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ehudwill joined: Tuesday December 30, 2008 posts: 1 location: Gaffney |
Tuesday December 30, 2008 08:59pm EST |
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I have found that a good magic system makes a fantasy story much more interesting. Recently I have been reading some of Brandon Sanderson's fiction; Elantris, and Mistborn and both books have an intriguing magic system. In fact how that magic works in a key element in both novels and add an element of mystery as the key characters try to figure it out. I began to think about the various magic systems and decided I wanted to compile a list of the magic systems. I want to do this for several reasons. First to avoid repeating a system that has already been done. Second to enjoy the creativity of others.
I'll start... 1. List the book or series the system is found in. 2. The author 3. A brief synopsis of how it works 1. Elantris 2. Brandon Sanderson 3. Magic in the world of Elantris comes from manipulating the Dor. The Dor is a force that basically makes the world work. The Dor can be accessed through Aons(runes). It is also hinted at that the power can be accessed via other means in the book. 1. Mistborn 2. Brandon Sanderson 3. Magic in the world of Mistborn called Allomancy and is based on metal. There are people who can consume metals and "burn" them to gain power. Different metals grant different powers. Burning pewter grants strength, improved healing, etc. Burning tin grants improved senses. There is Feruchemy where a person can store strength, eyesight, or any attribute in metal and draw upon that power later. 1. Wheel of Time Series 2. Robert Jordan 3. Magic in the world of the Wheel of Time is drawn from the One Power. The one power is divided into two parts. The female saidar and the male saidin. It can be manifested as earth, fire, water, wind, and spirit. It can be "woven" by the user in different ways to have different effects. |
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Angelle joined: Monday August 11, 2008 posts: 1 location: Los Angeles |
Friday January 02, 2009 12:17pm EST |
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1. River of the Dancing Gods
2. Jack L. Chalker 3. Magic in this trilogy +1 consists of understanding the mathematical formula for everything in the physical universe and then being able to see and manipulate that formula to manifest magical changes. |
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bruhinb joined: Wednesday September 17, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Friday January 02, 2009 12:27pm EST |
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1. The Chronicles of Amber
2. Roger Zelazney 3. Magic in this series comes form atunement with and manipulation of specific primordial, proto-elemental forces, such as Chaos and Pattern. |
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Hobbyns joined: Tuesday July 15, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Friday January 02, 2009 12:59pm EST |
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1. Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
2. Steve Erickson 3. Magic in the Malazan series is accomplished by tapping the power of a Warren or Hold, from within the body of the mage, or the taking of spirits. Effects common to most Warrens include enchantment of objects (investment), large-scale blasts and travel through Warren across great distances in a short period of time. Only a minority of humans can access Warrens, usually tapping and working with a single one, though the High Mage Quick Ben can access seven at any single time out of his repertoire of twelve and non-humans can access up to twelve as well. Certain Elder races have access to racial Warrens, that seem to be significantly more powerful and cannot be blocked by the magic-deadening ore otataral. (The explanation is taken from Wikipedia, since it summarizes the magic system far more succinctly than I could.) |
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decco999 joined: Sunday July 20, 2008 posts: 1 location: Dublin, Ireland |
Friday January 02, 2009 01:16pm EST |
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1. Spellsinger Series
2. Alan Dean Foster 3. In an "adjacent" reality, the main character plays & sings a contemporary tune that, through the appropriateness of the lyrics - albeit somewhat misunderstood, conjures up the required spell. |
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Beamish joined: Thursday July 24, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Friday January 02, 2009 02:05pm EST |
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1. The Dying Earth Stories
2. Jack Vance 3. Magic comes from memorizing spells which imprint themselves onto the brain of the magician. When the user "casts" the spell the release of this imprint causes the effect desired. Once cast, the impression leaves the mind of the user and the spell is forgotten. This was also the primary inspiration for the system used in Dungeons & Dragons, so by extension it is much the same system used in all those worlds. |
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RichR joined: Wednesday July 16, 2008 posts: 43 location: Asheville |
