Creation Daily

[ccstat]

The problem is trying to explain this in a narrative that isn't about the science at all while still making sure it makes sense to the reader.

Do the characters understand how it all works? If it is just an explanation for your world building but the characters find the magic mysterious, I think it's totally okay to leave it mysterious for the reader, possibly providing a few circumstantial hints.

 

If the mechanics of the magic are well known in-world, but you don't want to focus on the why of it, I think the best approach is bits and pieces along the way (rather than an up-front explanation). Alternatively, if it matters in-world (e.g. they have a medical test where they can screen the population and find out what powers you might get; OR they just installed water sanitation plants, and suddenly a bunch of people's magic doesn't work any more) then an early scene or two experiencing/discussing that would be appropriate.

[Mailliw73]

Ok, so any water left out in the sun works? Then any microorganisms would have to populate every water source on the planet (or at least the continent - actually, question: could sea water be used to make Sunwater). Not an impossible thing, though, to be sure.

Glad you liked my ideas, too. To change my thoughts to meet your specifications:

You could have a set of three genetic adaptations, which allow the magic users to access the energy stored by the microorganism in your three different ways. If you make the adaptations exclusive, then nobody could use more than one type of magic.

It might stretch credulity to have the same microorganism be able to be tapped for three different effects, so it might be better to have a whole cocktail of organisms in the water, and have humans adapted to use magic from only three of them. So, one organism port power, but only people with the adaptation can use the power.

Now you've got the water using people, and the non-magic using population.

Now to ask why the water-users need to keep drinking it - their immune system kills it off after a day or so.

This happens to normal people, too, just they can't use the organism for power because they don't have the genes.

Then, if the sun-users have a weak immune system, that could explain why the organism stays in them (so they only need to soak up the sun, instead of continually drinking water), and also why they have side effects (because they are infected with a disease/virus that they can't shake off).

Hope my thoughts are useful for you!

Thanks! That helps a lot. About seawater, hmm. The original continent idea I had was that it was a ring of land, surrounded by ocean, with a large freshwater body of water in the center, and a small island in the middle of that. Would that make the entire Ring the same biome or is it possible to have differences with this construct?

 

Do the characters understand how it all works? If it is just an explanation for your world building but the characters find the magic mysterious, I think it's totally okay to leave it mysterious for the reader, possibly providing a few circumstantial hints.

 

If the mechanics of the magic are well known in-world, but you don't want to focus on the why of it, I think the best approach is bits and pieces along the way (rather than an up-front explanation). Alternatively, if it matters in-world (e.g. they have a medical test where they can screen the population and find out what powers you might get; OR they just installed water sanitation plants, and suddenly a bunch of people's magic doesn't work any more) then an early scene or two experiencing/discussing that would be appropriate.

Thanks for the advice. I think it'll be small things that they've discovered mixed with mysticism and maybe a scientist who's trying to discover how it works.

[DanTheSeamonster]

Science-y people, I need a bit of help. I have a world in which the magic system relies on the sun. Certain people can access the power by drinking or bathing in certain types of water that are left out in the sun, called Sunwater. Certain nationalities or races can absorb the sunlight directly to use it as magic, but with physical drawbacks. Is there a plausible reason as to why people in certain parts of the world developed the ability to absorb the sunlight directly and some have to use the water?

 

Hi. Here on earth, boring little rock that it is, some people have developed different levels of melanin. This causes their skin to be different colors, races who live near the equator are in the sun more, which causes them to have more melanin in their skin, thusly making their skin darker than those who do not live near the equator. Could people who directly intake energy from the sun be like that? They spend more time in the sun, so their skin has gotten better acquainted at storing the energy from it? I don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas. 

 

Also, seeing as how the last post was in August 8th, I'm going to hijack this thread now.

 

EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS UP! NOBODY MOVES, NOBODY GETS HURT!! 

