Magic in my main story

[Mothyards]

Finally wrote up a thing about magic in my primary story, MagicBound! Wanted to get someone else’s opinion on it! This is from a project I’ve been working on for 11 years since I was 15 lol any questions and of course constructive criticism welcome!


Laws of Magic


1- Magic can both create and destroy energy. It is inevitable that a universe will create more magic than it destroys.


2- Magic is constant, it’s usage is not. (The understanding that magic is a singular force and magical usage is based on how an object or organism interacts with magic)


3- The rules of magic override the physical laws of reality where relative. (The understanding that magic will override rules such as Newton’s third law if the magic in use is opposed or overrides the law. That is to say every action has an equal and opposite reaction however if used in an applicable manner magic can be used to temporarily break this law. This applies anywhere that magic overrides the laws of reality)




Magic seeps into the universe in a form similar to radiation and can be viewed in a similar manner to radio waves or microwaves.

Magic itself is a singular source of energy that is believed to be ever present where it exists. To give a physical description magic could be viewed as a cloud across the universe, where it is, magic is. The farther away from the cloud one gets the less magic they have access to, however it is believed that if there are places in the universe that don’t have magic, they are pockets and are exceptions to magics rule. There are places however that magic is thin in and don’t receive the same amount of energy that other places in the universe receive.

When objects or organisms interact with magic the process can best be described by a metaphor of a radio picking up a signal.

Magic is not diverse in its energy but rather in its use. When someone who controls fire and someone who controls water use magic, they use the exact same energy, but it is the way they tap into this energy that is different. In most organisms the usage of magic is controlled through a process that is roughly all encompassed in the term “magical genes”. While there are magical genes, this doesn’t fully describe the process of magical use. However the ability to control a certain type of magic is genetic. Someone who is a pyromagi, someone who can control fire, has a specific magical gene that taps into magical radiation in a way that allows the user to create and control bursts of fire.

The actual use of magic however is usually delegated by one’s ley veins. A ley vein is a semi ethereal system of an organism's body. This adaptation has evolved multiple times across the kingdoms of both fauna and flora and is vital to the usage of magic.

A ley vein runs through a body like a circulatory system and is considered the reservoir of magic in an organism's body. Most organisms have evolved to passively absorb magical radiation around them and don’t need to actively refill these veins. However not all organisms have this ability and must ingest magic in a different way, though we can come back to that.

An organism casting magic will use the ley veins in their body to both power and direct the magic, it is both a flow of power like your veins flow blood, and a secondary way of passing impulses between the body and the brain, specifically through the cerebral ley pool. The cerebral ley pool works with the brain to cause impulses from the brain to be translated into magical impulses that allow for control of magic.

While it is not impossible to relearn magic afterwards, to lose one’s limbs is to lose the ley veins attached to the body part in question. Often when someone loses an arm or a leg their control over magic goes with it. While the rest of the ley veins still exists with the body, a natural protective measure activates upon ley disruption or degradation that prevents more impulses to travel between the brain and the cerebral ley pool in an attempts to prevent a biological time bomb referred to as MEE, Magically Eruptive Euthanasia, which causes magic to become unstable. Unstable magic is highly explosive, and even a small unit of magic is extremely powerful and energy filled. A magical organism the size of a human that goes through MEE is like dropping a bomb. A particularly skilled magician is capable of having so much control over their magic that they can physically separate themselves from their lay veins causing a rush of power and… boom!

Magic is generally classified by scholars into trees or branches in much the same way as organism classifications. Certain magic types are considered “family” due to the relative closeness of the mutation of the magical gene that allows for usage. In fact many of these trees are so close that it often only takes a few years for someone to learn related magical types. This of course brings us into the idea of the Imulah and the Hyulah.

The term Imulah describes someone who’s magic is narrow but deep, while a Hyulah’s magic wide but shallow. Imulah often have trouble mastering related magics, but are overwhelmingly proficient in the magic they are born with. Hyulah have a much easier time learning related magic types and often become powerful in their own right due to this, however, this limits their proficiency in each individual magic type.

