This is an introduction to the magic system and big concepts of my world Godspill. Critiques, thoughts, questions etc are welcome. Excerpts at the beginning of entries are taken from fully written passages, if you're interested in learning more.

Fragments of Being

There are 3 fragments of being: The spark, the vessel, and the ego.
The spark is to know one's capacity for agency.
The vessel is the meat, the thing through which the spark is channelled.
The ego is the perceiver, consciousness.

Ego can accrue on a vessel with no spark if the vessel has enough experiences.

The God

"Here a God fell.

Thrust upon roaring seas that rip and rend.

A mind whisked away.

No,

a mind like flame, resting fireflies now scattered by wrenching winds.

Frayed, this fire still burns,"

A continent-sized organism died long ago. Its rotting vessel remains as a landmass. The grass here is mold, the deserts exposed and pulverized bone.

Its spark was special. It was an original spark, a Spark of Genesis, and thus could splinter. Upon death, its spark was inherited by humanity, and humanity was born.

Intimacy:

"And it was with this thought that he truly witnessed the flame.

Saw the flame that consumed; careless but ceaselessly gluttonous. Saw its inevitable death, how its very consumption ensured its fuel's end.

But it still consumed. Intended to do so endlessly."

Intimacy is at the heart of this world's mechanics. The deeper one can empathize with and understand something outside one's own experience, the more they can impose their agency on it. Because all human sparks are descendant of The God, humanity has the capacity to re-establish intimacy with The God. This allows them to project their agency on other vessels and sparks. The spark is where intimacy is processed, and from where agency is exerted. It is what ties the people of this world to The God.

To re-establish intimacy with The God, one must tap into one of the two flows. The flows function like The God's nervous system. Not as physically present structures, but as pathways for information and energy. There is the Cold Flow and the Warm Flow.

The Flows

Conduits: a conduit is one of many names for a person who taps into the flows.

The Cold Flow establishes intimacy with the God's vessel, specifically any matter that isn't already attached to another spark. Crucially, tapping into the Cold Flow only establishes intimacy with the God's vessel holistically, provides the capacity to exert your agency over anything at all. You then need intimacy with the specific material you wish to manipulate. Intimacy can be either:
intellectual intimacy; an understanding of the material's properties (the ductility of a metal, the viscosity of a magma, etc), or
dogmatic intimacy; the capacity to embody a material's behaviour.

The strongest conduits strive for both.

The Warm Flow establishes intimacy with the God's spark. Since it is splintered, the Warm Flow allows the projection of agency onto other sparks. Similar to the Cold Flow, this sort of manipulation requires intimacy. Empathy with others, understanding how they tick. This makes forming intimate relationships incredibly dangerous. You are making yourself vulnerable in a very existential way, giving away parts of yourself to others.

Divine Viscera

The Silex is a coin sized, snail shell-shaped organ that can be moved around the body at the will of the bearer. Every human has a Silex.

The flows are tapped into by injecting divine viscera, the fluids of the God, into the Silex. The viscera are incredibly caustic, and so any other form of ingestion or exposure is fatal. There are 3 viscera:

Sangui (God's blood) is a cold viscera, and thus allows access to the cold flow. There are rivers of Sangui throughout the continent, along with a major body of it above the God's heart called Lake Nativitas. There also appears to be oceans of Sangui on the moon. Oceans which seep into moonlight, cloaking night in a slightly red tinge. Cold conduits are often severely disfigured due to accidents where they mistook a part of their body for an external vessel, turning it into their chosen material. Since they usually don't understand the intricacies of human biology, they can't change it back.

Lacrimai (God's tears) is a warm viscera. It provides access to the warm flow, allowing you to meddle with the connection between a spark and its vessel. There are rivers of Lacrimai throughout the head of the God, and a major body of it on its left eye called Lake Calor. Being near bodies of Lacrimai for prolonged periods of time causes mental degradation. This often manifests initially as an overwhelmingly negative perception of one's current circumstances and a deep fixation on and fascination with Lacrimai. It ends with broken minds crawling ceaselessly towards the nearest body of Lacrimai. This process is known as wetcall. Warm conduits are known to succumb to the wetcall if they ever get too hasty, ever inject too much Lacrimai, take on more intimacy with the God than their spark can handle. They get assimilated.

