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Coo! Whatever direction you go with it, it sounds like it would be really fun to read!
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
@thearcaneaxiom Cool forum topic!
Your magic system sounds so cool!!! 😀 I love that it has a chemistry base//chemistry inspiration!
For my current fantasy novel, the magic system is kind of like “powers.” I guess a better way of putting that is that the characters have magical abilities. Depending on what country they’re from determines what kind of magic and abilities they have. So, for example, in one country, they have nature-related powers. (Think Elsa’s ice powers in Frozen.) Then in another country, their powers pertain to anything metal-related.
"It looks like a fairy world"~Meg from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Fall in love with JesusGirl, I love that the magic in your story comes from God. That’s how I’m doing it in my story as well. 😀 It’s almost as if exploring the question, “What if God created the world to work and be like this?” Anyway, I love how you’re doing it in your story world and magic system!
Wow, that’s so cool that you have a fantasy Queen Esther retelling!! I love that idea!
"It looks like a fairy world"~Meg from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Fall in love with JesusWow, that’s so cool that you have a fantasy Queen Esther retelling!! I love that idea!
Thanks so much!! 😊
Write what should not be forgotten. — Isabel Allende
I love this topic.
Ok so I am personally more of a hard magic system type of guy. Also I totally feel like the laws of sanderson are a great guideline.
As for my own series, The Kharvian Anthology, my magic system is definitely more of a hard magic system. The entire world of Kharvia is really close to the line between sci-fi and fantasy because their world is kind of industrialised and time period wise closer to the mid 1800s. The magic system of Kharvia is mostly focused on the light of the 5 Kharvian moons and the Oskrion Complex which is called Aether and comes in different colors. The moons are called moons because they have cycles though they each emit their own color of light. The oskrion complex is a large imploding celestial structure which emits its own form of light. The oskrion complex disappears on the 61st day of each month. On the last day of the last month the Oskrion complex has a massive explosion and basically the entire sky becomes lighted and the entire 24 hours is day. Normally days are more like nights. Days are marked by the appearence of the moons which only happens during night (otherwise the only celestial object is the oskrion complex) (nights in kharvia are actually brighter than days).
Anyways back to the ‘magic system’. I put it in quotes because it is a science within the Kharvian world and calling it magic would make you seem really old or out of touch with reality. It is most simply defined as Aetheology. That is the study of Aether which is based around Aether theory. All of Aetheology is focesed on two main things. These are Aether tech and Aether Enhancement.
Basically Aether enhancement has existed since the super early Aethrine revolution. It works around the making of certain substances that when injected into oneself gives you different powers. Each of the moons is related to a differ power. The powers are One way Telepathy, 24 hour regineration, shielding, Time slowing, and Telekenisis that can only push. You must be trained to use these skills once the aethrine substance corresponding to them is injected or else you will basically just fall into a coma. To make the substances you have to capture the aether from the light (generally using lunnite) and then refine it using blood (generally pigs blood). This causes the whole thing to become more of a liquid which then must be sepetated by skimming the Aethrine substance off of the surface of the reactants.
Aethrine Technology (which is much much newer) basically turns aether into power that can be used to mechanically use the abilities. It collects the aether using a different kind of stone that is a chemical compound (that includes lunnite). It is nicknamed bloodstone by some because it explodes if blood comes in contact with it. It allows for aether to be taken in a similar manir as solar panals and converts the aether into a slightly different form of energy. This is then sent through wires to do stuff in a similar vein to normal powers. It can accomplish much greater feats. There is a system of basically sigils which determine the output of the energy. Also the white aether (produced by Oskirion) is important in transporting the aether in Aethrine technology.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestThanks! Yeah, that sounds really cool! So it looks like you got a elemental magic system going on. It sounds a lot like Last Airbender with the premise of elemental countries. Are you aiming for that image? An older worldbuilding project I did was essentially just Last Airbender, except instead of the four elements, I did the four fundamental forces of nature. It was a lot of fun to think about the different possibilities of what you could do with that. You say it’s the country your from, so is it hereditary, or is some sort of magic kinda like a citizenship where if your born there, you gain those powers?
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
Yep! Hard magic is so fun to contemplate!
Your world sounds super cool! I love how your combining things like lunar calendars, light, chemistry, and a bunch of other concepts into the magic.
Ok, I got questions.
You say the Oskrion Complex is a imploding celestial structure. So does it appear to be slowly shrinking over the course of a month until it disappears. You also said it explodes. What I picture is that it slowly shrinks, then the heat and pressure becomes too great once it’s shrunk too much that it explodes, then resets shrinking again. But you mentioned that it only explodes on the last day of the last month. So how does it regrow all the other months. Does it just suddenly reappear? Or does it slowly grow for the first half of the month, then shrink the second, then explode on the last month? But that means it’s only imploding half the month. Is the cycle just more nuanced than that?
