McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Making Generic Magic more Appealing
seekmore:
--- Quote from: SlimMason on May 20, 2009, 04:07:54 PM ---Juggernaught gets his powers from a magic stone. Perhaps it is the Blarney Stone since Mr. Juggernaut is such an eloquent speaker.
The trap I fall into is details. The detail that has snared me today is wheather magic predates humans or not. Was there a spirt realm before hummans came along? A lot of magical creatures are based in myth and folklore. Perhapes they caused myth and folklore, or perhaps they where formed from the collecective unconcience of the humans that believe in them. It sounds like an important question, but I know the truth... IT'S A TRAP!
I can't deside on a setting, or if the magic is a secret or not.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, isn't answering all of these big questions fun?
The Corvidian:
Why not use the idea of magic being able to manipulate the Platonic Realm? (I don't think this is a new idea, but alot of authors don't come out and say that is the main basis of their magic.)
belial.1980:
--- Quote from: SlimMason on May 20, 2009, 04:07:54 PM ---Juggernaught gets his powers from a magic stone. Perhaps it is the Blarney Stone since Mr. Juggernaut is such an eloquent speaker.
The trap I fall into is details. The detail that has snared me today is wheather magic predates humans or not. Was there a spirt realm before hummans came along? A lot of magical creatures are based in myth and folklore. Perhapes they caused myth and folklore, or perhaps they where formed from the collecective unconcience of the humans that believe in them. It sounds like an important question, but I know the truth... IT'S A TRAP!
I can't deside on a setting, or if the magic is a secret or not.
--- End quote ---
Deciding on whether or not the spirit realm predates humankind is a matter of taste, I suppose. Depends on what kind of tone you're going for. Most writers that I've read have gone with the notion that magic is ancient and that spirits/angels/demons/gods/great old ones/etc. existed for a long, long time before people.
I think it'd be interesting to see something different, as you suggested. If humankind was the source of the spirit realm then it'd be a very recent invention in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps there's an immaterial realm that exists alongside the material realm that's been there since creation started, but humankind has somehow been been able to tap into it (or perhaps just a small part of it, or a pool that's somehow affixed to earth...other beings on different worlds might have their own spirit realms different from ours) and inadvertatly formed the spirit world with their beliefs or sunconscious psychic influence or some such.
As for setting, I recommend taking some time to just jot down ideas. Shut off the inner editor and just write down ideas. Once you've done that for awhile, take the ones you like best and run with them. Whether or not magic is secret seems like a finer point that could probably wait till you've figured out setting and gotten some character sketches working in your mind. The trick is to just write. Then write some more.
Good luck.
Flashand:
IMHO, i believe that you are looking at somthing like. I used a limb to create a park, or forest. Or here is a stone it took fourty of us to build a castle?
If this is correct than you might want to try the original dragon lance series to see if you can pick up anything that might help. This is not an unheard of concept although it is hard to deploy.
1) if you can create something with it you can destroy it with it as well. ie, rods staves and wands. Armor and weapons, and occasionally from the powerful come wizards towers and the like.
2) If you can only use it to create, what does one do with all the magically reinforced buildings when the population overgrows the city?
RangerSG:
--- Quote from: SlimMason on May 20, 2009, 04:07:54 PM ---Juggernaught gets his powers from a magic stone. Perhaps it is the Blarney Stone since Mr. Juggernaut is such an eloquent speaker.
The trap I fall into is details. The detail that has snared me today is wheather magic predates humans or not. Was there a spirt realm before hummans came along? A lot of magical creatures are based in myth and folklore. Perhapes they caused myth and folklore, or perhaps they where formed from the collecective unconcience of the humans that believe in them. It sounds like an important question, but I know the truth... IT'S A TRAP!
I can't deside on a setting, or if the magic is a secret or not.
--- End quote ---
To me that's why it's important to decide on the nature of the world first, then the nature of magic. Is this a world that has an "open door" to other realities/realms. If so, then it's logical that magic flows by those paths. If not, then magic likely comes from within the world and/or it's characters.
And I designed a base magic system once where sorcery was aspected to the key part of the character's nature. Rituals and alchemy and such could be done by anyone who believed in them additionally. But that was how sorcery worked. It was a fascinating system. Now if I can just figure a story for that world. *snickers*
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