# Magic Concept



## Tamwen (Dec 18, 2011)

Okay... This is a very rough idea, and I'm trying to figure it out by discussing it. It's in no way a final draft idea.

So... This mainly stemmed from an interest in two games: Guild Wars and Thief.

In Guild Wars, one of my favorite classes visually is the Ritualist. http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/e/e6/Ritualist_render.jpg It always seemed very interesting to me; the whole blindfold yourself thing and all the very primal jewelry with the beads and teeth and tattoos. So when I was brainstorming a good magic system for my story, the visual interestingness of the Ritualist was a sort of... jumping off point.

In essence, there are two types of magic. They aren't mutually exclusive by any means, but the path of one is rarely taken.

The first and most common type is the use of crystals. This is where the interest in Thief comes in. In Thief, there were elemental crystals that grew in various places. You could find water crystals in fountains and streams, fire crystals among the coals of a fireplace, earth crystals wedged in trees or among grass and bushes, etc. You could use these crystals as arrowheads, and when they shattered, they would cause an effect that reflected their element. A water crystal that shattered would create water, a shattered fire crystal would start a fire, etc. 

Crystals in my world are similar. They either are naturally suffused with a certain element, or a member of the next type of magic suffuses it with magic. More often than not, these crystals are used in a way that requires no actual skill in mage-craft. Fire crystal could line the edge of a sword, allowing it to be ringed with fire; or armor can have earth crystal embedded in it to provide better, lighter protection. This type of augmentation is extremely difficult and thus extremely expensive. 

If one receives special training, one can control the magic in these crystals and cast spells using wands or staffs. Each elemental type is different, and thus different training is required for different elements. Consequently, it's very rare for a mage to be able to control multiple kinds of crystals/elements. People with certain personalities or dispositions may have a knack for certain elements; people who are independent, assertive, and difficult to control have a natural affinity for fire, while predictable, practical, responsible people tend to be better suited to earth. This is perhaps the crudest, simplest form of magic use, yet it's also the most common.

The other, more difficult form of magic use is the acknowledgement and control of the natural magic that is just _there_. Ambient magic, so to speak. However, to see this magic you have to be blind. This is where the visual aspect of the Ritualist class come in Those who are born blind and those who lose their sight in less natural fashions can join the Sightless Guild and are employed by courts. Some destroy their eyes on purpose to gain this new form of Sight, but this is rare. In exchange for their eyesight, and after effort and work, the Sightless gain the Sight. The Sight allows them to "see" the rivers of natural, raw magic that flow throughout the world. Since they can see this magic, they can control it far easier than someone with natural sight can. The result is more powerful spells, but at the cost of the magic being far more difficult to control, since it's "unrefined". Sightless also gain the ability to sense the emotions of people around them and tell if they're lying or not. With time, this can become a sort of Second Sight, but it's an incredibly cumbersome ability in certain situations. Some Sightless have been driven mad when exposed to large amounts of intense emotion for too long, such as being trapped in the middle of a riot or among tortured people. The Sightless also infuse magically neutral crystals with elemental magic, being able to pick out magics of certain elements from the air and force it into the crystals. These crystals are occasionally prone to randomly exploding depending on the amount of magic forced into them and the skill of the Sightless who forced the magic into them.


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## droiditbook303 (Dec 18, 2011)

I'm a fan of this crystal system. I'm not sure if you're looking for comments/criticisms/ideas or just looking to inform about your ideas, but I do have a comment or two if you'll have them. These might be helpful to develop this system further.

-What types of spells are available to "crystal bearers" and are they different from those using natural magic? I know you discussed natural magic is more powerful, but is this simply a bigger fireball (if you will) or are different spells/abilities available? For example if crystal bearers of fire crystals can create fire like we can (torches, campfires, etc.) can natural mages use other spells like summoning fire demons and making fire do unnatural things like burning without anything to burn, etc. I'm not sure if I'm being clear...

-I like the handicap of the natural mages but this bares the questions: do all blind people have the ability to see the rivers of magic or is it only certain ones? Also, is being Sightless a handicap or do they develop other ways to navigate the world similar to if they weren't blind. I like the idea of magic users being seriously handicapped as a price to their ability.


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## Sheilawisz (Dec 18, 2011)

I love magical crystals and they are very important in my stories =)


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## Tamwen (Dec 18, 2011)

droiditbook303 said:


> I'm a fan of this crystal system. I'm not sure if you're looking for comments/criticisms/ideas or just looking to inform about your ideas, but I do have a comment or two if you'll have them. These might be helpful to develop this system further.
> 
> -What types of spells are available to "crystal bearers" and are they different from those using natural magic? I know you discussed natural magic is more powerful, but is this simply a bigger fireball (if you will) or are different spells/abilities available? For example if crystal bearers of fire crystals can create fire like we can (torches, campfires, etc.) can natural mages use other spells like summoning fire demons and making fire do unnatural things like burning without anything to burn, etc. I'm not sure if I'm being clear...



No, you are. I don't think I was though. Those who use crystals are subject to the limitations of the crystal's element. Those with water crystals can only use water and ice, those with fire can only use fire, etc. While each element has its strengths, it also has its limitations, and are mainly used as weapons.

A Sightless can not only use raw elemental magic, s/he can also use neutral magic to create things like shields of magic or spears, heal people, and scry, among other things. In the first case, they can tame the magic and condense it into a plasmic state, which allows them to mould it as they see fit. In the later case, they briefly suffuse something (the body or a bowl of water) with magic and use mental fortitude to control the result. This is very hard to do for long periods, particularly the scrying thing. 



