary? All of nature is in motion and all of natures motion serves to restore its own balance. Weve seen them move and break rock, so it follows that they could make a hole through a mountain. Is magic kept secret in your story world? Now you have all the tools you need to create your own magic system. Gandalf didnt use his powers to destroy the One Ring, so readers didnt need to know how his magic worked to find the ending of The Lord of the Rings to be believable. Ill be talking more about it in another post, if someone wants to here it, of course. The story is at a climax when emotions are always high? For a similar reason, simple exhaustion, without any other defined limits, is generally a weak way to limit an ability in the story. And if you use an elemental magic system be creative, inform yourself what elements are overused already. Its easy to extrapolate all the basic uses of this magic system. Magicians train to control different aspects of reality, but a magician is also constrained to the limits of reality. Group A (Comment if you have a better name), They cant stop their emotion from changing surfacing and tend to be extra emotional. Theyre bodies cant store energy, thats a Condit thing. I definitely have more work to do. Get into religion and the systems of magical belief and practices really explodes. One or all could be part of the system and manipulation of the paper in . A basic form of mana manipulation is cloaking their bodies in mana to protect them from harm (sort of like Aura in RWBY). If everybody is capable of wielding magic they will likely use it for everything, from war to daily life, but if only a portion of the population can wield it it means magic will be handled differently by those who can and those who can't wield it. It sends a positive message to the reader when the magic being performed is a positive being paid for by a regrettable negative but sends the wrong message when its a cheat or lethal act that is only being rewarded or reinforced with a positive. Once you master the flow of paint in your body you can change your appearance temporarily. For example do you want evil spellcasters to raise undead? It is divided into two domains: the stone, minerals, and metals of the land, and the flora and fauna of the natural world. However, scholars and Wise Ones know that harnessing sunlight is possible, for virtually every plant known to this world is more than capable of harnessing sunlight, and does so continuously, every day. Im finding that my worldbuilding and plotting inform each other more in this story than others Ive worked on. Generally that means their strengths and weaknesses will be roughly equivalent. Maybe as a counterpart to motion? Avatar is, essentially, based on elemental magic which is the ability to control one or more elements. If thats not true and given the types of energies most classical magic systems are throwing around I consider it IMHO to be HIGHLY unlikely then its just splitting hairs whether we call it dodging, blocking or something else, youre REALLY gonna need something magical of your own to make sure that when that nasty spell gets to wherever its target may presently be, that YOU AINT THERE when it arrives! Check out the Magic Generator Pack . Many receive horrible mutations, the nanites only know that they are to better humanity but they have no notion of what being a human means, some are physically melded into grotesque shapes, some lose their minds becoming like feral beasts. You just need a set of guidelines that all of your spirits/nymphs follow. I havent even gotten to the actual magic yet. As the reader, you may never truly understand what can and cant be accomplished with magic, but thats okayyou dont feel you need to in order to enjoy the story. Theyre more afraid of the death of their world than their own personal death, however. So if you think multiple types would be cool, go for it, if you want to keep it simple, dont. Frequency: The core strength of a Vibration, determines how far and fast it travels Oh, and thanks for the compliments! Blood is messy and sticky and gets in the carpets and really why would anyone who doesnt consume it like a vampire want it as payment? Used by the Matrix and Mage: The Ascension, some magic systems are based on the idea that reality is more malleable than it seems, allowing some to bend it out of shape. Used by the guy who commands sand zombies or something? A mages magic can be stronger or weaker depending on how much access to a Primal they have at a given time. As we dont seem to be focusing on that aspect much, however, I wont try to continue arguments about that part. The Sorcerers faction includes wizards and witches and then theres sub factions with in the faction that include the like of temptresses, necromancers and others I cant seem to remember though I have them written down somewhere. Not at all. Generate random magic shops with items from the d20 SRD. Are you looking to define what weaving one can and cant do? This same punishment theory may explain why humans are killed for trying to harness and redistribute sunlight. There are a number of times during the series when Harry performs magic out of anger or fear. My point was that this would essentially entail creating a new set of physical laws, and I wanted to find out whether this could be done in a consistent way while still keeping most things in that universe somewhat similar to our universe if the magic did not affect them (for example, having stars, planets, space, Earthlike life, etc) It turns out that there are some things that are mathematically impossible, so I have to be careful. Other examples include alohamora and colloportus, reparo and diffindo, accio and depulso (learned but not named in-series, as I recall), etc. 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. I wouldnt use categories of magic to add structure thats just adding more complexity. 