Listed below is a brief overview of magic types, separating the most common magic types by their trees. Often these trees are more closely related than they appear so while two types of magic might not be on the same tree they might be noted as being related to a type of magic that is described as unrelated.

The heat core describes the magic branches that include kinetic manipulation, fire, arc, and plasma magics

The pure core describes magic branches that include clear, light, pure, telekinetic, and star magics. Star magic is also closely related to fire magic.

The hatred core describes magic branches that includes shadow, blood, chaos, and darkness magics. Darkness magic is also closely related to light magic.

The gaia core describes magic branches that include terra, life, plant, toxic, radioactive, and metallurgic magics. Terra magic is also closely related to kinetic manipulation magic. Life and plant magics are considered separately closely related while both exist in the gaia core. Radiation magic is also closely related to plasma magic.

The atmosphere core describes magic branches that include air, pressure, and gravity magics.

The hydro core describes magic branches that include water, ice, and kinetic decresion magics. Water magic is also closely related to blood magic. Kinetic decresion magic is also closely related to terra and kinetic manipulation magics.

While these are not the only types of magic, these are the most common amongst the races of Pandocium.

 

[Mothyards]

Edit! I forgot to add necromancy to hatred core!

 

[Mothyards]

for anyone stumbling across this old old post, the idea of the cores is kinda stupid and i wrote it really stupidly lol magic is genetically related but saying it the way i did was an awful way of saying it lmao

 

[LostName]

I really like it. Ironically it's pretty similar to my own meta magic system. E.g. almost every organism has a magic circuit and while I haven't really used it more than once yet, certain magic uses certain parts of the magic circuit located in e.g. your legs or your lungs or whatever and if you use magic based in the legs but lose your legs you can no longer use that magic.

I was inspired by Shirou recreating his entire magic circuit from scratch whenever he used magic in Fate / Stay Night though.
And all magic is also omnipresent and has many properties similar to electromagnetic radiation, e.g. elements are a phase modulation of magic so elements like fire, lightning, etc. are really just labels and actually there is no limit to how many "elements" can be used.

 

[Aldarion]

Sounds interesting, but far too physics-y for me. I generally prefer magic to remain magical, if not outright divine.

 

[Mothyards]

Sounds interesting, but far too physics-y for me. I generally prefer magic to remain magical, if not outright divine.

lol Yeah, I can say that the idea behind this was always based in science and can understand why its not to your taste. To be specific evolutionary biology.

Of course as this post is like, two years old my understanding of the science has grown some, thought part of the reason it has to do with biology is a part of the larger scope of the, ... idk what to call it ... "multiverse"? Which would be a technically correct word but it is going to immediately bring in ideas that have started to be pushed for a lot in more recent years some time after I started putting together the idea of how these worlds work so I'm hesitant to use that word lol

 

[Kalipso]

Wow, I'm super late, but this is a really unique magic system! I like the idea that losing a limb may affect your ability to cast magic. I agree that it seems very science-based, and although that's not my personal taste, I can certainly see how this would be cool to read. I thought even this post was interesting, so I'm sure whatever your project may be is great.

 

[Mothyards]

Wow, I'm super late, but this is a really unique magic system! I like the idea that losing a limb may affect your ability to cast magic. I agree that it seems very science-based, and although that's not my personal taste, I can certainly see how this would be cool to read. I thought even this post was interesting, so I'm sure whatever your project may be is great.

Thank you! It means a lot lol, especially with this old idea.
This one is definitely my baby so I can be somewhat hesitant to change things, however I was always worried the magic would be seen as too plain, or as I can imagine since it was a very large inspiration at a lot of steps, just being too much like bending in TLAB and LOK on its surface.

 

[Greg Szulgit]

It seems like a really 'truthi' system! I think readers or RPG players would find it intuitive and, therefore, buy into it. You should be proud of it!

