The Mysterious Art of Magic
The concept of magic goes as far back as oral storytelling – whether it be about religious stories of gods and their abilities, or tales of heroes and their supernatural tokens used to defeat evil – which all comes back to the idea of doing the impossible. In the modern world, magic is systemized in the Fantasy genre; meaning, magic in today’s literature follows certain rules to establish a believable story. The only way for a fantastical story to be considered seriously is if the very foundations of the laws of that universe are stable and consistent.
Essentially, to put it in simpler terms – Magic has rules and bullshit is not tolerated.
The best way to avoid holes in magic is to know how your magic works. For instance, in the show Avatar: The Last Airbender, bending(magic) is the manipulation of the five elements(Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Energy) and is directly dependent on spirituality. An average bender can only be affiliated with one element. The Avatar is granted the ability to manipulate all the elements. This is why the Avatar is so powerful. This is how the entire universe of Avatar is constructed. This is how we have no “asspulls.” Every single person in Avatar abides by these rules and thus, we can believe the story.
There are several elements you need to keep in mind when generating your magic – What is magic in your world? Where does it originate?How does a user utilize the magic? What are the repercussions of using magic? What are the restrictions? How common is magic usage per member of a population?
I will utilize my story I am working on, Stains of Sangre, to give an example of how I came up with the answers.
In the world of Stains of Sangre, magic is the physical form of the sun’s energy which originates from the earth through a process similar to photosynthesis (except the sun’s energy is converted into magic and stored in the earth).
To utilize magic, a mage must trade an equal part of their soul, release part of it to make room for an equal part of magic. This creates an equilibrium which is a recurring theme in the story.
Of course there are repercussions; using too much magic at once could deplete your body of your soul and potentially either kill you or allow for a “demon” to infest your body. Symptoms include: fatigue, anxiety, dissociation, etc.
Restrictions are based on how quickly your soul can regenerate which directly connects to mental, physical, and spiritual health. Then there is the restriction in the land itself – it takes about 50 years for the land to accumulate magic (covert soul into magic) so consequently if used all at once, no one would be abe to use magic because there is nothing to trade with. I also included symptoms of this phenomenon as dead plants and lack of animal life.
On a different note, it is very important to establish your restrictions as they keep your characters from getting too over powered.
Magic is quite common in my world – the only restrictions being if you have problems with your soul(spirituality) or have some sort of illness.
How you answer these questions is up to you. It is beautiful to watch people generate entire systems of magic, so different from one another, in their minds.
If you have anything to add, you are more than welcome to.
Also, just one very important thing to remember; if you gain anything from this long ass essay:
