Titanic Magic

[mbartelsm]

First, a bit of info regarding deities:

There are three types of deities in my world: Titans, Gods and Daemons.

Titans are the creators of the known universe, they created the gods, the elements, and the daemons. There are only two titans: Light and Shade, alone, they can only control their elements, but together they are omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
The self appointed duty of the titans is to keep balance in the universe, to do this they created the Gods and Daemons, shall anything get too out of control for the gods to handle, the titans come into action.

Gods are the "sons and daughters" of the Titans, when the Titans created the world and the seven elements of nature, they also created seven gods to reign over each one of those elements. Gods are VERY powerful, but not even when working together they are omnipotent, the extension of their power is that of their element.

Daemons are lesser deities created by the titans to reign over the life in the world, they often act as guardians of nature and their power is very limited (though much greater than that of any person)


MAGIC

Normal magic works under three principles: Will, Understanding and Life Force, derived from each of the parts of a human's soul (Emotions, Logic and Life). To perform magic you need all three parts, first, you "will" something into happening, then, with your understanding you find a way to make that happen and then with your life force you execute the action.

Normal magic is limited to the seven elements of nature (Lightning, Wind, Fire, Metal, Earth, Wood and Water) and each element demands a completely different understanding of magic, much like learning a new completely alien language.


TITANIC MAGIC

Now the hard part, I want people to be able to master light and shade (known as titanic elements), however I don't know how. I don't want it to work the same way as normal magic since this is a WHOLE new level of mastery. Neither I want it to be as easy (anyone can perform normal magic), I want it to be a task so hard that only few people at any given time are able to control it.

I was thinking maybe the Titans could grant this power to certain people in order to keep balance in the world, but for the Titans to take action something very important must be going on, otherwise the gods are able to handle it quite easily, and this would go against the idea that there are always a small number of people capable of using this magic.

The other option was for people to make "requests" to the titans, in order to do this, and immense amount of enlightenment is needed. Instead of these people controlling the titanic elements it would be the titans themselves doing it, but why would they do whatever a simple human pleases?

Any ideas?

 

[MystiqueRain]

Since the Titans acting would only occur under an extreme situation, perhaps such an event happened in the past? Or because of something, they granted the power to use light and shade to those certain people for a limited amount of time. But then maybe those people found a way to record the power so it could be passed on to further generations. Or maybe something is causing the gods to lose power, or be helpless in some way that the Titans have no option other than to grant some people their power.

In terms of the "requests", you could involve some sort of sacrifice/consequence for getting the power. In a hypothetical case, what if the Titans themselves were turning corrupt? Their job is the keep balance, so maybe the balance is starting to shift or something like that that would allow a person to get a hold of the titanic elements.

Just some thoughts.

 

[mbartelsm]

Thank you very much, I really like the first idea, now I have to figure out the nuts and bolts.

 

[MystiqueRain]

Thank you very much, I really like the first idea, now I have to figure out the nuts and bolts.

You're welcome.

 

[Teramis]

I want people to be able to master light and shade (known as titanic elements)...
I don't want it to work the same way as normal magic since this is a WHOLE new level of mastery. Neither I want it to be as easy (anyone can perform normal magic), I want it to be a task so hard that only few people at any given time are able to control it.

I was thinking maybe the Titans could grant this power to certain people in order to keep balance in the world, but for the Titans to take action something very important must be going on, otherwise the gods are able to handle it quite easily, and this would go against the idea that there are always a small number of people capable of using this magic.

Where I would go with this is either to have some people be "the Chosen of the gods", or, to have them be "bloodlines" of the gods.

If Chosen, then for some reason Titans have singled out an individual to bestow this magical gift upon. Figure out why someone is chosen: most devout and pious and therefore 'blessed' with a gift? Maybe a person is viewed like a favored pet? Or they are a pawn in the games of the gods and set in motion to participate in some events that only the deities can see for what it is.

in the alternative, a "bloodline" of the gods. Which deity is closest to/most like or most favored by the Titans? At one point that deity had an earthly dalliance with a human partner, and children resulted. They carry divine blood and only for this reason can they withstand the awesome forces of Titan magic...

something like that.

 

[SeverinR]

I thought from the title: Titanic magic:
Magic that is great and powerful until it runs into an iceburg, then its rusty worthless junk.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Have you considered that instead of the Titans granting their magic to mortals, instead they give them trinkets. Talismans with a limited number of uses. That way the titans would be giving away seemingly minor, almost meaningless things to them, and the people would be getting things that are of immense value to them. Say a few lightning bolts in a flask, or a talisman of invisibility. For the titans it'd be like throwing a few coins the way of a beggar.

And as for the why, maybe sympathy. Maybe humans can do things that even titans can't. In their greatness they lost the ability or never had it to begin with. Odd things like perhaps sing or recite epic poetry, and for which they'd be happy to toss a few trinkets their way.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[mbartelsm]

Thanks for the idea Greg, but I already went with MystiqueRain's approach.

In my world there are seven people called the immortals, they are the messengers of the gods, their connection to the mortal world and carriers of their will since neither Gods nor Titans are allowed to directly intervene with mortal affairs. A few hundred years after the immortals were created, they started to go nuts because of their immortality, they fell to corruption one by one and eventually there was none who obeyed the Gods, so they were left powerless in the mortal world.

When the Titans saw this they decided to grant their power to two mortals of worthy hearth so that they would fight off and guide the immortals to virtue. And so they did. After the war was over, the "Carriers of Light and Shadow" formed the Orders of the same name where Titanic magic was taught.

It's a bit condensed but it illustrates the origin of titanic magic