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hi.im.caleb

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  1. I'm curious what other points you mean. That it's the first in a film to tackle such a story? Or are you alluding to connections I drew that you don't see?
  2. I work in the social media space but I'm actively pursuing fantasy writing in film (hard pursuit much?). One thing that I love as a writer is seeking visual inspirations that make me ponder. Only, most hubs like artstation, Pinterest, and DeviantArt are a mix of amateur and pro work. To remedy this, I've launched an Instagram here: http://instagram.com/worldbuildinginspiration There are other Instagrams like this but I'm stylizing mine much differently. // Each week will have a subtly different theme. Right now it's "Mysterious" but will have "Desert", "Magical", "Cold", "Dark", "Sci-Fi", etc. // I post 3 pics a day, every 2 days switching focus. Mon & Tues are characters, Wed & Thur are environments, Fri & Sat are scenes and concepts. I'd love to know your thoughts and what best would help YOU be inspired via my efforts. I'd love a follow. Let's have a conversation.
  3. Actually, I made a naming mistake. The intention was to label this is a Seon, rather than an Aon. I'll have to do my version of an Aon in it's raw form some time soon.
  4. hi.im.caleb

    Cosmere Concept Art

    Cosmere Photo-Manipulations // Images and Design by @hi.im.caleb
  5. Arrival has been an obsession of mine since first seeing it. The way it unfurls a deep mystery surrounding a unique language which turns eventually into to something VERY unexpected. SPOILER ALERT (Major for Arrival + Minor for The Cosmere Novels) – If you haven't seen Arrival, go watch it. If you haven't read Mistborn, the current Stormlight books, or Elantris, go right now. Read them. Thank me later. Then continue reading this. While Sanderson has talked about magic systems in films such as Harry Potter and Star Wars, there's something much more to Sanderson's books that I don't think any film has quite captured until now. The unravelling of mystery through discovering the truth about how the world works. Let me explain this. In Mistborn we see the world through Vin. Much of Vin's story takes place doing research and trying to decipher the truth about Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy. It's through discovery and revelation that the plot unfolds. Same goes with Stormlight, our bookworm being Shallan. It's through her's and Kaladin discovery that most of the plot moves forward. Finally, the entire story of Elantris is built upon Raoden discovering the truth about the Shaod. While it's Sanderson's non-cliche form of Fantasy that makes him stand out in this genre, the true stroke of intrigue is that each of his stories is built upon mystery – and a very unique type of mystery, almost like solving scientific ones. In most mystery stories, the truth is built upon "Who did it?" or "What actually happened here?" but Sanderson presents very different and unique mysteries built around understanding the world and the way it really works. Arrival, as far as I see it, is the first film to do this. We've seen similar mysteries in Animes, such as Full Metal Alchemist, and in shows such as Stranger Things, but Arrival is the first film of it's kind to dive deep into a mystery that pays off with an almost magic-system-like revelation in the end. Our protagonist explores a language and tries to decipher the alien's intent. Her discoveries lead to her having the ability to see time linearly almost allowing her to time travel, in a sense. It's an ability anybody can learn, it seems, but it takes a deep understanding of a language very few are likely to be able to interpret and learn. Anyway, what are your thoughts here? Do you agree? Also, any other films you think fall into this category?
  6. I should also add that the Threads which the Weaves are composed of have practical effects even if not woven. All five Threads have a glow and may be used to produce light even if not woven. However, it should be known that one Thread class can not be woven to effect a Weave of another class. They can, however, be combined to give their base joint effects.
