Magical Incantations & other methods of casting magic

[Queshire]

I will admit that part of this is just me bragging about the system I come up with, but I really am curious how you guys do magical incantations in your setting or what other things go into actually casting a spell. Do you do incantations? Or movements? Eye of newt? Or is just thought enough?

Now, considering how many times I mention incantations it should be no surprise that I use them for my magic system. =P But, you know, I obsess so much about names that coming up with the type of stuff in Harry Potter or Eragon would take me forever to do. So instead, I came up with a syntax for spells. ^^

In universe, when you speak a spell it's described having an odd harmonic to it that seems to completely bypass your ears and resonate in your bones. Visually this would be represented as a different font for spells and / or color. This represents that just speaking the words isn't enough you need to back it up with some will and MAKE it into magic.

One of the most basic examples of a spell is as follows:

Light that Shines, Bound in the shape of an Orb, Follow behind Me.

This produces a small ball of mage light that bobs behind you.

The first part of the spell "Light that Shines" invokes the concept that you want to govern the spell. Most commonly this is a specific aspect of an element, such as Fire that Warms vs Fire that Consumes. The ??? that ??? format isn't necessary, I just think it looks neat. o3o

The second part "Bound in the shape of an Orb" gives a physical form to the concept invoked. Technically you don't need it, but if you don't give it a shape the spell can work unpredictably.

The tird part, "Follow behind Me," tells the spell what to do. Also technically optional, but without orders the spell will just do whatever it wants depending on the the concept invoked.

Really, once you get past the purple prose it's just Noun, Adjective, Verb. You can use more of each element for more complex spells, but it's easy to mess up. I've dabbled a little bit in computer programing, not alot, but enough that I wanna invoke some of the challenges and quirks of that in there.

WELL! That's mine. What about yours?

 

[buyjupiter]

That's really cool, Queshire. I wish I'd thought of that...I like that you've used a bit of programming to use as a basis for how the magical incantations work.

But most of my magic when it happens is herb-based, alchemy, or divinely performed. I had a bit of a fun when I described in great detail what making up a spell looked like in one of my worlds. There were the normal eyeballs, herbs, smoking fumes, and a bit of blood to seal the spell. I liked the eyeball bit, as it blinked a few times before getting smashed by the mortar.

 

[Noma Galway]

I don't do incantations, and the only movement I have is for a form of air travel that takes a lot of complicated work. Otherwise it is totally thought. It's also elemental, so there is this idea of "pulling" from the world around you. In the case of lightning and flame, sparks and smoke begins to rise from the arms and wrists. Water, not sure, air, coils around the arm IF it is offensive, as it i wind.

 

[WooHooMan]

I really like your system. In fact, I generally like the idea of magic being based around words. Y'know, they don't call them "spells" for nothing.

I've worked-out one kind of magic system but it's still pretty loose. It sort of uses incantations but it's more like magic words. In fact, every word is magic depending on how it's used. For example, the phrase "go to Hell" is an actual curse. Propaganda and persuasion are considered forms of magic (hypnotism). Mantras are a type of self-hypnosis which also a form of magic. And so on and so forth. The use of symbols are also magic. Like if you write the word "fire" on the side of a building or you paint the building red, orange and yellow, that increases the chances of that building catching on fire. However, magic is very chaotic and only works when it feels like it. In fact, the idea of controlling magic is seen as a pretty futile effort which is why it's fallen out of fire in the setting. To use magic in any meaningful way, you need a deep understanding of how people, symbols and the universe works.
I like it when magic is super powerful but mysterious or doesn't appear to operate by any rules or procedures. I feel like making a strict system by which magic operates takes the (for lack of a better term) magic out of it.

 

[Graylorne]

In my magic-rich Revenaunt books, mana is the stuff of creation. It's floating free in the air in some gaseous form and besides, all who can use magic have their own inner manapool. Trained mages have big ones, bards or spies have small ones.
With this mana they can make things like a fireball, use it as a carrier-wave to transport them between portals, take a beast form, etc, each according to their own specialism.
When you overextend yourself, you pass out and have to get medical attention.
Mages can learn spells from scrolls or spell books, which works more or less like a cookbook. It's all rather pedestrian in set-up.
Priests get things done by praying, as their gods are living beings, they will be overheard. Healers and chirurgeons are priests, as are judges and teachers.
Bards can 'play' people with music or their voice. Battlebards can influence armies and kill people. But because their manapools are very small, they must be careful with what they do.

