Your own magic systems?

[Cyanic]

I wanted to share some of the magic systems I made with you guys, but then I thought to make it a discussion so we could like help each other develop our systems, and it just seems like good fun!

Here are three systems that are the most developed so far:

1) Resonance - (This has an actual book associated with it, so spoiler warning, I guess? Don't want to sound conceited just dislike giving out spoilers without any warning!) This was made based on the usual mana to spell magic, like fireballs, but I put up some limitations for the system so that it's a true system. The main resource is called "Echo" (might change it to echoflow or echotide, so it's not confused with the regular use of the word "echo") Echo is life energy and the mages of this world (called Resonators) can tap into their Echo to produce one of three physical interactions: Force, Heat, and Light. Most Resonators only have one resonance, but some can have all three (called Cadent, you can see my inspiration from Mistborn lol). The resonance is determined by how the Resonator most naturally stimulates their Echo: Dynato (Force) let their Echo 'thrum' before letting loose at its peak, Ignitran (Heat) quiet their Echo for a moment before firing a burst of flame, and Luminar (Light) pretty much just take Echo from their own bodies and convert them into floating lights (like Magelight basically). The more Echo used the more powerful the effect, but if a person uses too much of their Echo they're in danger of dying or falling into a coma. A Resonator can also infuse items with Echo to give that item their resonance, though Cadents can't infuse.

There's also a newer rarer kind of Resonator which uses one of the three resonances but in reverse: Still Force, Heat, and Light, but their absence instead (or opposite with Force). The way these effects are achieved is kinda to stimulate their Echo in reverse, so thrumming but letting lose at a low point attracts things instead of repels, revving the Echo to a breaking point then suddenly quieting it sucks the heat from a targeted point, and taking Echo away from a place instead of supplying it creates darkness or shadows. The reverse stimulation is a major plot point in the story.

2) Forge - A system which requires two or more specific things to work and is fueled by the users memories and understanding of concepts (literally). This was inspired by me mishearing someone say something about using memory as fuel and like your usual spoken spells. In this there are three systems:

*Word Forge - which uses 2 to 4 words linked together to produce effects, and is best suited at less abstract effects. So saying "fire ball" would conjure a ball made of fire which would float in mid-air with no direction before dissipating. The user will temporarily forget the words they just said.

*Image Forge - connects two or more images to summon creatures or items. These can be cut together pictures, drawings, etc. as long as there are two or more previous things combining to create one new thing. A user can save Forged drawings without summoning them, for later. A user will then forget what exactly their item/creature can do which forces the user to rediscover what it does, the image is also consumed but not the medium it was made on, so a drawing would disappear but not the paper, and a picture would have holes in it, etc. All memories of an Image Forged thing will return if the thing is destroyed or de-summoned.

*Command Forge - connects one key word and one or more command words to produce effects. Can handle more abstract concepts like gravity or flight and can produce trickier effects like saying "Self. Twenty meters forward" which will then boost the user forward exactly twenty meters by their understanding. The user will forget the meaning of the command words, but not the key word, and the commands are based on the user's understanding of the concept (saying "Self. Transcend" does not work.)

3) Aspect Naturality - A magic system with 7 aspects. Each person born into the world has a naturality to 2 aspects (and nothing more), or in some rare cases no naturality at all. The 7 aspects are: Balance, Focus, Intuition, Instinct, Grit, Ferocity, and Vigilance. The aspects are triggered by doing certain actions that lean into that specific aspect, so the people of this world created several martial arts to channel each aspect, though a user can learn any of these martial arts, they can only trigger the two aspects that they are natural toward. Each aspect has a passive and active component:

*Balance passively gives the user a greater understanding of balance and actively allows to shift their center of gravity,

*Focus passively calms the user under pressure and actively see and react to things in slowed time (though their actions are not accelerated accordingly)

*Intuition enhances the user's sense of direction and gauge how much damage a strike will do

*Instinct enhances the user's danger sense and lets the user feel where a hit would land on their body (but without the pain associated)

*Grit allows the user pain tolerance and slight anchoring in space

*Ferocity numbs empathy and increases muscle mass

*Vigilance lets the user learn faster and detect minute details (like muscle movement before a punch)

This system was inspired by Absolver pretty much, just all of it lol

 

Would like to hear your systems too and/or thoughts on my own, these could still use some more development!

Edited July 27, 2018 by Cyanic

[Ripheus23]

The (Forge) system has some nifty-sounding applications. I especially like the implications of, "Self, transcend," not working. Also appealing to the word-image-concept distinction to ground the system is philosophically cool.

... Ones I've "explored":

1.) Spellmasonry [unfortunately, though I came up with the name myself, this term turned out to have been used for a different system of magic in an already-published work], also trigonomancy. The limit on magic in general is that it sort of only happens in or because of different kinds of buildings, but can happen anywhere in the building to some degree, or be channeled outside by people wearing helmets designed to look/be like the buildings. (Lowspires have a low conduit-range; awespires have a long-range; allspires have universal range.) Also, depending on what the building is made of, and what is used to magically "fuel" it, some or another building can do just about anything that can be described... So there are spellkeeps (as they're often referred to) such as:

The Endspire: causes things to come to an end.

