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Writing a way to cancel spells?

fantasy

New Member
So I've hit a bit off a roadblock on how to write out someone cancelling a spell, be it their own or someone else's. I've written 'she canceled the spell, feeling the heat dissipate from her hands', but i'd like to try and write it in other way's without using the word cancel. I couldn't really find anything about writing them on other sites or any writers guides or other other novels. Any help on this would be very appreciated.
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
In dungeons and dragons this would be to dispel magic. In this case i would lean towards un-spelled.
 

ShadeZ

Maester
In my books you have three classes of magic.

Pure (raw magical energy)
Elemental (most common, magic linked to one of seven elements)
Anti-magic (called Warding, or monster hunter, Dragon slayer magic)

"cancel spell" in my books would be anti-magical wards. For example, a dragon breathes fire, you do not wish to be a crispy critter so you draw in the air a complex sigil and hit the sigil with your hand to activate it then stretch it and you have a fire shield of sorts that will, unwrite magic as it hits it. In my world magic is sort of coded with an element and the caster's mark, any spell hitting a ward though is unwritten or disspelled or break the spell and the same of any spell hitting a dragon slayer which helps them fight dragon since they don't have to worry about forementioned crispy critter factor.
 

Yora

Maester
My approach to magic is predominantly telepathic, with almost evverything coming down to mental commands to people or spirits. In this context, countering the magic of other mages more or less comes down to giving the target a competing order to do the opposite thing.
Countering the magic of another mage means doing something that cancels out the originally intended effect, and even when the countering magenis weaker, his effort is greatly reducing the strength of the first mage, because the first mage first has to overcome this additional resistance before his power comes into effect.
It's basically magical arm wrestling. Even a fairly weak mage will reduce the strength of another mage quite significantly. It does not have to negate the first mage's power, just weaken it enough that the target of the power can resist it through its own mental strength. Therefore countering mages are always at an advantage. It's easier to make a power inefficient than to using the power itself.

Ending your own magic is much easier. You just have to stop pushing, or apply the same power you originally used, just telling the target to do the opposite thing.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
For their own spell they could draw the energy back into themselves. For someone else they could lessen the effect to being negligible- like diluting a strong drink by adding more water.
 
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