The enemy uses another sort of mana, that not only has them work bad things better, but warps their personality.

As a general principle, magic is based on matter and love, black magic is based on anti-matter and hate. Good and bad are natural opposites. In an anti-matter universe, hate is good and love is bad.

 

[WeilderOfTheMonkeyBlade]

I have four different types- in my notebook they sprawl across many pages ,so I'll try to simplify....

Everything revolves around the Tuatha den Dehon, the lifeforce that flows in everything living.

Blood magic- these mages drink blood, or more commonly, tree sap, to gather an excess of life force. They can then heal, or, drain the life from others. Most are low powered mages, living in villages where they heal and help with pregnancies.
The most powerful ones are driven crazy by all the Tuatha den Dehon, and turn evil ish, living up in mountains with armies of undead. (they can resurrect bodies, but only making them instinct driven)

Willers- Not that common, lets you project your Will, and manipulate object's, from opening locks, to sending a lance of Will into a artery, blasting with it. Lots of possibilities, I wont go into the long list of cans and cants, to long. TO much WIlling results in the WIller going "mind-dead". This means that their body can do stuff, but they cant control what, or even think or see what is going on. Way to much equals death.

Then Shadow- Binding, very rare, allows the mage to change into a shadowy bird, raven, crow ect, and to summon shadow-spawn, and shadow objects e.g shadow food, can keep you alive, but tastes rotten and nasty.

Then my Dwarves have something called Ice-Calling, allows them to build their ice- halls and prepare their Ice-steel, involves long rituals. My dwarfs are, if I may say so myself, very different.

 

[Sheilawisz]

In my settings, the Mages do not use special movements, incantations or spells like those seen in Harry Potter and other stories: Magic is a natural action for them, just like breathing and walking are natural for a non-magical person.

The Magic skills are about thoughts and intention, with most of the magical effects (like flying, teleporting, vanishing and turning people into animals) being performed without effort. There are other powers that require a greater deal of concentration and intent, and not all the Mages are talented for the same things.

Setting good battle shields and opening gateways can be a little tricky, but perhaps the most difficult abilities to master are the magical beams, sparks and other offensive powers that they use in war. They tend to be more powerful when a Mage is furious or otherwise out of control, so it can be concluded that their emotions play an important role in their Magic.

 

[Hainted]

In mine Magic is tapping into the Void(the eternal chaos that everything sprang from) and enforcing your will to shape it into an effect. I built my system around 3 base concepts: Rarity, Difficulty, and Cost. Magic's widespread, but difficult to master, and once a spell or ritual is started that energy will be released whether you do everything correctly or not. Over time practitioners are also changed by the exposure to arcane energies becoming marked with symbols or mutations that reflect the type of magic they practice.

I guess the closest analogy to our world is Martial Arts. Anyone can study magic, but only the truly dedicated will pursue it to the point of mastery, and any schools or techniques are just different ways to achieve the same effect.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm dabbling with all of it. A basic premise in my world (Altearth) is that magic became real during the Late Roman Empire. People just started being able to do magic. Trouble was, nobody knew why it worked and the effects were highly unpredictable. So, for a long time, it was regarded with fear and superstition.

Only gradually, over the centuries, did people begin to develop systems. Some of these were divinatory and involved cards or stars or casting lots. Some systems were spell-based but required years of study and a highly formalistic system. It was basically an academic pursuit. Some systems were more alchemical in nature, combining natural substances in various ways.

In short, there isn't merely Magic, there are several kinds of magic and they're easily confused and there are many who call themselves experts. It doesn't even begin to get sorted out until around the Enlightenment and the advent of Science. Even then, does Science get it right or does Science merely become the dominant mind-set, driving other forms of magic into the shadows? My magic system isn't a system, it's a history.

 

[Zak9]

In my WIP, our world entered a great war and the Earth's population decreased enormously. Governments recognized this and began using chemically-based weaponry that would target certain people or groups of people based on genetics. This way, they could kill who they wanted, but not further decrease the population of the innocent.

