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Illusory fire: it’s not actually fire but a manifestation of chaotic light at heat produced by magic.

Plasma magic: this would explain how lightning magic and fire magic combine in one aspect, rather than a chemical fire it just summons the plasma that would be produced by such a flame, and therefore more flexible than fire.

Magically fueled chemical fire: a fire that burns mana instead of a chemical agent, this comes in two types naturally aspirated and magically aspirated.

Each type of magical fire has its own drawbacks limitations and implications for a magic system

Illusory fire is the easiest to work with in a magical context. Upsides are that it is not fire so any world that makes a distinction between magical and mundane fire could use this, it would not actually be useful to light candles nor would it spread like a mundane fire, I imagine it could stick around in a location or spread based on the fed mana. This would also make it easier to mess with things like a black flame or cold fire, since those elements aren’t intrinsically linked to the magic it can be any shape color or feeling, it could make you hungry instead of hot, no limits that aren’t intrinsically important to the magical system.

Plasma magic is probably my favorite. This allows much flexibility including actually being fire and working as such, and I prefer its constraints of natural physics over that of illusory fire. There are many things you can still do such as cold fire or unique colors more easily available to this variant than magically fueled chemical fire. You can do things like plasma beams or sun-fire. I mentioned lighting in my initial definition, because lighting is an electrically induced plasma that happens in open air, so by either producing this plasma or transmuting the air in such a way you could produce and or control lightning. You can also do things like plasma cleaning and bond prep, welding, and cutting more easily than can be done with traditional fire. Also neon signs are plasma, so again bright colors.

Magically fueled chemical fire, I have certain feelings about this. I’ve consumed many pieces of media that describe their fire as working this way and I’m not sure they always understand the impact this has and the limitations it induces. It’s not insurmountable but much of fire comes from impurities and or complex chemical reactions, this would also be effected by how fundamental mana flows work, in the case of naturally aspirated fire 1st you have to worry about oxygen depletion especially in enclosed spaces, which some media does cover, but also how fire and fireballs work. Depending on the speed and flow of magic and the induced reaction you could go from blowtorch to gentle and relatively inefficient fireball. The heat and power output of naturally aspirated fire is also dependent on environment and could easily be limited by atmosphere, which has to be accounted for with proper shaping to draw in air naturally or a combination with wind magic, many of these are less of an issue with magically aspirated fire in which wind magic would not enhance your fire because you are controlling the air fuel mixture in the magic. This also allows high temps and more creative shaping, it also makes magic fire more potentially explosive, and natural aspiration leads to a slower burn based on atmospheric limits, but providing too much fuel and air to a reaction in one space is generally how explosives work. Something else that needs to be covered it’s the effect of different chemical reagents in fires, a magnesium fire is very bright and hot, and lithium burns purple. Are magi’s literally using different chemical reagents in their fire or is it more esoteric, like mana is a separate chemical element that burns in its own way, is it just literally burning mana, or is mana taking up the chemical properties of an inflammable substance, or are you literally materializing the chemical ingredients, or even transmuting the atmospheric water into its base elements to burn. In that last case, is that water magic? Is it nuclear magic, is it just plain transmutation, is what and alchemist and a fire mage do fundamentally the same. I struggle with this form of fire magic. Maybe this is just several more types that need to be broken down further, it can be the simplest and most complex foundation for fire magic and leads to many greater questions about the magical system as a whole such as issues about materialization of elements or transmutation working on fundamental atomic forces of nature.

I know this last section was a bit rambly, this is my first time putting these ideas to the page and some ideas only arose while writing. I am not going to edit this, but here it is some part of the internet my ideas of fire magic, a fundamental part of any magical media and particularly the parts of it that get the least attention, the smartest and most inventive mage scholars often put fire magic down for being brutish big fireball, but there are many intricacies to be explored that allow and encourage wider applications of fire magic, especially if it’s plasma magic which makes it a unique element that has many natural scientific applications that can be applied to your world. Chemical fire could easily be explained as magic is the manipulation of the fundamental forces, therefore almost all magic is either transmutation or force magic. While I don’t particularly care for illusory fire I understand why you would build your magic this way and I’d especially good for universes that don’t want to get into details or bogged down with science. I know magic rarely follows science as closely as much of my ramblings imply, and I’m not saying it should. But for those who want to have a basic science explanation or something that helps provide a constraint it’s a reasonable way to go. I do understand that writers generally need to look outside of physics to do what they want, and I enjoy much media that completely ignores science is its magic. This may be a hot take, especially in my own home but the magic system I most dislike is that of Harry Potter, there are somatic movements and vocalizations, but anyone can just invent a spell, but I’m not even sure there’s a difference between structured and unstructured magic, it’s clearly possible to cast without spell or focus, but all you need is intrinsic magic, and the spell gestures + vocalizations. I don’t know how intent or underlying structure work in this world, I like to have at least a basic understanding of underlying systems and HP feels to wishy washy for me. Tbh I haven’t read all of the books nor have I studied potter more. My family reads the books every year, and most of it is about world building and storytelling. Fundamentally Harry Potter is not about magic, magic is a plot tool in Harry Potter. I probably am just looking for something that isn’t what Harry Potter is.