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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Cooper on May 02, 2008, 02:26:38 AM
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Okay. I finished my notes and sketches of my proposed magical human race. What I need is the magic part and I have no clue where to start. I do have one magic reference book (grimwore to an apprentice wizard) but if anybody has any magic references for their stories that would be great.
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Do you have any idea what "style" you want the magic to be? Formulaic incantations & components, where it's a "scientific" approach, or something more fluid and "spirit" based? Or an assortment of methods available? One set of "magic rules" for everybody, or different schools of thought, with differing approaches being available?
Here's the Wiki link on "magic", you might be able to find some useful items in the assorted references and sources. Wikipedia isn't something I'd suggest as a "source", but it can provide some useful starting points for research.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29
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I'll like the scientific approach myself with equivalent exchange (x amount of magic to do x level of spell), too much magic in a system can be volatile. Mine is quite a bit like the magic in the Dresdenverse, except a little more scientific than that.
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I'll like the scientific approach myself with equivalent exchange (x amount of magic to do x level of spell), too much magic in a system can be volatile. Mine is quite a bit like the magic in the Dresdenverse, except a little more scientific than that.
The thing about the scientific approach to magic is that it's very rarely done in ways that feel like actual science. There are some excellent novels with industrial magic - Walter Jon Williams' Metropolitan and City on Fire in particular come to mind - but not many that capture the feel of real cutting-edge research.
"Too much magic in a system can be volatile" is absolutely right. Even a little magic can either be drastically volatile or, more often in a conventional fantasy setting, not thought through enough. [ Good example; Steven Brust's Dragaera, where one of the most common uses of fairly widespread magic is for people to be able to check the time. Bad example; any number of fantasies where there is magical healing, but the effects this has on infant mortality and population growth has not been considered. ]
Myself, being a working scientist with a fondness for the feel of being on the cutting edge of human understanding, and also a bit of a contrarian, I am working on a novel in which Newton followed up the Principia with the Praxis Artis Magnis, codifying the rules of alchemy and simple sorcery and enabling it to become a scence; there was then another revolution in the conceptual understanding of magic at the end of the nineteenth century, enabling magic-based industrialisation, travel to the Moon, and a number of other changes in society; and the protagonist is involved, between 1985 and 2069, in a third revolutionary expansion of understanding of magical possibility, and the drastic changes that are its consequences - which are going to explode across Faerie, Hell, and the Solar System.
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I am working on a novel in which Newton followed up the Principia with the Praxis Artis Magnis, codifying the rules of alchemy and simple sorcery and enabling it to become a scence;
The Wikipedia article on alchemy lists a bunch of sources. You could also check out feng shui books if you're looking for an ordered system.
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Read Heinlein's "Magic, Inc." for a good picture of a modern society with magic fully integrated in everyday life.
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The "Lord Darcy" stories by Randall Garrett, and particularly the later novels by Michael Kurland feature a parallel Earth where magic is simply another form of technology. People use it simply because it works. The Wiki article give a good summary of the system of scientific magic, which in its mathemetical base, is very similar to our physics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Darcy_%28fiction%29
Also, L. Sprague DeCamp's Incomplete Enchanter stories feature practical magic as a form of logical syllogisms.
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Ok. I think I have an idea for my magic system. From the articles, wiki's, and the stuff you guys suggested, I got one word for it: Mana. Hers what I have.
All the fantasy stories from what I know have the concept of mana. The energy force that drives magic to be possible. It seemed to me that they say that mana is there, but not seen with their own two eyes. For my story, I want mana to be a big factor in the magic, and so I'm making it into a solid state, like blood or water. The magically mutated humans, or Terrans as they are called, have a second circulatory system for the flow of mana parallel to the blood circulatory, but less complex and have a two chamber heart below the original. The mana will have a watered down blood consistency, but blue/white marble texure and capable of being used in many spells, from rituals to instant word chants (still thinking about word chants).
I also want to combine my mana concept with a little symbology, specifically Norse, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and Urban Tribal designs. In the Dresdenverse, Gard practiced a form of rune magic in her battles and defenses and TV Harry using different symbols to create his spells. In a general sense, symbols and pictures have more meaning and feeling than words. The magic symbols will show anywhere, on the ground or walls or on the terrans own skin.
Thats basically what I have, whether or not I described it well to understand.
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For my story, I want mana to be a big factor in the magic, and so I'm making it into a solid state, like blood or water. The magically mutated humans, or Terrans as they are called, have a second circulatory system for the flow of mana parallel to the blood circulatory, but less complex and have a two chamber heart below the original. The mana will have a watered down blood consistency, but blue/white marble texure and capable of being used in many spells, from rituals to instant word chants (still thinking about word chants).
This sounds like a fairly specific system. How far are you planning to go with it? For example, do you have ideas for how mana is used and replenished? Will the Terrans look different from normal humans? And will they loose mana when they bleed?
I also want to combine my mana concept with a little symbology,
Finally, is this a Boondock Saints reference?
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You could also call magic reality hacking, or quantum manipulation.
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Letters On Demonology And WitchCraft.
By Sir Walter Scott.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/scott/