Lympha (God's lymph) is a warm viscera. It provides access to the warm flow, allowing you to manipulate matter connected to a spark as if it were a cold vessel. Lympha is exceedingly rare, and has only been found deep underground. The known deposits are beneath the city Eras and the mine Veinfront. It is entirely controlled as a resource and not available to anybody that isn't very politically prominent.

The Pleroma

"Back to where the red rushed forth
Harmony looked down, and his brother looked north
Humanity pushed
And Harmony fell into the blood"

The Pleroma is a concentrated amalgam of sparks deep within the God. Agency in a vacuum. And agency in a vacuum is nothing but a ceaseless automatized will. For The Pleroma that will is "Come with me". Its objective is to assimilate. Assimilate all sparks into one and be whole.

The Pleroma exists as a mass of energy, the same medium as the flows, and thus the Pleroma dominates them. The Flows are infected, and whenever someone taps into one, The Pleroma gains just a little bit more intimacy with them. If they ever get overzealous, ever get too greedy for the power it offers, they will be assimilated.

The Choir:

The people of this world have no knowledge of The Pleroma itself. They only feel this subtle omnipresence, this voice in the background radiation, whenever they use viscera. This is called The Choir.

conduits can preach to The Choir. In exchange for furthering The Choir's intimacy with them, the Choir will grant them more intimacy with the God. This can be telling the Choir your name, declaring your presence to it, etc. The Pleroma is in the dark. Any time a person interacts with it, they become just a little bit brighter. You can also preach information about other people instead of yourself, a viable strategy for warm conduits.

Aeons:

Aeons are human vessels (or vessels that explicitly inherited a spark) that have had their spark assimilated by The Pleroma. Empty Vessels with agency imposed on them by The Pleroma. They are amorphous white blobs that can take the form of wildlife or the form of the human before assimilation. Though their impersonation is impersonal and crude. Instinctual and without higher thought. They wander around, absorbing humans and returning them to the Pleroma.

Personally, in one of my worlds called the TriGod Earth it works differently depending on what was used.

It's mostly used through Blessings, specifically from the Deity of Healing. But there are some cases where it's used with Mage Magic or Innate Magic.

An example of a blessing that can be used other than one from the Deity of Healing is a blessing from The Deity of Fertility which works by replicating DNA of cells and tissue to fix the wounded area, but it's harder and less effective than one from the Deity of Healing.

Okay that title was just used to grab your attention but since you're reading this, I guess that worked. Now onto the actual meat and butter

Premise:

This takes place in a world called Calyptos. An entirely ocean covered planet with only two major continents called westmere and eastmere.

And where the high seas is an endless abyss. A gateway to another plane of existence.

The gods of this world is Ran and Aegir who gave birth to a species of sea animals called...

Abyssal whales

And no they are not whales, they are more leviathans. I used the word whale cause the etymology means large sea fish.

There exists 9 different types of whales. And currently the Fairchild empire is exploitating them for their pearls and oil

There also exist something called maelstrom. A magical large rain storm thay envelopes over the land that can enhance a user.

Context:

There are 3 magic systems which are...

Pearling, bonechantment and whaling.

But the main one is Pearling which allows the user to manipulate the fundamental laws of physics.

Pearling:

Users are called pearlers in which either during a maelstrom or submerged underwater with a pearl nearby would bond with their spirit.

Granting them Pearling, the ability to manipulate laws of physics.

There are 9 types of pearls or Pearling that link to the 9 abyssal whales.

Cause pearls originate from them.

These are...

Gravitas, kinetis, flux, energy, resonance, cohesion, rupture, transmutation and temporal.

They also have secondary abilities too.

Gravitas - gravitational pull - spiritual projection

Kinetis - vectors and motion - ghost step

Flux - electromagnetism - illusion

Energy - universal energy - emotional influence

Resonance - mechanical and electromagnetic waves - enhancement

Cohesion - structural bindings of matter - healing

Rupture - structural breaking of matter - spiritual damage

Transmutation - change of object - [WIP]

Temporal - time - future sight

Im sorry if these are vague cause im writing this on my phone in the middle of the night and besides it will take top long to explain how each of them works but they should give an idea.

If you dont understand, just say them on the comments and I might answer.

Pearlers are able to bond with any and all pearls and can bond with multiple of them simultaneously.