Friday January 02, 2009 06:54pm EST |
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1. Rogue Mage series (Bloodring, Seraphs, Hosts)
2. Faith Hunter 3. Mages work magic by casting spells while drawing their power from the element they have an affinity for. Protagonist Thorn St. Croix draws on various rocks & gems for various purposes. She can create an amulet from various minerals to store power for a particular task, but these must be recharged via meditation and access to other rocks. Use of magic depletes the energy in the rocks or amulets used as well as causing physical fatigue in the Mage. |
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sphericaltime joined: Wednesday July 30, 2008 posts: 1 location: Manhattan |
Friday January 02, 2009 08:10pm EST |
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1. Young Wizardry Series (So You Want to Be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry)
2. Diane Duane 3. Magic is based on "The Speech" which is a language that describes reality, and which changes reality when revised or used to describe things that don't already exist. A spell is a series of described changes powered by the life force of the wizard. 1. The Earthsea Quartet 2. Ursula K. LeGuin 3. All objects and people have True Names which provide control over the named object or person. A wizard with a greater command of names can exert more magical influence over his surroundings. 1. A Wizard in Rhyme 2. Christopher Stasheff 3. To those with the gift of magic a rhyme or rhyming poem will magically create an object or effect consistent with the theme or language of the poem. |
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jaspax joined: Tuesday July 22, 2008 posts: 2 location: Seattle |
Friday January 02, 2009 09:43pm EST |
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1. The Recluce Novels
2. L.E. Modesitt 3. Magic consists of two opposing forces, Order and Chaos. Order allows for strengthening, healing, weather control, reinforcement of structures and weapons, etc., and is associated with iron and the color black. Chaos allows for control of fire, sickness, destruction of structures and weapons, etc., and is associated with copper and the color white. Despite what might be assumed, Order is not necessarily good and Chaos is not necessarily evil. |
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FuguTabetai joined: Sunday August 31, 2008 posts: 1 location: Tokyo |
Friday January 02, 2009 11:40pm EST |
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1. The Wizardry Series
2. Rick Cook 3. (Lets see if I can remember this) Magic must be executed by following exacting rituals which can not be deviated from. Demons and other forces exist and will pounce at any opportunity to escape from the casters' control. The more complicated and powerful a spell the more complicated the rituals become. Then a software engineer ends up in the world, and is able to use software engineering principles ("code" reuse, encapsulation, logical decomposition, etc.) and exploits the magic system in novel ways. First book available from the Baen free library. |
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Nieznany joined: Tuesday September 23, 2008 posts: 1 location: Mielec/Poland |
Saturday January 03, 2009 10:21am EST |
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1. The Coldfire Trilogy
2. Celia S. Friedman 3. The source of magic is Fae. It is essentially a type of energy that comes up to the surface from the core of the planet via the plethora of volcanoes and earthquakes that rock the planet's surface. This is an energy that the native animals of Erna sense, and utilize to a small extent to help them survive (i.e. the Fae is often able to tell a Sensitive individual when an earthquake is coming, or if the tides are about to shift). Some individuals are possessed of the ability to manipulate or work it, to perform spectacular feats of magical ability. (Majority of the explanation is taken from Wikipedia.) |
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Michael_GR joined: Friday August 29, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Saturday January 03, 2009 04:54pm EST |
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1. Mordan't Need Duology
2. Stephen R. Donaldson 3. Magic - called imagery here - is performed using mirrors. In the series' world, each type of mirror can perform certain actions, depending on optics and materials. Mirrors can show you the future, or create portals to other places, in other times or dimensions or maybe parallel worlds. Monsters or heroes can be summoned from these dimensions. Other effects can be achieved: Imagers can create mirrors that cast light or throw fire by creating portals to very hot universes / worlds. There are dangers: looking at your own reflection can lead to losing your soul. There's a feeling that imagery is more akin to science than magic. |
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LostDragon1967 joined: Friday September 12, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Saturday January 03, 2009 10:10pm EST |
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1. Master of the Five Magics
