@jonas
Active 13 hours, 42 minutes ago- Rank: Chosen One
- Total Posts: 2852
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Oh.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksYw.
I don’t know what that means, and that scares me.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksWait, did you just rename yourself to Whalekeeper?
We’ve got an identity thief on the loose people!
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of Books@jonas That’s a cool system. So soulforging works on any metal object? Do you have any characters with enchanted jewelry then?
Thanks!
Yes, it works on any metal. I haven’t completely decided yet, but metals might have varying properties that makes some better for certain things, but any metal could be Soulforged in some way. (Of course, then the trick becomes defining what a metal is. If you look at the periodic table, most of the elements are some sort of metal. Soulforging definitely works on all the transition metals in the middle of the periodic table, as well as alloys of those metals. It probably doesn’t work on alkili metals or alkiline earth metals, but I’m fuzzy about the post-transition metals.)
The planet that Soulforging is on (Oldonar) is one that I have very few characters and very little plot ideas for. However, jewelry is probably the most practical way to employ Soulforging, except maybe weapons, so a lot of people probably will. I think one character I do have uses Soulforged rings (those count as jewelry, right?) so I guess the answer to your question is, yes!
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksSure! (Don’t worry, I won’t plagiarize lol)
Okay, then, a crash course on Awakening it is! (Minor spoilers if anyone reading this happens to plan on reading Warbreaker.)
So, in the world of Warbreaker, every person is born with one Breath, which on its own doesn’t really do anything. However, you can give your Breath to someone else, at the cost of suffering some negative side effects, like becoming less healthy overall. With enough Breaths (as in a couple hundred), you can Awaken objects with a Command. However, you can’t just say any words and have them work. You need to use proper wording and have proper visualization of what you intend to happen, which makes some Commands more difficult and take more Breath. You can only awaken organic objects, that is, objects that were once alive (with enough Breath, it is possible to Awaken metal or stone, but that’s extremely rare), so for the most part, people Awaken things like cloth and rope. It’s also significantly easier to Awaken things that are humanoid in form–a piece of cloth cut into the shape of a person takes less Breath than another equally size piece of cloth. An Awakener can later recall their Breath from an object they’ve Awakened. Some Commands that are used are things like…
- “Hold things” (on rope)
- “Hold when thrown” (also on a rope)
- “Strangle things” (again on a rope)
- “Protect me” (on a cloak)
- “Fight for me as if you were me” (also on a cloak)
- “Fetch keys” (on a straw figure)
You can also Awaken bodies, which turns them into Lifeless. Lifeless can follow future Commands instead of just one given when they are Awakened.
That’s pretty much it. It might not be very helpful, but then again, it might be. Do with this information as you will.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksOkay, so here’s a magic system that I’ve been working on for a long time and keep modifying, but I feel is in a pretty good place now.
(Technically, it’s more like two magic systems, but they are highly connected to each other.)
First, to understand it, you need a quick crash course in my universe’s rules.
Humans are made up of five aspects: The physical aspect (the body), the psychological aspect (the brain), the mental aspect (the mind), the spiritual aspect, and the soul. The soul is the main essence of a person (just like in real life), and can’t be harmed or altered by magic, although it can be bound to the mortal world by it. Without a connection to the physical world, the soul departs. By default, the soul is bound to the body by the spiritual aspect.
The spiritual aspect exists so that I can “have my cake and eat it too.” I personally am not entirely comfortable with the idea of magic effecting the soul in fantasy, because that can have disturbing implications (think dementors). But it’s also a cool concept sometimes. This way, I have the spiritual aspect, which holds a person’s spiritual connections and other magical information, which can be broken and manipulated, while the soul is still immutable and immortal.