You hint at the structure of the calendar by mentioning that there’s at least 61 days each month, and because of the Oskrion’s relation to the days of the month shows that it is indeed a lunar and/or Oskrionic calendar. What the full nature of time keeping for the people that use this particular method based off of lunar cycles, like how many months are in a year (I would have asked how long a day is, but you already mentioned 24 hours, do they use an hour metric, or is that just what you said for the convenience of the audience?). You also said that days are more like nights. Where the nights are far brighter, because night is when the moons are up. But what really defines day for us is when we are awake and active. So are people awake in the darker periods of time, perhaps because it’s too bright at “night”? Because otherwise, there’s no frame of reference for these people to say that the moon rises at night, and therefore, even though it’s brighter, it’s called night. Of course, language would be different, and so the terms day and night would only be approximations for the terms they use. Still though, day means when we’re awake, so what’s the particular reason why they would call the darker period day?
You say the moons are called moons because they have cycles. Are they still spheroids that orbit the world through mass, or is the world not spherical at all, and ground physics is different, kinda like how my and my sister’s magic system works(as you did make a point that it shouldn’t be called magic, because it’s really the science of this world, as ours is also).
So your using the term Aether, which to us can be taken in a chemistry sense, or a physical sense. I’m assuming your thinking of this in a physical sense where this is a part of the world that permeates all space in the form of light, is that right? I’m using ether in my world as well, but it’s distinguished from light. The mechanics for when it’s pulled or pushed on, and when it’s overlaying itself, thinking in terms of tearing a manifold and imbedding a piece of it elsewhere was really fun to think about. Yes! Tech vs “enhancements” is a big part of our world to. The “magic” is indeed the fundamental building blocks of this universe, so it can be thought of in magical terms, but then it can also be thought of in technological terms depending on the age your in.
For the different powers. Is there a 24 hour limit on all of these these, or just the regeneration? I notice a one way theme. Where the power can only go one direction. Just to make sure, the telepathy is one way in the sense of you can project thoughts into another’s mind, but they can’t speak to you, nor can you read their mind, right? Let me guess this system: telepathy and telekinesis are both pushing abilities, then time slowing and healing are both pull powers, then shielding as making a layer separating an inside and a outside creates a neutral effect. Is this rational at all correct? Either way, it sounds interesting. Also, what does time slowing mean, because that could mean a whole lot of things of varying impact. Is it like Wayne’s speedbubble? I know your a Sanderson fan. I love how Sando this all is btw.
What’s Lunnite? Does it absorbed light from the moons, is it made from the moons? Does bloodstone explode only when touched by blood? What about synthetic blood made with the same proteins and compounds, but is not originated from an animal.
Overall, I love what I see of this world so far. Very intriguing and thought provoking. I’d love to hear more about it if your ever willing!
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
Ok, so the oskrion complex is like kind of imploding. I don’t really know if that was the best way to explain it. Basically, it continually implodes and explodes simultaneously At the end of a month it fully implodes. At the end of a year, it fully explodes. There are 6 months in a year which means a year is 366 days (weeks are actually only 6 days in standard kharvian calendars).
As for day length it would be 24 hours by our standards but I think that kharvia uses a mostly base 12 number system. I haven’t named or worked on this much but it would basically mean that there are 6 seconds in a minute. 120 minutes in an hour. 120 hours in a day.
The moons of kharvia are spheroid and orbit kharvia. No one has circumnavigated so it is not really important if kharvia is flat or not (I have also not determined this yet).
Also as for day and night, most people would probably use blackout curtains because it is almost always light out. It would probably be a better idea to be awake when the moons are not out because otherwise, everything is going to be tinted in some sort of weird mostly grey color. I also was kind of thinking I would base it off of lunar objects because it would be easier for readers.
Ok so in order to answer your question about aether I need to explain this thing I forgot to mention. So in kharvia there is this concept of people having an aura which in kharvia is the place slightly beyond your physical being that your spiritual being can access. People in kharvia can siphon aether from the light by using their aura. Also, most aethrine enhancements use people’s auras and when using enhancements your aura can be infused and expanded (more on this later). If you just syphon aether it will just slowly float away but it can be stored in lunnite. This also kind of answers some of your lunnite questions. Lunnite is also named because it can hold the light of the moons.
Bloodstone will natrually absorb the light (it is also synthetic and is to kharvia as the steam engine is to the industrial revolution). It would also explode if it came in contact with synthetic blood. The explosion is more potent if human or pig blood is used and I think may have something to do with plasma. It is linked to the same reason why the reaction that forms aethrine substances from charged lunnite works.
As for the powers they will all go away after the aethrine substance works its way through your system/is used up. The 24 hour regeneration thing is basically that the regeneration works by reverting you back to the you that was you 24 hours (or less) ago. It can not revive dead people but it can be used to basically make you invincable (unlike stormlight you will not die because your spinal cord was cut you will just leak a bunch of aether until the wound is healed or whatever is there is removed and the wound can heal). As for the time slowing abilities it basically slows down anything within your aura (and allows for a much exspanded aura). I havn’t read much sanderson (that is more of my brother) so I don’t exactly know what you are talking about.