9. If you can't say something nice, say something thoughtful. The first step is building a metaphysical framework for how and why magic works. Or you could simply say that air is good for dodging, while earth is good for blocking. For just one example, Magoroh Maruyama describes several different possible paradigms of science, which Robert A. Freitas Jr. mentions in the book Xenology in relation to extraterrestrial minds. Oh wow, thats a steep price for magic. Very interesting system youre developing, I really like that it comes from a disease. Angels are not incapable of doing bad things and demons can be nice every now and then. Thats all I can think of at this very moment and I dont want to make this comment any longer. This then leads to the problems with conservation of energy and relativity I mentioned earlier of course, were working with magic, so these may not be insurmountable issues, but they need to be considered, as I want this universe to be mostly like ours in situations in which magic is not involved. 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/. Jinora does it at some point. 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. So it goes like this, everyone in the world can use magic though alot choose not to because they dont want to get caught up in the conflict with all that do use it. Brandon Sanderson has a knack for creating alluring, original magic systems that immerse the reader into the fictional universe. You need to lay enough groundwork and hard rules and be consistent enough that it doesnt feel like a character getting angrier will suddenly allow them to start winning a climactic battle, at least not without significant buildup to such a thing happening. Following is a list of all the abilities that can be generated by the Abilities Generator. Its a generic job title for people whose main concern is to maintain relationships with local spirits and practice holy magic so they can pacify demons. As a general rule, antagonists can use soft magic to solve problems, even though protagonists should only use hard magic. They will be, Time and Space, Light and Darkness, and Mind and Body. Caster is Hydro, Given is Ice To me, it seemed like I had everything figured out and I could write a story now. And the One became Two, Two became Three, and Three became All Things, (Actions) 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. Anywhere there is festivity or drinking he might try to have some fun, which could make for an epic night or a lot of destruction; hes the bane of every tavern and bar. Fast forward a couple thousand years and some genius manges to find a way to control paint by collecting it into a special bottle. You can certainly use that, even though information might sometimes not be easy to find. The villain in S3 of A:LoK achieves it. And after reading this article, Ive found there is one important question missing: How exactly magic affects the world? They are not related in any way. Are there magical societies or a hierarchy of magic users? Each house is limited to one type of magic and students are not sorted by their character at the age of 11, but by what magic they have an affinity for. It isnt strictly necessary, as I could probably write something interesting without it, but it is extremely convenient). As far as your magic/psychic system goes, I can understand why you put so much thought into it. Creating a Magic System for Superpowers If the magic youre creating varies from person to person, this article is for you. Sometimes this is unavoidable, it happens a lot in games and long stories spanned over many seasons/novels, but for shorter stories it's best to think about what the power limit would be. Ask yourself what effects will help your protagonists solve the problems presented in your plot, and what effects will be fun to write about. I have recently, but have wrote before, in my world created a new magic systems. There are 391 different powers and variations in this generator, so you're bound to find one you like. To do this, I would need to work out whether adding the sorts of new particles and forces needed for this scenario to what exists in real life can be done in some mathematically consistent way. 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. What kinds of magical concepts and images would contribute to that atmosphere? The magic system in my current work-in-progress, Lady Legacy, serves as an allegory for ambition and the dangerous pursuit of glory, with magic exacting a heavy emotional toll on the user. Silver drains magic and therefore hurts all creatures that are magic. Human muscles actually can produce more energy than our brain allows for us to use because if we used the full force our muscles are capable of, we would risk injuring ourselves. You need to think it through and you need to make it understandable for the reader, because otherwise they cant imagine your world and they cant dive into it which is why people read stories. 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. would be for instance the power to congure spectral weapons like a sword or bow and arrow, though they are powerful magic and would be taxing on ones body and life. It isnt a common thing among people of this world, but it is an esoteric art comprised of ancient secrets passed down through generations within a tribe of acolytes. Thank you so much! If you use magic (or psychic powers) like a Deus Ex Machina, enabling your magic users (or psychics) to do whatever the story needs, without any understandable reason why they can do all this, you have something else. The main question becomes who set this up, and why? Start by looking for further implications of what youve already established. And the way they fight has to do in part what magic they use. Is magic (or the source that fuels it) a limited resource in your story world? Basically the spirits want more knowledge of the human world, to experience it through human eyes. And if you plan on writing a whole series of novels about this, you need to work out how it works beforehand, so things stay balanced. Maybe something with an eclipse? That works for just Neo, but if you have many spellcasters over long periods of time, someone will be able to smash two planets together. Energy-based magic is easy to use because it comes with limitations. But it technically isnt magic if you put yourself in the characters shoes. There are two types of people in this world, Conduits and Interferers (though Inteferers prefer to be called Whisperers). So far, the types of energy that can be manipulated in this way are: Air/wind (although due to its constant motion and near-intangibility, air cannot in most cases be held, but is almost always instantaneously redirected. As far as using body energy outside of the