The River of the Forgiven: causes one's objective guilt to be negated.

The Dreadfane: burns up the relics of saints as fuel to turn other holy relics into evil magical weapons. [If unholy relics are used to fuel it, it internally destabilizes until it produces an object so volatile that it breaks down.]

The Questfane:

Quote

“Now the lord of the lords of sjl-Jlljhad did unlock the fact of these keys at his great Questfane, a spellkeep wherethrough magical journeys became concrete obligations, destinies incarnated into the forms of treasures whose purposes were in the service of the lore of adventure. Troj himself sought from the Questfane the outcome of his lovely city, and the Notes of Seity were reality's answer to his lost faith..."

 

The Day of Night: turns laughter into a physical entity.

The Sinspire: causes one to be abstractly guilty of an extreme crime.

The Sinforge: turns sin/guilt into a form of matter.

The Cosmopolis Auditorium: used to magically pass international laws.

2.) Heartscending. Magic based on love/similar emotions (e.g. respect, hate). Two heartscenders in love are magically rendered unable to hurt each other physically. Heartscending also allows married couples to magically create children; a related twist allows for the resurrection of the Creationborn (the children of heartscending).

More on this later...

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

I have a possibly bad habit of beginning to write before I've finished fully designing my magic systems so they can end up more on the soft side until I figure out the rules.

The magic I have in my first completed novel is just called magic on-world and seams like a soft sort of elemental magic at first glance, but I've gradually worked out some hard rules that work in the background that I think make it more interesting. The characters in-world just don't really know what is going on with it so the full explanation of how everything works will probably never appear in the text, and mysteries surrounding the magic are key parts of the story. I can explain a little bit here but too much will be spoilers.

In this system there are two classes of powers. Class 1 powers are the most powerful and are very similar to other elemental magic systems like in the Last Airbender, except I've added electricity into the usual four air, earth, fire, and water (but I've given them all fancy names like electrokineticism which no one uses in-world). Class 1 powers always manifest in pairs, where one power is a dominant power and the other is a subordinate power. The powers interact differently depending on the pairing and which power is dominant in the pairing. Not all pairings are compatible however and Air is only a pivot power and can never manifest as a dominant power. Other pairings can be incompatible in one of two ways -- full incompatibility or half incompatibility. Full incompatibility occurs between Fire and Water, Electricity and Earth, and Earth and Water, meaning that these powers cannot manifest in a pair. Half incompatibility occurs when two powers can be paired but one of the powers must always be dominant. There are two instances of this: Earth and Fire (where Earth is always dominant), and Water and Electricity (where water is always dominant). 

Those incompatibilities seem rather arbitrary when written like that but I envision these powers as existing on an axis of subordination which makes this all make more sense visually. Air, the pivot power, sits at the centre of the axis at position 0 and stretching out to either side are several degrees of subordination. Powers on the negative side of Air can have domination over powers up to two degrees in the positive direction while being fully incompatible with any power beyond this range, and half compatible with the power one degree behind them. The same rule applies on the positive side of the axis but all the directions are reversed.

The axis of subordination looks like this:

  -2          -1            0            +1                +2
Earth------Fire------Air------Electricity------Water

This axis gives eight different combinations of Class 1 powers, each with different effects and abilities. However, most of them don't appear in the story even though I have designed them.

Class 2 powers work in a similar way to Class 1 powers, however they aren't really as flashy as Class 1 powers. They still function with an axis of subordination but there are only three primary powers as opposed to the five elemental Class 1 powers. These three powers are endoregenesis, exoregenesis, and dilation (the pivot power). This creates four unique pairs of powers. These are more common in the story but their effects are very subtle and often go unnoticed by even the characters using them. The cool thing here is the pairing of dominant endoregenesis and subordinate dilation which gives someone a version of superspeed wherein they exist faster than everything else around them. In sort-of-simple-pseudo-science terms, they have the ability to increase the gradient of their path through time.

In addition to this, other powers exist that are mutations of other pairings where some of the rules of subordination are broken. These exist because of spoilery reasons, and just make my in-world scientists scratch their heads in confusion. As to what certain pairings do, and where the source of the power is, I can't say because spoilers.

I might also share my magic system from my current project once I've figured it out a bit more. It's based off music and the harmonic series.

[Cyanic]

@Ripheus23

Spellmasonry sounds great (both the name and the system) shame it's already used by another work as you said. What's the difference between that and Trigonomancy (or is that just an alternate name)? And are there things like spellcities?

@Kureshi Ironclaw

That's pretty cool, do the Class 1 powers interact like the Class 2's, or just as individual elemental powers? (like Earth/Air does have a unique power that lets them use things like floating rock bullets, or are these just straight up earth or air manipulation)?

