Make Magic Make Sense (And Why Sometimes It Shouldn't) | Worldbuilding
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- Episode 22: Magic
In this video we discuss worldbuilding magic, looking at the types of magic systems that work for different worlds, and how you can implement a magic system of your own into your worldbuilding projects.
---
WORLDBUILDING CORNER: www.worldbuild...
---
Drawings of the fantasy races created in this video are original content made by Worldbuilding Corner.
All other music, images, and other media used in this video are available for commercial use with Creative Commons licensing, found on www.pixabay.com and www.pexels.com.
The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommon...
Harry Potter Staircase image credit: Dave Catchpole
Stone Knife image credit: Västgöten
The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommon...
Cult Sacrifice image credit: Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction
The subsequent listed images are permitted for use under the following Creative Commons license: creativecommon...
Ford Anglia image credit: Jacklee
LOTR is interesting because it used to be (and to some degree still is) a high magic setting, but the main stories take place after most of the magic has left, leaving us with a mostly low magic setting with some middle magic still around.
i feel like most high magic stories usually feature a lost civilisation that is at least 10x more powerful than the current one.
similar to how sci fi stories have super advanced alien civilisations. convergent tropes I guess
Game of Thrones as well.
I had a similar idea for my own universe. It's a predominantly sci-fi setting, with virtually no spell casters. Most magic that exists is channeled through artifacts left behind
@@Zack-fu4lo hence the sci-fi quote about sufficiently advanced science is just fancy magic
WoT too. I really like the vibe of this.
It's quite astonishing, almost to an uncanny level, how the both of us have created a rather similar (though NOT identical of course) magic system completely independently, while also being set on a circumbinary planet. While also mostly Low Magic, my system is more eldritch/Lovecraftian and less predictable, but can also result in otherworldly entities manifesting, ranging from incorporeal spectres that might as well be hallucinations all the way to eldritch abominations that can cause massive catastrophes. Despite the differences, or maybe because of them, you inspired me to rework some of my ideas to make my world even more unique. Your channel truly is a treasure trove.
Thank you for the positive feedback! I am glad you are enjoying :)
I absolutely love eldritch/Lovecraftian systems, that flavour of uncertainty and horror makes things so interesting. Very cool! Good luck with your system!
That is nothing unusual I would say.
The more you boil things down the bigger the chance.
Also most of us create based on things we seen, taking bits here and there to build something somewhat new.
But over enough iterations you are bound to run into similar outcomes.
Lmao I’m doing a similar thing😂
@@samcartwright6338 and we all likely copied it from H.P. Lovecraft and R.E. Howard (who copied it from mythologies) 😅
Awesome as usual. One thing I'd like to add is that prevalence is not the only way to determine whether you have a high or a low magic system. For example in the game UnReal World you can ask the local spirit of the lake to bless your fishing net for a slightly better catch, or pray for the god of healing so your wounds heal slightly faster. It doesn't cost anything, you just say the words, and anyone can do it. So that would be a low cost/high prevalence system, yet the effects are so subtle (they don't even really break the rules) that it's generally considered a low magic world.
Definitely! And that's a very cool example of another way of determining high/low magic. High/low magic aren't 'strict' settings either, you can definitely mix and match and create something that doesn't fit the usual mould.
A slight correction: In FMA, transmutation allows the user to turn the materials of a thing into the thing itself, or to give the thing a new form, but it cannot alter substance, like in your example, turn water into gold.
Definitely correct! I wanted more to illustrate that the 'science-based' element of FMA Alchemy would lead to stricter 'hard-magic' rules, which perhaps ironically led to me incorrectly using that example, which wouldn't work within those rules!
Technically you can turn water into gold if it's seawater
It's only a matter of time once they figure out subatomic particles.
@dinoseen3226 They already know how to do it. Alchemists who see the gate of truth, especially more than once, can recall complex concepts since they had access to all information. The issue is that they most likely don't know how to harness that kind of energy without a philosopher's stone.
Father could create fusion energy, and using alkahestry, you could do some really weird things, especially if you combined it with regular alchemy.
My take is kinda a mix of everything:
- Magic is a (super)natural force, brought to the world by its creation by godlike beeings
- Godlike magic use is unexplained (Soft)
- Normal beeings using magic is fully explained with rules and restrictions (Hard)
- Depends on the species it can be low (Humans), middle (Dwarfs) and High (Elfes)
- but every species have a limit how strong their magical power can get at maximum (maybe at a regional level at best)
- they also prefer different types how to use their magic (enchanting items, crafting magical materials into a new kind of magic, spells, potions)
- rituals are rarely used because of their unpredictable effects
- other magic is more reliable and drains someone on a mental level
- magic "grows" on your experience and mental stability (all races) and also craftsmanship (if you are a elf or dwarf)
- different types of magic with different use and rules and effects
My favourite magic is: "Magic is quantum entanglement cascade effects caused by nanites. Ability to control the nanites gives you magical powers." Works for Hard high Sci-fi settings
@@andreassjoberg3145 Thats also a good concept.
You also need separate low/high magic on abundance and power. For instance LotR is low magic in abundance, but high magic in magic capabilities. Many RPG settings are high magic in abundance (most players can do magic) but low magic in magic capabilities (but they can only affect things locally).
I've been going through your series the past few weeks to expand my methods of worldbuilding. These videos are really high quality and I was incredibly surprised to find out you only have about a thousand subscribers! (+1 now) Loved this explanation of magic systems; they're often my favorite part of fantasy.
Thank you for the positive feedback! I only started a few months ago, but growing steadily :) Glad you are enjoying everything, stay tuned for more content to come!
Magic in my current project is split into three forms. One is a heavenly pure energy, another is corruption given form, and the final is worldly magic, responsible for natural disasters and the overall state of my world.
My world is largely chaotic. The land is constantly changing, and is slowly being stabilized by the intelligent races of the world. There's a lot more to it, but I don't tend to share much, since it's been a project of mine for five years.
'Tis a crime, sir. A crime I say that you have just 2k subs for what you have produced! I co-create a hard magic story and have ( rather inconsistently ) been working to set things into stone for the past couple of years or so and worldbuilding and the magic system has been a tough one to do, but I think you have done a brilliant, *brilliant* job with explaining the magical side of things here! Definitely subbing and saving this video to help with the process of getting something made of this story! Thank you for your work and I will be checking your stuff out!
In my worls, magic is tied to its three moons just as the ocean is - it's ebbing and flowing with the movement of these celestical bodies, and there's such thing as 'magical weather'. It is realized as a table of random effects like magic wind, rain, storm, heatwave etc. that can happen sometimes and somehow buff or debuff players for a portion of an adventure. Magic particles are always present but they are often on the move, merging or dispersing on the whim of nature (or DM, or even players who can control magical weather). In this sense, it is a bit like radiation, too, spurring random changes in places and at times where and when it's most potent, leading to occurences of magical anomalies and gene strings.
Another great video! I think your magic system is badass, from the consumption of magical flora, to the classification of magic based on that flora, to goddamn lovecraftion breachers.
Thank you! Breachers are definitely Lovecraftian haha, I imagine them as truly otherworldly and even horrifying. Glad you are enjoying :)
Your magic system isn't too far from mine in the main world I'm working on. Effectively, almost any living thing can use magic, BUT typically it's in extremely low amounts. Like, you might use what you can produce daily to survive and help a houseplant grow, but something like a fireball would be out of the question for almost everyone.
(I swear, I was inspired by this by the new Puss in Boots movie, but it sounds like starwars) In this world, eukaryotes evolved with a bacteria able to use the magic in the atmosphere, instead of the ancestor of mitochondria. Unless this is unevolved, all living things comprised of "true cells" can use magic. The goal of a magic user would be to find ways to store the magic they generate, either eternally or externally. I have a hard time describing this as just low-magic or high-magic, but the video helped.
I will definitely take some inspiration from this though.
