How common are the Unusual people in your setting?(Wizards,Psychics,etc.)

[Hainted]

I'm just curious because I've reached a point in my novel that this has come up. I'm dealing with superhumans, but it makes me wonder what a proper balance in the world for those who aren't the norm?

I tend to figure 1 in 100 have the potential and 1 in 1000 actually develop it. (Of course not everyone who develops it actually survives the initial activation, but...)This means in my fictional city roughly 3,000 could be superhuman but only around 300 actually are.

What's your numbers?

 

[Saigonnus]

Well, let's see. Out of a city of nearly 15 thousand (most of whom can use magic) there is only one transmuter; however half-trained she is. She isn't of their culture, she was adopted when she was found wandering in the wilds.

On the other side , i have a culture with no magical capability at all. (They have the ability to learn, it has simply fallen out if practice and use)

One of the main characters is "woken up" by the goddess Aeshir when her power is being subverted at one of her divine sites. So, one in several hundred thousand in the culture that spans 1/4 of the continent or so.

In the final MC's culture, magic is common, but not really used in everyday life like culture 1 does. It revolved generally around healing, wards and other passive abilities.


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[X Equestris]

Within my setting, about 1% of the population are born with the ability to use magic, and most of them are fairly weak. Perhaps one in a thousand would be able to use regularly in a military capacity.

 

[WooHooMan]

Of a population somewhere in the several million range, there are exactly 10 magic-users. Since you cannot be born with magic nor can it be learned, it's pretty unlikely there will ever be anymore than 10 but there will always be at least one.
Also, none of the main heroes are magic users but two secondary villains are.
So, yeah, it's a low-magic fantasy setting.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I don't have numbers, but most magic-users go their entire lives without meeting or even confirming the existence of other people with the same abilities. Two magic-users meeting in the same city is a Big Deal.

 

[ThinkerX]

I gave quite a bit of thought to this. Lessee...

Principle nation of the principle world has a population of around twenty million - a bit less than the old Roman Empire (30-40 million, time and source depending). I wanted magic to be weak and rare (by most fantasy standards) but not unknown.

So...

By and large, psi ability (magic) is something you are born with. There are exceptions, but they're rare - near death experiences and the like. More, magical talent doesn't always carry from generation to generation. It can skip around and turn up in unexpected places. But, real rough rule of thumb, about 1 person in 1000 will have enough magical talent to be worth training.

First, the 'standard mages'

Of these, around half go through life untrained, their arcane talent manifesting as being unusually lucky or having an uncanny sense of direction or some such. Maybe 10,000 or so at any given time.

Most of the rest - about 6000 or so - enter the ranks of the Church, where they join one of the four or five orders dedicated to magic.

The remainder fall into three broad categories: Academics, Wanderers, and Hedge. Academics are sometimes found in the courts of powerful nobles but more often within one of the four cities which boast academies dedicated to the arts magical. Wanderers are often former Academics. They roam the empire, working wonders for coins and a place to stay. Hedges are purely local mages of mostly minor talent (often failed Academics).

In the course of my stories, the Empire was confronted with a foe that made free use of black magic, especially demon summoning. As a desperation tactic, imperial officials scoured the land, tracking down everybody they could find with even a smidgen of magical talent and packing them off to specially established places for arcane training. As the training was rushed (about a third the normal time) and the talent pool wasn't all that great...well most died, but there are a fair number of half trained mages wandering around now.

Godborn and Darkborn

The Spring and Fall equinoxes on my world are special days, charged with immense magical energy. About one in ten of those born on these days have significant magical talent. Godborn (Spring equinox) are likeable and pleasant, with innate talent for healing and protective magic. They have the knack to 'hear lies,' making them useful in legal situations. Darkborn (Fall equinox) are surly and self centered, with knacks for necromancy and hurtful magic, including demon summoning. Godborn are usually recruited into the Church and trained as healers. Darkborn are often killed at birth, or packed off to remote monasteries.

Conjurers

These are wizards, often of high rank or caste, who have elected to take a short cut: instead of casting most spells themselves, they conjured a demon or spirit to work magic on their behalf. Demons, however, have goals of their own and tend to be far better at negotiation than the humans summoning them, so often the wizards become puppets. Apart from a few rudimentary spells, most conjurers learning stops about the time they summon their first demon. Conjuring demons is illegal in the empire, carrying an automatic death sentence.

 

[Miskatonic]

Well there are two separate realms, one of which lies hidden for at least half of the book, and that is basically where 99% of supernatural creatures reside. In the other parts of the world there are a fair share of magic users and some supernaturals but not nearly on the same scale. It's a sword and sorcery fantasy world so it goes without saying that there will be plenty of unusual people.

