Arithmancy

[Karger he/him]

Hello everyone I have been having fun making this magic system for a while and I just want to hear suggestions.  I am not a writer and I doubt that I will have a chance to use this but it is a fun thought experiment.

I am not sure what powers this magic system but I have decided that when attempting to access some kind of magic the mage will be given a math question based on what they are attempting to accomplish.

Arithmetic

Adding: used for healing

Subtracting: used for harming

Multiplication: used for increasing another magical effect

Division: Used for decreasing another magical effect

Geometry: Used for localizing an area effect

Algebra: Used for conjuration

Logarithms and Exponents: Used to grow or shrink physical objects

Graphing: Used for teleportation

Functions: Used for creating or managing ley lines along which long range powerful spells can be manipulated

Trigonometry: Used for basic divination

Calculus: Used for the location and use of sub ley lines as well as some higher level divination

That is what I have so far. Anyone have any ideas on additional capabilities or what powers this stuff?

[Lunamor she/her]

This sounds awesome! You could maybe use absolute value to determine if something is an illusion or not (not sure what math thing you’d use for one) or maybe is someone is evil/negative. Ooh, you could have negatives and positives! Negatives being evil people and positives being good. Although now that I think about it you would have to reverse the roles of positive and negative for the AV thing to work.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Lunamor

[Karger he/him]

Negative is where people go when they die.  It is possible to bring them back through the right knowledge of manipulating negative numbers either partially or completely.  This is why killing a powerful Arithmatist is basically impossible and so instead they are trapped in numerical prisons.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Karger

[Karger he/him]

Does anyone have any idea of what powers this system?

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

Math. Like, you write down an equation, then the energy from the equation is stored up and released.

[Karger he/him]

1 minute ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Math. Like, you write down an equation, then the energy from the equation is stored up and released.

That would to easily allow limitless energy.  Basically anyone who did well in high school math would have the energy to destroy the universe.

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

But that would be legit awesome, c'mon. 

If there's a special number on that world, maybe whatever element's atomic number matches the special number?

[Karger he/him]

4 minutes ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

If there's a special number on that world

You mean a number with specific significance in some way.  Like three is a magic number?

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

Therefore whatever element's atomic number is three powers the magic. If you hold some of it, then your magic is powered, basically. 

Imagine if that worked with carbon...

[Karger he/him]

I was thinking this magic system would be more internal.  Al la you are imposing your understanding or how the world works on physical matter through math.

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

Maybe it feeds on your wakefulness? Like, you use it and get tired, and if you use it enough you pass out?

@Karger

[Karger he/him]

Perhaps your concentration the more you do it the harder it is to concentrate and eventual you can't focus anymore.

[Sherlock Holmes he/him]

That would make sense.

[Karger he/him]

23 hours ago, Lunamor said:

You could maybe use absolute value to determine if something is an illusion or not

Illusions are crafted using imaginary numbers.

[Lunamor she/her]

1 hour ago, Karger said:

Illusions are crafted using imaginary numbers.

Darn. Maybe they can be countered with another illusion then? I dunno.

[Karger he/him]

15 hours ago, Lunamor said:

Darn. Maybe they can be countered with another illusion then? I dunno.

Taking the absolute value of an illusion will get you a real number that you can manipulate I am also thinking that numbers can be distilled out of nature by a skilled Arithmatist and used to create stuff.

Edited March 20, 2019 by Karger

[Nathrangking he/him]

Perhaps there should be primer equations that serve as the base for some powers and building on them are ever more complex equations which equal greater power. These could perhaps have a writing requirement to give say a mistake a cost.

[Karger he/him]

A mistake should have a cost I am not sure what it should be though.  Any ideas?

Edited March 28, 2019 by Karger

[Wyndlerunner he/him]

I can't believe that I just read, and enjoyed a math based magic system.

What has my life come to? 

(I'm not a math person)

[Karger he/him]

25 minutes ago, Wyndlerunner said:

I can't believe that I just read, and enjoyed a math based magic system.

What elements make it interesting?

[+Invocation]

If you're still looking for the magic behind the magic kind of thing, like sources and stuff, you could say the universe has a resonant frequency or something, something absolutely massive, and the math problems get stronger the more you know of the things around you and their relation back to it.

[Karger he/him]

2 hours ago, Invocation said:

something absolutely massive

Intriguing.  Care to elaborate?

[Wyndlerunner he/him]

17 hours ago, Karger said:

What elements make it interesting?

It's super unique

[+Invocation]

19 hours ago, Karger said:

Intriguing.  Care to elaborate?

Think of the universe this is set in like a massive chunk of metal for this example. Most metals have a resonant frequency that can damage them, sometimes going as far as atomic dissolution. Now imagine the universe in question has one of these. A large enough number that no person could ever know it, but everything relates back to it. The better you understand the relation, the more you can do. Strike the tuning fork of the universe, in a way, and harvest the energy that results from that to reshape the world around you according to your desire, helpfully directed by the very equation you use to garner the energy in the first place.

[Karger he/him]

44 minutes ago, Invocation said:

Think of the universe this is set in like a massive chunk of metal for this example. Most metals have a resonant frequency that can damage them, sometimes going as far as atomic dissolution. Now imagine the universe in question has one of these. A large enough number that no person could ever know it, but everything relates back to it. The better you understand the relation, the more you can do. Strike the tuning fork of the universe, in a way, and harvest the energy that results from that to reshape the world around you according to your desire, helpfully directed by the very equation you use to garner the energy in the first place.

So, under this system the more you did magic the more magic you could use.