  7. This is all amazing. Seriously, these suggestions give more direction than you might realize. There is a major RAFO element to a lot of this system, but there are basics I can lightly divulge. First: Weaves take time to create and most often produce static effects. Since this is true, using a weave in a moment of desperation may be impossible. Weaves can be used in preparation, and sometimes can offer effects that have a trigger, such as traps or a weapon that may produce a set effect, but to create a weave on the run is near impossible. Second: Weaves are composition and the level of skill to Weave is based in knowledge and understanding. The better you know your weaves, the more you can do. But, you may have two individuals who Weave of the same class – let's say Red/Blood – but one may be more adept in Weaves that deal with healing procedures, another with body enhancements, and another that deals more with animals. Creating new weaves is possible but challenging. There are Scholars that research patterns and attempt to use deeper understanding of Weaves to discover new ways to compose them, though similarly to our modern age of tech, the results tend to be more subtle advancements rather than major breakthroughs. Third: Weaves cannot create, only become a part of something that already is to either transform, add to or enhance/diminish it. If the object the Weave is based in is destroyed, the Weave is shattered. Forth: Effects only last as long as the Weave allows. An effect can be reversed by someone skilled enough to unravel the weave. A Weave wrongly unraveled may have negative effects, varying from as extreme as an explosion to as small as a tiny shock or loud pop. These effects can even be woven into the Weave itself as a safety measure. You can shatter a Weave rather than unravel, but can be dangerous if the Weave has negative effects woven into it. These effects also trigger if the Weave is shatter due to the destruction of the object. So this is a basis of Weave understanding, though the depth spans much greater. There are other powers and laws to the world that exist, including creative Weave implementations that allows for less passive effects.
  8. I have to be vague on this, as it's for a major project, but I wanted to seek the creative power of my fellow community of magic system geeks. Perhaps your perspectives can breathe fresh life. The Weave System // The basis is simple. The world revolves around five types of weaves. You can almost think of these weaves as programming languages. Each language offers different effects that the other languages cannot perform. Together, they create the echo-system with live in. In this world, these languages take the form of creative weaves. Each weave architype is composed of it's own color and revolves around a focused element or idea. The challenge is that Weaves are not instantaneous. They take time to create, therefore effects the occur in the moment are mostly useless. Also note: this is a modern day setting. I had each color figured out before hitting a road block. I'm looking for suggestions. Here are the current colors: Gold // Power & Energy These weaves are used in mostly industrial situations, providing heat, energy sources, powering engines, etc. Purple // Metaphysical These weaves deal with the mind and information. It's used mostly by scholars, teachers, investigators, etc. Red // Physical Deals with living things; not plant life, but things with blood. Humans & Animals. Used mostly in medical fields. The two I'm struggling with are Black & White. I'm trying to mostly avoid Light & Dark, or Good & Evil effects. I want each weave type to have neutral alignments. I have toiled with Spiritual & Shadow, but they lack practicality or real uses. Spiritual uses seem to close to Metaphysical uses. Shadow uses seem to separate from the rest as if it doesn't belong; it lacks cohesion. I want the effects of each color to at least lightly represent what the color itself represents. That gives us: White representing Safety, Purity, Light. Black representing Mystery & Elegance. I've thought through other colors but they were all too tightly related to other colors. And before anyone suggests expansion on the system, it goes immensely deeper than all of this, but I wanted to keep the big secrets to myself. This is for a bigger project than you might assume. Thoughts?
  9. Fair enough! Either way. And nor have I, rather read and watched many interviews from the writers. They have talked about how past movies have mostly been scientific, whereas Dr. Strange is the first to be completely based in mystical arts and magic. Should be interesting! I'm sincerely hoping we get something of a modern day fantasy magic system here.