While this is the main world I'm working on, my dream game will have 4 other main worlds. 2 of which don't have their own magic systems. One of which is higher magic, using Tar, which is predictable but unexplained. Like an eldritch & alien substance that you canonically don't want to think about. The other is called Energy, which is a needed resource for survival, generated by pyramids, and transfered to obelisks where it can be harvested. Civilizations in this world are built in tight-packed structures around these, as going outside the range of your charge means certain death without consumables. This one is canonically a videogame, and a bit softer magic, like it's false history that was cannonically created by a historic figure. Three intentionally distinct, incompatible, but complementary magic systems makes the game work.
Well... I guess one of the 2 does have its own magic system... but it's the same as Earth's, so does it really count?
A system i'm rather proud of making and hope to one day finish writing a story about is simply called "Soulfire"
A hard-leaning, High magic system that shaped nearly every aspect of the world, Lurei. Every living being from insect to human, and the more fantastical creatures, all have a connection to a metaphysical mass of energy that is constantly recycling itself via the sun. This energy is taken in by the sun, through the planet, into the core, and finally into the Metaphysical mass called by some religious groups "The Sea of Flame" or "The Sea of Souls". From there the energy splits off into all living things or as explained in universe "The Sea is the source of all Soulfire, each and every living thing a small river, carving it's own path in life, taking some of the water with it. Some rivers are little more than a trickle of water, while some are so wide you cannot fathom crossing it. Eventually, all rivers find their way back to the great Sea where the water settles, but always new rivers will be made so long as there is water to flow."
As for how Soulfire manifests on an individual level there are three primary forms of it, the building blocks upon which magic is used in world. To access soulfire a person must first taught how to summon it out of themselves. The common practice is to picture your life, all of it, as a massive flame. Every breath, step, and action you take uses the power of your body. Not just the energy food provides and sleep restores, but also that spark the inhabitants of Lurei have from the connection to the Sea of Souls. Picture that flame, reach out, let it latch onto you, and pull it from inside yourself into reality. While pulling the fire out there is a conscious choice to make, though sometimes it can be instinctual, to chose how the fire manifests. Red, Blue, or Yellow Soulfire all have different effects as you pull them out and the way to choose is by understanding what each does, and imagining that purpose becoming the energy that you are calling on in a sort of quick mental ritual. I can think "I need strength" and so my fire would come out as Red, the Flame of Might. That process is called "Ignition". The result is a translucent glow corresponding to the type of soulfire you pulled forth.
Each color of Soulfire has a different internal (Burning) and external (Latching) effect. Red acts internally as an adrenaline boosts to the burner and makes them physically stronger while Latching Red onto an object makes it much more dense and resilient to damage, most commonly it is latched onto weapons in battles and such. Blue while burning starts to change the physical appearance of the burner to their "Sense of self" this acts as a sort of healing but very odd as it does not heal you, it makes you as you believe yourself to be while Latching Blue changes a substance into another material so long as it does not have a sense of self. Yellow while burning enhances the senses of the burner, making all 5 senses sharper and more keen while Latching Yellow creates a translucent object that the user imagines. The objects made with yellow Soulfire are rather fragile and slowly fade away after a few minutes.
There is so much more I don't think I can even cover in one TH-cam comment. Melding the fires together, specializing in a singular flame color and how that changes some of its properties, how using Soulfire for extended periods of time affects the user, how the Sun has frequent solar flares and how that creates anomalies on the planet, ETC! But this is the basics of the Magic system I've made over the last year.
That is so cool, I absolutely love your descriptions that you have attached to each aspect of your system, I was able to really feel attached to them as I went through. I particularly like the Burning and Latching system, it is reminiscent of Allomancy, if you are familiar with the Mistborn series.
I hope you are putting this system into a novel or tabletop campaign, because this deserves some spotlight in use!
Thank you very much for sharing, and good luck with your project :)
@@WorldbuildingCorner Allomancy was an inspiration for the internal and external effects. I wanted to make a magic system that was as internally consistent as the Mistborn series and thought of Soulfire as a fuel for dragon fire in a world but then the ideas spread out and became what I have today.
I have been trying to write a novel with Soulfire at it's core but I always feel disappointed about it, I just have no real experience writing a fully fleshed out story. At the current time I'm writing a different story to try and get a feel for writing first with a low-to-medium Hard magic system.
@@kanokun18 If you do write a novel please post a link here
@@kanokun18 I agree with the other reply, if a book is written I would love to read it!
That’s a pretty cool Magic system. Well done.
And this is why Harry Potter is not a good book series. The magic makes no sense
The biggest issue to me is that whether your magic system makes sense or not, that people don't ask pretty much every time your wizard doesn't do something why they didn't do it. People will forgive a lot of dumb shit but they won't forgive a character who could intervene and doesn't
I think the best way is to make it clear that the wizard themselves is either out of combat(injured or out of whatever resources they use to cast) or they only have a simple selection of spells, hence they can't just do whatever but have to get creative. Either that, or it is made clear that they had an issue with taking action(ie they are speechless and petrified as the villain kills someone) which can then be used as character development
The answer to that is kind of built into the video
1) Mages are fairly dependent on consuming magical plants (while some might have innate magical abilities, it’s implied those abilities are limited to a single “flavor” of magic, like conjuring fire or turning invisible). So, the mages are dependent on their supply of magic-fueling plants as well as having the time to both ingest and utilize them.
2) we have the fear of Breachers. Wizards in this world self-limit to avoid releasing these powerful, deadly creatures into the world.
Its interesting to see the explicit magic topic on this project, as I've found myself thinking more about how it would apply specifically to TTRPG's. I find myself thinking more on this video about how these rules and in-world systems can be applied mechanically whilst stepping away from other systems in games, such as Vancian Magic in D&D or Powers in Cypher System.
I don't know if you play any TTRPG's, but if you do, I'd enjoy hearing about your thoughts on the 'gamification' of your worldbuilding project.
The majority of my worldbuilding experience actually comes from TTRPG's! As part of this series I am attempting to broaden my own horizons by viewing worldbuilding in its totality, rather than explicitly for gaming purposes.
That said, in regards to 'gamification', I always imagine how something I'm creating could be used in a TTRPG setting. In my mind, this occurs in two main ways.
Firstly, as descriptors designed to give flavour and build immersion, such as a DM describing a colossal gravity defying tree with its branch-dwelling inhabitants, or a tundra aglow with magically luminescent mosses and lichens, while equally stunning auroras dance overhead. Settlement names that invoke feelings and hint towards culture, etc.
Secondly, I imagine what would be appealing to play, or play against. For this video regarding magic, I imagine what a powerful mage on Locus could achieve and work backwards. A villainous Silarin lightning mage wrapped in electricity, able to transmute elements, spawning breachers in their wake as they move across the land. For gamification, this villain would need 'stats', but what stats they are will depend on the gaming system ofc. In my mind I try to keep things system-neutral, like "high-level", rather than "level 14 sorcerer".
I hope this has answered your question! In the future I'd like to talk in-video more explicitly about converting worldbuilding into 'usable' formats like writing and gaming.
@@WorldbuildingCorner Brilliant response, thank you very much. I'm teethering on the edge of doing this myself, having created the landmasses (plates, climates, that sort) a couple of times as experiments, but not exploring the areas of worldbuilding past and future of that step phase. Your videos are definately an inspiration for me to really dive in deep.
The one thing I would love to try is to work with the speculative development & evolution, but to also turn that process into a sort of 'game'. Not sure if you've been explosed to Microscope RPG, but similar to that. Its kind of turning into the go to point to combine this urge to go through a whole organic and logical process of worldbuilding with my recent facination with SoloRPG's. Who knows, maybe I'll turn it into a video series :P
Either way, stay cool and keep rocking. I hope you find the time to keep making these videos, as they are truely peak worldbuilding content, and I look forward to more of your content and more interactions.
@@Axiie I will have to look into Microscope RPG, thank you for the resource! And thank you for the positive feedback, I am really enjoying making the content, so stay tuned for more to come :)
Maybe not for its lore, I like the game design implications of magic in pokemon or genshin impact, though genshin has a better implementation of it by far.
