# My magic system



## Jo of the South (May 14, 2012)

Hello again! I got such great advice from y'all on my first thread, that I wonder if I could trouble all of you again with one more question? I've been working a lot on perfecting my magic system the last couple of days. I think I've got it figured out and would appreciate some feedback. 

My magic is well, not exactly "magic." (The story is set in a made up place during the real middle ages of Europe, otherwise known as one of the biggest times and places where anything abnormal could be viewed as magic.) Magic is more like superhuman powers. The so called magicians have abilities such as mind reading, visions of the past, and power to control fire, water, or earth. 

These powers always begin in childhood. First, a child falls seriously ill with a high fever, headache, nausea, dizziness, hallucinations, and shakes. It is commonly confused with the flu. These symptoms last from a few days to a couple of weeks. During this time the child's powers develop and as they recover, they begin to become aware of their powers. Many people believe magic to be a contagious disease. Even though there is no proof of it being a disease, people fear it like a plague. 

Once a child becomes a magician they can never get rid of their powers. Also it is impossible to choose to become a magician or to choose which power you will have. Magicians can learn to control their powers and develop them as they become stronger. However, powers never develop into a different one nor can a magician learn to use a different power. Meaning if you can control fire then you will only ever be able to control fire. 
All powers seem to be linked to a magician's emotions. Meaning that if a mind reader, for example, is calm and controlled they can block out the thoughts of others, but if he is angered then he quickly becomes bombarded with everyone's thoughts rather or not he wants to hear it. 

Here is a list of some powers:

Mindreaders: Can hear the thoughts of others around them. It sounds just like people are talking aloud. The magician can shut these voices out if they want to. They can also choose to hear these thoughts if they want. 

Visions: This comes while the magician is awake or asleep. They dream of past events and present happenings all through the night. During the day they have what appears to be hallucinations, except it is very real. They again see past or present events, but these are usually linked to what the magician is feeling. For instance if the magician is afraid, then they see what is happening in another persons life who is also terrified. It is impossible to see the future though. 

Control of Elements:
These magicians can control one element such as fire, water, earth, or wind. They cannot create the element, but they can manipulate it. For example, fire magicians can touch flames without being burned and water magicians can create waves. This is the most common power. 

Heightened Senses:
This is the rarest power. No two of these magicians are exactly alike. These people are either hypersensitive or hyposensitive to anything that effects their senses or the nervous system. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste are either drastically over sensitive that it is unbearable to have these senses stimulated in anyway. Or these people's senses are so underwhelmed by extreme smells or sounds that they barely notice it. Also they can be completely unaware of freezing temperatures. The "magic" of this is the ability to hear footsteps a mile away, survive extreme temperatures, or see in the dark for example. 

So my question is does this sound original enough? Also do you think it is well thought out or do I need to keep expanding on what I've got? Again thanks in advance for any help.


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## ThinkerX (May 14, 2012)

My main qualm would be not having one power being expanded to include others, if the magician made the 'correct effort to do so.  For example ''Mindreaders' (ESP) seems very close to 'Visions' (Claiurvoyance), and if memory serves are actually linked in what objective investigations were made in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The other one would be the blanket 'elemental' magics.  Pyrokinesis (fire) yes.  Dowsing (earth/water) yes.  There are multiple real world (alleged) examples of both - but again, these people, at least some of the time, were credited with other abilities.  You might be making a needless distinction/complication here.  Is the person who predicts a storm coming 'out of the blue' having a 'vision', or is he an elementalist of air?


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## Queshire (May 14, 2012)

The main question I have is why do they all get their magic the same way?

Between the comparison to superheros used eariler, and how you mention that anything unusual would be considered magic, I don't see the point to limiting how you get magic to one method. It can be a method, or the most common method, but I don't see why it should be the only one.


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## Jo of the South (May 15, 2012)

@ThinkerX   I see what your saying and it makes complete sense. Visions and mindreading are to similar. I should allow the magicians with these powers to have the ability to develop both powers even though they might only start out with one. Allowing that shouldn't change my main characters with these powers much though. Because one of my characters, Marlyn, is so tortured by her visions that she seeks only to learn how to control the visions and block them from her mind. She would never want to learn to use more powers. Also a mind reader, Marius, never wanted powers at all and he hates always knowing people's secrets. I couldn't see him seeking out anymore powers. 

