fantasy magic systems My Magic System

[Tobysmouse]

Update: Tim loses the fight against Kai, and Leo is initially guarded towards Tim, until he realises that Tim's ancestors enrolled there. 

[Straw]

I tried to clean up this magic system a bit. Here is my revised version of it.

1. Soul keys: Thousands of years ago rocks rained from the sky. These rocks contained the very essence of the 8 elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Ice, Metal, Solar, and Lunar.) Splitting into billions of pieces they formed soul keys. These keys are filled with the very soul of the elements. Soul keys can be found almost everywhere and are sold in most shops.

2. Runes: To unleash the power of soul keys one must use runes. There are six types of runes:

Elementals which create and focus a well of that element.

Forms which show the form and use of that element.

Seals which are used to finish a soul key.

Combinationals which combine various elements to make new elements (Example: Fire + Water = Steam)

Additionals which add characteristics of elements to other elements (Example: Fire + Water = Liquid fire)

Separationals which separate functions from each other.

For example: To make the vortex jump key:

Air symbol, Additional symbol, Lunar symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

To make a fireball key:

Fire symbol, Additional symbol, Air symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

To make the ice spear key: 

Ice symbol, Additional symbol, Air symbol, Metal symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

3. Further explanation: 

vortex jump: The lunar characteristics of darkness and flexibility are added to air. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

fireball: The air characteristics of floating and flying are added to fire. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

ice spear: The metal characteristics of strength and hardness are added to ice, the air characteristics of floating and lightness are added to ice. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

4. How the runes work

Elemental runes: Elemental runes draw energy from the wells of their element.

Combinational/Additional runes: C/A runes modify the energy from the well.

Separational runes: Separational runes stop certain energies from intermixing allowing the user of the soul key to have multiple elements without them all intermixing.

Form runes: Form runes decide the shape and use of the element.

Seal runes: Seal runes finish the soul key and are implanted with the users will, they decide the target of the soul key, the size of the object, and many other things.

 

@Tobysmouse What do you think of the revisions I made? Feel free to ask questions!

 

 

Edited July 8, 2016 by Straw

[Tobysmouse]

49 minutes ago, Straw said:

I tried to clean up this magic system a bit. Here is my revised version of it.

1. Soul keys: Thousands of years ago rocks rained from the sky. These rocks contained the very essence of the 10 elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Ice, Metal, Solar, Lunar, and Exos.) Splitting into billions of pieces they formed soul keys. These keys are filled with the very soul of the elements. Soul keys can be found almost everywhere and are sold in most shops.

2. Runes: To unleash the power of soul keys one must use runes. There are six types of runes:

Elementals which create and focus a well of that element.

Forms which show the form and use of that element.

Seals which are used to finish a soul key.

Combinationals which combine various elements to make new elements (Example: Fire + Water = Steam)

Additionals which add characteristics of elements to other elements (Example: Fire + Water = Liquid fire)

Separationals which separate functions from each other.

For example: To make the vortex jump key:

Air symbol, Additional symbol, Lunar symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

To make a fireball key:

Fire symbol, Additional symbol, Air symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

To make the ice spear key: 

Ice symbol, Additional symbol, Air symbol, Metal symbol, Form symbol, Seal symbol.

3. Further explanation: 

vortex jump: The lunar characteristics of darkness and flexibility are added to air. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

fireball: The air characteristics of floating and flying are added to fire. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

ice spear: The metal characteristics of strength and hardness are added to ice, the air characteristics of floating and lightness are added to ice. The form symbol guides the element so it can accomplish the desired purpose. The seal symbol finishes the key and seals the will of the maker to help guide the element.

@Tobysmouse What do you think of the revisions I made? Feel free to ask questions!

 

 

 

 

Thanks, just one question, what would you use the separating rune for? BTW there is only one Exos Key.

[Straw]

Example of the separating rune being used: Fire symbol, Addition rune, Air, Separation symbol, Water, Addition symbol, Air, Form symbol, Seal symbol. This would make a stream of Fire and Water. 

Edited my last post in this thread.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Straw

[Tobysmouse]

@Straw ok thanks.

[Tobysmouse]

Oh by the way. Do you think you could help me with the Ivumel magic? I'm really stuck

[Straw]

@Tobysmouse Can you give me a general description of their powers?

[Tobysmouse]

It's similar to the other magic. They have crystals poking out of them which they store Elemental energy in. Releasing it in short but powerful bursts.

 

[Straw]

Ivumel magic: I was thinking of a magic system where the crystals would be reusable soul keys. You can carve symbols on them and release it as various effects (same as soul keys). However, you do not snap the crystals. Instead you store elemental energy in the crystal and channel it through that crystal to create the effect. 

Example of use:

1. Ivumelian carves the symbols for vortex jump on a crystal (New crystals do not grow)

2. Ivumelian stores lunar and air energy in that crystal.

3. When wanted the Ivumelian wills the energy in that crystal to act. The more energy stored, the more powerful the effect.