The idea is that elements can combine in order to produce additional effects, like fire melting ice, or grass creating blooms on water, dealing additional damage of some sort. If pokemon is mostly about matching the type of pokemon to types of attacks, genshin goes way further and instead of enemies being a certain type, enemies simply have status effects. So you can do water attacks, and your enemies will become wet. If you attack a wet enemy with ice, they will freeze. The other factors in the world influence status effects too: during the rain everyone gets the wet status effect, if the enemy is standing in a campfire they get burned status effect. Sometimes you can power-up your wind attack if you stand near campfire, the wind will also deal heat damage.
It gives encounters in the game so much more variety just by making context matter, which is what makes it so good, regardless of its lore. I've seen a statement in one of the videos it went like "the magic system is as good as its users". I guess my point is that if you're adding magic to your world you should make sure its well integrated. This is especially true in mid and high-magic worlds, where magic is bound to have some effects on everyday life, history, politics etc.
Great point!
I'm not very familiar with Genshin Impact but it certainly sounds interesting. Also sounds similar to the way magic is gamified in Divinity: Original Sin.
I do believe a 'gamified' view of magic does tend to produce very solid results, especially for hard magic systems'.
i like a mix of hard and soft magic systems, similar to avatar, in which the basic rules r clear, but kind of vague, which allows for creativity
for example my newest project has a high hard magic system with soft aspects, but for the humanoids in it its prevalence will be low, or middle in some parts where they will be figuring it out more than the rest
in that project there r multiple runes which encode certain stuff
for example the veins of leaves have the shapes of the rune of light and absorption, which help them absorb more light
or one of the earliest magic users, a kind of fish, figured out that by swimming in a certain pattern they dashed forward which helped with escaping predators
the humanoids (which i still gotta make) will have all kinds of symbols helping with things, but they themselves wouldnt have figured it out except for some
That sounds really cool! I absolutely love the idea of non-sapient life figuring out magic, not necessarily cognitively but through evolution. For me it really adds to the 'realism' of magic.
There are also Skill Systems that are magic systems that are generaly hard coded to know what someone can or can not do.
This was fantastic. While being in fantasy fiction for decades, I already knew every single thing, you hit basically everything and provided fantastic examples. Good job. You earned a sub 🙃
I think it's worth pointing out that the magic system hard/low dichotomy is a fluid guideline more so than two individual options. Magic exists on a spectrum; All soft magic systems have some hard elements, such as "when a wizard waves their arms, magic happens" and all hard magic systems have their softer points, as it's a near impossibility to fully outline a magic system that functions within the real world forces that we do not even understand fully. Don't feel pressured to make hard magic systems perfectly understandable, and don't be scared to put limits on soft magic systems, it's all just guidelines!
I was thinking about your world and how you talked about having magical flora and then I came up with an idea that I think would fit really well into your world. It would be a tree that utilize gravity to allow itself to grow to unimaginable sizes and anyone who ingested parts of the tree would be able to lower or even completely cancel out gravity.
I would just like to point out that under your classifications (at least as far as this tired brain understands them), modern computer science is a hard low magic. Basically no one I meet in everyday life could start up an IDE and write a "Hello World" program from scratch, and CS is definitely a well-defined field where everything is known unless and until more math is invented. Yet everyone has a smartphone, which contains many billions of times more power than almost anyone knows how to wield to its fullest potential. The tools to make and use powerful magics lie right in our pocket, yet it is simply not understood on nearly any level by the common user. If utilizing magic is even slightly similar to that (and the existence of tomes, spell scrolls, rituals, and grimoires would suggest that it is), the common man could be utilizing some pretty powerful magics without having a singular clue how to really work any of it. A spell scroll (book, more likely) to harvest all the crops in a quarter in a day could be purchased for the cost of a house and used over and over, yet the farmer using it has no better of an understanding of magic than any modern farmer knows about physics.
Thank you very much ^^: This video will help me a lot.
Now that I think about it, I did balanced out the magic system in my story by making everyone share the same weakness. That weakness being bleeding or getting wounded. Which makes weapons like swords or even ranged weapons like bow and arrow or a firearm very effective when it comes to opponents who have a rather overpowered ability. Battles can also end quick since the deciding factor for who wins is the one who managed to wound their opponent first.
I'd love to see the biblical angels of Locus!
Also, could you explore some of the alternate universe? Or is it just functionally an energy reservoir/sinker to allow magic use?
If I was a better artist, I'd love to draw and present what I have in mind for breachers. I hope one day I can work with an actual artist to bring them to life! I very much imagine them as awesome but horrifying.
The alternate universe is something I have played around with a lot behind the scenes, but at this stage I haven't settled on which direction I'd like to go with it. It's kind of the 'mystery behind the curtain' haha, but one day I will go into it more!
Inb4 folks realize they can do a doomsday scenario, or at least really mess up their immediate surroundings by messing up high tier magic on purpose and summoning breachers.
Inb4 they make a cult out of it and dedicate their lives to make communion with these entities of pure power and chaos.
I'm creating a world of my own some years ago and I probably got addicted to worldbuilding, which is a double-edge sword in my case.
So basically the magic system is a soft one, and is a premise belonging to the past to then see an evolution into a power system based on that.
It's called Faithful Magic, with the main concept of creating virtually anything material or not based on the amount the user has. It's innate but people can acquire the predisposition to have that for future generations, and those who have it can get it by eating (other life forms get it as well but it's more effective on humans), drinking or breathing air/absorb it by skin, but the most efficient and constant way is training. How you can use it is really up to you, but common forms are manipulation or using your voice (some make the ground shake, some manipulate say great boulders for example). It's designed to be as broad as possible, so that 4 people called the Ancients with the most Faithful Magic out of everyone can decide the forms and the reasons regulating its usage.
Lore stuff happen and two forms of FM evolve to fight eachother, one ancient made it so that you can have a bit of that magic even if you weren't born with that, this made possible by sacrificing its own magic. People who need to defend themselves awaken powers called Radecores, which appearances and skills are based on their style and what makes them unique/what they like the most. Thing is we now have a power system that has established categories and since it's based on faithful magic it might be seen as a hard magic system itself, because of strict categories you're put into, such as Cyberades mainly involving weapons or weaponry control, Beastrades having stamina, power and endurance on their side, Thornrades effectively using pricking in many cool ways, Brickrades being powerful tanks who can also deal lots of damage, Speedrades being fast but also very scenic to look at, and Magirades, being the ones who retained the most of the initial magic feature of liberty of use and versatility and being the most powerful category, but also the most difficult and hard to stabilize. Also you cannot really choose which category you're set to be
The weave is an interesting case. It's a divine construct meant to interface with a far more esoteric "natural/wild" magical energy so it can be shaped into spells. But the weave is not naturally occuring, but is tied to a diety of magic that sustains it. Which means the weave as a construct can be manipulated or damaged and this has been an element in numerous plots.
To use my own works as an example, i group magic into different styles, each style works in a unique way.
Thanks lol, you made my day and helped me alot with my writer's block
I have a modern fantasy story with some strong sci-fi elements mixed in and an "otherworld" fantasy story set in the same universe (but a different world, if that wasn't clear) so, these stories use the same magic system. However, there are some key differences between the story. In the modern world, a low fewer people are capable of magic, so it is kept hidden. In the otherworld, around 80-90% of the population can use magic meaning it has become part of the culture. Back to the modern world, the magic here has become weakened due to the massive industrialization which can mess with magic (mainly electricity). The otherworld has not industrialized to avoid this happening there as well. The magic is also explained in more detail in the otherworld story compared to the modern world.
Since both these stories use the same magic system, the cost of magic is pretty similar despite one being closer to high magic and the other low magic. Since the modern world will have less magic to go around, the spells are weaker, and casters use up more energy to cast them. In the otherworld, the casters can cast stronger spells without using too much energy (however, the antagonists or conflict is more likely to be magical in nature and harder to solve). The main cost of the system is the requirement of magic energy (mana) which is expended upon using magic. This often has a physical toll on the caster but can also be emotion or spiritual. Casters must also train academically and physically to use magic.
There are more dicotomies:
Soft/Hard:
As you said, soft/hard is how well the rules are defined *and known by the reader* .
