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Magic Terminology

So I'm struggling with what to call different "kinds" of magic in my WIP. I always have to describe them more with whole sentences than terms or words, and that gets exhausting after a while.

They're pretty much divided into two different "schools" of magic, one that has to do with nature and one that has to do with manipulation of self or others.

In the "school of nature," there's plant (NOT earth, plants only), water, and air/wind. In the other school of magic, there's mind-related powers, emotion ones (like empathy), and physical/matter powers (superstrength, tactile telekinesis, etc).

I would like the line between them to be defined in terminology. Like using -mancy as a suffix for the nature magic and -kinesis for the others. I'm not sure what the prefixes should be, though, especially for the non-nature ones.

Does anyone have suggestions for this? Thanks in advance!
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
For a start...

Plant: Xylomancy
Water: Hydromancy
Air: Aeromancy?

Also, what is tactile telekinesis?
 

glutton

Inkling
Also, what is tactile telekinesis?

Telekinesis that only works at touch range, I've seen it used in comics to simulate super-strength or explain why large objects don't fall apart when a character lifts them because the character is holding it together with tactile TK.
 
What glutton said lol. Mostly a comics thing. It's one of Superman's powers, for example. But the power set range for that power in my WIP is matter manipulation. One character can transmute inorganic material into other inorganic material, like alchemy. Other characters have superstrength or impenetrable skin.

The -mancy ones are easier than the -kinesis ones. Xylomancy or phytomancy, hydromancy or aquamancy, and aeromancy.

Psychokinesis? Telekinesis -- but that's already a thing.

Pathokinesis?

Materiokinesis?

I'm also not sure if these words should appear in the story of if they're only useful in discussion about the story. It's a fantastical setting outside of our own world.
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Why not start with the ones that exist? That way, there's no direct parallelism between the two schools--each has things it can do that the other cannot.

Even so, using the -kinesis suffix is going to limit you because it's all kinetic stuff, while -mancy is more explicitly magical. Then again, per the above, maybe that's a good thing. Kineticists cannot see into the future, only the mancers can do that. OTOH, neither suffix is going to work for something like super strength or impenetrable skin.

Maybe you distinguish the two more by methodology. Each school would have a name, of course, but the way the reader sees that they are different is that one uses spells while the other uses materials. Or one simply has powers (super strength) while the other must invoke powers.
 
Well, the "powers" and "schools" aren't things that can be taught, but more schools of thought. Each being in this fantastical world is born with a Gift, and their species determines what magical "category" or what-have-you that it falls under.

The elves may be born with either plant-related or mind-related powers, but plant-based Gifts occur more and are more praised in Nightelves, whereas Dayelves prefer mind-related powers and are more often born with them.

The same goes for nixen (amphibious people somewhat like mermaids) and water- and emotion-related Gifts, which correspond to Moonnixen and Sunnixen peoples. Sprites can be born with either air- or matter-based powers, and there are Dusksprites and Dawnsprites.

The dark-and-nature themed ones are at war with the light themed ones, and the opposite side's Gifts appearing on the other side is a source of ostracism in these societies. So for example, a Nightelf born with a mind-related Gift would be treated like an outsider, would not be trusted, etc. They'd treat him/her like a witch. The same would be the case if a Dayelf was born with plant manipulation powers.

So they would likely use the language to further the divisive nature of their societies. There should probably be derogatory ways to refer to these "witches" in their societies, but as I don't even know what /I/ call these different "categories" of Gifts, it's hard to think of some kind of way that language would be used in-world.
 
To use the terms in-world, they would have to fit with the linguistic pattern of the rest of the world. I've been using English words to name things to avoid making whole new languages or explaining etymology. There are creatures called questers and cloven horses, there are places called Riverwall and Westkeep, the nations are just Night Realm, Dusk Kingdom, etc.

But to have these Gifts fit that same pattern, it might sound a little too Avatar: The Last Airbender lol.
 
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