Naming Elemental Magic

[Ankari]

Greetings everyone,

I've nearly completed a magic the mechanics of a magic system that I've mentally referred to as Elementalism. I'm not completely sold on the name. First, it's too generic. Second, stemming from the first problem, I don't want people to have preconceived ideas before reading how the magic works.

I guess I should highlight how the magic works, see if that generates a few ideas.

Rules

• The element has to be present.
• A caster applies up to three Absolute Principles to generate a specific effect.
• The driving force of this magic is the mental fortitude of the caster. The longer a spell is working, the more mentally drained the caster.
• A caster can have up to three effects active.

So, to take an example:

Fire + Motion + Alteration + Preservation = Living Flame (The caster becomes a flame. Normal weapons do not harm him. All physical belongings are burned, or drop to the ground.)

While I'm at it, I need a name for those who practice the art. I've toyed with something like Shifters (which won't work, because of another type of magic I'll be creating), Constructors, or Formers.

I'm not in love with any of those names.

Help!

Thanks.

 

[ThinkerX]

Hmmm...

'Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay' (first edition, and probably the best in my view) went with just plain 'elementalists'. Way back when, I plundered the concept for my own writing, but went and ditched it along with a bunch of other game related stuff. Raised more problems than it solved, made the magic system needlessly complex.

Doubt that helps you any.

Is this for a game?

 

[Ankari]

Is this for a game?

It's for a book, now. Games come later (and are in the works).

 

[Nihal]

I don't like Elementalism either. It can be used if being generic presents no problem, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

Naming isn't my strongest ability, I can only throw a bunch of ideas at your face to help you to approach the question from another angle.

This system doesn't seem to be simply about the elements themselves, but the way you control it, the components you mix to get different outcomes. It opens some new opportunities: Amalgam, Medley, Assembly, Order (in the sense of organization of components into an effect), Alignment, Union.

You can also look at the practitioners from different points of view; focusing in the creation side as you did (e.g. Artisans, Builders, Creators, Consolidators), perhaps the skill side (Adepts, Virtuosos).

 

[Queshire]

well, I've heard Evocation being used for elemental magic before, so there's that.

Hmmm.... now, I like the absolute principles thing. It really sets your magic apart from generic elemental magic, so perhaps a name based around that? Principle Magic? Law Magic?

 

[Caged Maiden]

Are you solely looking for names for the casters or are you looking for names for spells too? In my world, I keep it simple (though I'm now reconsidering the term elementalists...) and I like to call them First Tier Mages or whatever. My magic isn't broken into spells, but into ability levels, with an open end to how one could use magic to manipulate the world around them. But then, magic isn't a big deciding factor in many of my stories. It sounds like you created an interesting system, combining things. BUt I wonder how many names would really be useful before it became confusing.

So, maybe draw a comparison to another trade? Guilds had apprentices, journeymen, and masters. I'd think of other trades too and see whether your people would consider magic a trade or a specific class of person. Like, the more important something is, the more names it can have, right?

Maybe try another language? My WiP is largely based on Italy, so I use the title "Maestro" for certain people, rther than "Master". Could you perhaps find a similar thing in an appropriate language for your culture? Maybe something you can use as a root and change?

 

[Ankari]

After some thought, I think I've come up with the name Coercion. Practitioners are called Coercers.

How does that sound?

 

[ThinkerX]

After some thought, I think I've come up with the name Coercion. Practitioners are called Coercers.

How does that sound?

Somewhere between 'thuggish' and 'militant', at least to me.

Two thoughts:

1) 'Factor' or 'Procurator' (latin version)

2) 'Binder'

 

[Queshire]

yeah, that name makes me think of a darker flavor than the vibe I'm getting from your magic system. I like it as a name, but there's a disconnect there.

 

[Nihal]

Evil, haha. It may have something to do with how often and in which context I hear this word here, so, I'm not sure if my feedback applies in this case. It's always linked to crimes, usually of political nature, blackmailing and traffic.