2. Lyndon Hardy 3. Magic is broken down into 5 different disciplines. Each have very hard and fast rules for its practice. |
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moonglum joined: Sunday January 04, 2009 posts: 2 location: |
Sunday January 04, 2009 12:22am EST |
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1. Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norell
2. Susanna Clarke 3. Magic involves a kind of poetic sensibility of and attunement to the natural world as well as long practice and the study of books that are about real magic as it was practiced in the England of old. Creatures from the realm of fairy have an innate understanding of and ability with magic and the most powerful magic usually requires making some kind of deal with faerie creatures. |
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moonglum joined: Sunday January 04, 2009 posts: 2 location: |
Sunday January 04, 2009 12:53am EST |
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1. Full Metal Alchemist (manga series)
2. Hiromu Arakawa 3. Magic consists of alchemy, an advanced science that allows matter and energy to be transmuted and for object to be created from their raw materials. Alchemy is based on the principle of equivalent exchange-- to obtain, something of equal value must be lost-- a sort of metaphysical version of the law of conservation of matter. |
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hgao joined: Friday July 25, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Sunday January 04, 2009 04:54pm EST |
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1) The Name of the Wind
2) Patrick Rothfuss 3) Most of the magic is done through sympathy, a connection/binding between objects. For example, Kvothe sets a teacher's robe on fire by making a wax doll, connecting the doll and the person in his mind, and holding it under a candle. The more similar the two objects, the stronger the connection. The other type of magic is that of Naming. Knowing the true name of things can enable the user to control the wind, part away walls of stone, etc. |
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JaggoJaggo joined: Thursday September 11, 2008 posts: 1 location: Tel Aviv |
Monday January 05, 2009 03:15pm EST |
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This really wants to be a wiki. Has anybody the powers to turn it into one? |
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apricotmarmalade joined: Friday September 12, 2008 posts: 1 location: |
Tuesday January 06, 2009 11:02am EST |
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1) Belgariad/Mallorean
2) David Eddings 3) "The Will and the Word" - some lucky things can, with the application of sufficient will and a bit of mental tomfoolery, draw in the natural energy from around them and use it to effect change in their environment triggered by an appropriate word. Be careful not to destroy anything utterly, because that backfires. Also, there are demons, but they really don't like people. 2) Black Company 2) Glen Cook 3) The narrators of the series confess as to having no understanding of the magic around them, but the magicians tend to ham it up with yelling and hollering, and there is some power in knowing the true name of an individual (it renders them magic less... or does it) |
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John_C_Wright joined: Tuesday January 06, 2009 posts: 1 location: |
Tuesday January 06, 2009 02:12pm EST |
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1. Orphans of Chaos series
2. John C. Wright 3. Magic is chaos, and magic operates in such a way that each user interpret the chaos only in terms of his own paradigm. There are four paradigms, and each paradigm trumps one other and is trumped by one other. The paradigms are: a. THE DARK -- who believe the world is an illusion: the only thing that really exists are spirits trapped in a deception. They bend the laws of nature (which they call breaking out of the deception) by sheer willpower or by inspiration. b THE FALLEN -- who believe they are spirits trapped in bodies made of clay, inhabiting a world of Cartesian dualism. Their magic is Goetics from Alastur Crowley. They summon up spirits from the vasty deep. c. THE LOST -- are materialists who believe consciousness is an illusion. Their 'magic' (which they regard as a science) is nanotechnology, complete with a system for reprogramming brain atoms they call 'cryptognosis.' d. THE PRELAPSARIANS -- who believe the question of materialism and spiritualism cannot be answered. Their 'magic' is based on the manipulation of fourth-dimensional energies, but these energies are curiously non-material things like morality and destiny and free-will and cause-and-effect. Prelapsarians trump Lost trump Fallen trump Dark, who in turn trump Prelapsarians. All four paradigms allow the Chaoticists (albeit with different limits and special effects) to change shape, to mesmerize or enchant, to alter objects in the environment. To further confuse matters, there are also Phaeceans, who can find (or create) shortcuts through space, and Olympians, who can control fate. An absurdly complex magic system, to be sure, but a major element of the plot is the characters discovering how the magic system works. |