Parhaps a challenge for you as the next step: your "magic" seems to be a branch of physics that can over-ride Newton's laws (perhaps just a yet-to-be-explained type of physics -- sort of like dark energy and dark matter in the real world), while your 'schools' of magic are based on how classical (pre-modern) chemists such as the Greeks would have divided the world (e.g. air is fundamentally different than water (in the classical -- with the exception of monist such as Thales) view as opposed to both of these being just expressions of matter (in the modern view) that are, in fact, interchangable when a few electrons are exchanged). So, can you harmonise these two aspects (the physics and the chemistry) of your system? Why does magic interact with water differently than it does to other substances (and how does gravity and kinetic energy interact with each of these, consdiering that water both falls and has a temperature)? The challenge to unify all of this would be really difficult, but I think you might enjoy chewing on it (if you have already spent 11 years considering your hard magic system, then you are a lifer anyway!)

Finally wrote up a thing about magic in my primary story, MagicBound! Wanted to get someone else’s opinion on it! This is from a project I’ve been working on for 11 years since I was 15 lol any questions and of course constructive criticism welcome!


Laws of Magic


1- Magic can both create and destroy energy. It is inevitable that a universe will create more magic than it destroys.


2- Magic is constant, it’s usage is not. (The understanding that magic is a singular force and magical usage is based on how an object or organism interacts with magic)


3- The rules of magic override the physical laws of reality where relative. (The understanding that magic will override rules such as Newton’s third law if the magic in use is opposed or overrides the law. That is to say every action has an equal and opposite reaction however if used in an applicable manner magic can be used to temporarily break this law. This applies anywhere that magic overrides the laws of reality)




Magic seeps into the universe in a form similar to radiation and can be viewed in a similar manner to radio waves or microwaves.

Magic itself is a singular source of energy that is believed to be ever present where it exists. To give a physical description magic could be viewed as a cloud across the universe, where it is, magic is. The farther away from the cloud one gets the less magic they have access to, however it is believed that if there are places in the universe that don’t have magic, they are pockets and are exceptions to magics rule. There are places however that magic is thin in and don’t receive the same amount of energy that other places in the universe receive.

When objects or organisms interact with magic the process can best be described by a metaphor of a radio picking up a signal.

Magic is not diverse in its energy but rather in its use. When someone who controls fire and someone who controls water use magic, they use the exact same energy, but it is the way they tap into this energy that is different. In most organisms the usage of magic is controlled through a process that is roughly all encompassed in the term “magical genes”. While there are magical genes, this doesn’t fully describe the process of magical use. However the ability to control a certain type of magic is genetic. Someone who is a pyromagi, someone who can control fire, has a specific magical gene that taps into magical radiation in a way that allows the user to create and control bursts of fire.

The actual use of magic however is usually delegated by one’s ley veins. A ley vein is a semi ethereal system of an organism's body. This adaptation has evolved multiple times across the kingdoms of both fauna and flora and is vital to the usage of magic.

A ley vein runs through a body like a circulatory system and is considered the reservoir of magic in an organism's body. Most organisms have evolved to passively absorb magical radiation around them and don’t need to actively refill these veins. However not all organisms have this ability and must ingest magic in a different way, though we can come back to that.

An organism casting magic will use the ley veins in their body to both power and direct the magic, it is both a flow of power like your veins flow blood, and a secondary way of passing impulses between the body and the brain, specifically through the cerebral ley pool. The cerebral ley pool works with the brain to cause impulses from the brain to be translated into magical impulses that allow for control of magic.

While it is not impossible to relearn magic afterwards, to lose one’s limbs is to lose the ley veins attached to the body part in question. Often when someone loses an arm or a leg their control over magic goes with it. While the rest of the ley veins still exists with the body, a natural protective measure activates upon ley disruption or degradation that prevents more impulses to travel between the brain and the cerebral ley pool in an attempts to prevent a biological time bomb referred to as MEE, Magically Eruptive Euthanasia, which causes magic to become unstable. Unstable magic is highly explosive, and even a small unit of magic is extremely powerful and energy filled. A magical organism the size of a human that goes through MEE is like dropping a bomb. A particularly skilled magician is capable of having so much control over their magic that they can physically separate themselves from their lay veins causing a rush of power and… boom!

