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The Continuum of Magic

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
My world has different kinds of magic to be found either at different times of history, among different species, or in different geographical places. In some cases, the line between natural and supernatural is sharp and well-understood, but I'm going to have some areas where it is not so.

Think of a craft. Note we derive the word crafty from that, which already suggests "craft" involves more than just skilled workmanship. If a species--let us say sprites, just to pick a people not usually associated with the making of things--if that species made, oh, puzzle boxes. They were so good at these puzzle boxes, to another species, it might appear to open by magic. Now that other species, being ogres, ain't too bright, so they are easily fooled. Indeed, much of the world appears magical to an ogre.

Now, we modern humans tend to say yes, but the box isn't *really* magical, but that supposes we have a perfect understanding of reality. A rash supposition, especially in a fantasy world. If magic is real, then reality includes magic. There is no divide between what is magical and what is ordinary.

Among the sprites themselves, though, there can be a continuum. Perhaps it involves working with enchanted tools. Or putting oneself into a trance at a certain stage--not spellcasting, exactly, but certainly more than chisel and glue. The art of sword making has spiritual, even mystical aspects in some cultures.

The extreme, I suppose, would be conjuring the puzzle box out of thin air. Or making a puzzle box *out of* thin air. (why is it never thick air?) The point here is, the magical quality of the process is not an objective thing but is perceived differently by different peoples, even by the maker himself.

I rather like this notion. It leaves room for alchemy, augury and divinations of all sorts, even straight spell casting. After all, what's a magic missile without the missile? How much of the result is a function of the arrow, of the bow, the bowman, or the mage?

As a writer I like the notion because it's malleable. I can be precise where I need to be, and can leave things fuzzy where the details are not important. It also lets me customize magic to different peoples, which I find both attractive and natural.

Somewhat along these same lines, I'm thinking of having my sprites, and related fae peoples (but not elves) have their magic specializations run along the lines of trades rather than of elements or other principles. I might get down to specific trades, but right now I'm thinking in more generic terms, such as Maker, Weaver, Breaker, Finder, Grower, etc. That may turn out to be too broad, but you get the idea. Each crafter can work with any and all elements, but their work is effective only within their specialty. It feels more or less feasible. Note that magic among humans or other peoples, magic will work differently. Or is at least manifested differently.
 

Edankyn

Minstrel
Very fascinating. I would thoroughly enjoy reading a story that used this as a premise for magic. It reminds me a little of epistemology; it would be fun to see that drawn out in a story, especially from different perspectives of each of the different races with different levels of intelligence.
 

Trick

Auror
Great ideas.

Can I ask, would there be any races or individual beings, who understand the entire continuum? A god or godlike being perhaps? I suppose many individuals could believe they understand it but I mean this literally.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
There is one godlike being who understands it all, known to his adherents as Author. :)

Possibly. Remember I said my magic has a history. In the earliest times, nobody had the faintest idea how any sort of magic worked--indeed, there were people who claimed to be able to do various magical things, but the line between natural and magical was blurry anyway. When "true" magic came along, it could be viewed as more of the same, except sometimes there was no mistaking it (fireballs, monsters, that sort of thing). But the people who did it couldn't reproduce it with any reliability, so magic was mostly viewed as dangerous.

Over the centuries, people got better at it. Too, new races showed up who had forms of magic that were ... more controlled? more focused? Magic got studied more formally, traditions were established, and in general magic got channeled into known paths where it was more reliable, though there were still wild areas.

The big change came with the Scientific Revolution, when people began rejecting traditional authorities and relying on observation and measurement. They began to develop a "scientific" form of magic. In the Enlightenment came the discoveries of phlogiston and aether, and people began to speculate there might be certain principles or elements that underlay all forms of magic.

I'm still thinking about whether I want those modern theories to be true, and there really is a Unified Field Theory of Magic, or whether they're on the wrong track and there are different kinds of magic after all. I tell you, doing world building gets way more complicated when you add in a history as well. It's one thing to have a story and to invent a history leading up to it; it's quite another to have an entire continuum with the intent to write stories anywhere along it. Whatever I do in *this* century now means I can't do some other thing in *that* century. So I try to leave things as soft as possible. Plenty of fudge factor. I like fudge.
 

e r i

Scribe
This sounds fascinating. If I've understood you correctly: different races/species have capabilities in different abilities, and these abilities have been developed and honed over time. Magic is like a force, or an even more general thing in the world, and different races/species tap into it/interact with it in ways that are unique to them?

I think it's great that the Scientific Revolution' in your world is, in our real world sense, about objectivity/measurement/ability to replicate/ration. Since science is, to my mind, just a way or organising and trying to understand natural phenomena in the world. I like that your magic seems to have that at its root. Really interesting question whether all magic has the same underlying form or not. If magic is something that all magic-weilding races/species can perceive and be affected by, it suggests to me that there is some underlying form that they are all identifying. Are there certain kinds of magic that can only affect and be perceived by a single race?
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Like I said, this is very much a work in progress. I'm attracted to the notion that the "myths" of phlogiston and aether are real in my world--I do the same with other myths--but I'm leery of making it too restrictive. I also like the notion that different species have different magics, and even that multiple kinds of magic are available within a species.

Altearth also has magics peculiar to monsters. It just made sense to me that if elves can have their own magic, then ogres or trolls ought to have the same privilege. The only place I've made this specific is with goblins. Most goblins have no magic, but their shamans/priests/wizards/whatever do. Those are called half-goblins, which in German became halb-goblin, which gave us hobgoblin. What's the other half? I haven't decided. Ogres, maybe. But all that happened during the First Dark Age so we don't have many details other than the bare facts. Some scholars even still debate the etymology.

But I'm digressing. You asked are there certain kinds of magic that can only affect one race. Intriguing notion. It's going in the stew, along with (to me) the even more interesting notion that certain kinds of magic can only be perceived by a particular race (I prefer to say species, but whatever). I don't know what to do with it, but I'm tickled by the idea someone could have magic done to them and not even know it. Or have it around them but unable to see it.
 
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