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

@Cyanic Yeah the Class 1 powers do interact like that, so Earth/Air is definitely floating rock bullets. Sadly no one in the story has the inherent ability to do that, but such people are present in the mythology. I use a bit of hand-wavium with the pairings involving electricity to justify things, except for with electricity/air which is shooting lightning and being able to do stormflight (no, not stormlight).

[_Tempus_]

@Cyanic

I just want to ask for the Resonance, do the Resonators basically recharge their Echo over time? And the Echo basically life energy, so if using Echo (just a small part of it), would it somehow make you "less living", or are there any side effects on the life force of the Resonators? I really like the way how you incorporate memory with forging, so that every-ime you've Forged you forget how you've done it. Really creative idea of limitations in magic systems. But when a Forger forgets something, would all memories from when the user was Forging disappear? Like for example, you were talking with someone while Image Forging. Would the conversation that you had with the person while Forging disappear, or would only the memory of how you Image Forge disappear? 

__________________________________

My magic system is still quite in development, so it would be great for some advice and suggestions:

The magic system is set in a world where the emotion of "joy" dominates, and there are some who have the ability of the Vibrance, which is basically the name for the system. The Vibrance is sorted into (so far) 5 parts, each with it's own abilities and characteristics. The Vibrance is powered by a particle called CharaDust, a type of dust thats breathed out by plants on the planet. Digesting or breathing in the dust will give you a moment of euphoria and happiness, though too much could lead into addiction and death. So in order to activate the Vibrance, the user has to suck in CharaDust, but they have to do it slowly and carefully in smaall amounts to avoid death.

The Five Types of Vibrance:

1) Silencers: Using CharaDust, they suck in and dampen sound waves, and by using the sound waves they could peer into the future for a second, or release it all at once as a devastating weapon, pushing everything around them because of the high frequency of the waves. The amount of sound the SIlencer could collect depends on the amount of CharaDust in the Silencer's system.

2) Givers: Converts CharaDust into waves of positive emotions, they could manipulate and dominate the minds of others in order to "control them". (similar to Rioting in the Mistborn series, though the Giver won't be allowed to choose the emotions to riot, instead only abled to riot joy) The person influenced would be high and be trance-like, so that they would listen every instruction given to them by the Giver. Though if the Giver's waves are too strong, the brain of the victim may be damaged. The strength of the wave depends on the user's amount of CharaDust.

3) Swifters: Breathes in CharaDust and converts it to energy. The energy waves make them hyper, but allows for supernatural speed and reaction. It also raises their stamina and endurance. Though it does cause the user a bit of drunkness with the amount of energy in them, so if not controlled properly they could hurt even their allies without knowing. The strength depends on the amount of CharaDust.

4) Melter: Uses the CharaDust to heat up the molecules of objects. So the molecules would basically be so "happy" and heated up that their states of matter would change. Solids could turn into liquids while liquids can turn into gas and so on. The speed of the change in the states of matter depends on the amount of CharaDust in the user's system. 

5) Tamer: Sucks the energy in CharaDust to convert and mold it into spirits of joy. The spirits existence, intelligence and strength depends on the amount of energy it was molded from, so the more CharaDust the stronger it is. A Tamer directly controls the spirits with his/her mind, so whenever the spirit feels pain the Tamer will also feel it. This also means that the Tamer would split his/her perception into different parts, each for one spirit. So a Tamer could make dozens of spirits, but would have to split his/her mind into dozens of pieces, each controlling one spirit. Spirits has many uses such as spying, distracting, or even killing in more extreme cases.

Really open up for any suggestions or questions! 

[Cyanic]

@Kureshi Ironclaw

Ah I see, nice nice

@_Tempus_

Echo is recharged over time pretty much as Echo is in Seyr's (their planet) atmosphere, and the Echo in the atmosphere is recharged by things called worldbeats which are basically tremors that start and stop very quickly, but happen every few days, though they don't know that's what worldbeats do, they just know worldbeats happen

Resonators don't feel the worse effects of lacking Echo unless they use it for really big displays of power, or use it for a very extended amount of time, so Resonators can fight in battles and as long as they don't really lower their reserves, they won't feel the negative effects

The user doesn't forget how they've Forged something, just certain aspects of the thing they Forged based on which of the three sub-systems they used, since it's directly to fuel the effects they produce, like the effects are literally created from memory. Like with Image Forge, the user will only forget what their Forged thing can do, but nothing else, so if they drew and summon something like a gun with a sword attached to it, they'll forget that the gun can fire bullets (and forget exactly how to fire bullets) and the sword can slash things. A way to get around this is to pre-summon things if the user knows they're getting into a battle and rediscovering what that thing does, since they can't summon it a full day prior since the Image Forged thing has to constantly retake the same memories every few hours to keep itself from disappearing

hmm, Givers and Melters seem to be more powerful than the other three classes of Vibrance users, is there some way to counteract Vibrance effects? Or perhaps the CharacDust that they ingest distracts them from battle too much by providing a high?

It's cool though because this system really lends itself to good world building, are Vibrance users outcasts or exulted? How easy is CharaDust to come by? Cool stuff!

