McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Uh, oh . . . it's magic

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gatordave96:
Just curious as to how many of you are creating the "rules" associated with magic in your world?  What is the most popular theories of magic that are prevalent?  Is it like "The Force" in your world?  Or does it involve complex incantations and an "eye of newt"?  Or maybe it is like the Dresden universe that has to follow the rules of physics?

I've been playing around with the alteration of probability by my "magic users" as the source of their "magic."  It has worked so far, but I would like to see if there is any sage advice on how to build your own system of magic.

The Corvidian:
There was an article on io9 awhile back about magic for novels. They also had one about why magic should have rules.

My take, thaumaturges or dwimmer folk as I call them, can do almost anything, except bring the soul back from the land of the dead. Magic is also not cheap, wizards can burn themselves out or die from from botched spells.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
The thing about magic with rules is very many people do them as simple game-like rules, and very few people have done them more complex ways - Walter Jon Williams' Metropolitan and City on Fire are a very nice example of magic as utility, if you're looking for a different paradigm.

One of my lower-priority projects is based on magic which used to be understood in an Aristotelian paradigm, was then synthesised by Newton, had another paradigm shift at the turn of the twentieth century or so which is the point at which magic starts changing the course of history in a major way, and is in the early 21st century in the process of being revolutionised yet again;  I am a working scientist who had a very fortunate experience of initial PhD study in one of the world's top institutes in my field, and the atmosphere, understanding, attitude and sense of being on the cutting edge there is what I am trying to capture in the attitude to magic.  They have known how to do fireballs for all of history, basically, and how to do heavy industry for about a hundred years, they've implemented an equivalent of the internet somewhat earlier than we did, there's been a White Russian magically-backed colony on the Moon since the second decade of the twentieth century; I've seen enough variations on urban fantasy where huge secret organisations of supernatural being have somehow been around for millennia and yet mundane history is exactly the same to want to do something with really complex large-scale interconnections with mundane history.

The Corvidian:
You also get this idea that magic and science can't mix, when I think that they can work together.

OZ:
The word magic means many different things depending on who you talk to. Most early magic had to do with the spirit realm. Later magic fit more into the "any science sufficiently advanced" model. I don't think that it is coincidental that early depictions of wizards showed them with beakers and books. To simple illiterate people even the most primitive science smacked of the supernatural. Even simple mathematics and reading could be considered as magic by some primitive peoples.
  Some see science as a different path to knowledge. Science, like any power, has always been blended with politics. The idea that some things have been covered up because they didn't fit with the popular theories of the day makes for a very interesting form of magic. This can easily lead to stories of secret societies and backroom politics. Others dress their magic with "scientific" terms like telepathy or telekinesis. Then there is the magic that flies in the face of science. If well done, it can be fun too. This, to me, is real magic. A 190 pound man that can transform into a two hundred and fifty pound wolf without drawing the mass from anywhere else. Mages that can freeze things without worrying about what to do with the absorbed heat or create fireballs or flames without an energy source. This can annoy me if the fact that it flies in the face of the laws of physics is never addressed but when it is clear that the author is making the point that magic is outside of the rules of the physical universe it can be very interesting. The idea of magic by the alteration of probability is often used in comic books. I know that Marvel comics has used it several times. I don't know the DC universe as well so I am not sure about them.
  The Wiz series by by Rick Cook introduces a magic system that works like a computer language. Brandon Sanderson is well known for his creative magical systems. I personally enjoyed the magic in Harry Connolly's Twenty Palaces series and I loved the magical system in Dave Duncan's series A Man of his Word. A good magic system is not enough to make a good book but it is enough, for me, to take an already enjoyable book up to the next level.

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