> -I like the handicap of the natural mages but this bares the questions: do all blind people have the ability to see the rivers of magic or is it only certain ones? Also, is being Sightless a handicap or do they develop other ways to navigate the world similar to if they weren't blind. I like the idea of magic users being seriously handicapped as a price to their ability.



Not all blind people have the ability to see magic. It takes training. I'm not sure what kind of training yet.

Their Second Sight can allow them to see auras and feel emotions. They basically see a vague, person-shaped blob of color. It's imperfect, and blindness would still be very much a handicap.


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## OrionDarkwood (Dec 29, 2011)

Interesting concept, however some questions.

1. Why use a thief from the sounds of it the crystals grow wild?
2. Do the crystals grow in patches or by themselves?
3. Can one cause a chain reaction by piling say a bunch of fire crystals then breaking one?
4. How fragile are these crystals? if they are fairly breakable then IMHO not many people would be willing to go thru the expense and process of fusing them to a sword or wand.
5. Has for blinding oneself for greater sight sounds like their needs to be a trigger of some sort since logically few people would blind themselves in a gamble for greater sight. Something like those born with a certian mark have a chance at it or someone that goes thru training can do it


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## Shpob (Dec 30, 2011)

*Conflicts*

Overall I like where you're going with this magic system : )

I definitely like the idea of the Sightless and can imagine some great stories and characters coming from that. One potential idea may be a faction, guild, or single (probably bad guy) person who invents a way to use magic like the Sightless do without the handicap of having to be blind. Perhaps a magically infused spyglass or something. There might be some unintended consequences of trying an "unnatural" way of using Sightless magic including conflicts between the traditionalists and the new faction.

I also like the crystal magic system although one thing bothers me. On the surface, it seems illogical that people would need any kind of training or natural ability to use the crystal-mounted wands when they don't need the ability to use (for example) a sword lined with fire crystals. What's so different from a wand equipped with a fire crystal compared to a sword equipped with fire crystal? Is it just that mage-trained people using a wand can do more flexible things with the wand compared to a normal guy wielding a fire crystal blade?


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## Roc (Jan 21, 2013)

I like your idea a lot. Of all the bland, unoriginal magic systems on here — yours was a treat to read about.


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## Mindfire (Jan 22, 2013)

Roc said:


> I like your idea a lot. Of all the bland, unoriginal magic systems on here -- yours was a treat to read about.



I can't tell if this is an insult, a compliment, or some weird bastard child of the two.


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## Roc (Jan 22, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> I can't tell if this is an insult, a compliment, or some weird bastard child of the two.



Hyperbole


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## Mindfire (Jan 22, 2013)

Roc said:


> Hyperbole



That explains nothing.


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## Roc (Jan 22, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> That explains nothing.



Well if you desire to know why I said it, then here goes.

I liked his idea, so I stated I did. The rest doesn't really concern this thread.


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## Anders Ã„mting (Jan 22, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> I can't tell if this is an insult, a compliment, or some weird bastard child of the two.



Whenever I can't be sure if someone is being sarcastic or honestly trying to pay a compliment, I make a point of assuming it's the former. Because people who misuse sarcasm deserve to be misunderstood.


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## Phietadix (Jan 22, 2013)

I assumed he meant that this is a good magic system among all the bad ones on this site.


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## Mindfire (Jan 23, 2013)

Phietadix said:


> I assumed he meant that this is a good magic system among all the bad ones on this site.



But such a statement presumes all the other magic systems on this site are bad, or at least "bland, unoriginal" ones. And in response to that I must ask, is that a fair statement? I'd like to give my fellow Scribes more credit than that. I haven't taken a mass inventory of the magic systems proposed here, but I've been giving you some input on yours, Phietadix, and I don't find it to be bland or unoriginal. The idea of magical orders is perhaps a "trope" or archetypical, and has definitely been done before, but I think your spin on it is sufficiently interesting to (at the very least) avoid the label of "bland and unoriginal". And I think I've posted a snippet of my magic system here somewhere, and I hope he's not including that in his generalization, or I'm potentially in trouble.


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## Cheezyb10 (Jan 23, 2013)

I think the crystal idea is really cool and flexible, but I was wondering because you said when they break that element is released, would that mean if you used it on a sword, staff, etc. that it could only be used once?


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## Roc (Jan 23, 2013)

Mindfire said:


> But such a statement presumes all the other magic systems on this site are bad, or at least "bland, unoriginal" ones. And in response to that I must ask, is that a fair statement? I'd like to give my fellow Scribes more credit than that. I haven't taken a mass inventory of the magic systems proposed here, but I've been giving you some input on yours, Phietadix, and I don't find it to be bland or unoriginal. The idea of magical orders is perhaps a "trope" or archetypical, and has definitely been done before, but I think your spin on it is sufficiently interesting to (at the very least) avoid the label of "bland and unoriginal". And I think I've posted a snippet of my magic system here somewhere, and I hope he's not including that in his generalization, or I'm potentially in trouble.



I actually liked Phietadix's magic system.

Perhaps what I really meant to say in my original post was "all the bland, unoriginal posts _out there_"...just anywhere, I don't actually read that many magic concepts on here and am active on several other forum sites for fantasy.

Now hopefully if you understand me Mindfire, you could actually comment on the OP's post.


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## Mindfire (Jan 23, 2013)

Quite right, Roc. 

I think this system is off to a great start. The main thing I'd suggest is making the second kind of magic more of a high-risk/high-reward route. In addition to the abilities you listed, I'd also give the Sightless the power to _remove_ magic from crystals or outright destroy them, allowing them to effectively disable non-Sightless magic users. To compensate for this power, you could make the Sightless somewhat physically frail due to their prolonged exposure to "raw" magic.


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