But about the elemental stuff. I guess it's because I think of those powers as such different things that I don't really want these magicians to cross over and learn other powers. Would it really be so wrong to keep these seperate?


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## Jo of the South (May 15, 2012)

@Queshire   I have them all get powers the same way because I figured they acquired the powers from some kind of illness that infects these people and changes them for life. I made a typo in my original post. I meant to say that while the people fear magic is a contagious disease, there is no proof it is contagious. It is a disease or illness though. I'm not sure how they would acquire powers any other way.


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## Graylorne (May 15, 2012)

Have you figured out why this illness has these results? Is it something that stimulates an unknown part of the brain? A lot of these things could have a scientific explanation. Clairvoyance vs. mindreading could be a matter of hearing different wavelengths. Pyrotechnics could be the ability to heat up air on the atomic level (I'm not in the exact sciences). Sensing a storm coming could be a sensitivity to air pressure etc. 

And yes, I think it's a viable idea. If your world isn't a magical one, this should be a good alternative.


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## Jo of the South (May 15, 2012)

Hmm...Truthfully I haven't thought about why the illness causes these powers. I just figured the illness caused a permanent change to their bodies, but thinking that through would help to better explain why the magicians are limited to only one power. Although I do see what y'all are saying about visions and mindreading being so similar and having those powers overlap wouldn't be a bad idea.


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## Jo of the South (May 15, 2012)

And quick question, last night I posted a reply to each of the first two posts, but they never showed up in the thread. Does that sometimes take awhile?


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## Queshire (May 15, 2012)

not in my experience, you prolly have to rewrite your post.


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## Black Dragon (May 16, 2012)

Jo of the South said:


> And quick question, last night I posted a reply to each of the first two posts, but they never showed up in the thread. Does that sometimes take awhile?



For new members posts are sometimes placed into moderation by our anti-spam software.  Posts that includes links, or use the "@" symbol (signifying a possible email address) usually experience this.  Once you've been here a while, the software will learn to trust you and will leave your posts alone.


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## ThinkerX (May 16, 2012)

> But about the elemental stuff. I guess it's because I think of those powers as such different things that I don't really want these magicians to cross over and learn other powers. Would it really be so wrong to keep these seperate?



Main deal is your entire magic system appears to be based on 'enhanced' mental abilities, which means at a core level, they would be 'linked' somehow - especially because they all get their powers the same way.  'Fire Magic' or 'pyrokinesis' would be an extenstion of telekinesis, as would water magic.  It might not be easy, but a mage who was determined enough probably could 'crossover' - maybe toss in a myth about the 'trials of the many talented mage'.

As to controlling their powers...I do remember reading of links between meditation and the manifestation of some 'gifted' people in the old line studies.  If I understand your society correctly, that might be an option for mages - some sort of abbey or monastery where they learn the right focusing techniques to control things (though that might cause you plot problems, unless it was a long ways off or destroyed decades ago or some such).

Point to consider with your 'disease-that-grants-magic':  is this a 'local' disease, confined to just this area, or is it more global?

Further point to consider: was this disease deliberately introduced by say...aliens conducting bizarre experiments? (I have something similiar in one of my worlds) Or was it introduced by demons or angels as a consequence of some spiritual conflict?  Probably be hazy legends about this regardless.


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## Queshire (May 16, 2012)

You're the writer so you have the final say, however the key word is consistency. If you say that you're limited to one type of magic per person then everybody is limited to one type of magic, it shouldn't matter if you're an elementalist or a mentalist.


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## Jo of the South (May 17, 2012)

Black Dragon, thanks so much for explaining. I could not for the life of me figure out what I could have done to those posts.


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## Jo of the South (May 17, 2012)

You all have made such great points and been so very helpful. I'm going to go do some research on telekinesis and other similar things, and then probabaly a little more brainstorming. Hopefully I can work out a much clearer system without to much trouble.


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