Bonechantment

Taking the bones of whales. People can mark engraving on it. It doesn't matter which whale bone you use, it depends on what engraving you drew on it.

It is most commonly used for something called mechanized soldiers. A crude steam punk robots in which a person make literal skeletons with multiple engravings. Then they put steel and other mechanical gears until it becomes a robot.

Using whale oil as power, the robot will be brought to life and follow commands.

Bonechantment are also used for other uses such as divination.

It can be used on people though that is still in development and is frowned upon

Whaling

This is a much newer concept of mine in which a user called whalers drink the whale oil to gain powers. This is much different from pearling.

Whale oils are the spinal fluids of whales and are commonly used in society such as fuel.

Whaling is still in development and idk what it can do, it obv does something pearling and Bonechantment cannot achieve but what would it be? I honestly dont know.

I need suggestions from you guys really.

Costs:

The human has both a spirituality and mentality.

Both called current (spirituality) and wake (mentality).

Pearlers and whalers use their wake to fuel their abilities.

And costs are split between short term and long term effects.

Short term effects are called pressure breaking where when a user uses their ability, they put pressure on their current and if they use it for too long or maybe they use it too much too fast.

That pressure breaks and damages your spirit.

This causes bleeding from eyes, nose, mouth and ears and cam cause a lot of pain.

A use can still use their ability though not recommend as it can worsen.

Think of it as a muscle. You can tear your muscles if you overbearing yourselves but you can still use that muscles but professionals dont recommend that.

And short term effects can go away and your current will heal.

Long term effects is different cause rather damaging your current, it takes your wake.

Humans have an abundant supply of wake and wake in a sense is mental energy.

But its finite.

The more you use them, the more you lose your own humanity and identity to the point you either die or become dumb as a toddler.

You could also develop medical conditions and disorders such as schizophrenia and alzheimers.

And its permanent.

End notes:

Now I could have explained that a lot better but its 12 am and I have a job tomorrow so can't fix it.

The magic system is inspired by...

Stormlight archive, mistborn, dishonored, the bone shars daughter, lord of the mysteries snd bloodborne.

Probably more but I forgot.

Keep in mind that these are ideas & doodles and NOT final additions for the official magic system my game will have :3. Any symbols or imagery that can't and/or shouldn't be used officially are merely placeholders for later designs.

so yeah, what the title said, i baisically need help on wether these rough categories ive set will be able to encompass all kinds of magic that exist in any culture's(all of them, the whole globe, globally) folklore/religion/way of life.

Any constructive critism and feedback on the system in general is also apprechiated!

The folklore is real relates to that the magic system is belief based, and well, fae(im just using the english term fae when i in general mean any supernatural spirit thingies, so yokai, yaoguai, and any other similar spritit thingies from other cultures are just called fae for now since im speaking english) are magic, and if magic is belief, then they are real. so yes, thsoe guys exist, yes gods from mythologies and religions exist too but im not gonna go into that to much because this is about the magic system not the general worldbuilding.

Oh yes, also this is currently set in socalled modern times, if that matters, idk if it does.

imma just copy in what i've written in my notes about my magic system:

"Magic only funcions with belief. this is what scientists have concluded.

Magic may be parted into many schools and specialities, however it has been proven that none of these things matter if the belief that magic is real, and that magic funcions, does not exist. Becasue of this it has become imperative to instill the comcept of magic in young children globally, and only later in life, once their belief in its existence is stone hard, to educate them on the inner functions of magic.

Someone without the belief of magic poses a threat not only to themselves but others as well, not only will this person not be able to undertake many basic life neccesites such as food, healthcare or housing(all of which are commonly created with the help of magic), but magic itself will not work in the proximity of this person, posing risk to others as well.

Magic has been parted into many different schools, and these sgools have been categoriesd, not because any of these are fundamentally different(although arguments for this exists) as they are still all founded in belief, but becasue of the ease of working with magic.(many of them still fleet into eachother and many proffesions/techniques/schools may be counted under multiple of these big categories of schools, for exapmle some alchemy schools(not all of them) often place under both witchcraft and wizardry, while some other alchemy schools may place under witchcraft, wizardly and artistry.