 

Now that that is done with, I need some help with my own magic system. For NaNoWriMo this year, I'm thinking that I want to do a Flintlock Fantasy novel. (For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a fantasy novel set in a world where there are, surprise surprise, flintlock weapons/muskets. Promise of Blood and The Thousand names are good examples of this.) I know that I want there to be two main magic users. Basically, those who can imbue weapons with magical abilities to create magical weapons, (called Magesmiths) and those who can use said magical weapons (still working on a name for these guys, Magewarriors doesn't have a good ring to it).

 

In addition to all of that, both castes have their own unique way of using magic. For example, Magesmiths have a more passive magic, they usually have greater strength, endurance etc., but they can't throw use magic in large bursts to say, throw lightning or something like that. The Magewarriors (cringe) are the opposite of this, they have less of a steady burn and more of a bright flash. They are the ones who would be throwing fireballs or lightning at each other. 

 

Okay, now that I've written a whole book about this, do any of you see problems with this system? If you do, what are they and how can I fix them? If not, what would be some cool abilities for each type of magic user? Thanks guys! I appreciate any help. 

 

Also I apologize for the length and the amount of rambling, 

Edited August 23, 2015 by The Crooked Warden

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Hi. Here on earth, boring little rock that it is, some people have developed different levels of melanin. This causes their skin to be different colors, races who live near the equator are in the sun more, which causes them to have more melanin in their skin, thusly making their skin darker than those who do not live near the equator. Could people who directly intake energy from the sun be like that? They spend more time in the sun, so their skin has gotten better acquainted at storing the energy from it? I don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas. 

 

Also, seeing as how the last post was in August 8th, I'm going to hijack this thread now.

 

EVERYONE PUT YOUR HANDS UP! NOBODY MOVES, NOBODY GETS HURT!! 

 

Now that that is done with, I need some help with my own magic system. For NaNoWriMo this year, I'm thinking that I want to do a Flintlock Fantasy novel. (For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a fantasy novel set in a world where there are, surprise surprise, flintlock weapons/muskets. Promise of Blood and The Thousand names are good examples of this.) I know that I want there to be two main magic users. Basically, those who can imbue weapons with magical abilities to create magical weapons, (called Magesmiths) and those who can use said magical weapons (still working on a name for these guys, Magewarriors doesn't have a good ring to it).

 

In addition to all of that, both castes have their own unique way of using magic. For example, Magesmiths have a more passive magic, they usually have greater strength, endurance etc., but they can't throw use magic in large bursts to say, throw lightning or something like that. The Magewarriors (cringe) are the opposite of this, they have less of a steady burn and more of a bright flash. They are the ones who would be throwing fireballs or lightning at each other. 

 

Okay, now that I've written a whole book about this, do any of you see problems with this system? If you do, what are they and how can I fix them? If not, what would be some cool abilities for each type of magic user? Thanks guys! I appreciate any help. 

 

Also I apologize for the length and the amount of rambling,

 

What do you mean by "magical weapons"? Do you mean subtle things like guns that don't overheat or jam and knives that don't need sharpening, more obviously magic things like guns that can shoot fireballs and knives that always home in on their target, or really bizarre things like guns with bullets that can turn people into mice and knives made of cold fire? 

Edited August 23, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[DanTheSeamonster]

Ummmm, more the first one. But the really powerful weapons would be able to do big stuff like throw fireballs.

[Gabriele]

 or really bizarre things like guns with bullets that can turn people into mice and knives made of cold fire? 

Do you have an idea how fast mice procreate? You really don't want that sort of magic. 

[ccstat]

Do you have an idea how fast mice procreate? You really don't want that sort of magic.

As someone whose research is a year behind because of mouse breeding problems, I'll just say that sometimes you wish you could take more extreme measures than just waiting.

As far as the story goes...

Sounds interesting! First brainstorm for a name for the flashy magic users is Flagrants, in part because it sounds a bit like "conflagration" which I expect would be a fairly common result of their activity.

Regarding the system:

Can anyone use a weapon once it has been forged, or just other MageSmiths?

How much could you modify a weapon, either as a mund or as a rival smith? Does, for example, trading out the trigger mechanism in a gun destroy the speak? Weaken it? Alter its effect?Transfer the magic to a new gun built around the removed pieces?