4. The energy is channeled through the crystal.

5. The Ivumelian jumps around using vortex jump.

6. Return to step 2

 

[Darkness Ascendant]

I'm confused. Is this Straw's magic system now?

[Straw]

@Darkness AscendantNo, I am just helping Tobysmouse develop it. It is his magic system and the changes I suggest are his to decide to implement or not. We are doing sort of a describe and flesh out system. He describes his idea, I flesh it out.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Straw

[Tobysmouse]

Sorry for inactivity I have been on holiday. Also, I really like your idea and will molding that into my story.

[Straw]

In your story I didn't really get how the training arena works. They're tossing around magic and nobody gets hurt. How? 

[Tobysmouse]

On 15/07/2016 at 11:11 PM, Straw said:

In your story I didn't really get how the training arena works. They're tossing around magic and nobody gets hurt. How? 

Oh yeah, I'll make it so that people do get hurt. But using the metal echolon they can dampen it down a bit. However this cannot be used in battle as it takes a huge ring of the material around the area.

[Darkness Ascendant]

@Straw, so just a collaboration, ok

[Landis963]

I've just thought of a magic system, wherein a specific type of crystal can be attuned to a person such that with the right activator, they can teleport to the exact position of the bead, with the bead itself teleporting to where the caster used to be.  This would be demonstrated (to begin with) in a Szeth-ian assassination attempt of some bigwig or other, with the assassin in question having a bunch of small throwing daggers that he would jump to in order to gain distance/height/speed on his enemies.  Which raises the question: Should there be other powers, and how do I distance these crystalline beads from the polestones?  

 

Edited August 14, 2016 by Landis963

[Zathoth]

4 hours ago, Landis963 said:

I've just thought of a magic system, wherein a specific type of crystal can be attuned to a person such that with the right activator, they can teleport to the exact position of the bead, with the bead itself teleporting to where the caster used to be.  This would be demonstrated (to begin with) in a Szeth-ian assassination attempt of some bigwig or other, with the assassin in question having a bunch of small throwing daggers that he would jump to in order to gain distance/height/speed on his enemies.  Which raises the question: Should there be other powers, and how do I distance these crystalline beads from the polestones?  

I have played around with a similar ability (Im not accusing you of plagiarism or anything, just saying). When the character touched objects he could 'mark' them and either teleport the objects to himself or teleport himself to the object. It is a lot more powerful than you'd expect.

Anyway other powers could be interesting and distance yourself from polestones by making the crystals something else. The first thing I think of are Pearls.

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

4 hours ago, Landis963 said:

...how do I distance these crystalline beads from the polestones?  

NOT by describing your demonstration scene as a "Szeth-ian assassination attempt", to begin with.
Getting inspiration from great scenes is good, common writing practice (and admittedly that scene is really powerful) but in this case I think you're straying dangerously close to copying rather than drawing inspiration. I suggest you take a step back and think of another way to showcase the magic, maybe it'll turn out even more awesome than the assassin in white. Your system would make a fun tool for parkour, for instance, and that could be a cool scene to write.
I don't mean to be harsh (or preachy), but I just don't think that "That was such an awesome scene, I wanna do that!" is a good mindset to be in for starting a project.

You could also try having the attuned object be something other than a crystal. (ninja'd by @Morzathoth)
It could be a bead of brass that has to be engraved in just the right way for it to become attuned, for example. From the information you've given on your idea, any small object could serve as a "teleport beacon".
I think this is where you could brainstorm some world-building, completely putting aside the magic, identify some item or material that's culturally important, and then plug that in as the basis for the magic system. Work backwards so to speak (have the culture determine the magic, instead of the magic determining the culture).

Some ideas: the beacons could be seeds, animal bones, objects bearing specific inscriptions or engravings, small vials of a person's blood or saliva... (I thought of these in less than a minute, by the way)
The important thing is that whatever material you choose, it should be something you think would be cool to work with outside of the magic system.

If you're dead set on crystals, one last way to set them apart from polestones: don't have them light up or leak luminous gas.

[Landis963]

I assure you, the concept was developed before my connecting it to Szeth, and I just used that as an easy way to describe it.  I still think the coolest hook would be showing the magic from the outside first, though (so, unlike Szeth, heh).  Maybe the POV of a police squad of some sort, tracking a cat burglar who uses the beads as a getaway?  Requires further thought.  

A bit of consideration has led me to the idea that the beads are a special kind of silicate glass, which have the peculiar property that when forged, their insides stay liquid (if highly viscous) until annealed by magic (yes, this is a nod to the old saw about glass being a highly viscous liquid, why do you ask?).  "Attuning" a bead is therefore a matter of telling it what you want it to do, and it will do that when you activate it.  Crafters can tell what kind of sand to use by the fact that it glows when exposed to moonlight.  In another part of the world, they might have another magic system where powders of different varieties might produce different effects when blown.  Putting the two together (and I'm not sure what the glowy sand would do on its own) would give you the teleport beads and their ilk.  