Magic is generally classified by scholars into trees or branches in much the same way as organism classifications. Certain magic types are considered “family” due to the relative closeness of the mutation of the magical gene that allows for usage. In fact many of these trees are so close that it often only takes a few years for someone to learn related magical types. This of course brings us into the idea of the Imulah and the Hyulah.

The term Imulah describes someone who’s magic is narrow but deep, while a Hyulah’s magic wide but shallow. Imulah often have trouble mastering related magics, but are overwhelmingly proficient in the magic they are born with. Hyulah have a much easier time learning related magic types and often become powerful in their own right due to this, however, this limits their proficiency in each individual magic type.

Listed below is a brief overview of magic types, separating the most common magic types by their trees. Often these trees are more closely related than they appear so while two types of magic might not be on the same tree they might be noted as being related to a type of magic that is described as unrelated.

The heat core describes the magic branches that include kinetic manipulation, fire, arc, and plasma magics

The pure core describes magic branches that include clear, light, pure, telekinetic, and star magics. Star magic is also closely related to fire magic.

The hatred core describes magic branches that includes shadow, blood, chaos, and darkness magics. Darkness magic is also closely related to light magic.

The gaia core describes magic branches that include terra, life, plant, toxic, radioactive, and metallurgic magics. Terra magic is also closely related to kinetic manipulation magic. Life and plant magics are considered separately closely related while both exist in the gaia core. Radiation magic is also closely related to plasma magic.

The atmosphere core describes magic branches that include air, pressure, and gravity magics.

The hydro core describes magic branches that include water, ice, and kinetic decresion magics. Water magic is also closely related to blood magic. Kinetic decresion magic is also closely related to terra and kinetic manipulation magics.

While these are not the only types of magic, these are the most common amongst the races of Pandocium.

 

[Mothyards]

It seems like a really 'truthi' system! I think readers or RPG players would find it intuitive and, therefore, buy into it. You should be proud of it!

Parhaps a challenge for you as the next step: your "magic" seems to be a branch of physics that can over-ride Newton's laws (perhaps just a yet-to-be-explained type of physics -- sort of like dark energy and dark matter in the real world), while your 'schools' of magic are based on how classical (pre-modern) chemists such as the Greeks would have divided the world (e.g. air is fundamentally different than water (in the classical -- with the exception of monist such as Thales) view as opposed to both of these being just expressions of matter (in the modern view) that are, in fact, interchangable when a few electrons are exchanged). So, can you harmonise these two aspects (the physics and the chemistry) of your system? Why does magic interact with water differently than it does to other substances (and how does gravity and kinetic energy interact with each of these, consdiering that water both falls and has a temperature)? The challenge to unify all of this would be really difficult, but I think you might enjoy chewing on it (if you have already spent 11 years considering your hard magic system, then you are a lifer anyway!)

It is fascinating to see others’ ideas on concepts I come up with because it lets me see things I barely even considered when making them lol, beyond the idea of magic overriding physics mostly for the concept of energy creation, physics and chemistry where the farthest things from my mind when I made the magic system for MagicBound, it was in fact biology on my mind!

I do agree those are good things from me to chew on however since many sciences can be affected by others, especially physics and chemistry’s effects on biology.

The idea that I’ve had in my head for a long time has to do with the genetics of an organism when it comes to its use of magic. As the second law states, it is the usage of magic that changes rather than the underlying energy of magic itself. When a dragon or bird has magic that allows its body to be lighter so it can fly, or a person is able to manipulate the air or the water around them, it has to do with how the genetics of that person causes the use of magic to warp into different forms.

Admittedly as an elemental system like this it was hard to get away from concepts like bending from ATLA and LOK and so I fed into them more than pulled away, trying to toe the line between the spiritual concepts of different types of magic while also trying to ground them in a genetic style distribution system across organisms.