[Unlicensed Hemalurgist]

Neat ideas, everyone! This is honestly the kind of topic this forum was made for.

As for counteracting Vibrance effects, perhaps to continue the vibration analogy, another Vibrance user could block their powers with his/her own, with the two canceling each other out via destructive interference? 

I had a similar thread up a year ago where I was asking for advice on my own magic system for my novel, but since the idea has changed a lot in the last year, I thought it might be helpful to post the revised version here. The whole thing works sort of like a cross between Hemalurgy, bloodbending in Avatar, and mantling in the Elder Scrolls meta-lore:

---

The magic system is called Kinbinding, and its chief ability is to allow the user to control others' bodies. The ability to use this power is a hereditary gift passed down among a particular subspecies of human. All members of that subspecies (and those with one parent from that subspecies) have the ability to learn Kinbinding, but it still requires training to learn how to use, just like how you can have plenty of fast-twitch muscle fibers via heredity but you still need to practice to be a good sprinter. Kinbinding requires very small and thin bone needles carved from the bones of another human being as a focus. The needles are inserted into 22 specific acupuncture-esque loci on the Kinbinder’s forearms, wrists, and fingers, creating an artificial “kin-bond” with those nearby, based on the specific ethnicity of the human whose bones make up the needles. The "technical" explanation is that the needles, empowered by the Kinbinding subspecies' unique biology, over-writes the Kinbinder's identity in the metaphysical realm and tricks the Universe into thinking the Kinbinder is of the same ethnicity as the needles and the target. For example, a Kinbinder inserts a bunch of needles from some poor schlub from Race A, which tricks the universe into thinking they are "kin" of Race A. This would allow the Kinbinder to induce intense pseudo-tidal effects on the blood and other bodily fluids of a person of Race A at will, allowing them to puppeteer the target’s body with precise movements of their arms and hands. 

However, because a Bind manipulates the target through exerting force on the blood rather than inducing muscle contractions, physically powerful or coordinated targets can occasionally summon the raw muscular power to resist a weak Bind. 

There are three different Binds, or levels of control, a Kinbinder can exert. 

• Quarter-Bind: This one is the easiest to maintain, requiring only a quarter of the 22 needles to share the target's ethnic admixture. It allows the Kinbinder to control one or two limbs of the target at most.
• Half-Bind: This is more challenging, and requires at least half of the 22 needles share the target’s admixture, but allows the Kinbinder to puppeteer all four limbs.
• Full-Bind: This is very rare, because it requires the Kinbinder to use a needle carved from a sliver of the target’s very own bone. A Full-Bind allows Kinbinder to manipulate the mind and perceptions of the target, through influencing their emotions and inserting "thoughts" into their internal monologue.

There's also an element of mental effort involved-- the amount of concentration needed to sustain a Bind is reduced if the Kinbinder on some level self-identifies as one of the targets. For example, if a Kinbinder has one parent from the Kinbinder subspecies and one from Race A, he will find it easier to achieve Half-Binds on people of Race A to the degree that he himself considers himself to be Race A as well, because the added self-belief makes it easier for the needles to project "Race A-ness" to the Universe. 

Additionally, there is one bind point (left wrist, between the ends of the radius and ulna) that grants the Kinbinder one additional power or effect through their Binds, depending on the admixture of the needle inserted there. For example, a needle from Race A might allow the Kinbinder to conceal themselves from any nearby person they could exert a Bind on, a needle from Race B might allow them to accelerate a target's healing through a Half-Bind, etc. These ancillary effects are called adjuvants.

These aspects of the magic system have a direct influence on the In the setting's past, a genocidal empire of Kinbinders used to declare race wars on subject peoples whose bones provided particularly useful adjuvants and hunt them down, like a combination of ivory-poaching and the Aztec Flower Wars. Over the centuries, they hunted a lot of the other peoples to near-extinction, making their powers extremely rare and needles carved from their bones almost priceless. The lingering animosity from this empire's fall has meant that there's a strong incentive for many full-blooded people to remain hidden, for fear of being murdered and turned into a set of needles. Trained Kinbinders in the period the story takes place are also extremely secretive, in order to avoid the stigma of being associated with a race of genocidal blood mages. Luckily for them, Kinbinding can be used in extremely subtle ways, if you know what you're doing. 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Unlicensed Hemalurgist

[Ripheus23]

11 hours ago, Cyanic said:

@Ripheus23

Spellmasonry sounds great (both the name and the system) shame it's already used by another work as you said. What's the difference between that and Trigonomancy (or is that just an alternate name)? And are there things like spellcities?

The logic of the system depends on the value of triangles to architecture, e.g. as in space frames. So "trigonomancy" is the technical name for spellmasonry. Now there's an interpretation of political space as architecture made from pure intentionality, so that country borders act like walls for a building, and the Spell of Arrest, per nation, allows designated agents of the state to magically arrest people (the thing of it is, the Spell of Arrest only works on people actually guilty of the thing they're to be arrested for, so police automatically know whether their targets are guilty when they do this). The fuel for the Spell of Arrest is an abstract quality of people known as nomothetes, who gain this quality by being voted into office by a duly constituted citizenry. Since this "fuel" is not (usually) infinite, nomothetes have to be voted in again and again; and for what it's worth, in this world, the debate between monarchists and democratic republicans has been solved by the facts of magic (since political magic only works in democracies/republics, more or less).

