Law of Magic

DekuKurohi

What would a combination of ZUN and Nasu be like?
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Magic is one hell of a fictional trope that is the crux of genres like fantasy and supernatural.
If there is one thing that might or might not get brought up by the readers (and sometimes the author themselves) regarding magic is how the heck does it even actually work. Obviously each fictional world would have different rules regarding limitation of magic (or lack thereof) that the author put in place to make sure there’s a logical path for the readers to follow.

Here in this thread the thing I want to see is discussion, on the rules you all made to limit your magic so it doesn’t cause Deus ex Machina every words, as well as law of magic of other series you have seen that you either take issue or inspiration, letting the world (lol) know of some pretty ingenious (or the opposite of that) take on magic.

Mine for example doesn’t have the clearest of rules just yet, the main crux is how mana/magic points exist as sort of a variant of matter (or energy hasn’t fully decided yet) that can be interacted with using the soul or something else extrasensory, it can be melded into different elements or cause reaction, while also able to bend law of physics and able to destroy anti-matter without it being a mutual destruction, it doesn’t quite exist on the same plane of reality as those that abide the law of physics. Existing for the most part in the atmosphere while living creatures can absorb it to gain more power. Sounds a tad sci-fi but whatever.
Also I put magic circuits in there as a shout-out to Type-Moon, in fact I think some of the stuff I made up about magic can be traced back to Type-Moon, since they have such an intrecate system of mana and spells that I probably put in there without thinking.
 
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Well mine is, since my Saints are given god-powers, they were granted a specific kind of power (like healing for Maddie, Weather-Control for Ruro, etc. This is so that no one would be dominant than the other.

Another rule that I made in my other story, DECK, is that there are ranks among the Mages, and magic is divided into Basic and Advanced categories. Those who can only cast Basic magic is at the lowest rank (Novice) and those who can cast Advanced Spells fall under the highest rank (Sage) and are considered a nation's pride.
 

bloodyWriter

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I do soft world building, so I am not explaining the limitations too deeply in my story. Still, there are some like not everyone can use every element, monsters cannot use other magic, except the magic they were born with and that the capacity for mana kind of forbids spells that are too powerful, altough there are some ways around this which are incredibly hard to achieve.
 

TotallyHuman

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Well... I have 3 stories (4 but that one is on like a year+ hiatus and has to be rewritten) and the general idea is that every universe (realm in my stories) follows different fundamental laws of physics and metaphysics. So, on the lowest level concepts like inertia or energy are implemented differently.
In order to do magic, characters in my stories have to use some kinds of crutches and access a higher level of existence, thereby warping reality itself. Generally its very time-consuming, expensive, requires a ton of knowledge and gets more and more unpredictable the stronger the cast magic.
For example, in my xianxia story, cultivators study the Heavenly Way and through synchronizing their minds and bodies as well as using their spiritual roots to access the profound truths of the Dao, they do magic.
Or in my isekai story, the system acts as a middleman between man and magic, changing the very nature of life of the characters and by giving them skills, it gives them magical abilities
The biggest constraint I put on magic is that at higher levels it's not possible to share knowledge about it as one would be able to with, say, mathematics. It's very random and doesn't follow laws of logic well, at least as far as mortal minds are concerned.
The second biggest constraint is the limitations on the physical body. I divided all beings into categories and those belonging to different categories will have stronger restrictions on their growth, potential, intelligence and so forth. Like, in my xianxia story, human cultivators are of lower level than demons
 
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Ruriha

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I've tried a few interpretations on several occasions, from highly illogical down to the most mundane. I've also did an analogy on how mana particles should interact together, which compared it to a magnet with opposing polar sides.

As for the system itself, on one case I provided that the ability of a person to manipulate mana is relative to the capability of a special organ that can be found in the brain to send high freq. signals, which is a byproduct of a mutation.

The same can be said for the opposite. Rather than focusing on individual talent, other system I've developed focuses on the state of the universe. It's just some people are wired to use certain type of magic, and thus better suited for it.

Oh, and don't forget magic systems from games! It's very easy to explain since people can be segregated based on their class, and similarly the extent of their ability to conjure magic relative to their level as well.
 

ArcadiaBlade

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Mine is a hybrid of magic and cultivation. Meaning i start to implement magic and combining them into the cultivation. Each stage having different uses on magic.