What determines who had access to magic, and whether they are a Smith or a Flagrant? Can one learn to be either and it's just personal choice, or is it more deterministic than that?

Edited August 24, 2015 by ccstat

[Gabriele]

As someone whose research is a year behind because of mouse breeding problems, I'll just say that sometimes you wish you could take more extreme measures than just waiting.

 

Ah, lab mice. They don't cooperate just to storm off the poor researchers. Try rats, they can be argued with.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles]

Ah, lab mice. They don't cooperate just to storm off the poor researchers. Try rats, they can be argued with.

Unless they're Animagi who have sworn allegiance to the Dark Lord.

[DanTheSeamonster]

@ccstat: I actually like the name Flagrants! Thanks!

 

Only Flagrants can use magical weapons, but any Flagrant can use any weapon.

 

Unfortunately, once a weapon is finished being forged it cannot be altered. If it is, whether by the same Smith or a different one, then the weapon will stop working. But if you alter it in a small way, such as elongating the barrel, then it will still function as a weapon. It just will have lost its magical properties.

 

As to how people are turned into mages, I was thinking that they would be born with it. You're either born a Smith, a Flagrant or a normal person. Like Mistings and Mistborn.

[Darkness Ascendant]

I always wanted to write books like Rick Riordan

[Darkness Ascendant]

Science-y people, I need a bit of help. I have a world in which the magic system relies on the sun. Certain people can access the power by drinking or bathing in certain types of water that are left out in the sun, called Sunwater. Certain nationalities or races can absorb the sunlight directly to use it as magic, but with physical drawbacks. Is there a plausible reason as to why people in certain parts of the world developed the ability to absorb the sunlight directly and some have to use the water?

Maybe they have Kryptonian roots or r waterbenders. As for absorbing the sun r you saying they can photosynthesis? Because that would mean they have Chlorophyll in them which also means that they r green skinned. Perhaps they r the link between humans and plants!!!!

[Darkness Ascendant]

I need a name for a country.

 

The religion is based on the skies, and rainbows are considered to be messages/gifts from heaven, so colors feature very prominently. If your name isn't a color, it's considered heretical. So the country would have to be in some way a color name, but it couldn't just be one color, because each color has its own attributes and stuff.

 

Anyone have any ideas? I'm terrible with names.

Phototropilis as a city and Spectra as the Country name

[Darkness Ascendant]

What do you mean by "magical weapons"? Do you mean subtle things like guns that don't overheat or jam and knives that don't need sharpening, more obviously magic things like guns that can shoot fireballs and knives that always home in on their target, or really bizarre things like guns with bullets that can turn people into mice and knives made of cold fire?

Read hero.com it shows how superpowers can be conduited by objects as so the objects take on the properties of the powers like capes of flight and cloaks of invisibility or lightning guns.

[Young Bard]

Golems.

 

They are awesome. But, what I was thinking about is this.

 

Okay. Golems are created by their master. They must obey their masters commands to do anything they are told to do. But what level of sentience do they have? Do they have sentience? Where does the spirit come from? The material? Is there a great big hive mind controlling every single golem that exists and has ever existed? Do golems have personal agendas? Do they have opinions on the tasks they're set?

 

And so on.

 

Not so much worldbuilding as just my daily tangent of a tangent of a tangent.

[Edgedancer]

Ummmm, more the first one. But the really powerful weapons would be able to do big stuff like throw fireballs.

So what about the Flagrants inherent magic you mentioned? If the magic weapons only have minor perks like not needing to reload it seems like the ability to throw fireballs and lightning would be much more useful to them than the magic weapons only they can use.

[DanTheSeamonster]

Yeahhhhh that's one of the things I need help with, Edgedancer. I need Flagrants to be weak enough for magical weapons and items to be a major benefit, but they also need to be strong and flashy enough to have a noticeable difference between themselves and Smiths.