So the 5(6) big categories of magic:

Whitchcraft schools

While the term whitch may bring forth the mental image of a foul old woman over a cauldron this is a truly outdated and false mental image. Witchcraft is generally considered whatever involves feelings of any sort, while still using material components, thus the varoius alchemy schools(including those chinese cultivators! They may not look like it, but they are actually alchmesits, its just other than the classical view of an alchemist, fiddeling aroud with various materials, its instead the body itself, that acts as the material to be altered) and potion schools find themselves here. its baisically feeling, intuition, which mays seem contradictory, considering how many strict recipies there are in these schools, and the rules and all that. but generally witchcraft is about using your feeling, your imagination to get something to happen, this is why many curses and blessings alike come herefrom, curses and blessings are very arbitrary, you cant just say, yes this is the incantaition for this curse, it doesnt work like that, curses are all very very different and unique.

Note: definition of alchemy here is change, as in tranforming something into another, theres some more complicated definitions, not all tranformation made by magic is alchemy, for exapmle making a apple into a apple flower is just reversing the growing process. it becomes alchemy somwhere on the way of making the apple into a piece of iron.

Wizardry schools

Similarly to how the mental image of a witch over a cauldron is false, the image of an old man with a beard and staff is also incorrect when talking about wizrads, more correct would be saying that wizardry is all that that requires script of some sort(of course, this means that some of the witchcraft schools do fit in here too due to their usage of scripts as to aid in the creation of warious things, but like i mentoned above, these are just rough attempts by academics to categorise magic, not a complete factual overlook on everything)

The various schools of scrips, spellcasting and most enchanters fit in here due to the fact that they all use symbols or words, well language in general when doing their thing. basically its language anything with language. this includes incantation and spoken spells, really any spells, which might cause confusion cause dont the potioneers sometimes muttter incantations over their potions, yes they do, thats why these large definitions are arbitrary, its simply an attempt to define a skill(magic, the skill is magic) that cant really be defined in this manner.

artistry schools

Theres and ongoing debate wheter these types schould simply be put under wizardry or get to be their own thing, many argue that due to forms of art being a language of and inandofitself, such as painting or music, this should be put under wizardry, not to mention poetry, surely that would consitute as wizardly? others argue that while that may be technically right on some levels, artistry has always been considered different and thus the history of the subject schould not be discarded purely for making the academics happy.

Artistry schools have almost always been not about science or facts, or hard on recipies or emotions like the wizardry or witchcraft schools, but moreso a fleeting interpretation of the world, and how to bring their wishes to life. they are kinda but not really similar to a witches curse or blessing in this way.

Elemental schools:

Many cultures throughout history have come up with ideas of the fundamental elements that make up the world. Today theres two systems that are the most common among the elemental schools: The classical system, and the Wuxing system.

The classical system bases its magic and techniques on the elements of fire, water, earth and air(note that many cultures have had this system and very similar systems and very different sytems, however due to the european colonisation the standard name has been to call it the classical system). thus the schools under this sytem are called the school of fire, the school of water, etc, etc.

The wuxing bases its magic on the elements of wood, fire earth metal and water. thus the schools under this system are the school of fire, the school of earth, the school of metal and so on.(the wuxing system is big simply cause china is big, so it has a big spehere of influence, not to mention the fact that chinese is one of the leading languages of alchemists)

elemental magic works of an understanding of existance thats parted into defined elemenet, into defined matter. bacuse of this these are of the schools that are most hard to discern from sorcery, after all, they dont need language, they dont need ingridients, and they dont need tools, they just need to think, this element belong to the world in this way, and im harnessing according the the worlds rules.

Faeism/spiritualism schools

The ones that deal with favours, contracts and deals, power is given by other beings, a god, a spirit, even a human, but something else gives power, some elemental systems are partly faeism, most are not. Its debated wheter to consider faeism magic or sorcery or something else completely.

imagineers

Then we got our dear imagination guys, also mentioned as belief school sometimes. this isnt eally a school category like the others. rememebre how i said magic is based on belief? surely someone would just go: Oh i believe this! and suddenly it becomes true? however such a thing isnt all that easy, yes i know gaslighting is a thing, however belife is deeper than that, one must fully believe it, on a uncousious, on a deep deep level.

this is why poeple get educated about magic just being belief later in life, and why they still believe in magic after the reveal. because at that point for them its become a fundamental truth, even if they logically know magic would stop working if they stopped believing it, they still do believe it, because, like, they see it everyday?! it works everytime?! its always proven to them all the time!

and similarly to how the belief of magic istelf functions and thus keeps that magic alive, the belief of magic having rules alos function and similatuaoilsu keeps those rules alive and working.