 

[valiant12]

My main character is born in a place where more than 90 percent of the people are magic users. Supernatural powers, especially powerful and destructive ones are super rare in the world as a whole and aren't distributed evenly among different nations.

 

[Tom]

Oh, man. Hmm. Well, magic practitioners are actually pretty common in my world. I'd say maybe 1 in 100 people can become a wizard or warlock. Only 1-2% of the population, however, is born with innate magic, which is the ability to use magic without spells.

 

[Gurkhal]

Depends on what you mean. In regards to Itzaya I'm leaning towards a form of demi-gods and they kind of go with the activities of the deities, so at one time it could be many while at another it could be few. But in general I would say that humans who break the normal limitations of humanity in some form or another is probably 1 in 1000 000 at most, could be fewer.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Well for one book I've written there are two societies one of which is purely magical the other of which is purely non-magical. So...60-40 split in favor of the non-magic people. In another book magic is fairly rare to develop. I don't have hard numbers for this but of a country of millions maybe 1,000 or so. In another book everyone has access to magic, they just need a property interest in order to access the magic (so they need to be a lessee or owner of that piece of property). So a potential for 100% but actually 99.9% of people have magic.

 

[evolution_rex]

I typically have most the characters in a story be real, as they're a lot easier to connect with me and the reader that way. Magic I use very rarely, with a select few wizards and witches. I like to keep the mystical elements mystical.

 

[ChasingSuns]

In the current story I'm writing, it depends on which kingdom you find yourself in. Some have entire mage units in their military, while others are so against magic that users of it are hunted down and killed.

 

[Gurkhal]

In the current story I'm writing, it depends on which kingdom you find yourself in. Some have entire mage units in their military, while others are so against magic that users of it are hunted down and killed.

How does the ones that declines the use of magic in war survive against the ones who don't?

 

[Saigonnus]

How does the ones that declines the use of magic in war survive against the ones who don't?

Perhaps with objects that absorb magic or nullify it in some way.


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[God-Of-Toasters]

In Sarglath, it depends on the continent. In Rarglath, magic is everywhere as the Realm of the Gods interacts freely with those who seek them. This means that magic is used exclusively by those who are intensely religious, even though it simply consists of prayer. In Jarglun, magic and the occult manifest themselves in potions and charms as well as unholy rituals to those gods that pop their heads into the situation. The sorcerers are rare, although shamans and herbalists are quite common. In the Farlands, those who perform magic are also engineers and the more powerful of these command legions of Constructs. In all of these settings, you have to study all about this arcane lore, as long as the Gods permit it.

 

[Addison]

There are two kinds of magical persons in my world. And when I'm doing this figuring I'm only doing mortals, humans, as fantasy races have natural magics by their race.

So for humans there are two kinds: Learned and Natural. In a sense everyone is born a blank slate, they can go either way. It's up to their choices that determine how they develop. So a Natural is someone who is born with some amount of magic without ever learning. (Moving objects with mind, talking to animals, controlling elements etc) These naturals are about 1 in 100, maybe less.
Learned are those who have great potential for a field of magic but they must develop these skills through rigorous training. The ratio for these people are about the same as Naturals.
There are some careers that don't take magic like wands and incantations that normal people can easily accomplish. Caring for magical creatures, running an apothecary, harvesting magical ingredients, slaying monsters etc. In the crazy world I created these professions are more abundant than Naturals and Learned Casters.

Happy Writing.

 

[Logos&Eidos]

I don't have exact numbers but I had to make all the magic users of my setting rare. They were never common place however in order to get the flavor of the world right, a Dieselpunkish Space-Fantasy, the magic either had to be weaker or rare so that weird and super-science could take prominence.

 

[ChasingSuns]

How does the ones that declines the use of magic in war survive against the ones who don't?

There are a couple of reasons why they are successful. One is the fact that the mages in the mage units aren't as powerful as they could be. Their officers are a bit more powerful, but the soldiers are only taught certain basic spells and techniques. The nation that hates magic also utilizes certain magic dampening materials, and they also use flintlock firearms. Most kingdoms on the continent don't use firearms because they are considered to be uncivilized and dishonorable.

 

[Gurkhal]

There are a couple of reasons why they are successful. One is the fact that the mages in the mage units aren't as powerful as they could be. Their officers are a bit more powerful, but the soldiers are only taught certain basic spells and techniques. The nation that hates magic also utilizes certain magic dampening materials, and they also use flintlock firearms. Most kingdoms on the continent don't use firearms because they are considered to be uncivilized and dishonorable.

Ok, then I get it.