My Favorite Custom Cosmere Magic System

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

Okay so... I only have the history but the history explains my entire idea for the magic system (Also this is from in-world, so they have some weird names for stuff) (Oh yeah also WaT and Mistborn spoilers):

Quote

Before The Split & Context: There were people born with magical powers that had unique abilities. These people are called Shardmancers. There are strange metals found throughout the ground that do strange things when ingested. Shardmancers awaken (think snapping) their abilities when feeling a strong emotion.

The Split: All of the Shardmancers suddenly felt a strong shock through their bones. They felt their entire body convulsing at the very nature of some cosmic event. Then it ended. Suddenly, all the Shardmancer's powers changed. There were then 16 types of shardmancers. Each with unique abilities. They all had some abilities, just some types were stronger at them then others.

The First Crackling: All of the Commited (Type of Shardmancer) Shardmancers and the Controler (Type of Shardmancer) Shardmancers suddnly felt a similar strong shock. This time, it didn't stop. All of the Commited and Controler Shardmancers became the first Instables. The Instables kept their original powers, but they were mentally unstable and were slowly dissolving (Think Soulcaster Savants).

The Second Crackling: Everyone was terrified. They thought this was a sign of doomsday. They prophesized that in 1000 years, another Crackling would happen. 1000 years went by and nothing happened. People started to think it was a one time thing. Another 1000 years later, the Second Crackling occured. This time, it was the Driven. The Driven, too, had become Instables. Now 3 of the 16 types of Shardmancers were are curse, and not a blessing. People were incredibly worried.

The Third Crackling: At an unknown point in history all of the Kind Shardmancers also became Instable (Yes I did put this in last minute

The Sealing: Near the begining of the Rippling, all Destructor Shardmancers lost their powers. They could still feel their powers, and access them, but it was incredibly hard too, and they couldn't use them much.

The Rippling: The rippling happened an unknown time afterwords, but all the Stagnant Shardmancers felt their power slowly going away and becoming weaker. This was a long event that also seemed to progressivly make the Stagnant closer and closer too being Instable. Right after the Rippling, the Confusion struck.

The Unsealing: Near the end of the Rippling, all Destructors regained their powers fully.

The First Confusion: All of the Stagnant felt the strong shock for a brief moment. Only days or weeks later, they felt it again. Then, AGAIN! This was very confusing. But after the last shock to the Stagnant, the First Binding began.

The First Binding: In the Confusion, the last shock was felt by the Destructors too. Then, for the first time in thousands of years, a new power emerged. Any Shardmancer had a 2/16 chance to be a Connector. All of the Stagnant and Destructors became Connectors. The Connectors were unlike other Shardmancers and when using their powers, you had to keep strong mental stability and concentration to use the powers. Otherwise, If you use your powers for too long, you will become a Disconected.

The Second Confusion: All of the Anger Shardmancers felt a shock again but thought nothing of it. Only weeks later, the Oath Shardmancers all also felt a shock. Then, only days after, The second Binding began.

The Second Binding: At the end of The Second Confsion, the Oath and Anger Shardmancers became the Punishment Shardmancers. The Punishment Shardmancers are slightly unstable.

Anyway, give me your thoughts! (This took me a day to come up with & post)

The reason this is my favorite one Ive made is because in all the others, I was trying to make really powerful shapeshifters, or use dragons, both of which are great, but I love this one because of how well it fits in. I mean the other ones do to, but they add huge chunks to the cosmere lore, wheres this one just has a planet that makes sense no one would know about, with a cool and unique magic system.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

@CoderDrag0n8 Please refrain from making duplicate posts, regardless of whether or not they're in the same subforum. I've removed the other one. 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

1 hour ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

@CoderDrag0n8 Please refrain from making duplicate posts, regardless of whether or not they're in the same subforum. I've removed the other one. 

Sorry.

[ChickenBonanza]

20 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

The reason this is my favorite one Ive made is because in all the others, I was trying to make really powerful shapeshifters, or use dragons, both of which are great, but I love this one because of how well it fits in. I mean the other ones do to, but they add huge chunks to the cosmere lore, wheres this one just has a planet that makes sense no one would know about, with a cool and unique magic system.

This is the ethos I most enjoy in fanworks. To not necessarily directly interact with canon elements, but to use what is already there in original, but logical, expansions.

20 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Before The Split & Context:

Please, mein freund, define yo terms more. Clearer delineations. To bombard one with proper nouns is a good way to overwhelm them. Give us a clearer mode to the Shardmancer’s vein of abilities.

(How much can I dance around spoilers? What is too much, what is too little? I mean, I know, but to acknowledge is to hint to such things. I’ll hide such things to be safe.)

Spoiler

The mirroring of Shardmancer status to that of Shards is a neat idea. Reflection of greater forces stuff. Reminds me of Realmatic musings I’ve had before. I won’t go into such distractions here. Maybe a status post.

I am interested in the idea of magic changing over time. Whether subtly or drastically, to great upheaval. Like the Banedeath in the Dragoon Saga interactive fiction games.

