McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Developing a magic system
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: blgarver on October 29, 2008, 06:45:20 PM ---I've always been more fond of the Gandalf-esque magic; the source of his power being unexplained and mysterious. But I think I need to be a bit more structured than that.
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Not necessarily, I suppose. But I'm not talking about how magic works for Gandalf from Gandalf's POV here; to some random person watching Gandalf, what Gandalf does still causes some one specific effect rather than another.
--- Quote ---Maybe the type of things people can do with the energy depends on what source they pulled the energy. Say...if they harvested energy from a boulder, they can only do earth-based things.
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That would certainly be doable.
I'm currently working on an alternate world with magic where Newton followed the Principia with a similarly insightful formalisation of how magic worked, where there was another paradigm shift around about the start of the twentieth century (corresponding roughly to the introduction of relativity and quantum mechanics) that led to industrialised magic and the history of the twentieth century being wildly different from our own, and where as of now another paradigm shift is in the making; because as a working scientist myself, one of the places that even very good depictions of systemic magic pretty much always fall down for me is in not having the feel of the cutting edge of organised research, it's always either an established system, or individual magic-geek wizard types pottering about on their own; so I've given up on waiting for it and decided to write it myself.
blgarver:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 29, 2008, 07:56:59 PM ---Not necessarily, I suppose. But I'm not talking about how magic works for Gandalf from Gandalf's POV here; to some random person watching Gandalf, what Gandalf does still causes some one specific effect rather than another.
That would certainly be doable.
I'm currently working on an alternate world with magic where Newton followed the Principia with a similarly insightful formalisation of how magic worked, where there was another paradigm shift around about the start of the twentieth century (corresponding roughly to the introduction of relativity and quantum mechanics) that led to industrialised magic and the history of the twentieth century being wildly different from our own, and where as of now another paradigm shift is in the making; because as a working scientist myself, one of the places that even very good depictions of systemic magic pretty much always fall down for me is in not having the feel of the cutting edge of organised research, it's always either an established system, or individual magic-geek wizard types pottering about on their own; so I've given up on waiting for it and decided to write it myself.
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Cool...the cutting edge idea. Good luck with it. Sounts like an interesting new angle on the whole magic concept.
Right now, for my system, I'm kind of leaning away from the Harry Potter-ish, D&D-esque spell system. The things aren't so much spells as being able to connect to things around you and control them. Like, if you had the skill, you could "grab" the essence of a tree and bend it over like it was made of rubber. Or shape water by "grabbing" the essence of a puddle. Though i don't want it to exactly be element based. That's getting too much like Avatar the Airbender.
I think I like the idea of the natural energy of things being much like playdough in a skilled practicioner's hands - as long as you have enough material there, you can do anything. But first the practicioner has to make a connection with the energy inside the thing. Injecting/absorbing raw essence enables him/her to become essentially closer to a tree, a stone, a river, an animal, so he has a better handle over manipulating it.
Does that make sense? Something about it feels a little weak to me...but I can't quite put my finger on it.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: blgarver on October 29, 2008, 08:56:04 PM ---Cool...the cutting edge idea. Good luck with it. Sounts like an interesting new angle on the whole magic concept.
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It's almost too much fun, some ways.
--- Quote ---I think I like the idea of the natural energy of things being much like playdough in a skilled practicioner's hands - as long as you have enough material there, you can do anything. But first the practicioner has to make a connection with the energy inside the thing. Injecting/absorbing raw essence enables him/her to become essentially closer to a tree, a stone, a river, an animal, so he has a better handle over manipulating it.
Does that make sense? Something about it feels a little weak to me...but I can't quite put my finger on it.
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What that needs, then, is how people go about making the connection, how that varies among people, and what happens as you drain something - do they refill ? how fast ?
KevinEvans:
I am not much for creating my own magic systems, however the person I know who does it the very best is a young writer named Brandon Sanderson. And if you want Brandon's take on it, go listen to writing excuses episode 14 and episode 15 where Brandon talks about magic. The thing I like about Brandon's magic, is that it's not like everybody else's magic, unique, plausible, it is internally self consistent, and different in every novel, thiese are his hallmarks. Anyway here's the link to episode 14.
http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/05/12/writing-excuses-episode-14-magic-systems-and-their-rules/
I hope this helps,
Kevin
--- Quote from: blgarver on October 28, 2008, 02:47:16 PM ---So I'm developing the use and nature of magic for my fantasy series. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about what to think of when approaching the development of a magic system. Thanks!
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blgarver:
--- Quote from: neurovore on October 30, 2008, 03:50:59 AM ---It's almost too much fun, some ways.
What that needs, then, is how people go about making the connection, how that varies among people, and what happens as you drain something - do they refill ? how fast ?
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Yes...I hadn't thought of that part if it yet. Thanks for the prompt. I shall take to my dark corner and ponder.
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