Magic System Ideas - Which one should I use?

[Conure1243 He/Him]

I'm on the fence about what magic system I want to use for one of my many story ideas.

The story is a bit lore heavy, so I won't go into too much detail. Basically, idea 1 is Stars fall from the sky each night, and they create small pools of starlight. These pools are the "Fuel" for all magic, with various types of magic being possible, but more dramatic or powerful abilities would use more of this fuel at once.

The second option is very similar. All mechanics using the liquid starlight are essentially the same. The main difference is that a single star fell from the sky and created a large, infinitely replenishing pool, that became the center of the Seven Kingdoms. A few minor differences would be simple lore changes, as to how they believe the pool originated and such.

Personally, I prefer idea 1 when it comes to flavor, as it adds a wistful element to an otherwise dark story and pulls it back closer to my general style. However, idea 2 has more ideas for conflicts regarding obtaining this liquid starlight, or who gets to control exports of it. I'm curious about your thoughts, opinions on the pros and cons of each idea, and any other ideas you may have that I haven't mentioned here, (Which I'm sure there are some.) I think it's fair to say that I do get the final choice regardless of what is said here, as it is my story, but anything said will be taken into consideration, I promise!

[AltonicKeys he/him]

First off that's a really neat concept, the pools of starlight especially.

Personally, I think the first one, nightly starfalls, would be really cool. It can give everyone limited access to it, instead of one group unlimited access. It can give rise to an occupation of people that can try to predict and chase the pools and harvest it before anyone else can get to it, and later sell it. This can create multiple starlight companies and a power struggle between them. This way, you still get that conflict, and they can even start exporting or trading the starlight to places that don't have access to starlight for whatever reason. But now it's up to you whether you want several regional companies, or one central monopoly that spans the kingdoms.

So the second one, a central infinite pool, would give a little backstory and lore, but I think the first one can give more conflict and action. Totally up to you though.

Do you plan on posting any kind of snippet or sneak peek? I'm really interested in this system, and I'd love to see where it heads, whichever direction you choose.

[Conure1243 He/Him]

1 hour ago, AltonicKeys said:

Do you plan on posting any kind of snippet or sneak peek? I'm really interested in this system, and I'd love to see where it heads, whichever direction you choose.

First off, Thank you! It's always nice to hear people that are interested in a story idea.

I'm not 100% sure if I'll share a snippet or sneak peek yet. I haven't actually gotten to writing any of the story quite yet, I'm still preparing, and have a planned plot for it, but currently there isn't much of the story to share. I may share the first few chapters if I'm happy with them. With my other stories, I'm not quite so happy with their openings, so I haven't shared them on here.

Basically, it's all a big "We'll see", but it's a possibility. First I have to figure out the lore, because the main character is a storyteller (In addition to other roles, namely the Princess of one of the Seven Kingdoms, but Storytelling is a Side hobby.) The stories she tells are all fictional, even to that world, or legends that aren't 100% accurate. (Mainly the second one) and therefore it requires a lot of preparation.

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

4 hours ago, Conure1243 said:

I'm on the fence about what magic system I want to use for one of my many story ideas.

The story is a bit lore heavy, so I won't go into too much detail. Basically, idea 1 is Stars fall from the sky each night, and they create small pools of starlight. These pools are the "Fuel" for all magic, with various types of magic being possible, but more dramatic or powerful abilities would use more of this fuel at once.

The second option is very similar. All mechanics using the liquid starlight are essentially the same. The main difference is that a single star fell from the sky and created a large, infinitely replenishing pool, that became the center of the Seven Kingdoms. A few minor differences would be simple lore changes, as to how they believe the pool originated and such.

Personally, I prefer idea 1 when it comes to flavor, as it adds a wistful element to an otherwise dark story and pulls it back closer to my general style. However, idea 2 has more ideas for conflicts regarding obtaining this liquid starlight, or who gets to control exports of it. I'm curious about your thoughts, opinions on the pros and cons of each idea, and any other ideas you may have that I haven't mentioned here, (Which I'm sure there are some.) I think it's fair to say that I do get the final choice regardless of what is said here, as it is my story, but anything said will be taken into consideration, I promise!

