Metallic magic system

[Agafist]

Hi all, this is my first post here after about half a year of lurking.

 

So I'm thinking of starting a novel, writing out the backstory and magic beforehand. The novel's world has a large focus on strip-mining the metals for trade and production, so I've got a few magic systems sketched out using the metal as a focus. One of the systems I've thought of basically allows the user to physically touch a metallic object and mould it around their skin like a shield.

 

Users of the magic system would suffer a loss in mass of the metal when shaping, to avoid infinite metal shields and the like. Not sure about other limitations/how the power is accessed though.

I might end up expanding on this later, but do you have any suggestions on improving it?

[Kobold King]

I was half-expecting to see a thinly veiled plagiarism of Allomancy, but this looks novel, original, and exciting!

In some ways it kind of reminds me of what I'd imagined the Surge of Cohesion to be like (if you're familiar with Stormlight). As I've thus already thought about potential applications for this general sort of power, here are a few suggestions.

Why stop with shields? The ability to instantly make a shield out of a coin would be pretty cool, but there are so many other uses. Why not instantly craft a weapon like a sword? Or step off the battlefield for community service like reforging tools without a fire. Alloys of metals could be a lot easier to make if you could mix them with a touch.

Granted, the loss of mass could potentially be a problem, depending on how much was lost. But I think this is a really cool idea and I'd love to see it in action.

If I may ask, does the magic system have a name yet?

[Agafist]

Yeah, it did remind me a bit of Cohesion (just finished WoR!). I haven't really got a name down yet, but am toying with Casting. Sounds a bit similar to Soulcasting, though, so it's open to change. Suggestions are all really cool, thanks!

 

Do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions on how it would originally be accessed? Don't want to rip off Brandon (too much) so I might just have it built into a certain amount of the population. Might cross that bridge when I come to it.

[Swimmingly]

What if it's something anyone can do, but you have to use a drug that slowly numbs your senses until you're nearly blind, numb, and deaf, with your power and sense of metal increasing proportionally to the senses you've lost? You could even have a mechanism where practitioners who use it too long need to cover their skin in metal and sense through it to even sense properly, to the point that, when they die, they turn into metal statues filled with a hermetically sealed human corpse?

Okay, that's a little macabre.

[Kobold King]

Casting sounds like an awesome name for it! I wouldn't worry about the similarity to "Soulcasting". The word is applicable and cool, so why let a vague similarity to a completely unrelated system get in your way?

I confess I don't have any good ideas for how the magic is accessed. Swimmingly has a pretty cool (if macabre) idea above, so it's hard to top that. Wait! I did not say I didn't have an idea. I said I didn't have a good idea. I still have a suggestion.

Maybe in order to Cast properly, you must build up an affinity towards metal over a period of time. A Caster-in-training must spend years as some kind of smith, "forging" a connection to metals before they can use it for the magic. Casters often build up such a strong connection to metals that they begin to personify it, becoming a very strange and separate part of society accused of cultish practices.

If I were you I'd take Swimmingly's system over mine (though mine does fir in with Realmatics more easily ). I simply remain dedicated towards offering inferior ideas for a better price.

[MistLord]

Do the metals have to be pure? What is it about metals in specific that allows you to control them? Why is there a loss in mass? 

 

Questions like these I often find lead to even more exciting and in-depth ideas about the developed system. For example, maybe pure metals have to be used but then plot twist Sanderson style to show that people clever and skilled enough can encourage metals out of a molecule via some foreshadowed process. Maybe it's to do with the delocalised electrons inherent in metals that allow this control, which might lead to other things, like magnetic stimulation or such. 

 

Sorry if I'm posting this a bit late, just thought I'd contribute.

[Agafist]

Purity affects metal loss, as impurities are removed during the Cast (e.g you'd lose, say, 40% of the metal trying to Cast rusty iron). I'm not set yet on why metals are the focus, but they're just tied into the worldbuilding I've been doing. Due to the value of Castable metals, the world is being rampantly strip-mined, and metals are basically driving the economy. Not sure what you mean by electrons, I never did physics...

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Edited April 14, 2014 by Agafist

[Haradion Drogon]

Do they manipulate the Metal with Magnetism, or with a telekinetic style force?

I think you could do a bit by having something weird happen with the magnetic metals...

 

Also, I like the idea of metals in general being manipulatable. As for the gaining power riddle...

 

Drugs is an option.

 

What if there was a creature, which used metal to coat its shell/body as a natural defence? Drawing the metal from its surrounding area to make sharper claws, armour, shells etc. The drug could be derived from that creature somehow? A Serum? A Parasite-relationship? 

 

You also have to think about how this would affect the world... I can imagine plating would become an easy method of construction?

 

Are certain metals more difficult to manipulate? For example, as a metal gets denser, it becomes more difficult to manipulate?

 

You have some really cool ideas!

[WriteNowDave]

What about blood rust? Just thought of it as a form of anti magic in case you need a balance to the magic. You know everything has to have balance. 

[Truthwatcher Ferring]

Maybe you could explain the lose of metals by saying that some of the metal is converted to energy to fuel the process. 

[ShadowLord_Lith]

If you need an idea as to why It's metal instead of, say, bunnies, maybe It's because of the amount of metal in the human body compared to other pure outside materials? I mean, you know that there is iron and other minerals in your blood, you've never heard heard about plant matter in your body, aside from the stomach/digestive system. Or earth. Or flame. It wouldn't explain water or air, unless you count the fact that water becomes bodily fluid, which is undrinkable, and air becomes more carbon dioxide than oxygen while in the lungs. What do you think?