Rational/Irrational:
How much as system can be extrapolated. Superman is a hard and irrational systems since we know well what he can and cannot do, but we cannot infer from one power he has other powers.
Limited/Unlimited:
How much powerful the magic is, limited magic cannot do powerful stuff while unlimited can go wild in power.
Low/High:
How much magic is present in your world, how much people know about it.
The cuthulu example you gave is not a part low part high, but a Low and Unlimited magic system (also soft and irrational).
Bedning is Hard-Mid, Rational (you can predict sweat, blood, and mental bending as a viewer, and the powers follow one another)
Harry potter is also Hard/Irrational - it's clear how each spell works, but you cannot infer new spells or abilities from existing ones.
The greatest science fiction write of all time (so far) Robert Jordan was a master of hard and soft magic. The way he did hard magic was perfect and something most people are unaware of. Most people think of Jordan as a fantasy writer... which isn't untrue, its just not all of the truth. The Wheel of Time is actually very much a Science Fiction setting. Many of the core ideas around the magic came from either science, or pseudo-science that was just on the cusp of being real if you squint hard enough.
"The invocation, manipulation, or manifestation of supernatural forces, beings or entities brought into the physical, natural world." If you want to write a good strong magic system *DO NOT* use this definition. Before we go further lets say the same thing with fewer words "The manipulation of supernatural forces brought into the physical world."
Now the problem with this definition is that it's nonsense and your readers will know it. In a world with magic, where magic is an inherent part of the makeup of the universe, there is no such thing as "magic" vs "science". That distinction would not, could not exist. Magic is not "The manipulation of glop brought into the physical world." What is glop? Glop is "nonphysical"? What does that even mean? How does the nonphysical (whatever that is) interact with the physical?
Here is a better quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.".
"She picked up her wand casting the spell voicelessly calling forth images on the scrying mirror." I literally just described a woman turning on a TV. "From his staff he called forth a bolt of fire blowing apart the wall before him" a man firing an RPG. "A bolt of lightning struck her target." A taser. Think of "mana" as Joules and magic systems not only become easier but also pull your reader in because you are grounding the reader in the real world while delivering the aesthetic of the fantastic.
Fantasy looses a lot of readers because the absurdity makes the cost to high.
First, your definition of magic needs work. Gravity for example, is magic under such a definition.
Second, Sanderson's Laws of Magic. Definitely important to cover. He even goes into WHY you would need soft or hard magic to get the impact you want.
This is a fantastic video, man. Great job!
On the one hand, the person consuming content WANTS to be decieved. They are looking for escape. This gives the writer a lot of leeway to have flexibility about when magic works, or dramatically stops working at an inopportune time, or when something new comes into play to dramatically save the hero.
That being said, there are limits of disbelief. If the rules are broken... But only for the hero, or only against the hero, then it can take the viewer out of the world as being "wrong" or "unfair".
In my life i love the dichotomy of understanding how technology works, but still being blown away by yhe fact that it works. Like when you flip a lightswitch, you dont think about the power plants, and load balancing, fuel sources, and network of wires, and electronics in the led bulb, or R&D to make brighter or more efficient light bulbs. Of the literally trillions of dollars of research, development, infrastructure, and decades of building on improvements and compatibility... You flip on a switch and the light turns on, and it costs you next to no cost in time effort or money to have a light on in your room... And that is a lightswitch... We have mich more complicated things than lights lol.
So on the one hand it is important to have magic taken for granted. It should be common, mundane, and people just use it, because why wouldnt you? The magic or technology becomes part of you and your behavior in the world. But on the other hand there should be a sense of wonder... Not that it is impossible to understand, but that those who do understand it dedicate a lot of their life to it. How does a lightswitch work? Its effectively magic. It doesnt mean there isnt an explanation, but it doesnt mean that you have to understand it to use it effectively. And where "magic" ends and "technology" begins is an eternally blurred line in shifting sands. One is the study and implimentation of the natural world, while the other is pulling from rules of a hidden plane or alternate existence. But both seek to modify the world to the will of the user.
I like in LOTR how the magic of the hobbits is their very nature of not being ambitious. It prevents golumn from being fully turned even at the end, and allows the hobbits to carry the ring to the destination. Yhe mercy of frodo in not killing golumn is effectively a spell which allows gollumn to regain a part of his humanity (hobittity?). In harry potter it is a mothers love itself which provided the source of deep magic that protects him. In lion the witch and the wardrobe it is the old magic manifest in aslan which powers all magic in all worlds, and dark magic is just small corruptions of that base magic used towards ones self interest... In a lot of magic systems there is that raw emotional baseline of magic being this ineffable primal force behind nature itself. It is the Ether or bozen soup of base reality which all things are built on which makes even basic material things essentiall magic. When magic is a mcguffin slapped on top of the normal world, it looks like a bright pink bandaid on a dark skinned bouncer at the club... It stands out. You need to blend and integrate it into the world. Magic itself cant be special, the type of magic used is what makes it special, or the way it is used makes the character special.
Magic should tell the same story in parallel with the story you are telling. You may have a well thought out deep magic system behind the world you create... But if it doesnt add to the story to explain it... Dont. Granted, dont be so coy that it looks like a deus ex machina when magic makes an appearance, but dont focus on it if it isnt pushing the story forward. Avatar isnt one of the best written shows because it exhaustively explains all of the worldbuilding... What makes it great is that it is a fun and emotionally impactful show. That it makes more and more sense the more you pick it apart is just icing on the cake. Some of avatars worst sections are where it leaves the story behind to explicitly world build, like explaining the turtles. If you have to go that far out of your way to explain the world for the story yo make sense... You arent doing a good job at story telling. Having the story of the first avatar as a side novel or mini series would be fine... But that the story arc of korra didnt stand on its own is just bad story telling.
The defining difference between hard and soft magic is if it can be used to solve problems in the narrative and less if the inner workings of it are explained.
The One Ring of LotR for instance is an example of hard magic, the effects(invisibility, longevity) and costs( corruption, ring wraiths hunt you, Sauron notices you) in how it affects the narrative are very clear but the inner workings of how it does that are a mystery.
Sauron did some stuff who know how.
Finally catch up with the new videos, really excellent work Matthew, great and fun ideas in your world. Stay awesome!
Thank you! Glad you are enjoying :)
I just saw a video about knot theory and came back to this video. One idea might be to have "magic particles" by making your world use a vortex ring atomic structure. Maybe the material of the vortex rings can change the magic properties of the atom. Unaligned energy might make neutral or normal materials, while various conceptual or elemental energies could produce other materials.
I like the story of your world building process more than I actually like your advice, which was why I clicked on your videos.
You helped me sooo much with you break rules paraphrasing but thank you
Great content as always! I hope you come back to the topic of magic when fleshing out your cultures, as there's definitely a lot of potential for strange practices and taboos when dealing with it, especially when you factor in the Breachers. Also, I would like to know more about the rituals for advanced magic. What are they like? How do they work? Do you plan on expanding on that in the future?
Anyway, very inspiring work so far!
Magic is definitely something that will continue to be explored as we move forward! Breachers especially will have huge cultural implications.
The specifics for rituals are going to be influenced by culture, though to properly answer your question, functionally so long as the caster has appropriate mastery over magic, and appropriate reagents to fuel the casting, their intention will bring forth the desired effect. Intention without fuel would cause the spell to fizzle, while intention without mastery is a great way to summon a breacher.
What rituals look like and what incantations are said will depend on culture and I do plan on establishing that more as we move forward :)
And thank you for the positive words, glad you are enjoying! :)
My world is high magic.
But it effects people and races in my world differently.
The ones who can't do magic tend to have really high magic resistance. And is immune to a damage subtype like Piercing, slashing, or blunt. And most of the time end up becoming warrior gods and goddesses.
Theos who can do magic can do it one of can use Mana, Psyonics, or Ki/Chi
And people can cast it in different ways.
Internal:
Can't cast spells but imbue their magic in materials and items. Basically build things these are the magical engineers,
The extremely powerful of these are known as Techno Mages and they can make godly artifacts and things that's considered SCPs.