  10. This thread is a mix of a few things all stemming from my notice of cliches built around Magic Systems and World Building. My Hopes For This Thread: To discuss everyone else's opinion on how they feel about tropes/cliches in Magic Systems and World Building. To challenge the fellow writer's out there to begin thinking differently when creating; to not settle for what's easy. To learn who out there thinks in similar ways as myself but also to learn strong oppositions. What This Thread is Not For: It is not a place to get defensive. I want myself and others to be challenged by this thread. Allow yourself to open up to opposition. This doesn't mean you shouldn't defend your stance – we want that. Just don't be upset on opposing views nor defend little things simply to defend your honor. It is not a place to attack someone. The last thing we want is someone presenting an opinion to have it attacked belligerently. This is a discussion and debate, not a place to over-react or criticism. So without further ado, let's start by talking Elemental Magic. The one thing that begun this thought process was in something I noticed in many writers abounding with desire to write fantasy. Can we move on from Elemental Magic? Don't get me wrong. I love the elements. I love the magic built around elements. Mistborn is basically elemental via metal. I am also obsessed with Avatar/Korra. But seeing "Here's my version of Earth, Air, Water, Fire." in every place you look gives me negative emotions about it. I think elements are key to magic. I think having magic perhaps based on only one element would be extremely awesome. But it feels contrived at this point. Not to mention, most writers are trying to take Elemental Magic and give their own spin on it. In turn, we only get a convoluted mess of a system that has too many powers for someone without a spreadsheet to get a grasp of. What is your take on this?
  11. It all depends on delivery. Would you require extreme expedition? Are you good at expedition? See, Lord of the Rings had immense amounts of expedition. However, Tolkien was also extremely talented at delivering us his material in an engaging and intriguing way. For myself, I'm not that person. I'm self-aware that I tend to info dump and it doesn't play well. I like Sanderson's method of dulling it out little-by-little. We're still learning about the Mistborn systems well into his second trilogy and beyond. So I think I would have to see your magic in context to answer your question here precisely. But I'll hit on two things about what you said. The first is to know the story you want to tell. You related your magic to the Cosmere vs talking about specific Cosmere worlds. Is your magic system more of an overarching one the bridges to many other magic systems? In the Cosmere, its overarching system is what produces separately the Mistborn system vs the Stormlight system. But we're never taught of the Cosmere in context to learning how those sub-systems work. Why? Because they are their own thing. Or is your system it's own entity? Like Mistborn or Stormlight. And what is the learning curve for it? Will the reader need a spreadsheet or can they comprehend it as it goes along? Again, most of that is in presentation, but with magic, when trying to do something different, as many of us strive for, it's so easy to make our story convoluted. The second is that it seems to me that your system isn't one system but a few. A few that share many rules or come from the same source perhaps, but much different in their own ways. Am I correct in assuming this? If so, I'd focus on one system at a time and deeply develop it into as great an entity you can before moving to the next. I hope that helps. I really think Sap could make an intriguing premise. It's simple and super approachable, but also has the ability to be deep. I love magics, also, that are easily researched for a writer when developing. I'm sure you could learn a lot about sap online and use what already is true to help develop your magic deeper. One last thing I'd like to add that I hope helps. It's about developing new ideas for a magic. I think as creatives – applicable to any creative field, not just writing – when you have a new idea for a project, there's this ostentatious desire to make sure it works within the story. Having also built smartphone apps, worked on marketing campaigns and written a good amount, it's amazing how often I have an amazing idea that I just have to implement. The challenge is allowing ourselves to discern if the idea is actually good for the story or just a cool idea we want to force in. I've always been taught – and it's shown true – that the best creatives are the ones that have the greatest ideas, but know how to discard the subpar ones to put better detail on what is great. :)
  12. This is totally true. But I'd even say, outside of Thor's powers, most of Asgard is mostly soft magic as we don't know how it works. I guess my goal reigns true when it comes to bringing new original magical stories to Hollywood. I'd actually say that the closest we have to that is Harry Potter. Although it's at a mid-point between hard and soft magic, it still has a strong set of rules. And also, with Dr. Strange, he's all magic, actually. Where as Asgard is, as you said, a crosspoint of magic and tech, I believe Dr. Strange's powers are completely magic-based.
  13. Ha, yeah, that's true. And I agree. I suppose I meant, hard magic outside the realm of superheroes. And technically, before Doctor Strange, it could be said that the Marvel heroes are technically sci-fi, as their powers were man-made and have fictional scientific explanations rather than fantasy/supernatural explanations.