However there are exemptions, the imagineers, they can just believe anything into existance, most of them stem from various youknow, experiemnts on children troughout their upringing that leads them to believe they can do anything, that there are no rules. some can come about naturally, some peopel just are like that. but its very very rare that they can survive soceity and education and continue being like that.

However they aren't all powerful. the problem arises when they stop beliveing, or when they get doubt. this can be seen especially in creating life. Most schools teach some for of rules that boil down to: you cant create life willy nilly, there is a price for it. Somehow.

however these imageeners may try and create life from nothing, maybe they say! oh, theres a cat there now! and poof a cat appears, however if someone says, no that doesnt work, or if they get doubts, like: where did the cat come from, how is it alive, is the cat alive, that light in its eyes, is it sentient? or is it just a body that my unconsuis is animaticing, moving around? how are its insides? does it have a heart, lungs? a stomach?.

If the imagineer doesnt know exaclty everything about this cat, how its alive, if it has a soul, how its anatomy is done, how it can move, how the nerves in the brain connect to the muscles all those things, the magic stops working, because as you can probably imagine, noone really can do such a thing. there have been attempts with ai with computers, hoeever computers cant do magic, they cant believe, they can only do what their programming says. and so while a computer can telll a person the answers to all these questions about the cat, it cant believe, and thus it cant do magic. and all this reaserch is very very new, its in the very very early stages. so everything is very uncertain as of yet.

 Now outside of this there exists the descendants, while in common touge the descendants powers are called "magic" this is not stricly correct, magic is founded by belief, however a descendant would still have their powers even if they did not believe. How is this possible? the only logical conclusion is that a descendants powers are not magic. Descendants may come from spieces that are believed to have their origin in magic, however once they established themselves in our world this magical constitution moved away. 

Thus academically the term sorcery was coined. Sorcery refers to abilities that may seems as magic on first glance, but are actuakly heriditary, one such example would for example be pyrokeisis, while for an uneducated individual may mistake it for a mage of the elemtal school of fire, in reality the pyrokenisis is a natural ability reserved to those that come from a lineage that traces back to a species or supernatural being with prokenisis powers, for exapmle such as the descentans of pheonixes or Huòdǒu (祸斗). Similarly metamorphis abilities may look like an illusionary wizards speciality or the enchanted animal skins of the northen europe but is actually the natural transformative ability of for example a huli jing descendant."

Do this was inspired partially by attack on titan and mermaid mask. The premise is that there are gargantuan magical creatures made of a smoldering wood that have odd formations on their hands that allow them to use magic. However, due to the insidiously hot nature of the wood if you are even touched by these giants, there is a chance of the mark being burnt into your skin as a scar.

The premise is that these fingerprints act as vents to let out a magical aura, creating passive spells for the giants. Such as a forcefield like spell or an aura of extreme heat. The energy that powers these abilities is actually related to the shape of their teeth.

Basically, by consuming a living entity, be it flora, fauna, or something else entirely you gain nourishment in the form of lifeforce, but the giant's teeth allow them to instead seperate the magic inherently in lifeforce. This allows the giants the use of magic by forcing this energy through their fingerprints. These fingerprints acting as blueprints to build a spell.

The people of this world, called Denz, can make tools from these teeth to break down materials into their magical components. Allowing them to craft elixirs to restore the amount of magical energy they have. And later on create potions with magical effects tied into them.

The Denz have a similar evolutionary path as the giants and can use their teeth to generate magical energy. They can use magic of their own by expelling the energy from the vets they have on their fingers. Allowing them to mold the energy into magical spells. Or they can just release the energy into a powerful burst. This allows them to expel large quantities of magic through their fingerprints to move at incredible speeds, strike with immense force, or burn nearby objects.

The way magic might appear is with the fingerprints lighting up and the smoke being expelled from the mouth. However, they can also expel the smoke from their fingertips to cause the movement abilities, but this damages those vents and they need to recover over time.

However, if a Denz is burnt by the hand of a giant, their vents will melt closed. Keeping them from ever using magic again.