They can also imbue tattoos, art, buildings pretty much anything. As long as it's created by hand.
Innate: there is two types timed and will.
Timed is exactly that you cast a spell you might have to wait a few seconds or hrs to be able to use it again maybe days or years?.
Innate will you draw off your own power but and the more you deplete that power from you the closer you get to exhaustion. But everyone grows so you can still hit God level eventually, if you live long enough.
Then there is vampiric Basically you draw things from around you there is two types natural and blood.
Nutrual will draw Magick and life killing anything around a radius that won't be able to grow back unless fixed by magic .
Blood magic you gain it directly from. Blood even people who can't do magic.
Because they're still magical they just use it in a different way.
And there is Ancestors where you call upon your Ancestors for your power. Wich can be quite powerful think of how much Ancestors you might have, some of them being extremely powerful magic users and when they die theor magic got added to the pool of magic you use.
This is more for witch's, shamans, druids and religious folks it doesn't always have to be Ancestors it can be congregations.
Like covens or a God gives you some of their divine power. However better keep to the rules or it can be taken all away.
Yes magic is complicated in my world.
My current favorite series, that I'm reading, starts off with the protagonist thinking they're in a no/low magic setting. By book 5 we realize it's a HIGH magic world. Magic is prevalent everywhere and plays just as much of a role as physics, but it's a hard magic system. Magic users are the nobility of this world.
Name of the series:
Ascendance Of A Bookworm
and developing magic as a peasant is a rare but exceptionally deadly problem to have.
I think one interesting side effect or question of breachers existing is... does this process work in reverse? And what would be the dangers of this process?
my own magic system i'm working on is quite unique, magic flows from a natural energy from mana which flows through the world like a stream and a mage draws power from their own reserve of mana but overcasting can firstly lead to exhastion and further attempts to cast when tapped out of mana can lead to draining one's own life force affecting their health. for the more powerful spells mages need to congregate and combine efforts by channeling each other's power. as for the mages themselves they're mostly viewed with contempt and fear by most but some look at them in awe. and to protect themselves and to maintain a mostly tolerable image the mages forged a mages guild which acts to regulate magic and provide magical services for money thus being somewhat tolerated. the mages guild probably has at least around 500 members per chapter hall within a city of around 50,000+, and mages have to Proform magical services for income such as enchanting, spell breaking and curse breaking and enchantment breaking services or even dealing with dark mages such as necromancers death mages, dealing with monsters and undead. for a mage who ran out of mana in my setting, mana replenishes over time but can be replenished faster through meditation or sleeping
Not to be mean, but I kept reading hoping to see the unique part and never found it. Maybe it needs some more weirdness added to it.
@@dinoseen3226 magic is only as weird as what is done with it or how far one pushes it in the setting you create
Thanks that helped me refine my magic system a lot!
Glad it was helpful! :)
I like how magic tends to work in Final Fantasy, it's part of the natural order, the science of Aetherology and manipulating aether with knowledge, sometimes tools like a focus, and ones mind, is using Magic. in FF14, some level of "personal" aether, or spare life force, is needed to use magic, with those of the Garlean race being biologically incapable of doing so, and thus developed advanced magitek to even the odds.
Bro, your channel is fantastic. I've been learning a lot with these videos and even got inspired to get back to a story I've abandoned some time ago due to poor worldbuilding. This video especially helped a lot since the world is magic based. Thank you!
Mine, definitely hard magic. I like to understand things. Its exotic(magic) particles and multiple layers of reality. One's consciousness exists on a different layer than the physical world. The magic particles can be used to bridge the mind and physical reality and allow the mind to interact with the physical reality directly (without having to move the body to interact with the environment). The most basic stuff is pushing/pulling/lifting things, and slowing down or speeding up molecules to make things warmer or colder.
Magic particles enter reality through rifts from another universe. However, in the physical reality it is unstable unless it binds with energy. The energy is used up when magic is performed to do work. The magic particles then decay and one must find a usable(surrounded by energy in the form of heat or light) rift to refill.
Magic is not evenly spread. Some places have more rifts than others, and of different intensities.
Sounds very cool! Sounds like it's taken some of the cooler aspects of the force from Star Wars, and dialled up the 'hard magic' to make it more logical. I love the idea of rifts as 'refill points'.
Literally same for my world.
@@Cryodrakon2 I've since decided that magic should carry its own energy, or else rift affected areas would be dark and cold and lifeless due to all the energy it absorbs. This change also adds the interesting option of places where photosynthesis is impossible to have plants powered by magic energy instead.
I have more story ideas in development than I really should (about 60) but somehow I have completely unique and interesting hard magic systems in a bunch of them. For example, a chemistry-based magic in a pseudo-ancient greek/medieval world but it’s treated as nothing more than the most basic of scholarly subjects due to lack of understanding of how it works and therefore lack of any practical use. Or an unknown type of energy with odd properties relating to density that’s discovered by a biochemist who struggles with it not being within his field of study
I'm creating a relatively hard middle magic system for a world I'm working on based on color theory. You've helped me flesh it out into a full system! I didn't really have an idea for the sources of magic generally and in practice, but now I do. Thank you!
I just randomly found this episode in my recommendations and now i will have to go back and watch all of it. What a splendid video.
Another possible cost for ritual spells in this setting could be parts of magical organisms, potentially after being carefully distilled. This could push beyond daily limits or personal power, at the cost of rare resources and increased risk of breachers.
Perhaps a ritual could be made safer by carefully balancing the types of magic performed (synthesizing one thing while severing another) to decrease the strain on reality. Another possibility is to spread the ritual across a wide area so that you can evenly draw power rather than stabbing down at a point. Both of these would probably require either multiple casters working in parallel and/or a magical mechanism, such as an array of implements that can somehow automate the mechanics of a spell.
I've always wanted to make a magic system based on astrophysics. Energy, Vacuum, and Gravity being able to be harnessed and manipulated...
Definitely more SciFi than fantasy, but I think it's an interesting idea.
then I suppose the world I am writing is something of a mid level soft magic system. not everyone can use magic without knowledge and some amount of training, but that also depends on the race of a person. some races are fully innately magical, some races are vastly un-magical without putting forth alot of effort and learning to gain the use of magic. for humans in my world, most are not born with a sense for magic and how to use it. early on it would be only a rare few humans who can learn to use magic, and with time and greater understanding more people would be able to acquire magic. there will eventually be a time when half or more of the human population can use magic to some extent. but there will likely never be a time in my world where "all" people use magic directly. some will have to rely on magic devices and such.
also using magic on a grand scale will be a considerable feat for almost any race, certainly not a common thing. but magic that can effect the area of a small town would not be unusual in the mid to late stages of the world. magic itself does also manifest as a natural force which in some circumstances can occur on a grand scale such as causing an unnatural storm that spans an entire kingdom. but that would be a 'once in several years' occurrence for alot of kingdoms.
That sounds like a very interesting setting! There's a lot of creative application just with what you've mentioned here. Very cool!
I guess Pokémon would be considered a Science Fantasy High Magic setting?
Amusing how alchemy was brought up, but the magic system would likely cause a prevalence of alchemy for the use of magic. Most notably, I would imagine the brewing and preparing of potions using the different mystical flora with different techniques and amounts to produce more complicated effects would be the standard means of low to intermediate magic.
Though there is a worldbuilding implication inherent to the idea that the steady ingestion of these mystical flora over generations leading to more and more potent magic can cause: Eugenics and increased racial tensions. You're likely to wind up with a very long history of nobility coming from lines that have increasingly concentrated the best talent for magics within each other to more or less create a race of exceptionally potent hapsburgs. As well as cultures finding other cultures inherently distasteful for much more pronounced and insidious differences than mere skin color.