Now there are three world wars in this story, two described in the historical background and one that is ongoing as of most of the text. The second one was so destructive that it led (as on Earth) to a major push for real international laws. The fundamental Treaty of Sepland (Sepland is the nation where the Cosmopolis Auditorium was built) was that it is illegal to destroy the world. So any citizen of any country on this planet, if they find a wizard or scientist or whoever, threatening such, can cast the Spell of Arrest on them. The Second Geomachy took place roughly 1900 years before the main storyline so the planet has been safe from total ruin until the Third Geomachy destabilizes the trigonomantic substrate for international law so much that the First Treaty of Sepland is magically revoked.

Additionally, though, there is one city, sjl-Jlljhad (pronounced sil-ill-ee-hahd, you could say...), that is mostly made up of concrete spellkeeps, though the civilization who built sjl-Jlljhad ran out of a reliable fuel supply for them and their society collapsed during what was known as the Trigonomachy (IIRC...).

EDIT: I just remembered...

So, the helmets that channel spellkeeps, were inspired by the access keys for the Choedan Kal (sp.?) from The Wheel of Time. There is a special helmet known as the Promiseer's Aegis, which was the helmet that God brought with Himself to the universe when He became incarnate. This doesn't look like a specific building but can shapeshift into the form of any building the wearer either knows from experience or by intellectual foresight. It is fueled directly by imaginary energy and so the actual existence or sufficient fuel level of the corresponding building is not required to use the Aegis as such. However, you can't just wear the helmet and make a wish for it to become, say, "The conduit for a building that can destroy the universe." You have to know how a building could destroy the universe, what shape it would be and what it would be made of and fueled by (otherwise-speaking). The exemption to this knowledge requirement is if you have a substance known as Starchrism, which is the sanctified blood of beings known as ur-Wraiths, the offspring of the jyserphaen, which is the Angel of Evolution whose personal dreamworld is also the dreamworld of all living creatures on its planet (I think the jyserphaen transferred these beings from its dreams into physical reality or something; I will check the document later to confirm this...) Anyway, Starchrism responds to the wishes in question, taking the shape of the building that the Aegis is supposed to mystically channel absent prior knowledge of the needed form.

Edited July 28, 2018 by Ripheus23

[Cyanic]

@Unlicensed Hemalurgist

That's an interesting system, I figure Kinbinders aren't widespread based on your explanation of the world's history?

@Ripheus23

Thats real cool, it sounds like it's set in a more urban fantasy setting? I do like how developed the world is

[Embrisk]

I kind of had this idea before reading about Brandon Sanderson, but....

A world where intelligent animals that are kind of like spren pokemon exist.
this creature (I'll call them aer, singular is aril.) have eight sexes. They can, for the most part, all interbreed, by mixing their blood with eachother.
An Embrisk couldn't mate with a Tielentive, but a Tielentive could mate with an Embrisk, just giving you two of the eight sexes.
The eight sexes have a human blood type equivelant, and only an aril which could mate with (or give blood to) someone with the blood type whose equivelant  is a receiver among aer could merge with an aer.
Eg: aer with an A+ blood type equivalent couldn't merge with someone whose blood type was A-.
There are two ways aer evolve: mimicking and adapting
Aer evolve to their environment, mimicking other animals, vegetation, and aer. They can also merge with living things. If they merge with something, they evolve to mimic it faster.
The human they merge with gains abilities depending on how the aril evolved over it's lifetime, and the aril slowly gains a more human like body. (imagine a human merging with pokemon.)
Humans are hard to mimic because all the other animals and plants make sense.
Aer alter and mimic their phisical appearance as they understand the psychology of living things around them. (Humans take more time to mimic than most other things, but their form is most enviable.)
Aer evolve by adapting by developing things they need, but they do it subconsciously, eg: fangs, claws, wings if lots of land predators try to kill it, etc.
Merging is a painful process because the flesh of the two knit together. Aer feel it as much as humans, but they don't mind it as much, and find it annoying when humans scream when merging.

Some aer, because of mimicking, look a lot like other animals.
You can tell if a creature is aer or not by punching it. If it's skin grows harder, then it is an aril. That is how fast they evolve.
You could (and some people do) torture these creatures to make them basically invincible to all kinds of attack, and then forcing it to merge, (another story.)

Maybe if I feel ambitious I'll write a book. Maybe not.

[Unlicensed Hemalurgist]

9 hours ago, Cyanic said:

@Unlicensed Hemalurgist

That's an interesting system, I figure Kinbinders aren't widespread based on your explanation of the world's history?