Edited August 25, 2015 by The Crooked Warden

[Edgedancer]

Yeahhhhh that's one of the things I need help with, Edgedancer. I need Flagrants to be weak enough for magical weapons and items to be a major benefit, but they also need to be strong and flashy enough to have a noticeable difference between themselves and Smiths.

Well, the easiest solution would be making the magic weapons more impressive. Otherwise you could limit their own magic to needing an magical weapon to chanel through, even if the weapon itself isn't as impressive, and maybe have the Gunsmiths need to eat some kind fantasy gunpowder for their effects to take effect to balance them out again? Or maybe they need to make magical weapons to draw out some kind of taint their magic creates inside their body and otherwise grow sick.

[Quiver]

Golems.

 

They are awesome. But, what I was thinking about is this.

 

Okay. Golems are created by their master. They must obey their masters commands to do anything they are told to do. But what level of sentience do they have? Do they have sentience? Where does the spirit come from? The material? Is there a great big hive mind controlling every single golem that exists and has ever existed? Do golems have personal agendas? Do they have opinions on the tasks they're set?

 

And so on.

 

Not so much worldbuilding as just my daily tangent of a tangent of a tangent.

Can I just back this up? Golems are very cool...but I can't think of many examples of them in books.

Discworld, really, is the only one that comes to mind...

[Edgedancer]

Well, the easiest solution would be making the magic weapons more impressive. Otherwise you could limit their own magic to needing an magical weapon to chanel through, even if the weapon itself isn't as impressive, and maybe have the Gunsmiths need to eat some kind fantasy gunpowder for their effects to take effect to balance them out again? Or maybe they need to make magical weapons to draw out some kind of taint their magic creates inside their body and otherwise grow sick.

I had another idea on this. You could turn it into a moving ecconomy. Gunsmiths have to make guns, so they don't die of sickness and sell them to support their living exspences. Flashgrants on the other hand need the magic weapons to use their powers (and maybe also get some kind of taint out of their body.), meaning they have to buy them. Now if you make it so that the magic in the weapons runs out, both sides are dependent on each other and need to keep the flow of buying and selling constant.

To undeline this duality you could make the magic of Falshgrants a mix of their innate affinity and the one left in the weapon by the gunsmith. For example a Grant with let's say the fire element using a gun with some kind of "concentrated" property could lead to him shoting fire balls, with a "aiming" property he could create fire pillairs directly from the ground where he is aiming at and with a "continous" one he would have some kind of flamethrower.

Then there could be some Grants that allways use guns by the same Smith, because they suit their style, while other use multiple (and probably cheaper) ones to have more options in combat.

A stronger Smith could mean more ammunition (so 100 fire balls instead of 50) and a stronger Grant increase the effect (making the ball larger or hoter, whatever he's more suited for).

 

At least that's one idea I just had. (I may or may not like weapon based magic. )

[Adamir]

I've been working on an idea for a magic system that anyone on my world can access; what I myself like to call Potential Magic, which, going by Brandon's definitions, is about 35% hard magic and 65% soft magic. It relies on killing a sacrifice with certain incantations to access their Potential.

 

To give an example, a goat I keep has the Potential to, given enough time, cut down the length of grass in my lawn until it looks neat and tidy. Normally, grass would grow back soon after the goat were finished, and it would be unlikely that the goat would systematically cut down on the length of grass itself. But it has the potential, and so sacrificing the goat could cut the lawn without effort.

 

You can squeeze long-term Potential into a short span of time, but there is always a loss of potential by doing it that way - thus, you could sacrifice the goat and have the lawn finished within a few seconds, or you could keep some of that Potential in reserve and have it cut the grass over a day instead. Potential depends on many factors, such as what you are asking the magic to do, whether the sacrifice would have been capable of doing that, how quickly it could have done it, and whether the sacrifice had any actual likelihood of doing so. If there isn't enough Potential in the sacrifice, the task is usually left only partially complete.

