How do you come up with magic in your worlds?

Posted 3 years, 6 months ago (Edited 3 years, 6 months ago) by GoodKnight

I have a fantasy world and I had a magic system of three magic classes: normal (low magic), mage (powerful magic), and elemental. But I don't really like that structure anymore and I want to change it but I don't know how. Also I don't really like the terminology of "normal" lmao. How do you guys come up with magic? Because I'm stuck. I would have to redo a lot of the world if I changed it drastically but I don't know what to do with it as is and most of it isn't written down anyway.

BlueTomoshibi

My magic system is a bit intricate in my story

Actually, to be more accurate I should say my mana system is a bit intricate. Proper magic has its usual elemental nonsense (Fire, Water, Nature(Plants and poisons), Earth(Rocks, sand, etc), Lightning, Solar(Wind and light), Lunar(Supernatural and darkness))

But I could write a book on just the actual mana system and how it works in depth. It does get explained in my story if you're interested.

As for how I designed it and came up with it. Well, that's been a process over the last 10-15 years or so in tons of different stories where I've used this mana system

GoodKnight

FGHJKMJH I meant to respond but forgot

Thanks guys!
I got a new idea for the magic from a dream, which I wasn't expecting lol

I'll still probably look at those other things though

mossyrocks

I just cram my attempts at a hard magic system at night.

I divided mine into categories based on [reason; don't want you stealing it], and am now working on the first of those categories!

Figure out what type of magic you want, and whether you want a hard magic system (well defined) or a soft magic system (loosely defined). I'm crazy about worldbuilding so I chose a hard magic system.

Also if you need names, I use Yafnag.

Trickstyr

The only world of mine with a somewhat developed magic system would be my Merfolk world. There are multiple classes of magic, Elemental, Healing, Shadow and Psionic, however Psionic is unique to a single race and is questionably it's own unique thing and not magic. Each class has different aspects to it, such as Mers who know healing magic can heal wounds of different severities depending on how skilled they are, Elemental magic gives them control of certain elements, and shadow magic is very corruptive but also powerful.

I think ultimately it depends on what kind of magic you want and whether or not you want different types and skill levels or other requirements, for example, Mers can be born with the ability to use healing magic if passed down their bloodline, however shadow and elemental magic is something you must learn.

Architeuthid

I've started developing my magic systems from a purely story-based standpoint: that is, what do I need magic to do in order for specific things to happen in my story?  I used to have this complicated hard magic system for the setting of Zin, but realized I was only actually using one section of it (something I called neuromagic) and so I pruned it down to just that, and now I've just got psychics. And necromancers, because I think that's cool. There's no reason you need a complex system of elements and what have you that interconnect in weird ways if you're never going to use anything but pyromancy. And you don't need a combat-focused magic system if your story is based in intrigue and politics. Figure out what you need, and only what you need, and then build on that. You can try to rationalize how it works, perhaps - my psychics essentially work like human radio transceivers - or come up with some weird rules as flavor, like how my necromancy requires the practitioner to be wholly immersed in water in order to contact the dead, inspired by how many near-death experiences come from drowning survivors. But, above all, make sure to keep it simple. Cut out the cruft. Unless you want a magic system that lets people do a wide variety of random things, like superhero settings, in which case, do whatever you want.