Favorite Magic System?

[+Ookla the Leafy]

Hey everyone! Been a minute since I posted here, but I wanted to create a thread about what everyone's favorite magic system is, and WHY it's your favorite! I'll post my answer below. Be sure to include the system/planet/shard(s) that are linked to your favorite too!

[+Ookla the Leafy]

My favorite magic system is Bio-Chromatic breath and comes from Nalthis and is granted by the shard Endowment!

The idea of being able to control inanimate objects, store memories, and create small lifeless to me is extremely fascinating and I can't wait to see how the mechanics continue to be worked out!

I remember when we read in RoW that Hoid was storing memories in Breath's it blew my mind! What an exciting addition to an already amazing magic system.

When you combine all of that to the implications of the Royal Locks....it's just so cool. And I like the enterprise behind it. Anyone can become an Awakener! You just have to source the breaths!

 

[StanLemon]

My favorite single ststem is AonDor. I like the programming like feel to it the most.

[Ookla the Curtain Rod]

I am so intrigued by Forgery (From Sel, shards are both Devotion and Dominion i think).

I love the idea of it, and i can't wait to see more of it. The skill it takes, and the applications are so cool. I am sure there are ways to use it we haven't even considered.

[AltonicKeys]

Surges, especially fabrials.
They keep me up at night, I can't stop thinking about implications and uses.

That or the Aethers. They're also pretty cool.

[Trusk'our]

Hmmmmmm. I'll have to try really hard to figure mine out (sarcasm).

Hemalurgy is my favorite magic system because it fills the role of the "dark and forbidden magic" that shows up in many works of fiction, but is actually good (well constructed, that is. not necessarily good morally).

Dark magic in fiction often is supposed to grant some edge to the villains, making it harder for the heroes to overcome them, but also is supposed to be unusable by said heroes because it is morally inflexible and, somehow, always completely evil in it's use, but the dark magic almost never has a decent explanation as to why. It just simply is. I hate that.

Hemalurgy is complex enough and versatile enough that a person could use it for a lot, but its mechanics are sometimes so beautifully simplistic that I can actually understand them. Hemalurgy also does provide a huge amount of potential power the people willing to use it, but not an inconceivable amount; it has understandable limitations on how powerful it can make someone, and it has a real, understandable cost, the Hemalurgic weakness of damaging and opening up your Spiritweb, not some mumbo-jumbo about your soul being corrupted by the Ancient Evil of the Universe.

If you've seen the Sorcerer's Apprentice or What if: What if Doctor Strange lost his heart instead of his hands, or other stories where a villain can continue to pretty much indefinitely increase their power level by consuming other's magic, it can be kind of annoying, because why aren't they just unstoppable? Why not hype up on magic till you can snap your fingers and just blow up half the continent on a whim? They could do it, because there is not mechanic says they can't; Hemalurgy has a mechanic to stop that though (multiple, actually), but still allows for a smart person to gain enormous power. Which is Awesome.

Plus, Hemalurgy can be used in non-evil ways, such as if you get consent to remove Investiture, and if you heal them back to their original state.

And there are a huge number of hacks you could possibly use with it too (which I won't mention here, because this post is long enough already).

To summarize, Hemalurgy fills the roll of the super-powerful magic that can create being of enormous power, but has understandable mechanics and limitations that a smart person could exploit, and it's not inherently evil.