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• 1 2017-12-06T11:17:44-08:00 So You Want to Play With Magic? 11 Developing and refining magic systems image_header 2017-12-16T02:54:31-08:00 Magic is a unique tool in fantasy writing. It's one of the things that separates this genre from anything else, and can be a quite important aspect of the world. Notice I said can be. Fantasy worlds don't need magic, and if you have magic you should do what you can to make it so it enhances the world and story not something that takes focus away from everything else. In Game of Thrones there's not much magic at all, while Harry Potter has magic everywhere. Both are fantasy series which did very well, and in both the magic is secondary to the plot and characters. Don't put too much focus on creating the best most intricate magic system if it's going to take over everything.
  Now that I've given you this warning, here are things to think about:

  Who can use it?

  Harry Potter has witches/wizards and muggles, GoT has few magic users based on region, one of the things that affects magic's effects on the world is who can actually use it. D&D has various types of classes and interactions with magic to think about: maybe some magic is tied to a God and only worshipers of that God can use it (clerics). Maybe only people who have something particular about their heritage can use it naturally (like sorcerers) but others can tap into it with a great amount of study (wizards). Or you could gain magic by devotion to a musical instrument (bards), a divine code of conduct (paladins), or nature (druids). Maybe only a certain race has magic naturally to them or a particular strain of magic unique to them and others don't (like the fae). Maybe it's an external force that can only be manipulated if you have a certain type of item that is jealously hoarded by the elite and in order for the heroes to beat them they need to steal some of it (in Dark Sun defiling magic normally just drains from plant life but if you use obsidian then you can use human life force to power your magic so that is held by the people in power), or maybe those certain types of items can be bought on the street from a merchant who can create magical items to do all sorts of things so while some people have the ability to create and use magic everyone can buy stuff that performs magic to serve some purpose. Or maybe almost everyone has it and the freaks are the ones who don't have magical abilities (Jim Butcher's [writer of the Dresden Files] Codex Alera plays with this). 

  What does it require?

  Sometimes magic requires nothing to cast it, just at will. Other times it needs a wand or some other focus, or it might require some sort of component that will be destroyed in the casting. It might require magic words, hand gestures, jazz hands (usually not), it's up to you. In D&D there are spells that are of all of those types, usually the more powerful the spell the costlier the components are. This is something that allows you to put limits on magic. If the magic requires hand gestures then all someone needs to do is tie your hands behind your back, if it's words then they can gag you, and if you need other things then someone can just take your tools away and you're screwed.

   

  Where does it come from?

  The source of your magic also matters in what effects it should have and how people will respond to it. In Dark Sun magic comes from draining life force. Because of that the people who use it are reviled, and it's not exactly healing power. In Forgotten Realms (another D&D setting) people can gain magic through pacts with demons, fae, or creatures of madness (warlocks) and this pact makes people think they're sinister and whoever they're making a pact with defines what spells they get. Clerics get their power from their Gods and the alignment and domains of the God affect what spells their clerics can do. However, most people draw from the Weave which is magic that is just woven into the world, it's neutral and can be used for anything, which means for most people what matters is...

  How do people respond to it?​

  People's attitudes towards magic are something to also consider. In a world where it's commonplace and everywhere magic is part of daily life and is accepted by most people. But if very few people have it then they might be feared or even persecuted/hunted down. If some cataclysmic event happened as the result of magic, the society that emerges from the wreckage may hate all magic and magic users because they're associated with that cataclysm, leading to xenophobia or forcing mages to live in specific areas. Sometimes religion and magic are at odds, so a theocratic society might hunt down magic users considering them universally evil and against the Gods or there might be a cult that preaches its evils in the streets and spreads distrust. The rulers may feel that the only threat to their reign is magic users and so they've created trained soldiers who are protected from magic that will kill mages. Or maybe the place is the exact opposite, a magocracy (term in Forgotten Realms for the country of Thay where being able to wield magic is something required to be part of the elite, divides you from the powerless masses. Often in urban fantasy where it's on our earth...well, we know how people generally respond to people claiming to be magical, we look at them like they're ridiculous. Usually something to play with is how we generally avoid cognitive dissonance by automatically generating a rationalization for any small magical thing we see and our whole entire concept of the world gets shattered once magic is shown to be irrefutably real.

  What does it do?/What can't it do?

  Magic needs rules in order to work well in a story. It needs to make sense, to have logic, otherwise your readers are going to get annoyed with how it just changes whenever you feel like it and it defeats any chance of story because all the problems can be solved by magic. This guide is really good on how to make a system that makes sense.
  Activity: tell me how your magic works using these questions as a guide. As the overarching world and the scene I'm basing this off of are different I'll do both.
  Example:
  Who can use it: In the larger world the magic varies with both each religion having its own magic system and also people being able to draw upon nature (I'm not really inventing anything instead drawing upon the rich preexisting cultures and traditions). The nature based one is unique because with the Return of the Gods the magic of nature has also grown back to the levels it had in myth, meaning that neopagans and other modern witches have experienced a huge surge in the powers they have called upon. In the group the leader is Áilleacht, who is descended from one of the ancient Celtic druids that escaped the Romans slaughtering them, however I'm basing my depiction of her on actual historical druids which weren't at all like the nature magic controlling archetype we associate with the term, and there's Atsa who is a Navajo (Diné as they actually call themselves) shaman guided by a spirit that has decided to remain unnamed to him (I know who it is but he's...wily [description and a hint]). The fae have their own innate magic which I already explained.
  
  What does it require: For humans it depends, honestly when it comes to these aspects I'm still partway through researching and gathering info to bring to life. For fae nothing.
  
  Where does it come from: Áilleacht, nature and ancient druidic traditions; Atsa, the spirit that chose him to be a guide to the group; fae from their supernatural nature.
  
  How do people respond to it: If humans revealed that they had such connections it depends on who they're with. The people who reject the Gods and want the world returned back the way it was before their Return with hostility, showing that they have foreign power in places serving particularly controlling Gods will have negative results, places where the power is from and accepted they would be respected, and I imagine the common person who is just going along with the flow would shrug and accept that this is a thing now. The fae are viewed with fear and respect, you don't want to be picked up by them, it's why the Irish have invented a ton of different euphemisms other than fae because simply saying that word attracts their notice. If you're actually in the know about things carrying iron because it's the only thing that can hurt them and avoiding faerie rings is a good reaction to knowing how their magic works.
  
  What does it do?/What can't it do?: Humans: still researching, fae, make illusions of any sort, eating their food or dancing with them traps you into doing those things until death, conjurations, and in Ceo shape the city however they want.