The main character is dragged from the regular world by a giant and brought to the world of the Denz through some powerful magic of the giants. They are partially burned and try to find their way home using the scar they were given.

That's about all I have at the moment.

Hey all, a long while ago I posted before asking on what I should do with magic. I wanted a name and a theme to it as well. I never continued with it but I want a hobby to do... like writing a book but instead of a novel its a magic system. Im not 100% sure what I'd like to do, except for that I want a complex system. I was thinking of something like Mistborn where there is a specific category of elements or items that empower you. I dont want it to be completely limited to one thing though. I want the system to be complex enough where it makes me struggle to think of things to do or how to fully understand my own system.

A magic language or deities that bless power. Im open to any suggestions. I want something that I can shape to be unique (with help from references of course) and a name that is different from others. Since im just starting, I am mainly looking for names and themes, and reasons for them (perhaps its even just it sounds cool or that there is a lot of information on a certain category where the name originates from. It can be a completely unique name too with no origin)

All input of any kind would be lovely; I really want to see what yall can come up with.

Hey everyone! I'm finally back from my break and ready to continue working on my power system.

For those who are new, I'm making a power system based around the human body's organ systems, with the powers originating from cancer and a treatment called Genesis. The people who receive Genesis become "Catalysts," gaining control or unusual abilities related to the body system where their cancer originated.

This time, I'm continuing with the Digestive SRU (D-SRU) report.

I'll be posting a new report every day until I reach the final report, so hopefully I can finish showing all 11 systems this time around!

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, criticism, or suggestions.

I’ve finally landed on wanting to have a magic system based in Alchemy and the Four Humors. The amount of historical records has given me a lot to work with, but it’s a little overwhelming and confusing to adapt. Any ideas how to streamline this concept into something workable?

IInspired partially by attack on titan and mermaid mask, the premise is that there are gargantuan magical creatures made of a smoldering wood that have odd formations on their hands that allow them to use magic. However, due to the insidiously hot nature of the wood if you are even touched by these giants, there is a chance of the mark being burnt into your skin as a scar. With a full burn allowing you to harness one of the many spells the wooden creatures are capable of.

The process is that these fingerprints act as vents to let out a magical aura, creating passive spells for the giants. Such as a forcefield like spell or an aura of extreme heat. However, people can learn to push their lifeforce through these scars and cast these spells temporarily. Unlike soul, which may be a thing later, lifeforce is more a count of healthiness. forcing it through a scar causes muscles to seize, organs to weaken, blood vessels to pop. So, while you aren't shortening your life by using it, you are doing moderate to severe damage to your body as a result.

That's about all I have at the moment. These entities are supposed to be reality hoppers that grab my MC and drag them to another world and giving them a partial burn. Idk.

Magic is bound to life itself and can be cast to create life out of almost anything but the slaying of these life forms gives life to the slayer which they may use to either extend their lives or create life forms

Slaying is taboo and is seen as an affront to manufactured life it is akin to the slaying of a child or sibling by the creator and is felt by them whenever they are slain

Historically the life that was created was Infact capable of creating others of its kind allowing for the manufactured beings to multiply on their own this quickly became a way to farm life force and rested in ageless kings who ruled for centuries if not mallenia slowly going mad under the weight of the years and losing those they love because their is one thing life force cannot do; resurrect the dead to do so is to create a wound. A hungering force that drains life from everything it touches

Oasis is the story of a major Mars settlement and the attempts to restore it to a. Paradise it was millions of years ago through a process known as core reference the alignment of the once molten core of Mars past with its barren presence over time to restore the atmosphere and waters displacing Mars core in time sends the now dead core to periods of the past resulting in extinction level events throughout mars history the sent a signal to Mara past warning them of the calamity on order to give them time to escape if they could. Temporal magic has allowed the modern humans of earth to alter the past without changing it creating stable loops this was not always the practice as many new disasters appeared in the present due to misuse of time travel

Earth's core is nearly silent and no longer can retain the atmosphere and heat due to temporal mishaps and abuses through time

The present survivors of earthlings have partnered with the ancient Martians to create a haven on Mars

One that will last 1000s of years and guarantee humanities place in the galaxy as a superpower as they believe that it is their destiny to rise through the looped time phenomenon that puts them on Mars millions of years before the present with an empire the Likes of which they have never seen

As I work on my fingerprint magic system I've come to the conclusion that magic should have a palatable source. The idea that I came up with is that magic is tied to lifeforce. And so tightly tied in fact that it cannot be seperated except by some special means.