 

[wordwalker]

To me, "Coercion" in magic sounds like mind control.

Honestly, I think "Elementalism" is what this is-- if, as your example implies, fire and the other elements are what magic can take control of. Binder, Maestro, and so on are still good if you don't want to use that name, and better if magic can affect other things (wood, flesh, cloth and other Non-Four-Elements substances, divination, teleportation, etc).

 

[Ankari]

I've given more thought to this. Anyone like either of the following?

Induction ----> Inducers

Invocation ---> Invokers

Rendition ----> Renders

 

[Queshire]

hmmmm.... Invokers could work since they're invoking the absolute principles for their magic.

 

[Ankari]

I'm leaning towards Invocation and Invokers, too.

 

[ThinkerX]

Invokers - used to be a specialty mage class in AD&D. As I recollect, they specialized in 'invocation/evocation' spells. Particularly good at the likes of 'fireball', 'lightning bolt', and spells like 'wall of stone' and 'wall of force'.

Guess it fits.

I used to muck around with specialty mage classes far too much...until one day I realized 'Apart from the Godborn* and Darkborn**, I have fewer than two thousand wizards in Solaria' (my main empire, with a population on the order of 15-20 million). 'Of those two thousand, four out of five are apprentice level or slightly better. Do I really need to subdivide the rest?'

*Godborn, born during the Spring Equinox, are essentially magical healers and protectors, with about 90% belonging to priestly orders. I figured something on the order of two or three thousand of them in the empire at any given time.

**Darkborn are the polar opposites of Godborn, taking real easily to spells of sickness, necromancy, and demonic conjuration. Because of relentless persecution, including infantcide, they are far fewer than Godborn in the empire, though more are born during each Fall Equinox. (Maybe a couple hundred in the whole of the empire, either in hiding or confined).

I went back and forth over this for a long time, and over the nature of priestly magic, and finally decided the only other addition needed was that of the 'Summoners' or 'Demonologists', whose magic had foreign roots, and could be considered a species of priest.

(apologies for rambling on in here, but these threads bring back recollections of those self arguments)

 

[Ankari]

ThinkerX,

You'll be surprised by the sheer number of magic systems I'm fashioning for this world. I don't think I've ever seen any author create as many magic systems as I'm creating. I've always wonder why every world only have one, especially since every RPG I've played, including D&D, has more than one system. In D&D, they were referred to as "schools of magic" I think.

Online RPGs have always had more than one. It makes complete sense, and creates more flavor in the world.

My next magic system I'll be creating is a cool twist on Summoning (at least, I hope it's cool. I bounced it off someone's head to day and they thought it was).

 

[ThinkerX]

You'll be surprised by the sheer number of magic systems I'm fashioning for this world. I don't think I've ever seen any author create as many magic systems as I'm creating. I've always wonder why every world only have one, especially since every RPG I've played, including D&D, has more than one system. In D&D, they were referred to as "schools of magic" I think.

Online RPGs have always had more than one. It makes complete sense, and creates more flavor in the world.

My next magic system I'll be creating is a cool twist on Summoning (at least, I hope it's cool. I bounced it off someone's head to day and they thought it was).

At the risk of derailing the thread...

My rule of thumb for magic, main locations, main characters, and other sundry items is the 'rule of three'.

Kinda patterned off a tendency among folks to go 'one, two, three, many' when it comes to counting, and keeping track of things. More than that, and in a story at least, it becomes easy to loose track of who can do what.

That said, well, I deliniated what the Godborn and Darkborn are most noted for. But mages in general do have a range of spells they can call on: scrying, illusions, healing, force spells (levitation, telekinesis, that sort of thing), and whatnot. Some of them even focus their attention on one or another, or never really grasp some spell group. There just is not enough of them to warrent going with the specialty classes. Instead, in story terms, it would be 'well, this wizard is known for his illusions', or 'this wizard is good with healing spells'. I might even use terms like 'illusionist' and 'healer'. But they don't really exist as independant classes, and can do other types of magic.

