Logos&Eidos
Sage
I've been working on the magic systems of my world for quite some time going back and forth with various iterations of certain ideas. Well I'd Like to present, for your evaluation what I have so far.
Wyrd magic: Is the subtlest and in some respects the most powerful system of magic. It is the ability to influence what can and should be the phenomenon of probability and causality. This is the magic of the gods it is how there will is made manifest in the world, and through drawing upon a god's numina a follower can partake of this power. A god's influence upon the wyrd is determined by their nature as being and what they hold dear; resulting in gods having specific areas of influence. What can this magic actually do? It can twist the odds in relation to any phenomenon within a god’s purview. Blessing to help one succeed or curses to insure disasters. This power can also be invested into objects or places making them sanctified. The rarest ability is idealization, the ability to make a thing the very ideal of what it is.
Egotist’s Way: Is not even viewed as something supernatural in universe. Rather it is seen as a complex and difficult discipline through which a devote can gain physical and mental abilities above and beyond what would otherwise possible for members of their race. The arts of psyche and soma entail the devote through meditative techniques and special exercises. Learning to take control of and access physical and mental faculties that normally are dormant and or autonomic. They can also push their minds and bodies far further than any uninitiated, to the point of nearing the superhuman. True master can develop abilities that from our point of view would be seen as supernatural. Situational and environmental awareness that are effectively clairvoyance, reaction times born of a finely hone intuition and attunement to the world that so fast as to be precognition. Burning the their life-force(native prima) to fuel truly superhuman feats of physicality.
Adeptery: This is magic system that I had the most difficulty with development wise. I've gone through at least six version of this one system of magic.
Adeptery is the most overt and overtly powerful system of magic. Its practitioners called Adepts draw prima (shortened form of prima-materia) from the environment and use it to generate a prima-manus, a force-field that acts like a metaphysical limb.
Adeptery is divided into two categories.
Native Arts.
Duron: involves harding prima into a quasi-substance,which can be used to attack,defend and move objects around.
Anima: also called "life arts/works, it can used to heal,control and augment living systems. it can even convey and effect thoughts and emotions.
Portalis: involves using the prima-spectrum to move or store matter and information, phasing through matter by partially transitioning ones self into a prima-signal. Powerful practitioners can even open windows into the spectrum and physical enter it.
Fellpyre: Involves generating a destructive force that resembles a ghostly, liquid, flame. This fell flame gives no heat,instead radiating a prickly ravenous intensity. Fellflame soaks into matter like a fluid and consumes it like acid.
Disruption: Involves interfering with magic effects, and include suppression and counteraction. Skilled practitioners can even cause destructive feedback and harm enemy magic users.
Elemental Arts.
Every person has a connection to the elements called an affinity, in most cases only a small number of those affinities are strong enough for the element to be controlled. The most common number of strong affinities are,one,two and three;past three they are exponentially rare.
The Elements.
Sprit Arts/Shamanism: Is another magic system that took a number of revisions before I was comfortable implementing it.
The Element spirits were born in the elder times when the soul shard that broke off from the gods when they crossed over into the mortal world fell into the elemental planes. Those shards meshed with substance of the planes and would give rise to a new form of life. On occasion when the conditions are right elementals cross into the mortal world, at locations resonant with their elements. However elements cannot naturally exist in the mortal world and they soon begin to petrify becoming pure crystallized essence of their element. Elementals can stave off death by consuming natural sources of their element. The only way to truly avoid death is to fuse with a compatible life form normally animals, but also people with a strong and matching affinity. These elemental-hybrids are the source of many mythic beasts such as the fire breathing dragon.
The only other way for an elemental to survive in the world is through biding it to vessel, a crafted object which will insulate the elemental against the suffocating influence of the mundane world. However vessels can also be designed to control elementals. Should a controlled elemental ever escape it will be in a most irate mood, property damage and loss of life are sure to follow.
Shamans are rare individuals who possess a rapport with elementals, they can sense the, communicate, and tame them. Some Adepts can also control elementals through the use of their affinity, the resonance between themselves and the elementals. However unlike the bond between a shaman and their elementals, what Adepts do is in acts of subjugation and elementals hate them for it;should an Adept's control ever falter the Elemental will either flee or attack them.
Magitech
To understand the significance of magitech there is something that must be understood about the magic of my world. Enchantment as it is commonly portrayed in fiction with the exception of priests ability to permanently bless/curse items, doesn't exist. Prima the essence of life and magic used by both Adepts and Elemental spirits is at once a force and substance. Prima is not data that can be written into an object in order change its properties, nor does it posses volition, it does little without the direction of a thinking being, and constructs formed from it are fragile and transient by nature.
Magitech was developed to overcome these problems and make magic available for use when magic users were not. The functions of magitech are myriad and include items that do not actively utilize prima; one of the most infamous is the inhibitor spike, when driven into the body of an Adept it will render them powerless, its effects on mundanes is unpleasant as well.