Which means I have at least two commodities to base an economy around.  

 

[Straw]

@Landis963 You could have a bead where you could take a fragment of something, grind it up and put it in the powder. Then when you used the bead it would teleport the object to you. Examples: Teleporting a sword to your hand, coins to your pocket, boulders above enemies. I have several other suggestions for you magic system, just ask for them if you want to hear them.

[Landis963]

5 hours ago, Straw said:

@Landis963 You could have a bead where you could take a fragment of something, grind it up and put it in the powder. Then when you used the bead it would teleport the object to you. Examples: Teleporting a sword to your hand, coins to your pocket, boulders above enemies. I have several other suggestions for you magic system, just ask for them if you want to hear them.

I'm detecting a disconnect between what I think my magic system does, and what my description says my magic system does.  First off, this particular application (even if it does sound like a story-worthy power) would not work as intended, I don't think.  You would only be able to do this once for each object (as the crystal used to power the teleportation moves to the object's previous location) and would need to travel to the previous location physically in order to retrieve the bead, or would need another person on the other end to activate the spell to return the object to its previous place of rest, and there might be some glitches with the object's center of gravity moving to where the crystal was.  You would be tightly gripping the sword by the blade when it arrived (ouch), and you could only transport one coin or bill with the beads.  In addition, I don't plan on adding any sort of quantum-entanglement to the magic (although it's good to consider).  

The boulder-drop trick is actually possible, under the current paradigm.  However, it would be much less practical than you suggest, as it involves 1) throwing the bead with pinpoint accuracy such that the boulder actually lands on the target (I picture the jump such that any forces on a bead (gravity, momentum, etc.) are transferred to the target (unchanged by conservation of momentum ) after a jump), and 2) getting an ally to send the bead back once the boulder has come to a stop (or worse, having to traipse back home to teleport the boulder back and then traipse back to the scene of the crime in order to retrieve the bead)

Back to details about the magic: I'm currently thinking that the beads and the powders have the same powerset, only concentrated and more predictable (ETA: and a bit more specialized as well, now I think on it).  Which then leads me to the realization that the sand version of the teleport power was not "teleportation" to its users (which would cast by blowing a cloud of it at a target), but would probably function more like "banishing" or Harry Potter's Evanesco.  The teleporting ne'er do well could in fact be a new development in the study of this magic (which still needs a name, because names are the bane of my existence when writing).  In addition, the "powders" (which would be added to the glassblowing process to color the beads, which in turn would define what the bead in question can do) are metal oxides, which means the dust-blowing mages must be from an area with plentiful metal resources.  Note that the color of the bead, and not the metal structure, dictates the power, admittedly taking another cue from the Polestones (a Uranium Oxide green, for instance, would differ in effect from a Copper oxide green, and both would be different from Uranium oxide yellow).  

Edited August 15, 2016 by Landis963

[Tobysmouse]

Quote

I've just thought of a magic system, wherein a specific type of crystal can be attuned to a person such that with the right activator, they can teleport to the exact position of the bead, with the bead itself teleporting to where the caster used to be.  This would be demonstrated (to begin with) in a Szeth-ian assassination attempt of some bigwig or other, with the assassin in question having a bunch of small throwing daggers that he would jump to in order to gain distance/height/speed on his enemies.  Which raises the question: Should there be other powers, and how do I distance these crystalline beads from the polestones?  

This actually sounds pretty cool. Also, nice to hear you've read Stormlight. I've met a lot of full-blown Mistborn fans who haven't read anything else other then perhaps Elantris.

[Landis963]

19 hours ago, Tobysmouse said:

This actually sounds pretty cool. Also, nice to hear you've read Stormlight. I've met a lot of full-blown Mistborn fans who haven't read anything else other then perhaps Elantris.

I was actually wondering something about that system: How should the powers be selected?  There are two ways I can go: I can have the color of the glass choose the power (which indirectly makes the dust system much more difficult to whip into line with the scientific method, among other complaints) or I can have the shape of the molecule make the power (which makes the dust easier, but makes the beads much more difficult to use: Say, a bead of Antimony glass produces a fog bank, and a bead of Tin glass encases an AoE in solid air, but since both produce white-colored glass, they are very difficult to distinguish at a glance)  Other noteworthy pros/cons: The latter means I need to come up with 15 distinct powers for these beads to use (one of which I know is teleportation), the former means I need to choose whether or not variations on color (say, cobalt blue vs. copper blue) alter the power somehow, and if so, what rules do they follow?  

EDIT: Careful consideration leads me to the conclusion that it's easier for me to remember if there's a scale of focus, and the darker the color the more focused the effect.  Which means those teleport beads need to be created at a very specific level of opacity to work on a sapient being. 

Edited August 19, 2016 by Landis963