There are some easy fixes to it I guess. For the noble idea: Their minds degrading by the inbreeding leads to difficulties learning the more academic side of advanced magic requires they actually ascend talented commoners to noble status fairly regularly in order to maintain their minds and high talents. Allowing for a pretty meritocratic system where just being incredibly good at magic can get you raised in status. If you don't like basically hard-locking your world into a feudal system by a different name, I'd maybe add that magical talent is only partially dependant upon genetics. That, or perhaps there's a hard-counter to magic available to anyone that wants to undergo a rather grueling procedure that permanently cuts themselves off from magic in general. Though, the latter also raises the topic that making it possible to skip the whole "over generations" part of the magical infusion process would probably be possible with a large amount of resources and a painful procedure. Though, the fantasy of a miracle elixir that bestows wondrous powers is always appealing. Especially when it's not a recipe that can be easily controlled.
If anyone's wondering, I've not got much to say about how to fix racial tensions. Humans are pretty xenophobic, and we as a group will always find a way to take issue with peoples' inherent traits. Best advice is just make your humans more inherently accepting/forgiving of a humanoid's traits. basically "Don't talk about it."
what would this count as: low, middle, or high magic?
in this world (EFAL universe), all forms of magic are obtained by eating a magical fruit. it's elemental magic (water/earth/fire/wind/lightning/life) and one person can have at most, 2 elements at once. these fruits are rare and with a 7.7 billion world population in the story, around 600k have magic. beginner magic users, also called mages, are around wall level or small building level (VS battles tiering system, 9-B or 9-A). at maximum power for regular mages, they'd be 8-C or high 8-C (building level or large building level).
there are also evil elemental spirits, who go on a rampage and destroy everything in its way. the spirits are a hive mind. they are usually rare but around every 600 years, they become significantly more common, like 20x rate. the spirits come from certain places and are created by the gods Splokojis (water), Krakojis (fire), Orastel (earth), Tesrai (wind), and Vozaku (lightning).
aside from normal mages, there are the very few people who are blessed by a god. there's 2 types of superpowered people: those blessed by the gods normally and the Elemental Flesh Armored Legends/EFAL, special chosen heroes created by the god of life Naruhati. the elemental flesh armored legends have elemental magic (slightly stronger than normal mages) and special armor, which is how they have a little bit of life magic. the EFAL's goal is to destroy as many elemental spirits as possible.
about being blessed by gods, depending on the god, you might have to do different things. it's mostly unknown what the criteria is but there's still something known. for the evil gods (Splokojis, Krakojis, Orastel, Tesrai, Vozaku), the only way to get them is to be a high ranking member of a group called the Elemental Spirit Worshipers/ESW, a terrorist group that aims to wipe humanity (and other life) out to please the gods. you also can't be an EFAL. for the good god Naruhati, it's unknown but you can't be part of the ESW.
For humans in my setting, about 1% of humans are CAPABLE of using magic. However, without training, they're likely to die young due to magical mishaps. The cost is stamina, and it can 'pollute' the environment, if you don't control your spells, well. Excess magic builds up, and interacts with the willpower of those around it, changing the physical realm. Horned creatures help with this, by cleaning up the magical excess.
Wolf magic is just magnets
Some kind of magnets
Maybe its their blood...
Yeah, and...
Gona take a hard think
For people who want to have magic, sufficiently advanced technology, monsters, aliens etc. in their stories or games, I highly recommend "TheMagicEngineer" here on YT.
So my story hasmultiple forms of magic depending on where the magic came from. While Spellcasters have a very ridgid system they've formed over many years to gain specific results, Chi users have a simpler system where training their mind and body to do certain techniques is the key, then theres the Spiritualists who have a very light magic system that they understand fully but it is beyond what other magic users can even fathom.
I feel like in a world of magic some people will try to make it a science, while others are more loose about it, and there are pros and cons t both in my world.
The looser magic systems have more variety and is less predictable, but it is also harder to learn, control, and aim. The harder systems are way more predictable but it is easier to have the intended effects when you need them most.
I created a magic system I use with a friend. It's part of a world that's evolved from simple people into a space faring race & they use magic to help them. They learned how to create crystals they use in generators a field of magic radiation that acts as a type of power. They also created a coding langue out of spell runes & symbols so says something like a gun can fire a firebolt instead of bullets so long as they are in the magic fields. However, outside of generated magic fields their magical equipment loses power.
I absolutely love hard magic systems.
One point to make: Visible Light is just a specific range within the Electromagnetic Spectrum. So scientifically, at least, Photonics would be in the same category.
It’s very interesting to consider changing the system experienced by the audience through the story. Indiana Jones 4 was a crime against humanity until I realised the Ark had lightning, the Thuggee cultists removed hearts and the Holy Grail quest granted eternal life (or death!). Most of the movie is very reality based then the series sneaks the crazy stuff at the end. Star Wars is similar. (LUCAS!!!)
My own world has been particularly low magic but I think going more high magic as they focus on a particular plot thread makes sense. D&D in general works best as an archeological mystery. The wizards of old are an interesting diversion for characters needing to stop an evil Necromancer, especially if they are low magic themselves.
Hmm, I do create magic power systems Call Duminia Source. It's the thing I create in the world story build that I'm make call 'Calamity Wave'. I assume it's a legit power magic but I don't know, I need an opinion from you guys.
If Magic is making improbable things more likely, then it makes sence to have a magic system around luck. And it gives a default starting point for almost any action; things that are more unlikely are harser to cast. A raindance that works 6 days later is much easier then one, which works immediately, which is much, much less likely than shooting lightning out of your hands to hit someone.
Luck has a unit; entropic skew mesured in bits, which I took from information theory, which took from thermodynamics. Imagine lining up every possible outcome of an event and ordering them using some methods. Ordinary, you would pick one world, and that would be what would happen, but entropic skew of 1, you select 2 worlds and choose the best one, 2 and you select from 4 worlds
Entropic skew is gathered by objects with very specific shapes, honed through trial and error. The huristic events selected for are written nearby in a very poetic language with very limited vocabulary, similar to toki pona. Because of how many double meanings and flowery metaphor there are, getting exactly what you want is extremely difficult.
You can set up the world into a line of percentiles according to some hurristic, and skew that distribution.
Most luck has aplications in large industries like farming and insurance guilds and is seldom powerful enough in combat, because most wars are fought
A bound "life synthesis" being would be very important to healing and agricultural efforts.
The pronunciation(specifically emphasis), gesticulation, shot framing and music make this hard to watch. Content isn't too bad thought
I've been working on a system (on and off) for magic that varies the amount of magic available, from none (most of he world) to high, with the amount of land (or water or sky) area for each "level" being a geometric retrogression.
Then there are four types of magic, Innate, Talents, spells, and rituals.
- Innate powers are simply powers that creatures have and use but don't "control" or "manipulate", like having a sixth sense. Creatures that need high levels of magic to survive (e.g. a giant has an innate magic ability to support it's own weight) are limited to areas of high magic.
- Talents are abilities some people have that allow them to manipulate reality naturally, like an person having the ability to throw an object. They get better at it with practice. Different individuals have different talents, some having one, some having more than one, most having none. Talents have to be discovered.
- Spells are learned processes that involve words (sounds) and motions to focus magical energy into various, very specific affects. Spells are more powerful than Talents but while talents are more general (e.g. heal) spells are very specific (e.g. Heal Femur).
- Rituals are learned processes that involve preparation, possibly various materials, and long periods of chanting (i.e. hours). Rituals have the highest magical effects, the bigger the effect the longer the ritual and the more complex / difficult / rare the materials. A unique feature of rituals is that more than one magics user can be involved performing it. The more people involved the shorter the period of time, but on a less than linear scale.
- Spells have short durations.
- Rituals can have permanent durations. Rituals are required to make magic items.
- Spells can be embedded on an object (with a specific trigger) and carried around prior to "going off" when triggered. Wands can have multiple spells that are triggered individually (with the same trigger) in a FILO order. Such spells can be triggered (but not made) in non-magical areas.
- A limited amount of magic energy can be stored in the body for use with talents (but not innate magic, spells or rituals) and used in non-magical areas or as a supplement in low magic areas. Recharging takes time in a magical areas. Staves can be manufactured that are linked to an individual and store additional magical energy (think magic battery) for use with talents but the user but must be in physical contact with it to use it.