Body Refinement, magic gathers outside into the human body and enhance them either with elemental spirit or Aura(Spirits for Spirit cultivator and Auras for Body cultivator).

Soul Condensation, the mental state is affected for the cultivators but for Body Cultivators can easily bypass with speed and easily broke through from there yet are not resistant to mind attacks.

Golden Stage, The Cultivator's body undergo a huge rebirth which depends on how hard the begining stages for a normal cultivator. Spirit cultivators who had less elemental affinity can easily break through and Body cultivators undergo extreme pains to break through which will break their minds and even mentally break if their breakthrough ever break.

Soul Formation, Spirit Cultivator's First hardest breakthroughs as they will face their mental state breaking down or even turn retarded. Body Cultivators will also face the same as their minds will be enhanced to compensate their weak bodies.

As of now, this is currently how my novel's power system works. There are another breakthrough stages but this is the current system as their powers also depends on their cultivation.

Spirit cultivators are weak while Body Cultivators are strong. Spirit Cultivators can cast magic while Body Cultivators uses Aura as an enhancement and as an attack. Main strength of Spirit Cultivator can use mental and even spiritual attacks that can easily toy a Body cultivator yet they can still defend by training their mental state and willpower.
 

BenJepheneT

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I have a magic system that's basically satire. In this world, the "magic" is basically "cultivating the feel of elements".

In layman terms, if you """feel""" like a rock enough, you can actually use Rock Magic: as in earth manipulation and shit. It may sound easy but cultivating that """feel""" takes a long time, making most magicians hundred year old liches/dwarves/elves/liches with very few "gifted" humans in between.

You can cultivate """feel""" for other elements like fire, water, air and shit, but in order to have that """feel""" you have to heavily interact with that element. As in, setting yourself on FIRE, drowning yourself in WATER, constantly being in AIR, etc. As for ROCK, it's literally on the ground. Or in caves. Just go """feel""" that shit laying on the floor or playing with boulders enough.

Plus, even if you do master the elements, you've still got a long way before big FIRE ball, high jet WATER or TORNADO type shit. Mostly just FLAMETHROWING, or WATER splashing, or THROWING DUST IN YOUR EYES WHILE I RUN AWAY, things easily circumvented with normal ass armour. For EARTH you can literally manipulate a rock wall, or create crevices on the floor for your enemies to trip and fall on for starters. Making golems or causing earthquakes come pretty late, but you don't even need those to be advantageous.

PLUS, you need the resources to do that magic. For FIRE magicians you need a heavy source of fire. For WATER magicians you need a good source of water (unless you can turn the air into water, which is high level as fuck). Which leaves AIR and ROCK on another level of advantages since they really only need air and floor.

At the end this just makes ROCK magician ubiquitous whilst SPECIAL magicians useless. Even if you have great affinity with FIRE, unless you some GOD MODE FIRE magician you're still gonna lose to the most novice of ROCK magicians due to how easy it is to be one.

So forget interesting magic and stuff. It's just a few lot of rock magic users fucking up in devastated forestry or terrorising villagers.

Yeah I hate fantasy settings

Oh and mana is basically mental energy. There's no way of calculating it. It's just whether you're tired enough to make another rock table or some shit.
 

Ral

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There are discussions and literature written about this.

The most authoritative seems to be Sanderson's Law of Magic:

The First Law: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.

The Second Law: Limitations > Powers.

The Third Law: Expand what you already have before you add something new.

The first law essentially means that the less restricted your magic system is (that is, there are fewer rules that guides it) the less satisfying it is to use to solve your story's conflict. This is why Gandalf didn't use his wizard prowess to solve everything and he isn't the one who is tasked destroy the ring. It would be incredibly unsatisfying otherwise. On the other hand we have Spider Man and his spider abilities. There are rules of what his abilities can do and in this case it is not his abilities that save the day but more on Spider Man's skill, wit and knowledge. You didn't feel cheated, for example, if he use his web slinging to halt his fall to death (as long as there are buildings or something nearby for his web to grab on to).

From the first law comes two classification of magic system. Soft and Hard. Soft magic system just do stuff with no explanation how they work. On the other hand, hard magic system have very defined rules on how the magic works. They have their advantages and disadvantages. What to go for depends really on your story and what it needs.