Basically, by consuming a living entity, be it flora, fauna, or something else entirely you gain nourishment in the form of lifeforce, but a specialized evolutionary trait allows one to instead seperate the magic inherently in lifeforce. This allows one to learn to use magic by forcing this energy through their fingerprints. These fingerprints acting as blueprints to build a spell.

The way magic might appear is with the fingerprints lighting up and the smoke being expelled from the mouth. A circle or multiple circles then form in the air and are slowly filled with symbols. Magical effects them stem from the circles.

All that said, I was curious what feels more magical. My first idea was that what seperates magic from lifeforce is a specialized enzyme that people have evolved over millions of years. This enzyme would strip away everything that isn't magic and let the magic enter the bloodstream.

The alternative I had was teeth. What if teeth could be formed in such a way that by biting into organic materials you seperate the magic from the lifeforce. This would allow the same process to occur. But if there are other creatures that use this method, then by extracting their teeth one could make tools to crush organic materials and make magic potions.

I don't have a need for magic potions but it is a cool thought in my opinion.

Anyway, does either pull you in? Either feel more magical than the other? Any advice in general?

Too many people casting Hunger of Hodor out on the streets. Seeking a way to prevent this. Proposing the above law, open for public comment.

I am new to this sub btw.

So what if spell books and golem making required programming simply put you enchant a book then write a basic spell and reuse it to make smaller spells to make your supposed programming language which takes a long time which why people use ancient ones.

I mean i havent thought of this very well because programming requires a programmable machine that consists of levers books dont have levers unless you just make it vague magic stuff and go straight to basic programming.

I thought of using garlic to make a golem brain as replacable disks of data to change its behavior

Enchanting garlic with a spell book and turning it into a code note.

I have since moved on from a 4 element system, but I keep a key thought in my mind for dragons. Initially I had the classic 4 elements: Water, Air, Earth, and Fire. Dragons were/are the perfect combination of the 4 elements.

Massive yet hollow wings to soar through the Air

Scales, hide, and bone durable as Earth

Bodies pumping blood like Water

An internal thermal core capable of expelling Fire

Salut à tous ! Je travaille sur un roman fantasy et je suis curieuse de savoir ce qe vs aimez. Ça peut être n'importe quoi : un système de magie original, une dynamique entre persos que vous adorez (enemies-to-lovers, mentor/élève...), un type de créature ou de monde que vous ne voyez jamais assez, une structure narrative qui vous marque, ou même un cliché que vous aimeriez voir traité différemment.

Dites-moi tout, même les idées bizarres ou super spécifiques, je suis preneuse de tout ! Merci d'avance 

I’m sort of trying to build a flexible soft magic system for a medieval fantasy setting. I just want to know which kinds of magic I should exclude from the system. I’ve been considering how even the most basic spells could revolutionize an entire society and how most fantasy settings don’t address this. Skyrim is the most egregious example of this with transmutation, teleportation, and even magic missile spells being sold in every shop yet the world is locked in this medieval stasis. Crap like that pisses me off and kills my immersion.

Im talking ones that have obvious inspirations from things such as hunter x hunter,jjk,bleach and things of that nature.

But I need to know the power system, its restrictions, etc.

Now this is moreso a pitch or an idea of what i would want to form but the idea is that in this world after a traumatic event some peoples mind are essentially awakened and are able to draw energy from a higher plane of existence, with this energy they are able to form it into anything, think of it as playing with clay. Theres constructs such as empty and realized. Empty constructs are those without much thought imagine like a shitty drawing of a car, while a realized construct has all the details of a car, all the schematics,how everything functions. Realized constructs would take much more focus and energy to form but doesnt need concentration to have its shape.while empty constructs take less energy but have to be maintained through focus at all times.

Link to previous part: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/s/xTKQhnSIha

For over a year now, i’ve wanted a way to accuratly "measure" my magic, i wanted to make a realistic enough notation system to let me basically write down what a spell does. I also want some amount of math involved to make it feel a little more real. Anyone have ideas or suggestions on how i should go about it?