Soulforging is a magic system that allows the user to split off pieces of their spiritual aspect and bind them to a metal object, granting it Arcane powers. (This is very much a LOTR inspired magic system. Essentially, I wanted to make a hard magic system that felt similar to the mechanics of the One Ring.) These objects (creatively called “Soulforgings”) are imbued with a single prime Command upon creation, which has a great effect on what they do. Soulforgings slowly develop sentience (to a varying degree depending on how much of a person’s spiritual aspect is inside of them.) Their personality will be influenced by their creator’s as well as their Command. The longer they’ve existed, however, the more free will a Soulforging develops, giving it greater ability to ignore its Command (though this remains difficult.)
Splitting off too much of your spiritual aspect is dangerous, however, and can lead to negative effects such as loss of memory and sanity, and even death (as their soul may not have enough connection left to the body to remain bound.)
Another side effect of Soulforging is that, upon death, the person’s soul remains somewhat bound to the physical realm (via any Soulforgings they made.) If they have enough of their spiritual aspect tied to the physical realm, the connections can be strong enough for them to remain for some time, though without further intervention, they will eventually slip away and depart anyway. A person in this state is called a Wraith. They appear in the physical realm as a three-dimensional shadow and are completely intangible.
(Soulforgings can also produce a Wraith if they are destroyed, though these are usually less aware and fade away faster.)
A related system is called Shadowmancy. It is possible to form a bond with a Wraith. This helps the Wraith remain bound to the physical realm and gives the mortal Arcane powers. A Shadewalker can pull themselves partially out of the physical realm which allows them to phase through solid objects and interact with Wraiths. Wraiths appear more human but are pale and lack any color.
Additionally, Shadewalkers can pull the Wraith further into the physical realm, using them for assistance, although this takes a lot of effort. Slightly more easily, a Shadewalker can condense the Wraith’s essence into a small object such as a weapon of dark energy. More easily than that, a Shadewalker can insert the Wraith into a pre-existing physical object, granting it some Arcane properties (such as a cloak wreathing its wearer in shadow, or a blade cutting more easily.) However, overuse of their abilities can put too much strain on the bond between Shadewalker and Wraith, resulting in the Shadewalker being pulled from their body and becoming a Wraith themselves while the Wraith is pulled all the way into the physical realm (though with no true body, they fade away again quickly.) A Shadewalker can be bonded to multiple Wraiths, but each one increases the strain on the bond.
Finally, Soulforging and Shadowmancy have a sort of hybrid system between them called Shadeforging. It is possible to use a Wraith, rather than your own spiritual aspect, to create a Soulforging (though in this case it is called a “Shadeforging”). These are more dangerous and unstable, and the Wraith’s influence alters the properties somewhat. This also can allow a Wraith to regain physical form, though they are dependent on the Shadeforging and must keep it with them at all times.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksYou can share one of your systems if you want, Jonas! I think it’s safe to say you have a few. XD
You could say that… (It’s about 13…)
I’ll see if I have a good one I haven’t talked about much.
I once beta-read a book which is now published, and it had a big magic problem which the author didn’t rewrite. I think she didn’t think it was important in the grand scheme of things. (And that’s her decision to make. It was more of a romance than a plot-heavy story anyway.) The deuteragonist was called the Voice of Command, and his power allowed him to command people to do things, and they had to obey. As the story continued, he was able to command objects and substances. He commanded objects to teleport to him in the blink of an eye. Anyway, there were no costs, so when the final battle happened, I never understood why he couldn’t just command the villain to stop.
I’ve thought about a magic system like that actually. It’s a cool concept. But commanding literally anything you want with no costs definitely seems OP. Personally, I would at least have given it the limitation that the objects are still bound by their physical natures, because if you can literally make objects teleport, is there anything you can’t do? It seems like that would open up a lot of easy solutions to almost every problem. An easy justification for why he couldn’t tell the villain to stop would be, ‘with enough willpower you can resist,’ but I’m guessing that wasn’t ever mentioned?
