Open-ended magic

[Deleted member 4007]

So in my fantasy series, I have been greatly questioning the role of magic.

Magic is nice to have - is provides a break for me from the political, social and economic struggles within the series. It is a chance to break rules. And most importantly, it gives some characters something to aim towards.

I have recently played with a new idea in my book, given how rare magic is, and it leaves this question for the audience: is magic real?

There is simply not enough evidence either way to suggest magic is real or not real. Every time something 'magical' happens, there is always another explanation available. When people predict the future, were they just lying that they had visions of it?

Any thoughts? Does anyone leave these kinds of questions to the audience?

 

[Scribe Lord]

I like the idea and could see various conflicts and plot threads arising from it. Though it seems like it would also limit what you can do in the fantasy environment. Regardless, If you find that it works well with your story then by all means go for it!

 

[Queshire]

There's a trope for that; Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane - TV Tropes

Personally I'm against it. Well, ok, it's more that it's just not my cup of tea, but I'm feeling salty enough to say that I'm against it.

It can be used to add a sense of mystique, but that's really, really hard to do and if something meant to evoke mystique is done poorly it can go really, really badly.

Magic can also play an important role in a story by effectively standing in for science or technology. Now, I can already imagine your objections to that, but it's actually really important. Even if you're writing in a medieval setting the sheer fact is that your readers will be from modern day and will bring their baggage from that with them when they read your story. A good mage can be your Einstein, learning magic can be seen as earning a doctorate or depending on the setting can come across as just the guy who knows a few tricks from watching way too much discovery channel.

Also, this is just me but when I write I want to do something that explicitly can't happen in real life and magic helps with that.

Basically, well, cool idea in concept, tricky to pull off well and may or may not be worth it.