Plant based magic system

[Ddruid]

Kratya is reluctantly harvesting alder leaves in the woods bordering her home with twin sister, Roza. Kratya is in a terrible mood, so her mind is elsewhere when the trees begin to whisper their agitations. Both girls can tune into these whispers but they're not that good at it yet...so they aren't able to understand the whispers with clarity (the trees are talking too fast and it sounds jumbled). Kratya gets a bad feeling and tells Roza they should go, but Roza reminds her that their father will get pissed if they come back with empty baskets. Roza begins to chant in an effort to calm down the trees, but it only intensifies their whispers, then both girls are attacked by a supernatural force which leads into scene 2...and thus the theme of the book.

Now, Roza disappears during the attack and Kratya is determined to find her. But she has to hone the craft of listening to these plants in order to find and save her sister. There's more to it than that, but I hate to give it away completely lol.

I would hate it too if you gave it completely away. This sounds like a perfect first scene for your novel. One that will introduce the reader to the mechanics of your magic system and also draw him straight away into the plot. Just out of curiosity, why is Kratya reluctant to harvest alder leaves? Is it any specific reason or does she just find it boring and a lot of drudge and work?

Also, I'm wondering just what kind of knowledge these plants give. You mentioned 'spiritual knowledge'? Or could you just talk normally with them like you talk with anybody else? Though it is hard to imagine what one would talk about with a plant. Are the plants in your world more alive and sentient than normal plants because of the magic in them? If so, how does this extra sentience show?

Funny, I just remembered hearing about some book, an old horror novel in which plants grow limbs and can move and make sounds. Oh yeah and they start attacking humans while they're at it. Vegetable vengeance, I guess. Not a bad idea as far as bad ideas go. Pity I forgot the name of the novel.

 

[Chessie]

I watched a horror movie once where trees did just that: came to life and killed people. It was so awesome but I'm displacing the name. But I digress.

Plants have life essence but it takes time to tap into those qualities. The more a person works with plants to create magical tonics, the more information they receive on how to make more potent tonics, etc. The essence of these plants are inaccessible to untrained people. But their speech comes through strongly as a mixture of intuition and actual hearing of messages when a person has really worked to understand their messages.

And the protagonist starts out being a bitter and rather "emo" young lady, who hates her life as a healer's daughter because its a simple existence and she wants more. She wants to be wealthy but its rather unlikely given her social placing. She's picking leaves reluctantly because she hates her father, not because he's mean, but because he stands in her way of doing something more with her life. Essentially, how she feels about her life and herself bugs the heck out of her through the story.

 

[Obsidian]

I love plant based magic, I have some very similar concept for the fantasy race in my writing.