Fast forward 100+ years and my Protagonist lives in a post-apocalyptic world with the occasional person having special abilities. This is because the genetic weaponry would destroy certain stands of DNA in people causing mutations. When this generation had children, some were born with strange abilities. And so my world is scattered with humans who have abilities such as "super strength", teleportation, purification of water, etc.

So my magic system is scientifically based and is individual-specific. I love your system WooHooMan

 

[Svrtnsse]

Practicing magic in my setting is purely mental. Different practitioners may use words or spells to help focus their thought, but in theory it's not needed. I just finished a short story in which magic is used by a PoV character. In the following section she uses her magic to light a cigarette for her friend:

“Of course not. Here give me.” She grabbed the cigarette from Neta's outstretched hand. “We're pretty high up though. You might have to ask someone else if this doesn't work.”
Amanda took the little white stick between her lips and put a finger to the burn end. She concentrated. Her thoughts reached out for the aether and, deep beneath the surface – much further away than usual – she found it. Carefully she started pulling a thin strand up into her mind where she twisted it into a shape of heat. Satisfied the weave was tight enough she released it at a point just outside her fingertip.
Smoke appeared and Amanda drew in a breath, making sure the glow took hold at the end of the cigarette. Coughing, she handed it back over to Neta who put it to her lips with a tired smile.

Then, a bit later on, she tries to conjure light - only she's drunk and panicking and it doesn't work out so well:

“Shut up. I'll think of something. I just need to get out there first.” Amanda thought for a moment. “I need some light.”
“No! Amanda, no. Not here! You've been drinking. Don't do it! Please. Stop!”
Amanda closed here eyes and tried to calm her thoughts. She dove for the ather, pulled up large chunk, forced it into a shape of light and released it. A huge ball of fire roared into existence, filled the room with light and searing heat and then flickered out and died.
“Amanda, you nut case,” Neta yelled. “You know you're not supposed to do magic when you've been drinking.”

She doesn't give up though, but tries again. This time with a bit more care:

Amanda smiled, but didn't say anything. She put a hand on the doorframe to steady herself and once more she closed her eyes and concentrated.
This time she took it slow. She pulled a thin strand with infinite care and she wove it into the most basic, simple, shape for light she knew. Checking and double-checking that she got it right she slowly let it go just above the palm of her outstretched hand.
No roar of fire came; no searing heat that burned off her face. Her palm grew a little warmer and as she opened her eyes she saw a tiny pearl of flame hovering a few inches above her hand.

Amanda is a rather weak practitioner. She's only able to handle single strands and only basic shapes. More complex magic requires multiple strands woven into more complicated patterns. I'll get to describing that at some point, but for now I don't have a character that's a powerful magician.

Shamanistic and divine magic are different.

 

[wordwalker]

Here's one way to break down incantations:

• concentration tools, that the mage uses to focus his will. He might put them in a structure, like Queshire's, but if the mage is gagged or anything else it only makes spellcasting harder. (In theory; some mages might be so dependent on it they couldn't adapt at all.)
• "hypnosis"-- a variation, where the words make someone else more open to the spell
• summonings-- the mage is calling on spirits to help. Often works best as a ritual the spirits like, but just might use anything they'll accept, including just the right "Please, please, mighty fire-master?" or "Blast this thing or I start looking for a new salamander!"
• name summoning-- variation on the last, where the one thing that never works is leaving out the spirit's name. Guess that's the one thing they always hear across the dimensions.
• triggers-- part of the spell has been preset to activate when a certain word is spoken. Jack Vance and classic D&D make this the whole spell, but it could be any mage who has some mix of talismans, preparation, whatever in his methods.
• Elder Speech-- magic is how the universe bends to certain sounds under the right circumstances.
• True Names are one example of the last.

And then there's the Dresden Files approach, where Latin and Spanish (or made-up words) can be used as magic languages because they need to be "just unfamiliar enough" to a caster to insulate his brain from the spells. Clever, but it did lead to Harry's candle-lighting spell of Flickum bicus. :redface:

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Flickum bicus.

What does that mean?