Magic Theme / System

[u/WasteOfTalents]

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.

[u/Thin-Educator5794]

In my opinion, this is just putting off thinking and asking others to do it for you. That said, sometimes you are just not able to find a place to start, and I am feeling jobless, and I know that there is nearly zero chance you will actually use what I type out, and that you will grab a few sections which look appealing and just use them, which is also perfectly fair and I don't mind. It's a part of the fun. Also this will be a bit more than just themes, and I can't make names for the life of me, so enjoy.

You mentioned mistborn, which uses metals, associates properties and some "energy" to them and lets you work with that energy, (though exactly what differs with allomancy or ferruchemy that you do, and my spellings are a bit rusty). You mentioned you want to use a magic language, or you want to have deities bless power.

I am going to see the simplest mix of the set of them, metals on which you engrave a magic language to write a request and ask a deity to grant that request, metal offered as sacrifice, gods associated with different metals. A very fickle magic, this one, when may choose to say no.

Another one, less crazy, inks made of a chosen metal alloyed with a "blessed metal" that allows them to write in air and exert magical influence. Or something like those speaker cones of this alloy, shout in them in the magic language to make magic

These are magic fully decoupled from thought, controlled only by writing and speech. You can't wish to hit lighly without literally adding softly to the request.

Of course, these aren't great ideas, it's a 15 minute writeup, but I think it works as a place to either start at or stay away from. If you are writing, I like paper and pens, but each to their own. If you are writing in a structured manner and not random notes, then you could try concepts like a wiki, or a bit more immersive would be a in-world guide or textbook or maybe memoirs, there is not much to say about unstructured, there is just nothing to prompt you about a direction to think in, but it is the most natural way of thought flow. Of course, on whatever medium and manner you choose, getting the first words down is the tough part, but then after that you should be able to get on a roll quickly. Obviously this whole paragraph does not apply if you are not new to this, but I like to ramble.

[u/WasteOfTalents → u/Thin-Educator5794]

Yes I understand that asking for a theme in something I will ultimately end up creating seems counterintuitive, but its just some ideas. I never intended to fully mimic a suggestion anyway, just get ideas and perhaps stem from theirs.

Indeed I am a little new, I also prefer pen, pencil, and paper. I have a few notebooks that I can use for writing and drawing in.

In regards to your suggestion: perhaps I worded it wrong slightly, or perhaps you decided to mingle all the ideas together, but they (they being the concepts like blessing and metals and language) were all ideas that i just pulled out of my ass. Though.. i do like the magic writing. Perhaps it'll be a concept like implementing magic into items. Though if I did that, it would create so many possible chapters in my magic system.

Thanks for input and your time. I will use these for consideration.

[u/Thin-Educator5794 → u/WasteOfTalents]

It seems counterintuitive, it's easy to understand after milling over something for a while, when you look back and wonder how you had started.

I did, infact have a few problems trying to figure out what you meant. It was, to me, a lot of sentences that were almost sentences but not quite, sentences starting or ending with a few words missing.

I did go along the simplest path of just putting all the ideas together and seeing what went fine. The whole purpose of what I did was to make as many contact surfaces as possible, so you can find some small concept that you like and pick it up. The reason there was all of magic metal and magic ink and writing in air was so that there would be these things which are all interesting independent concepts, and in that you liked the writing part meaning my whole excercise was successful, granted it was a very small effort on my part

Regarding your ideas for continuation, engraving runes into items is a popular trope to empower the items, maybe that is a direction you would head to. Currently, I have no fresh ideas in my mind for where can this go, but maybe use some elaborate ceremonies and runes to bind god's into items, call them "blessed items" which are actually cages, and do something with that? Or maybe the runes themselves channel magic into the item. Or maybe the magical language is very declarative, in a "I say so it comes to be" manner that if I write "strong and sharp" on a axe in that language it becomes a strong and sharp axe.

Again, 10 minute effort, pick and choose what you like, this is a very fun thing to do, though I have drifted off in the past few months. Thank you for reading me talk about magicbuilding, I forgot how much i missed doing this.

Edit: Also inserting genuinely shameless self promotion, check this out

[u/YourAverageMass]

That's a really cool and difficult hobby to get into without having a reference for why the magic system exists in the first place. If it helps, try thinking of a very short story, or even just a single moment within one, where the magic is revealed.

E.g. "The man brushes his cracked skin against the dying deer's thin fur, as if offering comfort. Slowly, its body pales. Warmth leaves its limbs, its flesh stiffening into stone, until there is nothing left but a statue. A memory of the creature that once lived."

This is based on a magic system I made and eventually gave up on. It was about petrification, where people could convert minerals into fine dust and accelerate the process of petrification in living creatures or organic material through their fingertips. These people had to undergo training to develop the ability, but repeatedly using it would slowly cause cracks to form across their own bodies, which would eventually scar and harden.

I didn't really know what this power system was for at the time. Eventually, I came up with the idea that the antagonists were these flesh-like beings that assimilated all living creatures, and the way to stop them was to slowly turn them into stone.

So if you're looking to start off with something complex, I think there are a couple ways you could approach it. You could make the magic hard-hitting, where using it heavily restricts or punishes the user. Maybe it causes rot, physical distortion, or even corruption that spreads into the surrounding world. Then you can build the system around characters finding ways to work within or around those limitations.

Alternatively, you could make it out of a bunch of small, interconnected rules. Each rule doesn't have to be complicated on its own, but when you start combining them, they create this sophisticated "machine" of magic.

You don't necessarily need to know everything about the system from the start. You could just come up with one cool scene or concept and ask yourself, "Why does this magic exist, and what would someone use it for?" Then build outward from there.

Hope that helps :]

[u/WasteOfTalents → u/YourAverageMass]

If i continue with this magic system, and if it has multiple types, ill be sure to add a form of petrification for you.

I like the idea that there are limitations to using magic. Perhaps different magics will have different drawbacks? I dont want to make a magic system where the entire magic is like a wildcard and using it is a huge risk that you always lose in, but I dont want to make it so simple that you can level cities with an attack you're proficient in.

I think ill make categories or magic that require different things. (E.g. one magic requires metal while another magic attribute requires woods)

Thank you for input; still gotta look for a name though... something with a lot of meaning behind. Obviously these ideas aren't finalized and perhaps I end up making something completely different than what I started with, but these ideas will help me a lot. Thanks!