To touch on the idea of magic working differently on one element vs another, the short answer is, it doesn’t. At least not where humans are concerned. Different organisms can and have evolved different methods of interacting with magic, however singular species will only have their method to use. For humans, this is a slight genetic shift that has changed over time that allows their magic to cause a slightly different effect, more specifically in the matter or energy they are able to manipulate. When looking down the genetic lineage of a genetic tree, one would be able to see what genes slowly shifted to become other genes. This is what I was originally trying to get across with the ideas of the “Cores” however it was a dumb name, dumb idea, and very stupid dumb dumb way of writing it out. If I was to go back, I would rather make the phylogenetic tree of mutations that led to control over different elements within the races of Humani. Magic in humans is somewhat strange and picky over what it will and will not do. A hydromagi would be able to control anything that is H2O, a water molecule, or to a lesser extent water within something or the water within another liquid, at its gas, liquid, and solid states, (the plasma states of such things that can achieve a plasma state are a bit of a case-by-case basis), but they would not be able to control individual hydrogen and oxygen molecules. It is the combination into its form as water that causes their magic to react to it.

When we move onto elements like air, there is still a lot of testing being done on an in-world sense, does it need to be Pandocium’s atmospheric gas mix? How does that explain aeromagi that are capable of manipulating just oxygen? Why is gravity manipulation so genetically close to being able to manipulate air? Etc etc. However, the actual magic is a single force that is focused through a lens of the genetics of an organism, thus it doesn’t actually affect water or air differently, the genetics do. This affect being a result of MagicBound’s universe being a magically unfocused universe, which I use for a number of stories. Either a universe is unfocused and organism may evolve to use magic or find another way to utilize magic later on, or there is some odd or overriding force within focused universe that cause magic to behave in a specific, often singular way, across the entirety of that universe.

Anyway that’s an idea of where I am at as of now, though I always like to think of ways that I can make things better!

 

[Greg Szulgit]

Wow! That's a serious response! As it stands, your system is already more solid than 98% of any readers will ever care to question. But those on this forum, who search for "hard magic systems", are the other 2%

I think your biological ideas are awesome (I'm a biologist much more than a chemist or physicist anyway). It sounds like you are already mulling over the chemistry and physics. One thing that helped me (in my own system) was to allow myself to break a bit from 21st centuray real-world understanding of chemistry and to re-invent compositions of air, water, etc. Instead of worrying about oxygen in air, consider adding (or replacing?) it with something else (e.g. phlogiston, qi, mana, etc.). You can then figure out if one or more of these permeates or comprises all chemistry and physics and if this is the key factor that fits with (or, better yet, ties them to) your biological concepts.

I am so happy to have found Mythic Scribes. I used to tell my fellow geeks that, when I looked for "hard magic" systems, I was always left disappointed and felt like I was alone in a genre that I would have to label, "hard-hard magic" (I always assert that people who want such depth gravitate toward hard-sci-fi, whereas they go to fantasy to lose that type of analytic thinking). Now, I feel like I have found my tribe (the 2%). When I finish grading the 320 lab reports awaiting me, I look forward to diving through earlier forum posts (happy to have you suggest a few).

 

[pmmg]

I used to tell my fellow geeks that, when I looked for "hard magic" systems, I was always left disappointed and felt like I was alone in a genre that I would have to label, "hard-hard magic"

When I see this, I feel like there is a hole just waiting to be filled. Being alone ought to make me the one different, and perhaps the one people will be glad someone else finally wrote to.

 

[Greg Szulgit]

When I see this, I feel like there is a hole just waiting to be filled. Being alone ought to make me the one different, and perhaps the one people will be glad someone else finally wrote to.

I have to admit that it is bitter-sweet to find this forum site. I thought I was soooo special! Now I know that there are others who have done seriously hard magic systems, so I am less-special but, at least, I have found my tribe.

 

[pmmg]

There probably is not an idea you can post up here without someone going, hey...that's just like.... But, you know, it is and it isnt. There may be other stories out their like mine, but I've not seen them. I can point to some that are close, but I can also point to why they are not a match.