- The power of a talent or spells is dependent on the amount of magical energy available, more powerful spells require more magical energy.
- The distance a spell or talent is used at also requires more magical energy, with magic affecting the caster using the least, someone or something the caster is touching needing more and the further away the target is the more magic is required.
- Spells vary from simple, (being easily learned), to complex (being difficult to learn ands requiring years of prior experience).
This makes magic (potentially) very powerful but in limited areas and adds variety. Talents are weak but general, spells a powerful but specific and rituals are very powerful but slow to cast.
I wanna point out that hard and soft magic isn't black and white but rather a sliding scale. Look at AtlA. You've identified some rules, but there's still a ton of things that are utterly unexplained. You'd be hard pressed to deduce purely from the magic who would win a fight. For example.
I wanted magic in my world but keep it as an actual world that exists somewhere else in the galaxy. So I knew I needed to return to the speculative biology aspect of my world.
Although I haven't done the proper studying yet as my world is still in its infancy, I know generally that some life will seem "magical." Plants and animals which expend chemicals, or use friction to create fire, maybe even channeling electricity in one way or another.
For a while I kept it like this where there just distinct magical plants and animals that could be used for tools and weapons and such, but never be used by the actual intelligent lineages of the world (aside from certain hallucinogens).
However, the hallucinogens concept made me wonder if it would be possible for real people to channel actual magic and not just be deluded. So I decided I would mess with the real world concept of RNA editing employed by most nktably certain squid species to see if I could achieve this.
Put simply, the intelligent lineages can edit part of their genetic code in order to enhance certain aspects. If you spec into "fire" magic, you may eventually see the development of organs that allow you to create heat from friction in your mouth and breathe fire.
Not only would this require hours of hard work and patience for the magic user, it would also naturally create defects as you may lose certain other important traits at the cost of magic. Maybe your nerves get deactivated when doing fire magic because it would otherwise hurt you to breathe fire. Or, you have a higher cancer risk because of all the messing with RNA you're doing.
TL;DR I'm making a magic system that uses real world biology instead of metaphysical and supernatural forces to work
PS it's still in its infancy, so I haven't fleshed out the details of all its inner workings. I've only done the basics so far
I think of magic as a spectrum between philosophy and physics. Physics is like FMA, a set of Alternative Physics that are not shared with our own reality. While Philosophy is similar to Physics in that it has some rules, it's not quite so mathematical, it is practical yes, or else it wouldn't be done, it's just that the system is more based in abstract concepts like adopting aspects of a creature through association, as opposed to Physics Magic which tries to explain it with logic, such as using a personal energy source to transmute matter. In essence FMA is akin to Chemistry but kickstarted by sheer willpower, while say, The Force is powered by either tranquility or emotion, and simply does thing. Though the Force becomes more Hard once Midichlorians are introduced
so essentially, Hard Magic is Alt-Science, and Soft Magic is like poetry
You keep referring to magical processes as "invocations." is this because you do not wish to use the term "spell"? Or even the more scientific-sounding "procedure"(which appears to be what the medical practice has started calling what used to be known as "operations."). Me being curious.
In one of my stories magic comes from magical creatures and humans mixing causing witches, a magical human. Theyre blood or body parts can let humans cast their own magic, this lead to witch hunts. And the magic itself is like a fatasified version of IRL witchcraft/magic/folk traditions
There's two further levels to magic when worldbuilding: Nonexistent and Liminal.
Nonexistent obviously describes a world in which magic doesn't and cannot exist and so is an excluded category when considering magic systems. Liminal however is a different matter.
With Liminal, Magic 'might' exist. Maybe there are tales of it's having existed in the past but is absent in the present but more likely it's potential is hinted at by framing otherwise mundane events with a sense of otherworldliness or foreboding.
Whenever a writer plays at the edges of maybe, offering the possibility that an event 'might' be supernatural while never spilling over into certainty on either side of the divide - that's Liminal.
What events, items, places and situations are subject to that is analogous to it's system.
For example: A family heirloom inspires strange and potentially prophetic dreams (that are uncertain enough to be considered unreliable) in the protagonist.
In this case the limit and extent of the 'magic' is the reliability of the effect and the necessity for the presence of the object - the Heirloom.
I want to share the magic system for my comic: There are two dimensions: real and imaginary. In the real dimension all "physical" things exist, or in terms of my story, "everything that can be found". In the imaginary, therefore, "everything that can be imagined." Beings with a mind can attract these two worlds to each other until they touch, which allows imaginary things and phenomena to materialize in the real world.
This magical system is limited by the knowledge of the one who uses it. There is a term "rigidity of thought", which reflects how well thought is prepared for manifestation into reality. If the embodied thought is not "rigid" enough, then the laws of the real world will push it back. For example, just imagining fire to create it is not enough. It is also necessary to carefully consider its properties like temperature, and how it could ignite by itself in reality.
This can be done just like regular words, but physical formulas can also be used - this will make the spell many times more powerful.
I want to watch this because the concept is good but starting a vid with its table of contents has driven me away.... Leave that kind of summation for the conclusion or the description box.
Or at the very least, use a better... Any other hook for the intro. List some well known systems, ask an intriguing question about them. Just anything other than, "here's what will be in today's video!"
I just thought of a world campaign that would be fun to make...
A world where hard magic was once prevalent to the point of medium, bordering on high magic. The world suffered some cataclysmic event that wiped out pretty much all magic users and most magic animals. In reality, it is hard, low magic but it had just become so commonplace.
After the cataclysm, 1000 or so years go by and the main character learns magic once existed. There is evidence of this by artifacts around the world, in museums, that one eccentric townsperson's home, being used as a doorstop at a local barber shop, you name it, there's probably a magic artifact there that people don't know how to use.
The main character needs to go on a quest to bring magic back into the world, and the only way to do it is performing a series of rituals.
But during those thousand years, non magic technology has advanced to the point where you might find something like the Wright Flyer or a horseless carraige in a rich person's laboratory. Or maybe steampunk level technology, which would have been about 40 years before Orville and Wilbur first took to the skies at Kittyhawk.
So using magic always has the risk of spawning breachers and if you use magic to get rid of breachers you just manifest more? With both incoming and outgoing energy causing the veil to thin how would you break out of that cycle and repair the veil. Sounds to me like the Universes will inevitably collapse.
My own magical system is actually very basic, but allows me to seamlessly integrate other magic systems without clashing.
Magic is subject to control, and in a naturally non-sentient energy. So, i gave it one singular rule. Thought, creates effect.
So if you think magic works a certain way...
Like most of the modern world, you appear to misuse the word "supernatural" which is defined as being "above or outside of the natural world," and which implies that the user fully comprehends the boundaries and limitations of "the natural world." However, the actual case is that we are constantly expanding our comprehension of the limits of reality, and as a result, things that we called "supernatural" only a couple of centuries past are now seen as an "expected part of the natural world" (one example being a cat's ability to navigate through the darkness.)
Funny how you mention waterbenders moving metal when that exact thing happened in Korra with mercury lol.
I'm attempting to depict magic based on existing belief systems and the cultures they're from in my fantasy. It's a low fantasy that's kind of a mix between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson in terms of setting and magic. I just hope my research regarding the magic beliefs is at least passable and not too offensive.
Your world seems more mid magic than low magic. Humans in your settings have been using the magical fire flowers for thousands of years before figuring out the mundane way and magical plants most surely have been cultivated and used in civilization for generations due to the advantages they grant thus increasing the commonality of these magical plants and making low level magic fairy common within the populace. The octopi had their understanding of synthesis and severance jumpstarted by the discovery of the alien artifacts which would probably build off of their mastery of agricultural systems which makes their magic visually and fundamentally unique.
So, how I rationalize magic in my games is with the same principles as the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment.
So, I come to disagree with your notion that adding magic is unscientific. Scientific magic is just adding new forces of nature to go along with Gravity, Electromagnetism, etc. Doing this, we can explain magic using the rules of quantum mechanics
Intentional breacher summoning seems very exploitable for terrorists. It's not a bug, it's a feature!
I’m writing a story where the magic comes from writing and carving, called scripting/script magic.