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksEllis – Elderstrand (w/ Ben, Flare, Baron, following Felicity and Brea)
“Whatever made that sound,” Ellis said, glancing backward. “I don’t–Brutus! Come on! We’ve got to get out of here!”
He stopped, turning around. Just then with the sound of pounding feet, he saw a swarm of bounding spindly creatures burst into the streets behind them through a gap between buildings.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksIt seems a bit limitless to me, I guess.
Okay, I can see that. Yeah, I have had similar problems where I made a magic system that has a very simple premise, but as a result, I was worried that there were a bunch of overpowered applications of it that I hadn’t considered yet.
Your magic system has some interesting parallels to a magic system called Awakening from a book called Warbreaker. Have you heard of or read it? That could be a possible source of inspiration. (To be clear, I’m not suggesting you just copy ideas from that, but I think oftentimes, seeing how one thing does it can generate ideas to do something completely different, but other things that it does might be applicable to your system. If you want me to, I can give you a brief description of how it works.)
Moving on, it seems to me that some good limitations could help a lot. I’ve got a few questions:
- What is the process of using Ink to bring an object to life?
- What useful things is a sentient Ink drawing capable of doing?
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksWhat in particular do you want help with? It sounds pretty cool to me. I could probably help, but I’m not sure what you want to improve.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksOkay, I have some time today, so I’m going to write out my thoughts and advice. I might come back to this tomorrow.
So, for anyone who’s interested, here’s my tips for
Designing Magic Systems
I like to think of there being three main aspects of a magic system: Access, Effects, and Cost. Access refers to any prerequisites for using the magic. Effects are what the magic does. Cost is any downsides to using the magic. Of these, I think effects is actually the least important. Access and costs can both be very important, but cost probably a bit more so.
Access
There are a lot of creative ways to have people access magic. The two most basic are ‘you’re just born with it’ and ‘anyone can use it.’ Having a magic system where people are just born with the abilities can be a bit boring, but it also can be done in interesting ways (one simple way to make it more interesting is to explore the social and cultural implications.)
Likewise, a magic system that everyone can use might seem boring as well, but there are interesting things to do with that as well. A downside is that using magic doesn’t make anyone special, but on the other hand it lets you put more emphasis on skill and technique.
Beyond these two basic set-ups, there are practically endless amounts of creative methods of access that are usually far more interesting. As an example, a magic system I’m currently working on involves these sentient trees, which can form a bond with a person, giving them magical abilities. I think this set-up is pretty strong, because it adds some nuance to what could otherwise be a plain power-set: for one thing, a sentient being adds some interesting dynamics, and also, the magic user’s powers are reliant on an external stationary object, which could be destroyed.
That’s all I really have to say about access. There’s a ton of possibilities, and not really any rules, so I don’t have any advice on the subject other than to keep it in mind. (It’s also something I still have issues with sometimes.)
Effects
There’s a lot to say about this.
I said before, that this is the least important of the three main aspects of a magic system. That’s might seem weird, since this is the bulk of what the magic system is. The thing is, however, that narratively, exactly what the magic does doesn’t have that much effect on the story. Any given problem in a story could be solved by many different magical abilities.
Additionally, coming up with effects that are actually original is hard. Most magic systems share a lot of similar abilities with others. But the thing is, the core ability of a magic system isn’t the most interesting thing about it. That’s why you can make an interesting, unique feeling magic system about telekinesis or natural elements even though those are extremely common magical abilities.
The way to do this is by using unique limitations. As an example let’s use the ability to manipulate fire. This is extremely common, and on its own pretty boring. But there are lots of interesting things you could do. Maybe you can’t create fire, so you need to carry around the materials to start one. Maybe can only control how hot the fire is. Things like this could make a fire magic system feel unique, despite how common that general ability is.
Cost
Cost is a broad category. Essentially, I’m defining it as anything negative that results from using magic.