We all bring something unique, don't discount your own

 

[pmmg]

The magic system above is similar to my own, in that, my own system works like radiation, and there are places where the radiation is strong and where it is weak. And I do have the magic affect some of certain races (blood) more than others, but I dont have a ley vein, as much as blood that is more participatory in the Ley system than that of others. Such that, I would have to argue that one tuned in, if they lost an arm, would probably not lose ability, so long as the 'mana' was still plentiful....but then....they might suffer in other ways.

In my own world, one of the back drop problems is that the magical energy has grown scarce and the creatures are seeking other sources of it. Along with that, some races are replacing others, so...magic is becoming more and more a thing of the past.

I like the idea of Ley Veins, but its not a fit for me, but maybe ley attuned blood. (I dont really have a word for it, but maybe I should.)

My system is not well defined though. I find that stories, or systems, that focus too much on the details, are not the type I tend to turn my focus too. I would want this for a game system, but not for a story. Operating within the rules becomes a big part of what its about. For me, I want enough that a reader gets that such and such could happen, but not enough that the reader can go "hey, that's a fourth level spell and they are only a 5th level...."

I feel that a lot of attention on this by a writer may be stuff that never makes it to the page. Maybe one day I will write the magic system out, but...the MC does not understand it, seems enough that its unclear at times.

 

[Queshire]

Hmm, I have something that ends up looking like magic, but its a bit more complicated than that.

Life makes mana. It's not a lot, but when you've got every blade of grass, every insect or any other organism to live release their mana upon death it builds up into a background magic field.

Where dense enough mana interacts with potent enough locations such as the heart of a volcano, the world's core or the depths of the ocean it can create portals to other planes. More mana flows in through those portals, but only enough to equalize the pressure on either side of the portal. There's still mana wastes or even ways to scar a planet enough that such portals can't form, but even if the planet is scoured of life afterwards the portals ensure that the planet will still have mana.

That starts off the cycle. Some mana is inevitably radiated off the planet. The gravity of other celestial bodies draw in that mana until it reaches enough of a density to catalysize portal formation and start gaining mana from their. Then they'll radiate mana as well to keep things going. Theoretically one planet with life on it can cause all the planets in a system to develop mana fields eventually, but in practice the majority of the mana used to fuel the growth of, say, the sun is actually radiated from distant stars that have developed mana of their own already.

I've got something that functions like magic genetics, though it's not related to DNA. Rather, when a child is developing their mana system they use mana from around them as the building blocks for it. The parents are a large contributor of course, and its the information encoded in their mana that serves as the magic genetics, but they also take in some from the ambient mana the environment as well as smaller bits from other people around them.

These nagic genetics, blood essence in my setting, are mostly important for dragons, phoenixes or other creatures with inate magic abilities. Humans do have blood essence as well, but except for rare clans that have managed to develop specific legacies it doesn't do much to affect their magical capabilities.

People can be born with certain innante magical affinities either due a quirk of their development or environmental factors, but without that your magical affinity is a result of what you train in and practice.

 

[Mothyards]

Where dense enough mana interacts with potent enough locations such as the heart of a volcano, the world's core or the depths of the ocean it can create portals to other planes. More mana flows in through those portals, but only enough to equalize the pressure on either side of the portal. There's still mana wastes or even ways to scar a planet enough that such portals can't form, but even if the planet is scoured of life afterwards the portals ensure that the planet will still have mana.

I really like this idea, at best it's a good way to accrue energy or make new sources of mana, at worst its a problem that seems like it could swiftly snowball out of control if the amount of mana needed to equalize is just, to much :0 Though I supposed I'm making assumptions that it can be to much lol

 

[Mothyards]

I think your biological ideas are awesome (I'm a biologist much more than a chemist or physicist anyway). It sounds like you are already mulling over the chemistry and physics. One thing that helped me (in my own system) was to allow myself to break a bit from 21st centuray real-world understanding of chemistry and to re-invent compositions of air, water, etc. Instead of worrying about oxygen in air, consider adding (or replacing?) it with something else (e.g. phlogiston, qi, mana, etc.). You can then figure out if one or more of these permeates or comprises all chemistry and physics and if this is the key factor that fits with (or, better yet, ties them to) your biological concepts.