Well, that's a complicated question. There used to be a lot of them. It took a pair of gods/big magical birds flooding the entire world Noah-style to take down the aforementioned Kinbinder empire, but a third one intervened to save them from extinction. In modern times, the Kinbinding subspecies mostly lives scattered in small, secretive groups in other societies. Most of them have some minor ability at Kinbinding-- usually nothing more than being able to stop a small wound from bleeding-- but the blowback from the collapse of their empire has left modern Kinbinders very secretive. None of their teachings or discoveries are written down, caches of rare adjuvant needles are protected like precious jewels, and Kinbinding itself is rarely used other than in the most subtle ways. They only take one student at a time, and some Kinbinding masters encourage their wards to kill them in a duel to prove their mastery, otherwise the rest of the world might notice an increase in their numbers and blow their cover.

During the time the story takes place, there are less than three hundred master Kinbinders worldwide. In most cultures, information on the art is so muddled by superstition and intentional misinformation planted by the Kinbinders themselves that most people think Kinbinding doesn't even exist, and the genocidal empire of ancient times was just a regular old genocidal empire, and all that stuff about them being evil blood mages were just myth-making.

[_Tempus_]

@Cyanic

Thank you so much for the suggestions. Perhaps I could make it that Givers and Melters are more affected by the CharaDust because they are using their abilities to affect external objects/souls. So it would be harder to control their powers, and may often lead to distractions and danger of their mind exploding from too much happiness.

CharaDust is fairy common, as plants breathe out dust as much as they breathe out oxygen. It's so common that dusts are used for everything like lighting, or makeup etc. But during colder seasons less dust is produced because the dust system goes into a "hibernating" mode in order to conserve energy and heat.

Vibrance users are executed when found out, as their abilities are deemed "unnatural" and "sinful". Though the executions are usually hidden from the public to avoid any craziness or riots. Best to make everyone believe that the Vibrance is gone forever.

@Unlicensed Hemalurgist

Do you mean perhaps to build more Vibrance classes whose abilities are specifically to counteract other Vibrance abilities or something else?

I really like the creepiness and horrifying ability of Kinbinding. So if a person is a descent from the subspecies, could they also learn Kinbinding or is it not possible? And what are the uses of Kinbinding in real-life situations? Does the subspecies use other race like slaves, or do they maybe use other race as soldiers? And also does the subspecies feel pain if the person they have binded got hurt?

@Servillius

I think you should totally write a book, the system could totally help create a very interesting story. Do the different sexes of aer look different and have different unique characteristics or are they just the same?

[Unlicensed Hemalurgist]

1 minute ago, _Tempus_ said:

 

@Unlicensed Hemalurgist

Do you mean perhaps to build more Vibrance classes whose abilities are specifically to counteract other Vibrance abilities or something else?

I really like the creepiness and horrifying ability of Kinbinding. So if a person is a descent from the subspecies, could they also learn Kinbinding or is it not possible? And what are the uses of Kinbinding in real-life situations? Does the subspecies use other race like slaves, or do they maybe use other race as soldiers? And also does the subspecies feel pain if the person they have binded got hurt?

I meant that classes with different Vibrances can cancel their vibrances out, while those of the same Vibrance can find their vibrances amplified.

As to your questions: 

1. No, Kinbinding potential and other subspecies traits only breed true through one generation of interbreeding. Any less than 50% Kinbinder heritage and the person won't be able to learn. 
2. Kinbinding has a lot of real-life uses. Because it puppeteers the target by swishing their blood around rather than activating their muscle fibers, a target and Kinbinder working in unison can use the Bind to provide an additive boost to the target's physical strength. Sort of like using the target's blood as hydraulic power armor. A Quarter-Bind can also be very useful in medicine, to hold back the blood from a wound and keep someone from bleeding out. Also, there may or may not be an all-Kinbinder dance troupe who have become famous for their perfect choreography. And this is all before even getting into the usefulness of the adjuvant powers.
3. They did, emphasis on "did." Modern Kinbinders are mostly focused on influencing events from behind the scenes.
4. A Kinbinder only feels pain if they're controlling someone with a Full-Bind, when they and their target are essentially one nervous system.

[CadCom]

I don't have a name for it that I've confirmed yet, but The essentials are that the magic is sourced from various underground watersources. (Something to do with the way the planet was formed caused these springs to release magical water.) The streams all start high up in the mountains, and as you go further down, the water becomes diluted with normal water, thus making the magic less powerful. Most people don't even know that there different magic types from different streams, because the streams combine into one large river. There is lore that this river contains magical powers, and many people go to the river for health, fortune or other forms of luck. 

It's still a work in progress, and I don't have all the notes on the magic system with me right now. But magic can affect things on three levels. Physical, temporal, or spiritual. For example one type of magic is pushing/pulling. In the physical realm, you can pull objects towards you or push them from you pushing and pulling through space (kindof like coinshots push and pull.) In the temporal you can push and pull objects through time. (Kindof like doctor strange when he plays with the apple in the library) In the spiritual, you can push and pull through spirituality. Understanding spiritual magic has always been the most difficult for people in world. But in this specific case, pushing and pulling changes someone's spiritual location. I kindof like to think of moving a spiritual object would be like moving it's morals.