We see a little bit of that, I think, with the whole ‘Honor’s restrictions on Surgebinding slipping away’ we see in Stormlight. Tis neat.

20 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

There are strange metals found throughout the ground that do strange things when ingested. Shardmancers awaken (think snapping) their abilities when feeling a strong emotion.

Though this may be a tad on-the-nose for a Mistborn-inspired system, is it not?

Edited April 15, 2025 by ChickenBonanza

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

2 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

This is the ethos I most enjoy in fanworks. To not necessarily directly interact with canon elements, but to use what is already there in original, but logical, expansions.

Please, mein freund, define yo terms more. Clearer delineations. To bombard one with proper nouns is a good way to overwhelm them. Give us a clearer mode to the Shardmancer’s vein of abilities.

(How much can I dance around spoilers? What is too much, what is too little? I mean, I know, but to acknowledge is to hint to such things. I’ll hide such things to be safe.)

  Reveal hidden contents

The mirroring of Shardmancer status to that of Shards is a neat idea. Reflection of greater forces stuff. Reminds me of Realmatic musings I’ve had before. I won’t go into such distractions here. Maybe a status post.

I am interested in the idea of magic changing over time. Whether subtly or drastically, to great upheaval. Like the Banedeath in the Dragoon Saga interactive fiction games.

We see a little bit of that, I think, with the whole ‘Honor’s restrictions on Surgebinding slipping away’ we see in Stormlight. Tis neat.

Though this may be a tad on-the-nose for a Mistborn-inspired system, is it not?

2 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

Though this may be a tad on-the-nose for a Mistborn-inspired system, is it not?

Yeah, but I wanted it to be like a... Hubish? Like these people represent the shards, and so their god metals are also there? Its just a refrence to how if u are connected to a shard, you can burn their god metal. Also, Snapping was the easiest way to make genetically distributed MoI.

3 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

  Hide contents

The mirroring of Shardmancer status to that of Shards is a neat idea. Reflection of greater forces stuff. Reminds me of Realmatic musings I’ve had before. I won’t go into such distractions here. Maybe a status post.

I am interested in the idea of magic changing over time. Whether subtly or drastically, to great upheaval. Like the Banedeath in the Dragoon Saga interactive fiction games.

We see a little bit of that, I think, with the whole ‘Honor’s restrictions on Surgebinding slipping away’ we see in Stormlight. Tis neat.

The entire point of the magic system is (Spoilers):

Spoiler

The Shardmancers are direct correlation to the shards. They have an intrinsic bond that the magic system latches on to the magic system. Idk its cool. Also I have no idea what individual Shardmancers do.

3 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

Please, mein freund, define yo terms more. Clearer delineations. To bombard one with proper nouns is a good way to overwhelm them. Give us a clearer mode to the Shardmancer’s vein of abilities.

I have no idea what the abilities are. Also, I'm bad at not exposition-dumping. Exposition-dumping is just so easy!

[ChickenBonanza]

39 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

Yeah, but I wanted it to be like a... Hubish? Like these people represent the shards, and so their god metals are also there? Its just a refrence to how if u are connected to a shard, you can burn their god metal. Also, Snapping was the easiest way to make genetically distributed MoI.

Indeed. Reminds me of Dracon, though perhaps more reflections of foreign systems rather than expansions upon them?

However, there is a question of whether it is only an Allomancer that could burn God Metals in that fashion. (barring Lerasium, that one is one-hundo-primo burnable by normals. But, if Lerasium is there, then that’s kinda a self-solving issue. I’d probably design a magic system which spawns God Metals in a world without Allomancy.

But! Is Snapping really the only way to bring about a genetically tied Manifestation? Of course not! We must broaden our horizons! Perhaps something similar, maybe. A thought I had was that a state of death or near-death would enable a surge of Investiture to transform/bring them into their Shardmancer state. Or maybe we lean a tad into the function of Lerasium, where exposure to proper the Investiture or God Metal could produce a reaction. And who’s to say that genetic magics must even lie dormant in the first place?

53 minutes ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

I have no idea what the abilities are. Also, I'm bad at not exposition-dumping. Exposition-dumping is just so easy!

A crime, sirrah! Exposition must be delivered by way of extremes. It is best accomplished through the leaking of the pipe, or the breaking of the dam. To leave us with a reasonable initial flow, only to cut off the water? The audacity!

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

10 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

I’d probably design a magic system which spawns God Metals in a world without Allomancy.

It does.

10 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

But! Is Snapping really the only way to bring about a genetically tied Manifestation? Of course not! We must broaden our horizons! Perhaps something similar, maybe. A thought I had was that a state of death or near-death would enable a surge of Investiture to transform/bring them into their Shardmancer state. Or maybe we lean a tad into the function of Lerasium, where exposure to proper the Investiture or God Metal could produce a reaction. And who’s to say that genetic magics must even lie dormant in the first place?

I have no idea.

14 hours ago, ChickenBonanza said:

A crime, sirrah! Exposition must be delivered by way of extremes. It is best accomplished through the leaking of the pipe, or the breaking of the dam. To leave us with a reasonable initial flow, only to cut off the water? The audacity!

I don't know how to exposition any other way