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My Magic System

MittoMan

Acolyte
First, an introduction to my world, Laofa...
There are two main countries, Valaris and Carania, with other, smaller countries scattered around. Valaris, for comparison, is about the size of Australia, and Carania is about the size of Eurasia. Valaris is an anarchical country with no real government. Crime runs rampant, and various sides are constantly struggling for control. Carania, in direct contrast, is orderly and peaceful. This is mostly due to their (sort of) god, Larras. He united Carania's thirteen races and brought peace and prosperity. Larras is an interesting being, to say the least, which brings us to the next topic...
The Origin Of Caranian Magic
A thousand years ago, a piece of the moon landed in the centre of Carania. Now, the moon in this world is a very mystical thing. First off, it's purple. Second, it produces an energy that is carried on light reflected off of it. Remember this, it's important later. For now, the piece of the moon. When it landed, it released an incredibly powerful burst of energy, which changed many things. Imagine this energy is like radiation, permeating the air, the earth and everything else. Larras, who was a simple lumberjack, was almost exactly where the meteor hit, and he was affected in a tremendous way. He became immortal, and gained incredibly powerful abilities. Others were like him, near enough to the blast to be transformed, but none to the degree he did. The blast of energy also transformed six specific animals; wolves, foxes, crocodiles, lions, tigers and wild cats. They were anthropomorphised. They became bipedal, and gained human-like intelligence. They became six of Carania's native races; Lycar, Vulpes, Pilcarti, Tirei, Lionel and Kuthriit respectively. The other seven races are as follows; Alf, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Tarka, Liffêen (Lif-ay-en), and Erakoi. I shall explain the races in more detail in a separate post. From this point on, anyone born in Carania was born with magical abilities.
Caranian Magic
Caranian magic is a natural ability. It is instinctive. Everyone is unique in their abilities. Some have pyrokinesis, others can teleport. The source of energy for these magical abilities, as I said before, is the moon. This energy is measured in Tuums(T). Those born with these abilities are able to draw the energy that permeates the air into themselves and use it as a catalyst. Once the energy they have drawn into themselves is used up, they either have to draw on more, or it will start using their body as a catalyst instead. This is incredibly painful and incredibly dangerous. Using your body in this way will eventually turn it to ash. Certain abilities use more of this energy, and certain people are able to use these abilities more efficiently. For example, two people could both have telekinesis, and both of them have drawn the same amount of energy into themselves, let's say 200T. The first person can lift a boulder off the ground for 30 minutes before they run out of energy, using 0.1T/s. The second, however, can only lift the boulder for a minute, burning 3.3T/s. Now, the amount of energy in the air depends on a) the time of day, and b) the cycles of the moon. When the moon is not out, the energy slowly dissipates, eventually reaching the lowest point at sunset. Its highest point is sunrise. People born in Carania all have purple eyes. When someone is using magic, their eyes glow and release a purple mist. This is residual energy. The more a person uses magic, the deeper purple their eyes become, and the more efficient their use of energy becomes. Generally, violet eyes are a sign of an incredibly powerful magician.
Glyph Magic
There is another form of magic, however. This magic is commonly called glyph magic. As the name entails, it is used through glyphs, which are various symbols which each represent certain words. These glyphs are activated in one of two ways; verbally or physically. To physically activate a glyph, one generally has to touch a digit or limb to the centre of the glyph, though some are activated differently. To verbally activate a glyph, one must say the word associated with the specific glyph. When a glyph is activated, the person who activated it must first attach a source. They do this by touching an object or by touching their chest. If they touch their chest, they become the source, and the spell feeds off of their lifeforce. If a spell is too much for someone, they tend to explode. If an object is touched, the object becomes the source and the spell feeds off of it. When a spell feeds off an object, the object burns up. Certain materials have a higher resistance to this. This resistance is measured in Kahls per millimetre cubed(K/mm3). After attaching a source, the caster must then imagine in detail what they want the spell to do, with more spectacular results requiring higher amounts of energy.

So, that's my magic system. If you have any criticism, please, go ahead.
 

CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
It is very detailed [far more detailed that I would write, I like a bit of Handwavium].
How does these magics play out in your story?
 

MittoMan

Acolyte
It is very detailed [far more detailed that I would write, I like a bit of Handwavium].
How does these magics play out in your story?
It's going to be a very large part. Also, everything is still in development, so it's probably going to change.
 

