Magic System Ideas

[GreenMan43]

I am making a magic system. It is an elemental magic system, where instead of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, I use the 5 senses(Taste, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Sight) Here is the Rundown

• Vitalem (Touch-Based Magic):
  • Description: Vitalem magic revolves around the manipulation of physical forms and enhancing physical attributes through tactile contact.
  • Abilities: Practitioners can reshape and transform objects or themselves, enhance physical strength, agility, and durability, and provide accelerated healing to themselves or others by manipulating the physical properties of living beings and materials.
• Visara (Sight-Based Magic):
  • Description: Visara magic enhances visual perception beyond normal human capabilities, allowing mages to perceive details and distances with exceptional clarity.
  • Abilities: Mages can see great distances, detect hidden weaknesses in structures or opponents, predict movements by observing patterns and subtle cues, and even visualize events occurring in distant places.
• Sonara (Hearing-Based Magic):
  • Description: Sonara magic revolves around the manipulation and perception of sound, using auditory senses to influence and interact with the environment.
  • Abilities: Users can create auditory illusions to deceive or distract opponents, navigate through environments by echolocating sound waves to detect objects or individuals in darkness or obscured spaces, and manipulate emotions and behaviors by emitting specific sound frequencies.
• Olfaris (Smell-Based Magic):
  • Description: Olfaris magic harnesses the power of scents and pheromones, manipulating olfactory senses to influence emotions and track individuals or objects.
  • Abilities: Mages can track targets by their unique scent signatures, manipulate emotions or mental states by altering aromas, induce memory suppression or enhancement through specific scents, and even use pheromones to affect social interactions or animal behavior.
• Gustara (Taste-Based Magic):
  • Description: Gustara magic involves the manipulation of flavors and ingested substances, using taste as a conduit for magical effects.
  • Abilities: Practitioners can create potions or elixirs that induce specific emotions or physical enhancements when consumed, manipulate the taste of food or drink to create illusions or alter perceptions, transmute substances through ingestion to achieve desired effects, and even enhance the potency of alchemical creations.

I would appreciate some feedback on what yall think about it. Suggestions on how to make it better or build from it are very welcome! Thank you.

 

[evolution_rex]

At first glance it seems like a great and simple way to categorize magic but I feel touch-based magic comes across as more varied and broad than the rest. Scent based magic comes across as especially narrow. In your world are you able to use magic of one or more sense at a time or are they schools of magic where mages have to specialize in one in order to master it? If the former I don’t think the narrowness of some of the senses matter but if the latter then it might.

 

[GreenMan43]

People in this world would probably be able to use multiple. But training, probably through school, would be essential in learning how to utilize different magics. People would probably specialize in one specific area though, and be not as great in others.

 

[Finchbearer]

To my mind if the magic does not involve the elements, fire, water etc. then it’s not elemental magic. If it’s using the senses then maybe it’s olfactory or sensorial magic.

As a reader I don’t particularly care too much about the limitations of the magic itself, but more how it’s conveyed in the story. Maybe it’s an emerging magic that we learn about as the story goes along.

I suppose this could be something that you have as notes in the background to refer back to, but I wouldn’t sweat the details of it, not unless you’re using a hard magic system where the reader will eventually understand all of the limitations and rules. If you’re using the ‘magic school’ setting, I’d say be wary of it turning into a (Harry Potter) trope.

 

[GreenMan43]

At first glance it seems like a great and simple way to categorize magic but I feel touch-based magic comes across as more varied and broad than the rest. Scent based magic comes across as especially narrow. In your world are you able to use magic of one or more sense at a time or are they schools of magic where mages have to specialize in one in order to master it? If the former I don’t think the narrowness of some of the senses matter but if the latter then it might.

I suppose I could limit Vitalem to just Inanimate Transformation(Changing the Properties and Abilities of Inanimate Objects)

 

[JBCrowson]

With powers as general as the touch based one, you risk mages being too powerful, with consequent why didn't he / she / they just do magic to solve the problem. As a basis for a magic system in your world using the 5 senses works for me.

 

[GreenMan43]

I have another idea yall. Here it is

In a world where magic is governed by the principles of quantum mechanics, practitioners of Quantum Resonance Magic, known as Resonators, harness the fundamental particles and waves of reality itself.