The most basic sort of cost is for magic to require some sort of fuel, which is quite literally a cost to use the ability. It has the negative result of leaving you with less fuel to use later. This isn’t a particularly interesting cost. It’s not bad—the majority of magic systems have this in some form—but it’s often better to have additional costs as well.
Going back to the fire magic system, there’s a lot of super interesting costs that could be implemented. Maybe using it causes you to heat up, eventually reaching dangerous internal temperatures, or it could just outright inflict burns on you. Or, conversely, it could take heat, eventually causing you to freeze.
Magic could sap your sanity, delete memories, turn you evil, etc.
You could have external costs as well, like decaying things around you. I don’t think this is very common, because I can’t think of any examples, but that would just make it more unique if you think of an interesting one.
Inspiration
Some thoughts about getting inspiration.
When I get inspiration for a magic system, it’s often only one of its three aspects (access, effects, and cost), and then I have to extrapolate the rest from there.
For example, I have a magic system called Immancy, which started out essentially as a cost idea: I wanted it to be super open-ended, where basically the only rule was that there was always a cost, which you could choose. (As a side note, that didn’t work out great, but it eventually evolved into something a lot better.)
Sometimes I might also get a super strong idea for a certain visual. It might be related to the access, effects, cost, or be a bit vague, but don’t discount that. Visuals can be a really strong aspect of magic.
Balance
As a final thought, sometimes it’s hard to find a strong method of access, effect, and cost for a magic system. As I mentioned, I often get inspiration for just one of the three, and oftentimes you can’t just mash three ideas that came to you separately together. You want it to be cohesive.
I have a lot of magic systems, and sone of them have a core idea I really love, but other parts are weak.
For example, Resonancy was a magic system of mine that started out with an interesting set of effects, and a powerful visual. The visual was these glowing crystals. The effects were based on manipulating fundamental aspects of reality: matter, energy, space, time, etc. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found a strong system of access/costs for this magic system even though I love the visual idea and the abilities.
Another example is Immancy, which I mentioned earlier. I had a strong idea for costs, but when I tried to write a story with it, the effects were not as interesting as I had thought, and the whole thing was mediocre.
I don’t really have a solution for this issue. It takes some fiddling sometimes. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem to click, and things just don’t quite work. The best advice I’ve got is to ask yourself what access/effects/cost would fit most interestingly and cohesively with the access/effects/cost you have.
Last note: not every magic systems needs all three of the aspects to be super interesting or unique. Costs is probably the most important—good costs will automatically make the effects feel more unique, but it’s also possible to have fairly generic ones.
So, that’s that. I hope that was helpful to anyone who took the time to read all that.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI’ve heard that there are basically three factors that make a character like-able: how “nice” of a person they are, competence (or alternatively, proactivity), and sympathy.
Of those, sympathy is the closest to relatability, but you can sympathize with someone who is in a completely different situation than you’ve ever been in. I don’t think relatability is that important to worry about.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI agree that he is a sorrowful sack of mope, but it does not bother me at all. XD I actually kind of understand Kaladin. It’s a little silly to say, especially because I’m not an ex-general ex-slaved turned-general-again with a pile of trauma and white knight syndrome. But the way he struggles going into RoW is pretty relatable.
Huh, I guess I just don’t relate to him at all, because I found him super mopey and annoying my first time through. I liked him best in WoR, probably because his struggle wasn’t really about his depression. On rereads, I have appreciated his character arc more, but I still don’t really relate. Maybe it would be fair to say that I understand him now, but don’t relate to his struggle. Despite that, I’ve never disliked him as a character.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksYeah, I think WoR is definitely the best.
Whenever you read WaT, I’d like to hear what you think. I think I’m the only one on here who’s done. 😞
Have you ever taken the Knights Radiant quiz? What order are you?
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI’ll get back to you on that. I don’t have too much time right now, and I want some time to type up all my thoughts. It’ll probably be Monday morning, because I don’t generally use my computer on Sundays.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of Books