L. Blades

Dreamer
Hi MittoMan, I like your magic system overall, especially the quantification of it. 'Tuums(T)' is your unit, so I presume T/s is Tuums per second?-If so make sure it's initially defined as such. Would I be right in assuming that if a person uses up this energy at a certain rate, then once they have been constantly using it for a set period of time and it reached the energy equivalent to their body (such as 200T), then they will disintegrate? What I'm saying here is that it's a good concept, but be sure to include or similarly make clear the parameters; this will help it be more believable.

One thing I'm finding hard to grasp: you say that a piece of the moon falls directly onto Carania, how big is this piece?-How big is the moon? If it's anything the size of our moon, any chunk landing on Earth could wipe out all life, with the equivalent of many thousands of nuclear warheads being detonated. I hope it's a small piece, and/or the moon is very... Soft.

"... it produces an energy that is carried on light reflected off of it." -That is my favourite line right there!
 

Annoyingkid

Banned
I say write in some sacrificial main characters who's fate is to suddenly and unceremoniously explode, to make the reader believe it can affect anyone, and that characters aren't immune just because of plot armour. Otherwise I wouldn't believe the main characters are in any danger of exploding at all.
 

MittoMan

Acolyte
Hi MittoMan, I like your magic system overall, especially the quantification of it. 'Tuums(T)' is your unit, so I presume T/s is Tuums per second?-If so make sure it's initially defined as such. Would I be right in assuming that if a person uses up this energy at a certain rate, then once they have been constantly using it for a set period of time and it reached the energy equivalent to their body (such as 200T), then they will disintegrate? What I'm saying here is that it's a good concept, but be sure to include or similarly make clear the parameters; this will help it be more believable.

One thing I'm finding hard to grasp: you say that a piece of the moon falls directly onto Carania, how big is this piece?-How big is the moon? If it's anything the size of our moon, any chunk landing on Earth could wipe out all life, with the equivalent of many thousands of nuclear warheads being detonated. I hope it's a small piece, and/or the moon is very... Soft.

"... it produces an energy that is carried on light reflected off of it." -That is my favourite line right there!

Ah yes, I forgot to do that. And yes, people do have a certain amount of energy they can consume before they disintegrate. The average, not including outliers, is about 30T, with the ability to draw in and store another fifteen times that. If someone has a base amount of energy of 90T, they would be able to draw in another 1350T. That is, if they have access to that amount of energy. You see, this energy dissipates slowly over time, so it must be constantly supplied. Generally speaking, the highest amount of atmospheric energy (energy found in the air, which comes from the moon) you'll find is 300T.

Regarding the piece of the moon, no, it is not very large. It's about twice the size of a human. There are many other pieces of the moon that have fallen to earth, though they're only about the size of a pebble. But even those pieces, when charged, hold a huge amount of energy. About 100,00T per cubic centimetre. You can probably imagine the amount of energy the large one held. And, yes, the Laofan moon is about the size of our moon.
 

MittoMan

Acolyte
I say write in some sacrificial main characters who's fate is to suddenly and unceremoniously explode, to make the reader believe it can affect anyone, and that characters aren't immune just because of plot armour. Otherwise I wouldn't believe the main characters are in any danger of exploding at all.
Believe me, I plan for it. The explosion has about the same amount of power as a hand grenade, though is affected by certain factors. It can also be amplified greatly.
 

L. Blades

Dreamer
Good to hear you're thinking in-depth about it!

Believe me, I plan for it. The explosion has about the same amount of power as a hand grenade, though is affected by certain factors. It can also be amplified greatly.

A quantifiable real-life comparison, yes, but remember the obvious golden rule here; in your book you can't tell the reader it's roughly equivalent to a hand grenade (unless your book does have modern tech, grenades etc.), in which case you could equally get round it by saying that such an explosion has a guaranteed kill radius of 5 metres (similar to a hand grenade).
 

MittoMan

Acolyte
Good to hear you're thinking in-depth about it!



A quantifiable real-life comparison, yes, but remember the obvious golden rule here; in your book you can't tell the reader it's roughly equivalent to a hand grenade (unless your book does have modern tech, grenades etc.), in which case you could equally get round it by saying that such an explosion has a guaranteed kill radius of 5 metres (similar to a hand grenade).
Oh yes, I did realise that. I’m considering making the magic in the novels quite soft, but I’ll also make a sort-of encyclopaedia, kind of like Angie Sage did with her Septimus Heap series.
 
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