  14. One of the things that I've found in every magic system is this strong sense of cohesion. Look at Mistborn. Everything revolves around metal. The three magics either pull power from metal, stores power from oneself into metal to recall later, or uses metal to pull powers from one individual and give them to another. The powers are all basic in the same metals and the world and ecosystem of it is built around this. I'm only into part 2 of the Stormlight Archive, but it seems to be strongly similar. The world revolves around Stormlight and it at least seems that every magic that exists stems from this core entity called Stormlight. The Reckoners (spoiler free) is based on a simple superpower mechanic but it's existence and how weaknesses work, it all ties together. Cohesion makes the magic feel alive and real. It gives it a small taste of logic. It allows the reader to make sense of it. What I'd suggest is a little bit of simplification. It allows for the reader to grasp it without having to have a spreadsheet of rules. You don't want them to have to think too hard about it. Here's an example (based on a little confusion from myself): quartz, blood and sap These are the sources of power, yeah? What do they have to do with each other? Why are THESE the sources? Why nothing else? To they produce similar results given certain circumstances or do they all produce different effects? There's 3 sources, but 4 elements? And how many magic types? What do we call the different magics, or is there just one with ways it varies? What I'd suggest is provided sources that some how specifically relate or contrast in a certain way. You can make these three work, but I would lean on the side of making each source produce a completely different effect, but also hold unique effects on the world itself. Let's look Sap: It sounds like sap could be a valuable resource, right? How does one use sap? If it's a source of power, it seems one wouldn't easily find it in nature as it'd be a harvested resource. How does one draw from sap? Do they simply pull energy from it by proximity or does it have to be touched or ingested? What effects would sap produce? Does sap from different plant sources produce different effects? These are the kind of questions you should be asking. Make yourself a researcher of your magic. Start with barebones elements and flesh them out as deep as possible. There's an hour-long lecture on YouTube from Sanderson about magic systems that helped A LOT. I've watched it a couple times, actually. I'll link it in the bottom of this, but he talks a bit about trying less to spread wide with your magic, but rather explore deeper. The idea? One extremely fleshed out and deeply understood magic is much better than 20 shallow magics. Personally, I'd go with separating the 3 sources and creating 3 very unique but somehow connected magics from the sources. The more I asked you about the Sap source, the more intriguing it became. I think, for world-building, sap is the most interesting of the three. I hope this is helpful. I'm working on a couple magic systems myself and it's TOUGH. Mostly because you come up with an idea you absolute love, but then find, oh wait... That won't work. That doesn't make sense. At that point, you have to make a decision to either attempt problem-solving by tweaking the system to work with the new idea or scraping the idea altogether. Just know this. People are harsh. They will tear apart your magic. Unless you lean more on soft-magic (less understood magic, mysterious) rather than hard-magic, you should be just as harsh on building your own system. It sounds like this is a hard magic system and the premise is intriguing. Sanderson Lecture: https://youtu.be/jXAcA_y3l6M
  15. Just wanted to drop in here from Los Angeles. I'm 24 years young and obsessed with unclichéd fantasy. I am also currently writing a TV series and feature length film series. My discovery of Sanderson's work led to an immediate obsession with his choice of fantasy elements that were rooted in unique magics and worlds of his making. It saddens me deeply that Hollywood lacks any significant works that fit strongly into what he defines as Hard Magic systems. Outside of Sci-Fi, there isn't much of that in the way of Fantasy. As a pursuing writer for just over half a decade now, I have been intrigued by such world-building elements before I knew of Sanderson and in finding him, found a sweet spot. Prior to Sanderson, I had a huge obsession with Anime for its use of such systems in its story telling. I just wanted to say hello! My dream is to begin creating stories through feature lengths and series' as Sanderson does though literature. I tried my way at writing novels but wasn't satisfied with the process. I am and have truly always been a film maker and that continues to be true. Also, while I'm not producing much content right now while I focus more on growing and writing, you can follow my adventures on social media: http://twitter.com/crazeecaleb http://instagram.com/hi.im.caleb You will like see more design-oriented content on my social as I currently work as a freelance designer/film maker. In due time, this will shift as I am able to start focusing my personal brand on being film maker/writer and also actor. So excited to join the conversation!
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