body is concerned, this is something you will have to wing. If an Interferer and a Conduit have a baby, can it do both, or just one? Im going for rational semi-soft I hope I pull it off. Anyway, the original inspiration came when I read an article about the philosophy of mind which claimed that interactionist dualism (the idea that the mind is immaterial and the body is material, yet they interact) couldnt be true, with one reason given being that such an interaction would violate conservation of energy. On How Do I Portray Stupid Characters Respectfully? I wanted to try my hand at creating a really fleshed out magic system for fun, and never planned on making a story or doing anything with it. Preview. Aside from this, the only other limitation a mage has in magic is their stamina. Id love to hear more about what the magic can do. Specific effects include communicating with others, working together as a group, and riding inside the minds of others. A strong starting point in order to define your world as "other" to our own is selecting your world's name. I like the fact youve got a cool new way people gain magical abilities- FAR FAR FAR to many high fantasy novels just have it be the usual theyre born with it (theres nothing wrong with that way- heck Ive even used that, its simple and the easiest way to have it)- but I love seeing unique ways besides just being born with it. Its no surprise the avatar state causes plot holes during Avatar: The Legend of Korra. In Brandon Sandersons Mistborn Series, characters acquire magic by imbibing small amounts of metals and burning them once theyre consumed. In the series Rowling shows that wands and spells channel the magic within an individual so witches and wizards are not without magic if they dont have a wand. Magic in Tolkien is a reflection of _spiritual_ power. Is magic inherited, gifted, obtained, or learned? Basically at the begining of the universe the two forces (or gods) Chaos & Order struggled over which would have dominion over the world- Order appeared to win with the natural world as it is ordered and follows laws of physics ect. My train of thought was a bit of a runaway train. But the Mother eventually grows tired of such a long and drawn-out abuse of the balance, with the plants greedily hoarding the sunlight for themselves each day; in autumn she begins to draw water out of the plants, more than just the droplets that form on leaves in the morning. Really Smart that would make a great power for the Apaths. One of them is how I believe that the tips given may not be universal. I generally call the opposite of rational arbitrary, and that one I just chose arbitrarily, you might say. Summon up a spirit to help you move a piano, and you can spend hours debating over price. Most magic systems fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Do you think the metaphor works when stretched so far? I think that Ill change the names to be about the Towers, instead of what I have now. Mother takes away the gift of sunlight and its heat and sends all of the water down upon the plants to punish them in their death. How might someone with an unusual background or extraordinary dedication take magic either a step further or a step in a new direction? Dragon breeds or races (this is with Borne magic): For now, Im thinking that the energy will be a 3D field spreaded around (basically, just a math function). If so, what differentiates them? One type usually comes naturally to you (depending on your personality and familiarity) but through practice you can learn other types. If they need to rely on chanted rituals, they cant do something in a few seconds and they cant start a ritual while the enemy is looking for them, because the voice would lead the enemy to the hiding spot. I just made it up, I had no idea there was a magic system out there that was so similar. That guy was supposed to be a REAL nasty bugger in terms of, you know, nobody whos ever gone to hunt this creature has ever come back alive, and all that jazz? (Storm God = sky domain = bird ? Some of them, such as the Breath Weapons have been condenced a little bit for shortnesses sake. With very little people learning magic outside of their respective faction but its not a common practice. Our physical universe is merely the extent that we can see with our mortal Perceptions limits. Even within one category, theres no way to extrapolate new spells because the rules are so eclectic. Novice mages are taught how to bring out their mana to create energy bolts, shields, weapons, and constructs. The way it goes is that the universe of our perception is just a projection, an illusion if you will, of the real World, the Sea of Energy. Perhaps, a ritual needs chants which will take most of the night. Its a common trap that many authors using emotion-based powers fall into its tempting to create a sudden dramatic reversal of a seemingly hopeless situation with a method the fundamental rules of the story allows for at any time. 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. Its a life for a life type meaning it will kill the caster to save the person their healing, thats why nobody even bothers to learn it. There's a wide variety of ways to wield magic, ranging from staves, wands and tomes to scrolls, artifacts and created objects and even which body part you use and how many (1 hand, 2 hands, eyes, entire body, etc.). Using mana is no different from using up stamina, the more magic you use, the more energy that is used up. Now its time to decide why magic cant do anything and everything the spellcaster wants, whenever they want. Combustial (fire) When it comes to telepathy have you considered that connecting to another mind might simply mean making changes in their neural system (which runs on small amounts of electricity created by the body)? However, most societies dont have the resources to crank out wizards. Thisbook extrapolated the authors theory that this means that by our observation of the universe we are in fact playing some role in creating it and that that bolsters the philosophical school again, dont remember its name or nearly as much as I should if I hadnt been such a bloody stoner all through college ;) that each individual lives in their own separate universe which they create or have a part in shaping.
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