I don't think I explained it all that well and it's definitely not complete(there are supposed to be 7 different types of magic, not just push/pull. There's also health, fortune, etc) , but hopefully I explained it well enough to get some feedback.

 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Cadmium Compounder

[Ripheus23]

On 7/28/2018 at 11:41 PM, Cyanic said:

Thats real cool, it sounds like it's set in a more urban fantasy setting? I do like how developed the world is

There are a lot of aliens and spaceships in the story, a Dyson sphere that can change the speed of magic as well as do this:

Quote

The third Crjstalline abyss of majesty, as buoyant as gravitational exaltation, blasted out of the Djson sphere with ray after ray of aretaic ecstasy, transplendence reified. Emparabling sempiternity's edges, incarnate semiosis as if of the Color of God fountained from the celestial spellkeep, pearlescing absolutely, surpassing in absurd beauty everything I had ever before perceived.

Or perhaps even conceived.

“This is the Eschatographer's Icon,” our guide announced. “And for us it signals the end of death and life, the teleonomy of history. Such blest, bright faith as now shines before us is meant to convey the light of the world's triumph or defeat, to prepare us for that power on the Day of its advent.”

... and there are other threats to the universe. And trains, a magical Internet system called AURYCLE (a play on AURYN from The Neverending Story) which in one chapter the perspective characters actually enter (like that show REBOOT or something), artificially intelligent spellkeeps, giant mechs. But there's also a lot in the way of nature-adventures, such as deep underwater (even into/through the planet's mantle), in giant forests, on a plains-ish region outside sjl-Jlljhad. And then there are planar quests in pocket-dimensional labyrinths or the dreamworld or whatever.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Ripheus23

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

8 hours ago, Ripheus23 said:

There are a lot of aliens and spaceships in the story, a Dyson sphere that can change the speed of magic as well as do this:

Is your story set in a secondary world (e.g. the Cosmere, Narnia, Middle-earth, but NOT Asimov's Foundation universe)?
If it is, you might want to change the name of the Dyson sphere and get across what it is by description (which you probably should anyway, not everyone knows what a Dyson sphere is to begin with), because Freeman Dyson is unlikely to (have) exist(ed) in another universe.

[Ripheus23]

On 7/30/2018 at 11:54 PM, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

Is your story set in a secondary world (e.g. the Cosmere, Narnia, Middle-earth, but NOT Asimov's Foundation universe)?
If it is, you might want to change the name of the Dyson sphere and get across what it is by description (which you probably should anyway, not everyone knows what a Dyson sphere is to begin with), because Freeman Dyson is unlikely to (have) exist(ed) in another universe.

It's called a "Djson" sphere, actually, because in this world when they made an English-like language, they used "j" for a "y" sound a lot more than in our world.

As far as who has existed there, who has existed also here, well:

Quote

Vwrtego's altruistic pride overwhelmed him at the news of his enamored's invention. “A spellmasonwork made out of paper!” he shouted even when no one else was around to hear him. “I can only wonder what it will do.” He hurried to Jjuljulii's distant side, ready to work miracles with this as-if Dream-masonic girl.

The edifice she had raised, a cairn of semiotic glory, promised the power to awe the world.

The Narnjans by C. S. Ljwjs, The One Ring by J. R. R. Tolkjen (a prologue to The Book of Finite Gold), A Voyage to Arcturus by Davjd Ljndensæy, The City of the Shadow by Rojjr Zelaznj, The Wheel of the Æterne by Robjerre Jordanne, The Dream-mason and Unknown Kjdath by Randolph Cartjr, A Wizard of Jjrthsea by Jrsjula K. LeGujn, These Dark Materials by Phjljp Pullman, and so many more, in the semblance of worlds without end, had laced their fibrous substance together to represent, from the sum of their given stories, a metafictional story about all the religion that prevailed most upon the Jjrth. Vwrtego did not hesitate in the slightest to walk right inside and invoke the magic of the bibliolatric structure.

...

So also did they cross the Three Lands of Terrj Brooks, the Last Empire of Brandon Sandjrson, the Divided Realm of Dterrj Gwdkjnd, the Forgotten Cities of Gjarj Gjgacs, the Heritage Universe of Charles Sheffjeld, the Fields of Arrahhkjs of Franck Herberthe, the Station of Gregorj Bhear, the Place of Stefan Donjldson, and friends of friends of all the friends of these. And when those two spellkept by love edificed their ideas the best, they had just read the tale of the lost city of the Lord, transplendid Jllasjlem.

EDIT:

Also, without explaining how, I will say: there's a hypertwist at the end of the story, related to the concept of a multiverse, so you might say it's set in a primary and a secondary world together.

Edited August 2, 2018 by Ripheus23

[Embrisk]

On 30/07/2018 at 0:41 AM, _Tempus_ said:

 

@Servillius

I think you should totally write a book, the system could totally help create a very interesting story. Do the different sexes of aer look different and have different unique characteristics or are they just the same?