I think I would be interested in making something like this sometime, though I think it would be its own thing since the magic system I've mentioned here is in many ways so connected to our world science. Of course on the other hand, this project has been my baby and sometimes I have to pry my own fingers off of it to make the changes healthy for the idea and story lol

 

[Queshire]

I really like this idea, at best it's a good way to accrue energy or make new sources of mana, at worst its a problem that seems like it could swiftly snowball out of control if the amount of mana needed to equalize is just, to much :0 Though I supposed I'm making assumptions that it can be to much lol

Work is slow so in the two hours or so I've simplified things somewhat.

Mana given off by living things is pulled in by gravity. At the center of a world that mana clumps together into a dense mass: the World Soul. The sheer density of it is enough that it strains reality and its from this straining that rifts form.

Once the planet is full up on mana supplementary rifts can still form in the heart of volcanoes or down in the depths of the ocean, but it's the weight of the world soul of the planet (or star, or moon, or black hole) that is both the primary source of the rifts and one of the key factors in what the resting level of ambient mana is. The heavier the world soul is the deeper it draws from other planes and the greater the amount of ambient mana it wants to stay at.

If it can't draw mana from the higher planes then dragons sleep, gods retreat from the world and magic fades until it reaches a level sustainable by the life on the planet or by what mana it can draw from the higher planes.

The World Soul would remain and theoretically you could canablize it for power, but otherwise it would just sleep until more power is available from the higher planes.

 

[Greg Szulgit]

Hmm, I have something that ends up looking like magic, but its a bit more complicated than that.

Life makes mana. It's not a lot, but when you've got every blade of grass, every insect or any other organism to live release their mana upon death it builds up into a background magic field.

Where dense enough mana interacts with potent enough locations such as the heart of a volcano, the world's core or the depths of the ocean it can create portals to other planes. More mana flows in through those portals, but only enough to equalize the pressure on either side of the portal. There's still mana wastes or even ways to scar a planet enough that such portals can't form, but even if the planet is scoured of life afterwards the portals ensure that the planet will still have mana.

That starts off the cycle. Some mana is inevitably radiated off the planet. The gravity of other celestial bodies draw in that mana until it reaches enough of a density to catalysize portal formation and start gaining mana from their. Then they'll radiate mana as well to keep things going. Theoretically one planet with life on it can cause all the planets in a system to develop mana fields eventually, but in practice the majority of the mana used to fuel the growth of, say, the sun is actually radiated from distant stars that have developed mana of their own already.

I've got something that functions like magic genetics, though it's not related to DNA. Rather, when a child is developing their mana system they use mana from around them as the building blocks for it. The parents are a large contributor of course, and its the information encoded in their mana that serves as the magic genetics, but they also take in some from the ambient mana the environment as well as smaller bits from other people around them.

These nagic genetics, blood essence in my setting, are mostly important for dragons, phoenixes or other creatures with inate magic abilities. Humans do have blood essence as well, but except for rare clans that have managed to develop specific legacies it doesn't do much to affect their magical capabilities.

People can be born with certain innante magical affinities either due a quirk of their development or environmental factors, but without that your magical affinity is a result of what you train in and practice.

I find myself strangely attratced to the concept that life makes mana. I say "strangley" because I usually look for energy transfers wherein energy is never created oir destroyed, but there is something truthi about life being able to create. Does life make mana from nothing or is it created from fundamental building block of some sort? If so, can a part of your world become depleted becaseu life sucked up all of the building blocks of mana and, then, radiated them away when the life died? (this is like an field becoming barren because the plants sucked up all of the nutirents and, then, were carried off by farmers who neglected to fertilise).