Second Law essence is this: what makes the magic interesting in a story is not about what it can do but what it can not do.

Just think for a moment. An important aspect of a story is the conflict. Then, conflict can only be derived out of your magic system from things it can't do/solve. After all, if the magic system can solve the problem, there is no conflict or the conflict doesn't have weight.

This is why overpowered characters are really boring. Any conflict can be solved in a snap. And on the other side we have Spider Man. There are lots of things that Spider Man can't do and from there the conflict, tension and suspense are derived from. He can't just wave a wand and solve fix everything.

Third Law is where almost all writers here mess up. This is specially a common problem with LitRPGs. They will add a lot of cool stuff and do nothing with them. They add more and more stuff until the magic system becomes a mess.

Instead of adding more stuff, take what you have and expand from it. If say, your character can teleport short distances, then show us all the cool stuff that can be done with it.

This is what Avatar: The Last Airbender excel at. The magic system is actually rather simple, even clichéd. People can control the four main elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth with the exception of the Avatar than can control all of the elements. That basically much it, but the depths of the execution is just awesome. They have legends of the first benders and how they learn to bend their respective elements: like, water benders learn from the moon and fire benders learn from the dragons, etc.. They have nations that have cultures that reflects their elements like how the water tribes uses ice as building materials.
 
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RimuThighHighs

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In my story people are born with affinity for a particular element (Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Shadow or Flare) and can only use magic relating their specific element with some neutral spells like healing thrown in the mix. In addition the spells that one can cast are broken up into tiers with tier one being basic and tier three being advanced. To activate any magic a chant must be said but the more talented and skilled a mage is the shorter the chant. Tier 1 is a full sentence while tier 3 is typically the name of the spell alone. The main protagonist has access to her own unique type called Void Magic which is easily one of the most powerful element of magic. I balanced this buy making her a total glass cannon with an extreme lack of stamina. And humans don't so much have magic inherently but borrow it from elemental spirits who reign over their respective elements.
 

NotaNuffian

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The magic in my work mainly focused on being a reality breaker, to make the impossible possible, solely because as all the Maguses state "we are the closest to the laws of gods". Indeed, to use magic like coding, one must have the proper ability like able to convert ether into mana, to be able to use said mana like ink and to write out the proper inputs in order for the "miracle" to occur. Though the common elements are still hinge on science, like fire needs air (oxygen) and fuel (be it mana or the hydrogen converted in air). Ether in this case is relatively unactive, abit like crude oil, this is due to contamination for being around the environment too long and not being purified by natural ether nodes/ leylines. Thus mages are living purifiers and coders in one package.

With each circle specifies the efficiency of the body's ability to purify and store said mana as ink for later usage, this means that their bodies are slowly converted to accommodate mana and less of their other essential energies. During the process of gaining circles, it is possible that the mages to lose their bodies as it is unable to continue the strenuous process and end up as a complete ethereal form still capable to cultivate but has a shorter lifespan plus lacking in defense against radiations.

The basic magical elements are the common fire, water, earth and wind. Then people start to add on to the pile like Light and Dark (still deciding to be seperate or together), space, time (mostly on clairvoyence), Electricity, somehow metal (???), Wood, Life and Death (once again dunno to seperate or together, for my porn I put them together though) and mana manipulation aka telekinesis.
 
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Maple-Leaf

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Magic for me is just kinda like technology, in that the possibilities are seemingly endless, but if you don't have someone to invent that stuff and come up with spells, it's basically useless. And then I overthrow that whole concept by making the main character the only exception to that "rule".
 

ZoeStorm

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In my current story, it's basically like Fullmetal Alchemist: the mage / wizard has to inscribe or draw a magic circle or a series of runes, the more complex the effect, the bigger the circle. Then there's other things like potions and elixirs which help speed up the effects of magic or make it more effective, but no circle, no magic.

This means that, without time to prepare, a wizard is essentially a normal human.
 

NotaNuffian

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In my current story, it's basically like Fullmetal Alchemist: the mage / wizard has to inscribe or draw a magic circle or a series of runes, the more complex the effect, the bigger the circle. Then there's other things like potions and elixirs which help speed up the effects of magic or make it more effective, but no circle, no magic.