Elemental Vessels and Elemental-engines are among the most widely produced magitech, for their simplicity and robust nature. The vessel holds the elemental and the engine forces it either act in a predetermined manor, or obey the will of the items wielder. All magitech requires the use of magic material, all of which are rare and difficult to synthesize, elemental vessels and engines also require the use of elemental-essences.
The magical materials are.
Storm-wrought: a substance created when matter is struck by bolts of ultra high frequency burst of prima that unhealed during Prima Storms. Instead of being completely destroyed some times a small percentage of a struck objects mass will instead be transmuted into Storm-wrought, the most magically dynamic material.
Necrotite: Death stone, a vital element in organic life it normal decays along with the body however a small amount of it will petrify instead,leaving behind trace amounts of the mineral. Necrotite ingots were first found in places were there had been many corpses or the place were a single massive beast had died; the mineral only being found in the presence of death is the reason for the name. A process for the artificial extraction of Necrotite would eventually be developed, and the subsequent cause of a great many atrocities as people were bought or captured for the purpose of rendering them down for Necrotite.
Florystal: Is are rare vegetable-mineral taxonomy hybrid,it grows by drawing minerals and some organic compound from the ground. Next to Storm-wrought Florystal is the most magical-dynamic substance known to exist, with added benefit is that Florystal can cultivated. Unfortunately for magitech industry Florystal grows at an extremely slow pace. Under optimum conditions it takes decades for Florystal to reach maturity, and under anything thing else a century or more. Another complication is the phenomenon of "strengthening", as live-Florystal ages its ability to handle larger and higher frequency magic currents as well as contain more powerful elementals increases. The strengthening process doesn't begin until after a Florystal blossom has reached maturity; high-grade Florystal represents an at least two hundred year investment. The final hurdle for the magitech industry is Florystal's extreme resistance to modification by magic, do to its highly discordant structure transmutation all but impossible, and its natural aura interferes with attempts to use life(anima arts) to accelerate its grow.
Elemental Essences: The essences are crystallized form of an Element in its pure amalgamated form, such substances do not exist in the world, and found when the planes energy bleeds into the world. Essences can also be harvested from the bodies of dead elementals. Essence are extremely useful in crafting any magitech that is going to deal with elemental manipulation.
Wyrd magic: Is the subtlest and in some respects the most powerful system of magic. It is the ability to influence what can and should be the phenomenon of probability and causality. This is the magic of the gods it is how there will is made manifest in the world, and through drawing upon a god's numina a follower can partake of this power. A god's influence upon the wyrd is determined by their nature as being and what they hold dear; resulting in gods having specific areas of influence. What can this magic actually do? It can twist the odds in relation to any phenomenon within a god’s purview. Blessing to help one succeed or curses to insure disasters. This power can also be invested into objects or places making them sanctified. The rarest ability is idealization, the ability to make a thing the very ideal of what it is.
Egotist’s Way: Is not even viewed as something supernatural in universe. Rather it is seen as a complex and difficult discipline through which a devote can gain physical and mental abilities above and beyond what would otherwise possible for members of their race. The arts of psyche and soma entail the devote through meditative techniques and special exercises. Learning to take control of and access physical and mental faculties that normally are dormant and or autonomic. They can also push their minds and bodies far further than any uninitiated, to the point of nearing the superhuman. True master can develop abilities that from our point of view would be seen as supernatural. Situational and environmental awareness that are effectively clairvoyance, reaction times born of a finely hone intuition and attunement to the world that so fast as to be precognition. Burning the their life-force(native prima) to fuel truly superhuman feats of physicality.
Adeptery: This is magic system that I had the most difficulty with development wise. I've gone through at least six version of this one system of magic.
Adeptery is the most overt and overtly powerful system of magic. Its practitioners called Adepts draw prima (shortened form of prima-materia) from the environment and use it to generate a prima-manus, a force-field that acts like a metaphysical limb.
Adeptery is divided into two categories.
Native Arts.
Duron: involves harding prima into a quasi-substance,which can be used to attack,defend and move objects around.
Anima: also called "life arts/works, it can used to heal,control and augment living systems. it can even convey and effect thoughts and emotions.
Portalis: involves using the prima-spectrum to move or store matter and information, phasing through matter by partially transitioning ones self into a prima-signal. Powerful practitioners can even open windows into the spectrum and physical enter it.
Fellpyre: Involves generating a destructive force that resembles a ghostly, liquid, flame. This fell flame gives no heat,instead radiating a prickly ravenous intensity. Fellflame soaks into matter like a fluid and consumes it like acid.
Disruption: Involves interfering with magic effects, and include suppression and counteraction. Skilled practitioners can even cause destructive feedback and harm enemy magic users.
Elemental Arts.