Magic comes from wiring/ carving a word, phrase or symbol on a surface and when the word is completed the effect of the magic happens. So for example you write the word burn on a piece of wood and the wood will burn.
Simple things like this is used by everyone in everyday scenarios. On the other hand there is a profession call script smithing, there are for more complex words and symbols usually carved into small objects for protection and other things.
There are also scripts only used by certain noble families, passed down through generations. These families have their own members do all the scripting for their family.
This form of magic, when used for combat, scripts have to be carved ahead of time on a weapon, this is because you can’t just being out paper in the middle of combat to draw scripts. You can also only script on a material not in mid air like some. So the production and buying of script smithed in tools and charms are common, from anything such as protecting yourself to military use.
There are special pens and carving tools used for scripting. Mana comes from the person writing, flows into the pen or tool and then into the material. When touched by another the effect of the script will activate, even though they didn’t draw it themselves.
The amount of mana inside of a scripted can run out if not supplied with mana after a period of time, and the script can fade from an object, needing to be rewritten.
There are also special materials that can be scripted on. As everything in the world has an amount of mana no matter how large or small. This includes animals and plants, therefore the more mana an object had when alive the more mana that can be used by a script carved into it.
For example if you use a type of special paper made by the bark of a tree with high mana, you can write high mana usage scripts on it. It puts a cap on how strong a scripted object can get.
as a biology major I think that one of the biggest problems with magical ecosystems is that it's rarely explained why the exotic magical animals seen in the work don't outcompete and drive extinct the nonmagic mundane ones like farm animals.
I like the magic Systems from Chinese literature about cultivation. It is mostly a mix of hard and soft magic, cultivators scale the ranks up to greater and greater power in their path - may it be the sword with its deadly swordlight or even more magical moves; an Array used to protect a sect of cultivators confounding enemies or even outright killing them after entering, body cultivators which bodies are as hard as artifacts - breaking swords with bare hands, or even the mysterious soulforce users, able to interrupt the thoughts of enemies in the middle of the fight to create an opening…. There are so many more and I can just recommend reading more fantasy from other cultures. Here are also some literature recommendations: the desolate era, warlock of the magus world, upgrade specialist in another world, the experimentation log of the crazy lich, against the gods
This video give me clues how to refine magic system of my newest idea! I am very glad for your amazing creations! It is about species of dragons originating from divine panteon and enemies of this panteon because of some kind of deception, wich escape to mortal word in order to survive and use knowledge of magic and they innate powers to create some sort of continent-sized hidden estate and inhabbit it. They where high magic society, but they get destroyed by both gods enemies, after they try to made peace with gods, they hidden world abolished, in process creating archipelag of islands from between island and britan, to half the way to america, most of them slaughtered, and survivors or escaping and hiding within human society, losing they knowledge on magic over generations, or geting captured and punished for they species "sins", with punishment ranging from slavery, through imprisonment, to humiliation through pampering, with only few dozens creatures still remembering what those sins are, and enforcing they idea on how to punish those creatures on specimens within they reach. Yet they don't know about those who managed to escape doom of civilization, very scattered and ignorant about existence of others, one of them create massive plan to liberate they kin from opressive Tyrans and retake they ancient heritage, do to lose of knowledge, high magic system with hard rules effectively become low magic system with rules known not to mortals, actions of heroes and survivors eventually turn it into middle magic system, but rules are still unclear to them and only fracture of spells are reliable enough to put them into bigger use, all of them invented by society of withes and sorcerers created by the survivors themselves, all matters regarding survivors are extremely secret, and really exist only one faction, with most of survivors don't knowing about others existence and trying just to survive or gain power within governmental systems of they respective settlements in order to turn humans against they opressors and, in the best scenario, also manage to become accepted in this society to the point when they can remain in they original form instead of going through dangerous and unpredictable process of merging mind and soul with human to take human form, wich often result in death or insanity, with extreme shift in behavior pretty much sure, and don't seam to have any sense of pattern, if human-dragon breed with human, its offspring will have ability to turn into dragon, but will have smaller innate magical abilities by a half in each generation. I think it is interesting enough.
okay, been awhile since you made this vid, but I've got a question and ideas about the breachers... the way I understand it you said that too much magic being used can cause the veil to become thin and cause the breachers to come into one or both of the universes, and that a breacher can essentially be a manifestation of synthesis or severance. so, my question is, would that mean if there is too much severance magic happening a synthesis breacher would appear? and the same in reverse, with access synthesis magic causing a severance breacher? now that leads onto my idea. if in my question I was right, I kind of imagine that breachers would kind of be equalisers, trying to balance the energy between the two universes. so if too much severance magic is used in universe A, too much energy would be in universe B, so a synthesis breacher would appear in universe A or a severance breacher would appear in universe B in an attempt to drag the access energy from universe B back into universe A. if that was the case, then I got the idea from the image you showed at 16:29 that the breachers kind of look like flying rays or something, but more particularly are like black and white holes. a severance breacher could be similar in appearance, maybe not in shape, to black holes as they suck energy into the other universe. and on the flip side, a synthesis breacher would appear in the same way, but as we theorise white holes would, but instead of projecting light, it would project energy from the other universe into the universe it is in. sorry if that's a bit long and doesn't make much sense XD.
Gravity is bent space/time and as such not a form of energy. and the the 2nt law of thermodynamics allows for the change of form of the energy(mana) but does not allow the creation of or destruction of energy (mana) and matter is just frozen energy in material form, which can be changed into a energy (mana) that a spell can use or be changed back into its materal form.
This something that greater gods can do at will, and lesser (magical beings Angels/demons) with some effort.
Your apparent definition of "magic" seems to make it a "get out of physics free" card and implies that we "modern folks" understand everything about the real world and therefore know what the limits of nature are so that we can identify something that is "supernatural," or beyond the natural world. A lot of hubris to unpack with those statements.
I feel like I need some help with my magic system even though I have the core concepts figured out. For starters magic in my setting was created as a result of extremely advanced alien technology. However even after this technology was deactivated or destroyed magic still exists since it has become a part of the natural world. There are countless ways of using magic in my setting but they all follow fundamental rules that simply cannot be broken.
The 2 most important ones of all being that energy cannot be created or destroyed and entropy will always increase in a closed system. There are also 2 important concepts that all magic is based on. These are Form and Essence. Form is physical material and usable energy while essence is the pure information which gives anything its identity and properties. So in order to cast a spell you need the raw material, the energy and the knowledge how to shape it all into what you want.
What I struggle with is how people learned how to use these powers and how they interact with them. For example how hand gestures and strange words and symbols effect something so ethereal and distant. I don’t want it to be as simple as “all you have to do is think very hard and it will happen” because that’s stupid. Right now my best looking idea is that the first magic uses gained their connection to the ethereal realms directly from the alien technology and that later this connection was either passed down to their descendants naturally or they directly passed it on to their successors through some sort of ritual.
In that case after the technology was lost it would be possible for magic to completely disappear if all magic users became extinct. Perhaps the gradual extinction of magic could be a major plot point in my setting. What are your thoughts on it?
Damn I would love to hear his thoughts on "Mother of learning", in my opinion it's better than HP
In my world building, the world is middle to high magic. Everyone has access to magic, but not everyone has the skill or is predisposed to use high magic. People can learn ritualistic or hermetic formulas to a certain point. Artisans who know the formulas can create wondrous items to a certain degree, but the blessed can forge miraculous things of high power.
Those who were blessed by gods can use magic through will alone, but there is a cost in personal energy and the blessing can be taken away. An example of the cost, if the characters use magic against their character it physically drains them.
The blessed congregate in circles or covens that align with their focus to do great things and protect the world from eldritch horrors. Most of the temples and libraries are built on the conjunctions of lay lines or “hot spots” that were discovered in antiquity when the gods walked the lands.
Everyone else live relatively normal lives, some can do minor magic innately akin to a soft magic system with little to no cost and it is less effective and more erratic in whether it works or not. Lay lines also have an effect on the consistency of the innate magic use but the average person is not aware of it.