If you wan’t to know anything else (doesn’t have to be exclusive to aether theory) I am happy to answer your questions.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestThis is a really fascinating world! Thanks for answering my questions. I’m still confused about the Oskrion though, what resets it at the beginning of the month if it only explodes at the end of the year? Calendars are so fun to think about. Omialia has some interesting day night cycles as well. There’s two ‘suns’ that ‘orbit’ it. They cycle around the planet in such a way so that when your at the poles, you experience an equal day night cycle, but at the equator, it is more of a 1 day two night cycle. But during Liren’s era (haven’t named it yet), they’re in a Dyson sphere-esque world, and there is no day night cycles, because the sun is always there, but they judge sleep periods and time in general with sea cycles. Where it’s a grand ocean that slowly crawls along the equator.
Also, about the auras.
an aura which in kharvia is the place slightly beyond your physical being that your spiritual being can access.
You use the terminology slightly beyond, are you going to delve into the nature of extra dimensionality with it, or are you going to leave it at that? It would be really cool if you did (although, it can be hard to communicate with your audience about it, but who cares😂). I’m doing something similar in my and my sister’s world, with extra spatial dimensions a core aspect of the universe. We haven’t discussed it much yet, but I’ve been contemplating a form of aura called True-mind. The Everything in some ways could be seen as pure intelligence, but it is not sentience, because there is no contrast from the Everything, True mind can’t occur. Only when the Nothing touched it for a brief moment, allowing them both to trade a piece of each other was when contrast became apparent, then comprehension separating one thing from another was allowed. Ultimately allowing true mind/sentience to occur. I won’t dive too deep into the lore unless your interested. Anyways, true mind is not related to the thought element. Even though thought is one of the spiritual elements, it is still just refined, 1 dimensional Everything. Whereas true mind is likely infinite in dimension just as the Everything is. Because of it’s high dimensionality, it can be completely hidden in a physical sense even from the Phantoms POV, even though they are creatures of a 4 dimensional nature. True mind grows and develops through a mortal body, but for this reason, it can be influenced when in a mortal state still, for it’s ultimate growth or decay.
I would love to hear more about your world! Have you developed unique races and cultures at all? Unique species? Strange religions? Ect?
He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.
About the auras. I personally don’t know much about dimensionality but I had more conceptualized it as this like mental awareness. It takes training to be able to use it and unenhanced it generally can only be expanded by about a foot from bare skin. Your basic aura (the non-enhanced one) can go through anything. The only thing it can feel is aether but this can be used to determine things (ie if I was stuck in a room I could determine if the other side of a wall is accessible by light and by how much. Once the aura has grabbed Aether or if the peice of it is enhanced it cannot generally pass through stuff (time slowing just adopts stuff into it (but only what is within it). I can explain more if you want. Also I will answer your other questions in a small amount of time.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestAlso the thing about the true mind is kind of confusing as I don’t know what the everything is. It seems cool though.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestI would love if you explained.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestAlso the oceans thing is very interesting. I like worlds that stray from the norm.
Through darkness,
light shines brightestThis is a really cool topic! I haven’t read everything on this thread, but what I did read was really interesting.
Do you prefer hard magic systems that have more concrete rules? Or Soft magic systems that have more open possibilities?
I kinda like both. I think some work better for different stories. For example, I have a story based off of Alice in Wonderland that has a very soft magic system. The explanations for why things happen are very vague and often nonsensical, because if it were any other way, it would no longer be Wonderland.
But then there are great fantasy books like Mistborn that have very concrete magic systems that make the story really interesting.
I actually need a bit of help coming up with a magic system for one of my stories. So far I have this:
In this world, only dragons and humans are able to use magic. Dragons can use it without any external help, whereas humans need to draw power from other sources. They found that the best way to do so was to use a rare mineral that I’ve been temporarily calling dragon stone. The humans and the dragons live a long time in peace, learning from each other and building a sort of golden age. Then, at some point, against the dragons’ instructions, a human tries using magic to raise a loved one from the dead, something that magic can’t actually accomplish. But, once the spell is cast, it can’t be taken back, so it becomes a sort of magic vacuum that pulls energy/ power/ life from everything around it. The curse spreads, killing all the land around it. Other magic users try in vain to reverse it, and the dragons regret ever teaching magic to the humans. This causes a lot of strife between the two races, and soon the dragons leave.
At least a century later, (I’m not sure exactly how long) humans have outlawed magic and have been forced to move entire cities just to avoid the slowly spreading curse. This is when my story starts with four kids trying to learn why magic is outlawed, where the dragons went, and what really happened in their people’s past.
Sorry that was long. I just need help figuring out how the magic system actually works? I don’t want it to be too complicated, but it’s super vague right now. I’ll read Sanderson’s guidelines for it, but I also wanted to ask other people.
“Nothing says autumn like slurpin’ apples.” -my uncle
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