I think combining the two ideas would work well, maybe having the central pool still replenishing, but also able to find small ones, maybe as a way to get more localized starlight? But I do need more context of the story to tell you which one would be better

[Conure1243 He/Him]

On 9/17/2025 at 4:08 PM, IcedOutPenguin said:

I think combining the two ideas would work well, maybe having the central pool still replenishing, but also able to find small ones, maybe as a way to get more localized starlight? But I do need more context of the story to tell you which one would be better

Ooh! I hadn't even thought of that.

As for context of the story... it's hard to explain, so something a bit more specific about the story would be helpful. As a general explanation (without going too much into story details,) I will say this, as it is most relevant to the whole star related element of the story:

Spoiler

There are three large stars, believed to be the home of the Great Souls, three beings who are worshipped as gods. In reality, the Great Souls are people, who did extraordinary things in their lifetime, and were judged--by the soul of the stars themselves--as being worthy of overlooking and assisting humanity. This task isn't exactly easy for the Great Stars, who can share information they have about a given situation to any person they desire... Unfortunately, this can risk their death, so they have to be careful with this, and their actual ability to gain that information is limited.

Well when a man, believing that he is carrying out the will of these Great Souls, prepares to assassinate the king of one of the least powerful Kingdoms, and plans to continue to the rest of the seven kingdoms as he gains more and more power. The Great Souls don't actually want this, of course. Their job is to intervene when threats that big end up appearing. And exactly that ends up happening.

 

[IcedOutPenguin He/Him]

43 minutes ago, Conure1243 said:

something a bit more specific about the story would be helpful.

Would the plot be happening near the big central pool if you choose option one?

If not, I would combine the ideas.

[AltonicKeys he/him]

 

7 hours ago, Conure1243 said:

Ooh! I hadn't even thought of that.

As for context of the story... it's hard to explain, so something a bit more specific about the story would be helpful. As a general explanation (without going too much into story details,) I will say this, as it is most relevant to the whole star related element of the story:

  Hide contents

There are three large stars, believed to be the home of the Great Souls, three beings who are worshipped as gods. In reality, the Great Souls are people, who did extraordinary things in their lifetime, and were judged--by the soul of the stars themselves--as being worthy of overlooking and assisting humanity. This task isn't exactly easy for the Great Stars, who can share information they have about a given situation to any person they desire... Unfortunately, this can risk their death, so they have to be careful with this, and their actual ability to gain that information is limited.

Well when a man, believing that he is carrying out the will of these Great Souls, prepares to assassinate the king of one of the least powerful Kingdoms, and plans to continue to the rest of the seven kingdoms as he gains more and more power. The Great Souls don't actually want this, of course. Their job is to intervene when threats that big end up appearing. And exactly that ends up happening.

 

hehe Love people going on holy wars and then being wrong its in my top ten favorite tropes

I think in that case, I'd go with a central pool, since that has more political leverage and such, and can really help add to that spiral of chaos. Scattered limited pools would kinda give the crazed man less impact and less threat rating imo. That central pool gives him a more tangible end goal. Even if he doesn't want it, people can think that's what he's aiming for. I dunno just some ideas about how that'd work

[Lord Stormer]

I need to ask first. Does this magic system belong to the same Shattered / Dead World from another thread of yours I replied a few days ago?

Regarding the two choices, both are equally good. I slight lean to Idea 1 because it is more suitable to your writing style.

A question I love to ask too is how "hard" is the Starlight magic system. Like if someone touches a pool, will the magic they receive depend on something, or just their desire? I generally like softer magic systems, because they give flexibility and a deal of mystery. It might be a surprise to hear that in a Sanderson forum, but I do. Softer magic systems are essentially less deterministic, it depends more on factors not so predicted, or sometimes a character's intent. Contrary to the popular view, they aren't so prone to become plot devices.

Another good question is what Starlight gives or does other than powers. Do you have more dynamic effects, or effects that can hardly be understood by the characters?

[Conure1243 He/Him]

15 hours ago, IcedOutPenguin said:

Would the plot be happening near the big central pool if you choose option one?

If not, I would combine the ideas.

Short answer? The story does not take place directly next to the big central pool.

