A new idea brings new world build potential! An idea for magic

[Mothyards]

Hi! One of my preferred pass times is to world build a bit! I ended up writing a short piece of fiction that I hope to share with y’all soon that I never meant to be anything special, however I’ve been thinking about it and it’s been expanding a bit. Recently I thought of how magic might work in this world and thought I’d share it with you guys!

In this world, gods are sometimes referred to as “Forces” which accompanies the idea that most people held for a long time, that the gods where not intelligent in any means, just embodiments of forces and aspects of nature and the world around us. When gods act on the world this is referred to as the gods “committing forces”. When committing forces, gods appear on the world in a physical, but changeable body. Sometimes when changing their bodies they leave behind parts of themselves. They can also leave behind parts of the power in objects they affect. If someone eats part of a force, or something that holds their power, this is called “partaking of communion”

When someone partakes of communion, they will enter a state known as “contract”. While In a contract a person can commit forces on the world around them, based on the god they contract with, and how much residue of power they ingested. If someone uses all the power in a contract, the contract is fulfilled and they loose any power they had. If someone ingest power from a different force, then they loose the old power and gain the new one. This is called “breaking the contract”

Someone who is in contract can “blaspheme” by ingesting certain materials. Both something that holds that gods power, or something that extends or adds to a gods power. This lengthens the contract and allows someone to use more of that gods power, however most see this as an unholy thing and breaking the contract in an unlawful or blasphemous way, and so is referred to as blaspheming.

In short, someone can eat part of a god to gain power of a single god for a short time, and allow them to cause reality to recoil in disgust and grant them magic.

 

[kalencap]

Interesting. Will note that if reality recoils in disgust then reality has agency, has emotion, and is essentially more of a character in the story than the “god forces” as described. Could pull it off, but there would be some level of cosmic personality therein.

 

[Death]

I like that, but do they gain the "bad attributes" of the gods, like selfishness or greediness/ That could allow people who eat too much to become evil. And what happens if they eat more than one "grain of a god"?

 

[Mothyards]

I like that, but do they gain the "bad attributes" of the gods, like selfishness or greediness/ That could allow people who eat too much to become evil. And what happens if they eat more than one "grain of a god"?

Wow I forgot I made this thread lol
People don’t really gain any attributes besides the power. The forces are, well, forces of nature. They are intelligent but they don’t think like we do, they can’t really be selfish for example because they don’t need for food, water, or shelter.

Since I’ve written this I have expanded on blaspheming tho!
When a person continues to ingest Force Residue they begin to grow Blaspheme Flesh, a leathery dark skin with cracks and crevices in it. Blaspheme Flesh begins with the eyes, forming dark veins before transforming the eye lids, then turning the sclera black and the irises the associated color of the force. For example someone who blasphemes with the Lacerating Lightning will have their irises turn a violet color with lines of gold.
After this can spread to the feet and or hands, working it’s way up until it covers the whole body if a person does not stop blaspheming. However this takes quite a bit of Force Residue and most people simply can not acquire that much in there lives, nor natural materials that extend a persons contract as those are very rare.
Also a persons Blaspheme Flesh or Force Residue can be processed into a fluid state that can be used to create drugs, stimulants, and even under guidance can be used to regrow lost limbs or reactivate paralyzed body parts.

As for forming a new contract while in one, the power simply switches from one Force to another, however this will also over time begin to activate the process of Blasphemy.

 

[pmmg]

Interesting concept. Sounds a little like Melange from Dune.

I am not sure I really follow all the machinations of this. Am I reading right, that if I eat of one god, and gain, powers, and then eat of another, my power just transfers over to the new one? Why would that happen?

 

[Mothyards]

Interesting concept. Sounds a little like Melange from Dune.

I am not sure I really follow all the machinations of this. Am I reading right, that if I eat of one god, and gain, powers, and then eat of another, my power just transfers over to the new one? Why would that happen?

I should actually get around to reading Dune lol

Yes, if you make a new contract it would get rid of all power from the previous Force, at a meta level, it’s just cuz I didn’t want to mix two powers at once.
At a narrative level, although it isn’t something I plan on getting into if I ever go about making this story an actual yk story, I’d say it has to do with the Forces being pure distillments of concepts of reality. Two Forces could “work together” to mix in reality but the powers they hold are individual, so no one could hold more than one at a time.