 

I spent a while considering the applications of this magic system and how it would fit in to common usage. You could sacrifice an animal and use the Potential to fill your stomach, as it has a very high likelihood of being killed, cooked and eaten, then cook and eat the meat later on, thus doubling the food you could get out of it. Kidnappers would replace assassins when it came to highly defended targets, capturing bodyguards and sacrificing them for their Potential to kill their charge, usually taking several bodyguard sacrifices if they are particularly loyal. Enemy generals and captains could be sacrificed to force their squadrons to give up their tactical advantage, force a charge against a well defended opponent or break their own defenses. If you have any ideas on how else the magic system could be applied, I'd like to hear them.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Adamir

[Lindel]

(Disclaimer: I have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about. Feel free to correct anything I say. If I'm spouting nonsense, put a stop to it at once and set me right.)

Anyone else seen this?

http://marctenbosch.com/news/2014/08/new-trailer-how-to-walk-through-walls-using-the-fourth-dimension/

The game uses lots of little 3D slices of an arbitrary 4D world, allowing you to pivot along the fourth dimensions to do all sorts of cool stuff.

I post this here because I think it would be really cool to build a world/magic system around the concept, but I'm running into some issues.

I want to know if it's even possible for a world to appear and behave like our own, while still allowing room for feats like those shown in the trailer above. As far as I can tell, pivoting in 4D and moving into another hyperplane really wouldn't be a good idea if you're living on a 3D planet imbedded in a 4D universe. You'd just end up in space, right? Space in another hyperplane, but space nonetheless.

Unless there's some way you could line up with another planet in the hyperplane you orient yourself to. Is that even possible? Am I thinking about this all wrong? I should probably stop taking now, before I hurt someone...

[Aonar]

(Disclaimer: I don't really know what I'm talking about either, I have done some research on this sort of thing as it's a personal interest of mine, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

 

Lindel: You're not necessarily thinking about this wrong, but let me posit a question: Why are you assuming a three dimensional planet in a four dimensional universe? If you drop that assumption, then you don't need to do anything fancy like syncing up with planets on other planes. Allowing the planet itself to be four dimensional would simplify things immensely.
 
To explain: Any four dimensional object will present a certain number of three dimensional "surfaces," one for each hyperplane it exists on. If you have a planet that is a four dimensional object, then by nature you're going to have a certain number of 3D surfaces that mages in this world would be able to move between. To any observer limited to three dimensions, the planet wouldn't appear any different from one of our own; but to someone capable of moving in a fourth spatial dimension, there would be numerous other worlds overlaid on top of it. (This number could be as large or as small as you like; basically you're just defining how large of a four dimensional object you're talking about.)
 
You could even get into other really interesting worldbuilding things and have multiple or all nearby celestial objects be four dimensional, but have them be centered on different planes; you could end up with dozens, even hundreds of distinctly different worlds, with different climates, peoples, ecosystems, and cultures all inhabiting the same three dimensional space, and all accessible to mages in this story.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Aonar Faileas

[Lindel]

Interesting, I like that. So would I be working with a hypersphere, where ach of the "faces" is a spheres, correct?

So everything is centered around one 4D "planet", orbiting a 4D "sun" in 4D space, and each 3D slice of space gives you a hyperplane which appears to include a 3D planet, a 3D sun, and 3D stars. Mages are then able to pivot within the fourth dimension to allign themselves with another face/hyperplane, which would basically be an entirely new world.

Looks like I'll need to do more in-depth research into the subject to get deeper into the implications of this, but I really like where this is going.

[Aonar]

Yep, that's pretty much exactly how it would work. There's potential for a lot of variance between worlds, as you could have moons, stars, asteroids, even suns that exist on some planes and not others, as well as being of vastly different shapes and sizes from plane to plane; some of your worlds might be uninhabitable, some might be water rich, some might be deserts, some might harbor non-human life; your imagination is really the limit for where you want to go with the idea. And that's not even getting in to how mages could apply their powers to espionage, or infrastructure, or combat. There's a lot there for you to work with, even though the basic idea is pretty simple.

 

I personally wouldn't worry too much about doing lots of really in-depth research; while it's good to know what you're getting in to, and see what the implications of your world are, you don't want to become too bogged down with forcing it to comply with actual physical rules.