However, there is a small amount of travel between the main setting and other areas. Another thing I failed to mention is that the antagonist is intentionally blocking trade routes to the kingdom, and they are beginning to struggle with resources. So a large decision is whether or not I want to make the starlight a limited resource as well. If I do want to make it limited, then combining the ideas or using option two would work well.

2 hours ago, Lord Stormer said:

I need to ask first. Does this magic system belong to the same Shattered / Dead World from another thread of yours I replied a few days ago?

Regarding the two choices, both are equally good. I slight lean to Idea 1 because it is more suitable to your writing style.

A question I love to ask too is how "hard" is the Starlight magic system. Like if someone touches a pool, will the magic they receive depend on something, or just their desire? I generally like softer magic systems, because they give flexibility and a deal of mystery. It might be a surprise to hear that in a Sanderson forum, but I do. Softer magic systems are essentially less deterministic, it depends more on factors not so predicted, or sometimes a character's intent. Contrary to the popular view, they aren't so prone to become plot devices.

Another good question is what Starlight gives or does other than powers. Do you have more dynamic effects, or effects that can hardly be understood by the characters?

The Shattered Skies and this story are separate worlds.

I also slightly lean toward Idea 1 for the same reasons, but I feel like it could be a small loss, (Due to reasons I mentioned in the last reply,) and as I realize that and put story ideas together with the magic system I am realizing more and more that I'm even less sure of which one I want to go with. I suppose the only way to figure out is to choose one and see if the story is better because of it.

As for how hard the magic system is... I'm hoping to go for a mix of both. Basically, some techniques with the starlight will be understood more than others, and so it seems like a hard magic system that is simply half understood. Some things will work in more detailed ways than others that will intentionally be left a bit more mysterious. That kind of also ties in to the next question, which is that there very much are properties about the Starlight can do other than give powers to objects or people. (As for what these powers are, I still don't have very many definite ideas.) The entire magic system is relatively new, so I haven't thought about it on a full story scale until posting it here, and a lot of things are still undecided.

A quick thank you to everybody who has asked about this, and helped me to blend the newer magic system with the older plot. I still haven't decided which version of the system to go with, but it has still been helpful to get feedback.

[Lord Stormer]

On 9/19/2025 at 9:50 PM, Conure1243 said:

I also slightly lean toward Idea 1 for the same reasons, but I feel like it could be a small loss, (Due to reasons I mentioned in the last reply,) and as I realize that and put story ideas together with the magic system I am realizing more and more that I'm even less sure of which one I want to go with. I suppose the only way to figure out is to choose one and see if the story is better because of it.

It's great to hear you've prepared so much for your story. I was a bit worried that your ideas are too simple at first glance, although I knew you've written a worldbuilding encyclopedia.

I take notice of your quote I underlined right there. Something I wanted to tell in my previous post, but I was unable to articulate. It's about writing your worldbuilding asset.

As you might have read from my reply at the Shattered World thread, I am at the same process of writing a novel. The draft is 37,000 words and counting. It seems we both prepared worldbuilding beforehand, then begin executing them when it seems right. Mine has 83 files regarding characters, magic system, planets (it's a space opera), timelines, etc. I enjoy adding entries, but these are the lessons I learned.

1. When you've added so much, you become increasingly discouraged to tweak important points because the implications spill over to the rest of the encyclopedia. It becomes an uncoordinated mess, because ideas change often. In my case, I became less flexible.

I'm not guessing your problem, but I had this burden when my story planning became fragmented. My tip is to divide your worldbuilding info into two categories: one for ideas that are essential or unlikely to change, and another a tentative idea bank for things less certain, and they be useful when you look at it again in the future.

2. No one is wholly a discovery writer or an outliner. I thought I am a strict outliner. I still do sometimes, but it takes faith to realize that you can create effective ideas while you're writing your draft. I often sauce my outlines with heavy details because my instincts told me they are essential, only to be disappointed that jumble of writing ended up mostly not useful.

Just be concise, outline and worldbuild with sentences as simple as you can so you won't be overwhelmed. Believe you are more creative as you write. If you wrote wrongly, know every author have subsequent drafts. I still struggle to apply this, honestly.

Remember these tips may not work perfectly for you. Fit them the way most convenient for you.