They all look the same. It takes a lot of people randomly dying while forceing aer to merge before they begin to work out that it is based on blood type, and after more study, they realise that aer mate by blood type.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Servillius

[Embrisk]

I also thought of two magic skills, or systems: Fragmentation and synthesis.

fragmentation allowes you to revert something to things it is made of. For example, one could grab a loaf of bread and fragment it into flour and sugar. If they went back even further, they could convert it into sugarcane and wheat. The further back you go, the harder it is.

Synthasis is the complete opposite, allowing you to turn materials into something. Unlike fragmentation, you can form the synthesised object as you want. You could probably even weld humans together and do all sorts of messed up stuff.

Fragmentation reverts something back to what it originally was.

synthasis turns things into what it has the potential to become.

If you use the two systems together, you could, for example, use a leather coat and turn it into leather shoes. Obviously that is just the start. It would be kind of lame if the most you saw of this magic was turning a coat into a pair of shoes.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Servillius

[Ripheus23]

One system I came up with treated magic as an individual object (or, a disjunct between one object in one universe, and a myriad of individual objects in a parallel [the only parallel] reality). Literally "the Object of Magic." It was sort of like a crystal, or like something in the same meta-category as space and time, yet distinct from those. The main story-related uses were for changing oil into spell-oil, which was useful for making spellswords that could burn with fire for longer than normal (and diminished the need for gloves in handling these swords), and pushing on other objects (like a Force Push where you "push on" the Object of Magic in your mind, and the part of physical space "overlapped by" the Object is then pushed by the Object). The pushing-power was very important(!) because eventually there was a sort of magical nuclear explosion that some of the protagonists had to form a circle-of-sorcerers around, pushing inward, to hold back the nova. (It was an army of a circle, so that the story-arc involving the nova was supposed to go on for a while, the explosion being nuclear kind of like in the way that H. G. Wells, IIRC, thought a nuclear weapon would repeatedly explode, rather than unleashing the extra differential of energy over conventional explosives at once.)

EDIT: I remembered, there was actually more of a theory to it. The idea was that magic-users were those who could somehow use the principle of unrestricted composition in mereology, to make objects into parts of each other or new objects, in the abstract, mediating the composition using the Object of Magic as a tertium quid, so it say. That was how spell-oil was formed (one specific use was: various oil-lakes in the world had been ignited with different fires, i.e. the literal fires of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, so there were in fact three special spellswords for each plane of the afterlife, the sword of Hell being the most dangerous, in that the fire of these swords had been made "part of" the ignited oil-lakes, as it goes). (Also Hell was filled with oil when God went there after being killed (as a man) by being thrown into a volcano, and so His human form set fire to that oil, causing Hell to go from cold to hot. He used a candle he carried into the afterlife or something to do this, IIRC.)

Edited August 8, 2018 by Ripheus23

[Inky]

I have a power system for a book I'm writing called Color Weeping. Essentially, there's a stone that's essentially crystallized light essence called Tearstone. It's normal stone, unless effected by something called Emotion.

In the world of Glowdrop, emotions can take on physical form in the form of Emotion, a sort of technicolor liquid. Most people, however, cannot access this Emotion normally. A certain sect of people, however, upon touching the pure version of Tearstone, a Glowdrop, can activate latent powers known as Emotional Levels. They can then, whenever feeling emotion, can release a specific amount of Emotion relative to their Emotional Intensity, and put it into Tearstone, giving it a variety of different effects depending on the structure of the Tearstone construct. 

However, once a certain emotional maximum is reached, a power is granted. This is mostly random, and there are four total unique powers.

1. Sadness, which is Blue Dampening, covers a target in a blue aura that dampens their Emotion usage. Sadness users are called Dampeners 
2. Happiness, which is Red Enhancing, covers a target in a red aura that increases their Emotion usage. Happiness users are called Growers
3. Love, which is Green Dispersion, turns the user's their Emotional storage into separate green energy orbs that can be given to others for extra Emotion. Love users are called Givers
4. Hate, which is Yellow Redirection, turns parts other people's Emotional storage into yellow orbs that they can take for themselves for extra Emotion. Hate users are called Thieves. 

Some example Tearstone usages:

• Tearstone Blades, which are essentially swords. Charged with Emotion, they are up to ~six times as strong as an ordinary sword
• Tearstone Bullets. These bullets can be fired from most guns, when charged with Emotion they are blindingly fast.
• Emotion Distillers are Tearstone cylinders powered with excess Hate energies, they can take raw Emotion away. 
• And many more! 

[Kaj]

Edit: Here is a better explanation: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ut4LmEaK_BEzG5snhQ6am7GfCl2NB1ekDuSEL-F4RS8/edit?usp=sharing

I may add the explanation back up once it is complete, but I have tried a couple of times and I end up losing the whole thing.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Kaj

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

@Kaj, could you add some line breaks, please? It's rather hard to read in such a big block.