This means that, without time to prepare, a wizard is essentially a normal human.
So is it safe to say that people will be carrying premade scrolls to use in battles? Is the circle a one off or can be used until the thing is damaged? Can the circles be inscribed into weapons to give it extra bite? But most importantly, what sort of cheats your MC has? Unless he/ she/ it is a normie who grind like the rest of the folks, then hardwork and a lot of luck is their cheat.
 

DubstheDuke

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Strangely enough, my own world is actually the product of a computer simulation. Essentially, the law that governs the world is not a god, but rather an AI type computer that has some level of intelligence but it is merely law based intelligence for the most part. Basically, the AI will assign magical power/ability to people, and these people can of course train themselves to 'level up' their skills- to a certain maximum which depends on the person. The potential of each person to learn certain skills and abilities is determined from the start, and the current status of the person depends on how much training they have done to 'unlock' such skills- usually. Sometimes however, the system just decides to randomly grant someone a skill, even without any training.
 

kola

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In my story, the world is filled with Gods' divine blessings, they allot a few people with various skills when they turn 18 years old. Since that day their body will become receptive to that blessing and stores it in. The capacity to store depends on the level and skill level depends on practice. Also, magic skills are only gods given can never be learned and also very slow to grow and limited in application, as MC could grow a small sprout from seed with his skill at level-0. Skills given by Gods are also of non-magical nature like cook, and if someone does not have the skill, say cook then it only means that his cooking will result in half good result than a level-0 cook.

So they are basically there but not a game-changer at the start and grow very slowly in usefulness. So, they need the mage association or sects to sustain themselves.
 

Stratothrax

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Obligatory link to Brandon Sanderson's excellent writing lecture on magic systems:


 

ZoeStorm

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So is it safe to say that people will be carrying premade scrolls to use in battles? Is the circle a one off or can be used until the thing is damaged? Can the circles be inscribed into weapons to give it extra bite? But most importantly, what sort of cheats your MC has? Unless he/ she/ it is a normie who grind like the rest of the folks, then hardwork and a lot of luck is their cheat.

Unfortunately, in my setting wizards have no place on the battlefield. People who can use magic are few and far in-between, and they're too precious to be put at risk in the middle of a battle; they're mostly employed as court wizards, doing magical stuff that doesn't require them to leave their room.

In fact, what I'm writing is essentially low fantasy: magic exists and people know about it, but the average person will likely never encounter it in their whole life. Think Conan The Barbarian; or, if you want a more modern example, A Song of Ice and Fire.
 

K5Rakitan

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I didn't bring magic into my story until chapter 40. It wasn't my initial plan to bring magic into the story, but I was coming to a potential ending point, and I was having too much fun writing the story, so I decided to keep it going that way. As for how it works, I'll reveal that in due time, but for those who want to know without reading the story:

The magic is based on the faith/trust/love given to the people wielding it. If they ever lose that faith/love/trust, they will also lose their power. They also need some sort of item to channel the power, and getting one that resonates on the right frequencies for the individuals involved is mostly a matter of luck, hence humanity's obsession with shiny objects. I set the story in the modern world, and I speculate that all the gods we believe in (yes, ALL of them) came to power in this way.
 

ConTroll

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I've hinted at a magic system in my story, and I call it Natural Energy, which oddly sounds like "mah-jyk" in the common tongue of the world.

I haven't actually explored it yet due to reasons (spoilers), but the system is currently setup as another form of energy present only in rocky planets with a specific element found in the planet's core.

All life on planets with this element both "produce" and use the energy naturally, and, like the law of thermodynamics, this type of energy -- Natural Energy -- cannot be be created or destroyed, only transferred or changed to another form.

To use Natural Energy is similar to the expendenture of calories, where a deficit in reserves have clear detrimental effects on the user. On the same note, gathering Natural Energy beyond one's capacity also has a detriment similar to the "bends" or decompression sickness scuba and deep-sea divers experience when surfacing too quickly.

Anyway, it is a pretty sci-fi explanation for magic in a science-fantasy story.

There are also many different ways to use Natural Energy other than your typical magic circles, arias, etc., but I'll leave that a mystery.

Edit: Typing on phone leads to many spelling errors
 
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TheHelpfulFawn

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My concept of magic is your standard magic stuff but with the added fact that it is foreign to the world and has been integrated into the ecosystem throughout the ages.
 
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