Every person has a connection to the elements called an affinity, in most cases only a small number of those affinities are strong enough for the element to be controlled. The most common number of strong affinities are,one,two and three;past three they are exponentially rare.
The Elements.
- Heat.
- Light.
- Electricity
- Carnum: Flesh, Blood, Bone.
- Geos: Stone, Metal (which includes Air/oxygen do to its metalloid nature), Crystal (which includes water do it's crystalline structure).
- Florem: Herba, Fungum.
- Fortis: the element of physical forces gravitational and inertial. (which I can't help but feel is redundant)
Sprit Arts/Shamanism: Is another magic system that took a number of revisions before I was comfortable implementing it.
The Element spirits were born in the elder times when the soul shard that broke off from the gods when they crossed over into the mortal world fell into the elemental planes. Those shards meshed with substance of the planes and would give rise to a new form of life. On occasion when the conditions are right elementals cross into the mortal world, at locations resonant with their elements. However elements cannot naturally exist in the mortal world and they soon begin to petrify becoming pure crystallized essence of their element. Elementals can stave off death by consuming natural sources of their element. The only way to truly avoid death is to fuse with a compatible life form normally animals, but also people with a strong and matching affinity. These elemental-hybrids are the source of many mythic beasts such as the fire breathing dragon.
The only other way for an elemental to survive in the world is through biding it to vessel, a crafted object which will insulate the elemental against the suffocating influence of the mundane world. However vessels can also be designed to control elementals. Should a controlled elemental ever escape it will be in a most irate mood, property damage and loss of life are sure to follow.
Shamans are rare individuals who possess a rapport with elementals, they can sense the, communicate, and tame them. Some Adepts can also control elementals through the use of their affinity, the resonance between themselves and the elementals. However unlike the bond between a shaman and their elementals, what Adepts do is in acts of subjugation and elementals hate them for it;should an Adept's control ever falter the Elemental will either flee or attack them.
Magitech
To understand the significance of magitech there is something that must be understood about the magic of my world. Enchantment as it is commonly portrayed in fiction with the exception of priests ability to permanently bless/curse items, doesn't exist. Prima the essence of life and magic used by both Adepts and Elemental spirits is at once a force and substance. Prima is not data that can be written into an object in order change its properties, nor does it posses volition, it does little without the direction of a thinking being, and constructs formed from it are fragile and transient by nature.
Magitech was developed to overcome these problems and make magic available for use when magic users were not. The functions of magitech are myriad and include items that do not actively utilize prima; one of the most infamous is the inhibitor spike, when driven into the body of an Adept it will render them powerless, its effects on mundanes is unpleasant as well.
Elemental Vessels and Elemental-engines are among the most widely produced magitech, for their simplicity and robust nature. The vessel holds the elemental and the engine forces it either act in a predetermined manor, or obey the will of the items wielder. All magitech requires the use of magic material, all of which are rare and difficult to synthesize, elemental vessels and engines also require the use of elemental-essences.
The magical materials are.
Storm-wrought: a substance created when matter is struck by bolts of ultra high frequency burst of prima that unhealed during Prima Storms. Instead of being completely destroyed some times a small percentage of a struck objects mass will instead be transmuted into Storm-wrought, the most magically dynamic material.
Necrotite: Death stone, a vital element in organic life it normal decays along with the body however a small amount of it will petrify instead,leaving behind trace amounts of the mineral. Necrotite ingots were first found in places were there had been many corpses or the place were a single massive beast had died; the mineral only being found in the presence of death is the reason for the name. A process for the artificial extraction of Necrotite would eventually be developed, and the subsequent cause of a great many atrocities as people were bought or captured for the purpose of rendering them down for Necrotite.
Florystal: Is are rare vegetable-mineral taxonomy hybrid,it grows by drawing minerals and some organic compound from the ground. Next to Storm-wrought Florystal is the most magical-dynamic substance known to exist, with added benefit is that Florystal can cultivated. Unfortunately for magitech industry Florystal grows at an extremely slow pace. Under optimum conditions it takes decades for Florystal to reach maturity, and under anything thing else a century or more. Another complication is the phenomenon of "strengthening", as live-Florystal ages its ability to handle larger and higher frequency magic currents as well as contain more powerful elementals increases. The strengthening process doesn't begin until after a Florystal blossom has reached maturity; high-grade Florystal represents an at least two hundred year investment. The final hurdle for the magitech industry is Florystal's extreme resistance to modification by magic, do to its highly discordant structure transmutation all but impossible, and its natural aura interferes with attempts to use life(anima arts) to accelerate its grow.
Elemental Essences: The essences are crystallized form of an Element in its pure amalgamated form, such substances do not exist in the world, and found when the planes energy bleeds into the world. Essences can also be harvested from the bodies of dead elementals. Essence are extremely useful in crafting any magitech that is going to deal with elemental manipulation.