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My magic system

Tarron Zeng

Dreamer
Hey guys, I'm back from school. I would like to show you the magic system I'm working on. This is presented by the eyes of the scribe and scholar Ercav of the University of Levondron.

"The strange phenomenon of magic comes from a mysterious material the Dieku call "Arka". Arka can take multiple forms such as essence, liquid and crystal. The origins of Arka is unknown but multiple theories have been presented. The most widely accepted was Arka is the essence of what Etratois, the remnants when Etratois was created. The other theory was Arka is not from Etratois but rather an otherworldly product brought by a strange event, or possibly by another race.

Arka is very reactive to elements of our world, sapping their energy in a quick form. For example, A shard of crystal Arka can sap the heat of a fire, absorbing their energy and thus a fire Arka crystal.
many elements such as lightning, water, air, earth, flesh, life and much more to be discovered.

To explain how Arka crystals cause magic, think of it as a conduit. Arka crystals attract the essence version of Arka and whatever the element the crystal has, it will transform the essence to the material elements. Note that a fire Arka crystal can materialise into a fireball, Lightning crystal into an electric bolt and such and such.

Arka has played a role in creating the Dieku and the Heneku both species can easily wield magic rather than humans who cannot wield magic unless he/she has the required instruments.

Another form of Arka known as Corrupted Arka, which lost its magical powers after years of inactivity leaves a green residue of leftover behind. It is harmless to lifeforms when touched and but when consumed giving it leaves a random effect such as strength or speed for a short period of time. However, after that, the user will face weakened muscles and bones or sometimes struck into a coma or a vegetative state, but luckily this also wears off quickly. It has been theorised that Corrupted Arka played a role in creating other races such as dwarves, orcs and more.
Dwarves and Orcs cannot wield magic but have some traits that exceed humans such as Orcish strength and Dwarven intelligence.

Magic is classified into three groups, such laws are presented by the honour of the Dieku Mage Order

1. Elemental, the basic form of magic as I explained above, transforms Arka into a material product like fire, water, air etc.

2. Arkane, magic that controls and manipulates Arka to do arcane spells rather than material elements. A journeyman Dieku mage gives his comments on Arkane Arka being the hardest to produce since it requires a huge amount of Arka essence to produce. Highly concentrated Arka areas include Istar Mountain and Jeris Caverns where liquid Arka is found. Only the Dieku or Heneku can wield Arkane magic.

3. Dark, magic that requires enormous amounts of Arka, much higher than Arkane is considered the most dangerous of all magic. By using the Arka gained, dark magic can manipulate dead beings, the energy of darkness or break people's minds. Some elemental magic can fall in the dark magic groups such as blood and disease. Pure dark magic has been either debated as Arkane or fall into the dark category. Some mages believe that "Dark" section of magic should not exist since magic is not "good" or "evil" but the ones using it decides to use for good or bad purposes. Regardless, dark magic, for now, is considered highly dangerous and practitioners of it are to be hunted and executed regardless if they are using for selfless or personal gains.

Arka can be fused with other metallic elements most notably Dieksteel. Combining with the shards of an Arka crystal and Dieksteel ore, Arkasteel was born and can wield many elements with enhanced lightness and sharpness. It is only revered for the Dieku battlemages and the Sun Guards for the Dieku monarch.

All forms of Arka and magic has been banned by all of the human kingdoms of Emmyros, including Levondra fearing revolution and chaos would occur if handed to their subjects. Emmyrosi who wishes to learn magic must learn at the Dieku Kingdom of Halivas or Heneke Kingdom of Doridos and must be never allowed to set foot on Emmyros unless they abandoned what they have learned. Dieku or Heneke mages are exempted from this. The distant Refukulos Empire has also considered outlawing Arka with the same intentions.".
 
Very interesting. Were you looking for any kind of feedback, or were you just looking to share?
Either way, I like where this is going. Crystal magic of any kind has always been a favorite of mine.
 

WooHooMan

Auror
Honestly, this checks a lot (maybe all) of boxes for magic cliches I hate.
However, I like the whole “consuming Corrupted Arka” thing. Spinning a superpower/disability roulette is neat to me.
 

Tarron Zeng

Dreamer
Honestly, this checks a lot (maybe all) of boxes for magic cliches I hate.
However, I like the whole “consuming Corrupted Arka” thing. Spinning a superpower/disability roulette is neat to me.
How should I improve it? Is there any cliches I should change?
 

WooHooMan

Auror
Ok sure but you probably shouldn’t be taking this all that seriously...
1) a source of power for magic that exists in the natural world. Most people call it “mana” or “aether” but sometimes writers make-up words.
2) magic is racially biased: some races are born able to do it but others aren’t.
3) magic has an inherent morality to it with a corrupted/destructive/dark variation.
4) magic as a whole is divided into a handful of classifications which have wildly different uses. Elemental, arkane and dark all being common classes but there’s usually also some kind of holy or divine classification.
5) government legislation to ban magic.

So, there you go.
Crystals as a magic conduit is also cliche but I’m ok with that cliche.
 

Tarron Zeng

Dreamer
Thanks,
Ok sure but you probably shouldn’t be taking this all that seriously...
1) a source of power for magic that exists in the natural world. Most people call it “mana” or “aether” but sometimes writers make-up words.
2) magic is racially biased: some races are born able to do it but others aren’t.
3) magic has an inherent morality to it with a corrupted/destructive/dark variation.
4) magic as a whole is divided into a handful of classifications which have wildly different uses. Elemental, arkane and dark all being common classes but there’s usually also some kind of holy or divine classification.
5) government legislation to ban magic.

So, there you go.
Crystals as a magic conduit is also cliche but I’m ok with that cliche.
Thanks, I'm not that good at designing magic systems, to be honest.
 

Tarron Zeng

Dreamer
I got a better idea. What if magic was lost to this world, but there is still some residue left? The anomalies that appear throughout the world was once made with magic?
 
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