• Quantum States Manipulation
  • Description: Resonators perceive and interact with quantum particles such as electrons, photons, and quarks.
  • Applications:
    • Manipulate light to create illusions, change colors, or bend around obstacles.
    • Control sound waves to amplify, distort, or silence sounds.
    • Influence the behavior of electrons to generate electricity or disrupt electronic devices.
• Wavefunction Manipulation
  • Description: Resonators can collapse or expand the wavefunctions of particles, altering their properties and behaviors.
  • Applications:
    • Create shields by collapsing quantum probabilities to deflect attacks.
    • Enhance physical abilities by adjusting probabilities for strength, speed, or agility.
    • Alter probabilities to influence luck, causing favorable or unfavorable outcomes.
• Quantum Entanglement
  • Description: Establish quantum entanglements between objects, linking their properties regardless of distance.
  • Applications:
    • Instant communication over vast distances through entangled particles.
    • Teleportation of objects by collapsing and reestablishing their wavefunctions.
    • Sharing sensations and emotions between entangled individuals, fostering deep connections.
• Superposition Crafting
  • Description: Resonators imbue objects or living beings with quantum superpositions, allowing them to exist in multiple states simultaneously.
  • Applications:
    • Weapons that are simultaneously sharp and blunt, bypassing defenses unpredictably.
    • Illusions or decoys that appear in multiple places at once, confusing enemies.
    • Individuals capable of performing multiple tasks simultaneously or appearing in different locations simultaneously.
• Quantum Encryption
  • Description: Encode information into quantum states, creating unbreakable codes or hidden messages.
  • Applications:
    • Secure communication and data storage using quantum keys.
    • Hidden messages that only those with the right quantum decryption key can access.
    • Quantum locks and security systems that are virtually impenetrable.
• Quantum Flux Rituals
  • Description: Perform intricate rituals involving the manipulation of quantum fields.
  • Applications:
    • Alter the flow of time in localized areas, speeding up or slowing down time.
    • Create pocket dimensions with unique physical laws or environments.
    • Temporarily alter the laws of physics within a controlled area, bending reality to the Resonator's will.

Resonators would only be able to utilize one aspect of the magic, with a few exceptions. (aka Main Protagonist, Main Antagonist, etc)

 

[GreenMan43]

and another idea called Dreamthread Magic. more on that later

 

[Finchbearer]

I have another idea yall. Here it is

In a world where magic is governed by the principles of quantum mechanics, practitioners of Quantum Resonance Magic, known as Resonators, harness the fundamental particles and waves of reality itself.

• Quantum States Manipulation
  • Description: Resonators perceive and interact with quantum particles such as electrons, photons, and quarks.
  • Applications:
    • Manipulate light to create illusions, change colors, or bend around obstacles.
    • Control sound waves to amplify, distort, or silence sounds.
    • Influence the behavior of electrons to generate electricity or disrupt electronic devices.
• Wavefunction Manipulation
  • Description: Resonators can collapse or expand the wavefunctions of particles, altering their properties and behaviors.
  • Applications:
    • Create shields by collapsing quantum probabilities to deflect attacks.
    • Enhance physical abilities by adjusting probabilities for strength, speed, or agility.
    • Alter probabilities to influence luck, causing favorable or unfavorable outcomes.
• Quantum Entanglement
  • Description: Establish quantum entanglements between objects, linking their properties regardless of distance.
  • Applications:
    • Instant communication over vast distances through entangled particles.
    • Teleportation of objects by collapsing and reestablishing their wavefunctions.
    • Sharing sensations and emotions between entangled individuals, fostering deep connections.
• Superposition Crafting
  • Description: Resonators imbue objects or living beings with quantum superpositions, allowing them to exist in multiple states simultaneously.
  • Applications:
    • Weapons that are simultaneously sharp and blunt, bypassing defenses unpredictably.
    • Illusions or decoys that appear in multiple places at once, confusing enemies.
    • Individuals capable of performing multiple tasks simultaneously or appearing in different locations simultaneously.
• Quantum Encryption
  • Description: Encode information into quantum states, creating unbreakable codes or hidden messages.
  • Applications:
    • Secure communication and data storage using quantum keys.
    • Hidden messages that only those with the right quantum decryption key can access.
    • Quantum locks and security systems that are virtually impenetrable.
• Quantum Flux Rituals
  • Description: Perform intricate rituals involving the manipulation of quantum fields.
  • Applications:
    • Alter the flow of time in localized areas, speeding up or slowing down time.
    • Create pocket dimensions with unique physical laws or environments.
    • Temporarily alter the laws of physics within a controlled area, bending reality to the Resonator's will.

Resonators would only be able to utilize one aspect of the magic, with a few exceptions. (aka Main Protagonist, Main Antagonist, etc)

This is copy and paste chatGPT …