# Favourite Type of Magic?



## DavidJae (Apr 27, 2012)

Which is your favourite type of magic? The Oriental style or the European, more medieval form of magic?

I prefer the Oriental style personally, for the greater physical discipline and more subtle magics. 

I would be interested in what other people think.


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## edd (Apr 27, 2012)

i am not really sure what type of magic  i like but i tend to lean on the side of exaggerated stuff.things that would say wow its the end of the world stuff.


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## Ophiucha (Apr 27, 2012)

I feel like those are two very vague ways of dividing magic, and that each of those has a thousand divisions and there are things that fall outside of either definition (indigenous American, African, etc.). But if I have to choose between the two... European?, I suppose. If you mean, like, latin words and magic wands as opposed to something like _Naruto_ or _Avatar: The Last Airbender_/_Legend of Korra_. I like both (I am freakishly obsessed with Korra right now), but I do prefer the versatility of the European system to the more defined Chinese 'magic system' used in these shows.

But, I mean, there's no reason you couldn't create a European-style magic system with an emphasis on discipline, nor an Eastern-style magic system with an emphasis on magic words and grandiosity.


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## Shockley (Apr 27, 2012)

I've always operated under the idea of magic as a universal entity (I don't believe in it, of course, but taking a philosophical stance that it exists for the sake of this argument) with different facets, so I don't divide between 'western' and 'eastern' types.

 It's all awesome. It's all cool.


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## Devor (Apr 27, 2012)

Shockley said:


> I've always operated under the idea of magic as a universal entity (I don't believe in it, of course, but taking a philosophical stance that it exists for the sake of this argument) with different facets, so I don't divide between 'western' and 'eastern' types.



You - you don't . . . believe in magic?


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## Hans (Apr 28, 2012)

Devor said:


> You - you don't . . . believe in magic?


Do you believe in magic?
Yeah
Believe in the magic of the young girl's soul
Believe in the magic of-a rock and roll
Believe in the magic that can set you free
Ohh, talking 'bout the magic
-- The lovin' spoonful - Do you believe in magic


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## Sheilawisz (Apr 28, 2012)

As a European I always prefer European culture over any other, and about Magic, I agree 100% with edd: I am in love with super powerful, unrealistic and reality-shattering Magic, stuff that would leave people in awe screaming: It's the end of the world!! Yeah, that's my style of Magic =)


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## Queshire (Apr 28, 2012)

Personally, when it comes to the most magical type of magic to me, I think I have to go with the Japanese Onmyodo Onmyodo - Television Tropes & Idioms mainly because I have no clue how it's supposed to work or what it can do. It's mysterious and exotic to me. I think this is partially a cultural thing. Most stories featuring Onmyodo are writen in Japan for Japanese people, where they have a better cultural understanding of what it is meaning authors don't have to spell out how it works or what it can do.


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## Shockley (Apr 28, 2012)

Devor said:


> You - you don't . . . believe in magic?



 I've seen no evidence that it's real, even though I know plenty of people who insist that it is. I did stage magic professionally for a few months, so a lot of the 'real' stuff people gush about (Uri Gellar, for instance) isn't that impressive to me.

 But I like to think that we live in a world of unlimited possibilities.


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## Queshire (Apr 28, 2012)

I believe we make magic. I mean, just take a look at what humans have acomplished.


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## Shockley (Apr 29, 2012)

Absolutely, Queshire. Absolutely. I'd just use a different term for it.


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## Hans (Apr 29, 2012)

There are lots of different definitions of "magic". In some of them it is quite possible to believe without making a fool of yourself. E.g. "the magic of a single moment" and such.
Most definitions implicate magic as something unexplained. If it's explained it's no longer magic, it's science. (That is also the big difference between Fantasy and SF as I see it.) So our world strives to have less and less magic.


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## Aravelle (May 22, 2012)

Shockley said:


> I've seen no evidence that it's real, even though I know plenty of people who insist that it is. I did stage magic professionally for a few months, so a lot of the 'real' stuff people gush about (Uri Gellar, for instance) isn't that impressive to me.
> 
> But I like to think that we live in a world of unlimited possibilities.



Bu-but...magic...


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## Steerpike (May 22, 2012)

Seems to me it is not real, by definition.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (May 22, 2012)

Mind control, followed closely by telekinesis.


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## Feo Takahari (May 23, 2012)

I have a great respect for hard science fiction, although I don't know enough science to pull it off, so any magic in my stories tends to function as if it were a hypothetical scientific discipline. Mages carefully study the effects of each rune or crystal on the overall enchantment, constantly tinkering and modifying to improve their craft, but always working within their established "physical laws."


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## ThinkerX (May 23, 2012)

I take the view that the human brain and the mind within is capable of truly astonishing things, given the right means of ..accessing.. them.  I have long read what popular, semi-credible research exists on things like ESP, Telekinesis and similiar wonders, so after a long and painful detour into the AD&D system, I finally decided that was what magic was on my worlds - enhanced psionic abilities, granted by aliens a long time ago to kidnapped humans for unfathomable purposes of their own.  'Spells' are merely ways of optimizing the use of this power; to swat flies, you want a flyswatter, not a sledgehammer - same result, but the fly swatter expends far less power and does far less collateral damage.  

Tacked onto this are other beings, some of them...almost benign at times, some alien and very different, some malevolent, who possess powerful talents of their own, ones humans cannot normally access, and can sometimes manage wondrous, impossible things.


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