I did have particular issues with elemental magic: I strongly disagree with the underlying premise (elemental theory) and when I took a good look at what they were supposed to do, I kept noting overlaps between elemental catagories and between elementalism and my other magic. When I deleted elementalism as a class, I found I still retained over half of the spells associated with that class. The few spells I lost and thought worth keeping I decided to make the province of spirits/fey/lovecraftian things - magic not for mortals, save maybe at gravest risk, or maybe as a result of some weird loophole.

Dang it, I'm rambling again.

 

[Ankari]

Derail away. I've settled on my magic system name.

But taking up your train of thought, I'm not so much focused on the end result, but on the method itself. I'm expecting magic systems to generate similar spells. Why not? What I want to produce is the medium of the spells. How are the generated? What's the rules for using them? What negative effect, if any, does a user endure?

I've already posted two on my website. The third one will go live by this weekend. If you've read the other two, you'll see that they vary greatly. I hope the third one, and now the fourth (sixth really, I have two others named Voidcalling and Conduction already in stories. Their mechanics will be hammered out soon enough.) vary greatly from one another.

 

[ThinkerX]

Ok...I went to your site, did some reading (side note, you should clean up the grammar).

I note that both types of magic are racially related; unless you're a member of that race, you pretty much don't learn it.

I don't really have any objection to that.

For that matter, on my world, the better informed human wizards know that elven magic differs in concept and execution from human magic. It...gets complicated, having to do with what elves actually are. A lot of it is literally impossible (and pointless) for humans to learn, as it concerns...alien things.

I even have a form of glyph or rune magic. Originally, it was exlusively dwarf magic, but thats changed; more of a dwarf favorate (maybe) than a dwarf exclusive, and part of the jumble of stuff the better taught mages know about. Also is a bit different than your glyph magic - focuses more on things, rather than spirit or body - the original intent was to allow for things like enchanted weapons, powerful protective runes, things of that sort. Story wise, its real close to the sort of magic the 'Click-Tack' originally taught their human and dwarf 'Operants' (wizards), but a lot of it is corrupted and misunderstood. (I got into this a bit in one of the Toki/Hock-Nar stories - currently in rewrite limbo.)

But story wise, I don't really go into this. Its 'elves can do magic beyond the ability of any human'. And 'Glyphs are a pain to learn and a drain to use. Nobody bothers learning more than two or three of them because of this.' (except maybe dwarves).

But more basically, you are talking about different types of magic, where my focus is on the sources for magic. My view is for all mages of all races, magic initially comes from within. You have it or you don't. Pretty much all elves have it, for humans...maybe one in a thousand (bloodlines play a role of sorts, though not an absolute). Once you have it, the natural tendency - emphasized by whatever local training there is - heads in the same general direction. Get the basics down and then...well, thats where bargains with lovecraftian things, or long hours of meditative exercises, or learning glyphs or whatnot comes into play. Vast majority of the human wizards on my world never make it much past the basics: they learn a few spells that suits their interests, and thats it. But most wizards with any real training know a common set of elementary rituals and spells and meditations, regardless of race.

(rambling again)

 

[Ankari]

Thanks for reading. Which one needed editing, or was it both? I had one edited, so your answer would help me greatly. But back to the derailing subject.

Most of my magic systems are divided along racial lines. I've chosen to create a (part) of a world where there is still a strong sense of racial identity. That being said, a few of the magic systems will be used by more than one race. The one addressed in this thread, Invocation, will be used by many races, against the wish of the originating race.

I've never liked the "born with it" aspect of magic systems. It sets a tone that not all people are created equal, which opens up other philosophical concerns. Particularly in the right of rule, multi-tiered citizenry.

Interesting discussion. Thanks!