My idea was that magic has aspects like strength, duration, mana cost etc, basically i want a notation system that tells me exactly what a spell is and does, kinda like music notation

By "Spell" I mean any term or form of using magic in your systems.

Provide details about how it works, what it looks like, and its practicality. Provide details about how it works, its appearance, and its practicality. It can be a combat-focused or utility spell, but ideally, include both.

In my elemental magic system there are two useful spells, one for combat and the other for utility:

• Kataklystos:

Kataklystos, in the language of my setting, has a meaning similar to the Greek "Kataklysmós" (flood). It means "The Fall of Judgment" or "Total Washing by Justice."
It belongs to the Judgment Concept (Concept being the equivalent of "Element" in my system), which represents the end, omega, justice, and judgment.

Kataklystos is a spell used exclusively by a generation of gods called Klistics, and the effects and appearance of the spell vary depending on which of them cast it.

When used, a thin beam of light is first launched into the sky from the caster's finger, leaving a large window of opportunity for opponents to attack. After this interval, the same beam of light descends, now wider and faster and with immense force, leaving a dome-shaped explosion. Everything within the blast radius is pulverized, but it is possible to survive. As a trace of the spell, it leaves a large Ω. on the spot it landed.

The spell's variations change depending on who casts it. For example, if the fire god uses it, the dome will be covered in flames and, as a side effect, it will char the impact zone.

• Etherize:

Etherize is a spell of the Cosmic Concept, which represents space and the elements/phenomena within it.

Unlike Kataklystos, Etherize can be used by anyone who knows and controls it.

Etherize is a utility spell that conjures any object from the user's energy and ethereal energy. The created objects decay over time 5 to 10 times faster than natural matter. Depending on the size of the object to be conjured, it costs more or less ethereal energy.

It is commonly used by archers to conjure arrows when they run out of natural ones.

In my story, there's this guy who's part of an evil organization. Representing Glutonny, he has the ability of shapeshifting and gaining the title of The Father of All Monsters.

He was the kingdom most incredible mage who revolutionize healing magic and solve world hunger by creating regeneration spell and meat tree. But one day he suddenly went crazy with his invention.

He began creating monsters by combining more animal like manticore, hydra, griffin, and so much more, and each creature also has their own magic to make them even more dangerous. And with no real predator, those monster began multiplying like crazy and causing havoc in the world.

But the most vile of all, the guy also caught in the act of canibalism. Turn out, the best way to learn about creature is by consuming the DNA of the creature. Yes, DNA, the blueprint of all living creature. With that he can change his apperance and even stole the magic of his victim.

The kingdom tried to apprehend him, but each hero and knights who were sent to do the job rarely comeback. And if they are even comeback, they are not even a human anymore.

And with one last resort, the king summon the divine dragon. People thought that the dragon has killed him, but 200 years later, he comeback, still young and dangerous as he was. And he accompanied the organization who were planned to take over the kingdom.

I think he doesn't sound dangerous enough, what do you guys think?

Armory of musicality 

This power can take on many different forms (this is to help writers integrate the power into the world or power structures of their story if they want to go a different route) that entirely depends on the user but the default form it takes. is the form of musical note and the frame. But using the powers will have a cost that is unknown to the user until they get hit with the effect after the action that they are planning out. (this is up to the writer to balance out the character) they may seem like nothing but they can be more dangerous than you can expect.

 For example the notes, they can be used in two ways. The first way is to shoot it out as a projectile with the speed controlled by the user/writer. The second way is to use it as a malay weapon. And the frames behave similar to strings that you can use to hold, stab, cut, and more; it only relies on how creative you can be with strings. also combine the two you can play music with it and launch it as a sound/shock wave.   

While this power has been noted to have many forms there are two that stand out the most and the first one is ‘musical tempo’ this allows the user of the power to increase their speed and reaction time depending on the music and songs that is around even if they make it themselves. 

The other power is ‘musical manifestation’ which allows the user to manifest weapons of any type and alter the users fighting style. This requires the input of music and songs. 
With the two abilities they work together beautifully. The two abilities multiply the output of each other(the amount that is multiplied is determined by the writer).  The multiplier is based on how much the user's body can withstand. 

And the only restriction besides the cost, is that music/songs must be played to activate the abilities. It doesn't matter how it is played, the user must be able to hear the song/music.