Musings on Magic
First Thoughts
I've been reading fantasy fiction since I was a kid but I didn’t become interested in the purpose of magic in society until I read Bronislaw Malinowski’s “Magic, Science, and Religion” in an anthropology class at Humboldt State University in the early 1980s. Malinowski wrote that, “magic is expected to be a part of human culture, especially in situations of uncertainty and where outcomes are beyond immediate control, serving to address physiological needs and provide a sense of agency”. He describes four types of magic.
Sympathetic Magic leverages the principle of similarity - a hunter might craft a totem of a deer during a prayer to ensure a successful hunt.
Contagious Magic relies on the principle of contact - a shaman might touch a wounded warrior to heal her.
Protective Magic protects individuals or entire communities from a perceived threat - a priest might sacrifice an animal to safeguard a village from disease.
Productive Magic seeks to improve the outcomes of critical societal pursuits - a farmer might pray for rain to ensure a bountiful harvest.
Malinowski’s model is elegant and easy to understand. It also reminded me of something… Don’t laugh, but I immediately saw a connection between Malinowski’s work and the work of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons - I asked you not to laugh… Clearly, the framework of magic in 1st Edition D&D, and all subsequent editions, is referential to what Malinowski wrote in the 1920s, no doubt unintentionally. It’s in every single fantasy game system I’ve ever played or perused. And, of course, Malinowski’s model is prevalent in fantasy fiction, from the sorcery wielded by Elric of Melniboné to the grand magic of Pug and Gandalf.
If I had to boil all of this down to a simple premise, it would be this: magic is a tool for both creating and resolving tension, in society and in fiction.
So, of course, I had to build my own framework for use in my various creative pursuits.
The framework presented here is a Rational magic system (following the Chris Winkle definition of Rational/Non-Rational system types found HERE). It’s governed by a logical set of metaphysical laws. My intention is to use this framework to create narrative integrity in my fantasy fiction and RPG storytelling, but to limit the reader’s understanding of how it works. In some stories, the inner workings of this magic system will be revealed to the reader. In others, it will remain vague, but logically consistent. Brian Sanderson would refer to this as a Soft approach that moves towards Hard when narrative and character development demands (for more details on Sanderson’s perspective, check THIS out).
Be warned, this framework is a tad philosophical, and maybe a bit technical in places… Hey, it’s me!
Inspiration
Before we get into it, an acknowledgement…
This framework owes a great deal to a handful of creatives.
Michael Moorcock’s work, particularly his Eternal Champion novels, has had a profound influence on me. While everyone was reading Tolkien in high school and college, I was burning through everything written by Moorcock that I could get my hands on. And 45+ years later, he’s still writing. He’s a treasure.
Martha Wells has written several fantasy novels that will live in my head until the end of my time. The Death of the Necromancer and The Witch King are standouts.
Steven Erikson’s Malazan series is astounding. I read Gardens of the Moon in one sitting when it came out.
Finally, I would be remiss to leave out my good friends, Gary Bloomfield and Bruce Irving. They developed Innersphere, a table-top fantasy RPG system, over 40 years ago. I spent much of my free time in the 1990s and early 2000s revising and updating it, and playtesting it with friends. We never did anything with it, but the Transformation section below is, at its core, based on concepts they initially developed.
Thanks to you all!
The Source of Magic
The Source of Magic is the energy that results from the Multiverse striving for balance. Order rises from Chaos, creating connections. Chaos obliterates Order, destroying connections. The energy produced by this eternal dance comprises the Source of Magic. You’ll see how this very basic concept plays out in the framework below.
The Importance of Connection
Connection is the keystone of this framework. A Connection is a relationship between two or more points in space-time. A point in space-time can be anything – a material object, a living being, energy, a memory or a thought or an idea, and so on. A Connection is the product of interaction. Think of it as a string that vibrates with energy. Inevitably, entropy, driven by a myriad of forces, acts to destabilize Connections, resulting in their decay and ultimately, destruction. Some Connections are stable and decay slowly over eons. Others are transient and decay rapidly.
It is useful to distinguish between two broad categories of Connection. The first is the Connection between an entity and the Source. This is the Connection a practitioner of magic uses to channel the energy of the Source for use in spellcasting. The second is, put simply, all other Connections that exist in time and space. A practitioner manipulates these Connections to deliver magical effects.
In my fiction, some approaches to using magic include the Empowerment of an existing Connection to improve its coherence and/or continuity. Such Empowerment is transient – the Connection decays back to its initial state as the arcane effect disperses. In general, the rate of decay back to the original state is inversely proportional to the energy used to create the effect – the more energy used, the slower the rate of decay.
It follows, then, that the rate of decay associated with profoundly strong Empowerments might approximate the natural rate of decay of the Connection through entropy. In such a scenario, the Empowerment can be described as permanent.
In some spellcasting, the practitioner actually creates a Connection that did not previously exist. The rate of decay of such a Connection is, by definition, its natural rate of decay through entropy, and is set by the power used to create the Connection. Much more on this later.
Types of Energy
The dance of Order and Chaos is complex. The energy resulting from the creation and sustainment of a Connection is referred to in this framework as Harmonic Energy. As noted above, you can think of a Connection as a string that vibrates with this energy. Over time, entropy destabilizes the Connection until it is obliterated. As entropy does its work, Harmonic Energy output decreases, and a new form of energy is produced, Void Energy. Harmonic and Void Energy are in Balance; they are two variants of the same thing, and together, they comprise the Source of Magic.
Harmonic Energy is most closely associated with Order – the creation and sustainment of Connections. Void Energy is most closely associated with Chaos – the degradation and destruction of Connections. It helps to view Order and Chaos as part of the math of the Multiverse. Neither are inherently good nor evil (which are philosophical concepts), but a practitioner can have good or evil intent.
Accessing the Source
The Source of Magic is a part of everything, living and otherwise. It is the background energy of the Multiverse. In this framework, Access is described by one’s ability to sense and connect to the Source, and to attune with it.
The ability to sense and connect with the Source is either innate or conditional. An innate Connection can be the result of heredity or might be the permanent outcome of an event. In contrast, a conditional Connection is transient – it requires a tool, such as a drug or talisman, or a specific condition, such as a meditative state.
Whether innate or conditional, an individual’s Connection to the Source is unique. Some might not notice their Connection explicitly – the Connection is subtle – but certain conditions might make the individual more aware of it. For example, imagine a young woman, an apprentice herbalist, who has a strong Connection to the Source of Magic. The nature of her Connection is, for whatever reason, associated with flora. Her Connection is always present, but when she works with living plants, she experiences a subtle inner warmth. Her hands warm and her thoughts settle into a comfortable flow of focus and insight. Her interaction with plants draws her closer to her Connection and with training, her potential for using magic can be developed. In contrast, while engaging in mundane tasks wholly unrelated to herbalism, like hanging out the laundry to dry, the apprentice doesn’t have the same experience. She is further removed from her Connection, but it is always present and accessible under the right conditions.
In stark contrast, some might experience their Connection as a beacon raging in the mind – the Connection is overt. The noise of it is overwhelming, drowning out everything else. Imagine, for example, that the apprentice in the example above experiences her Connection to the Source not as a subtle warmth while engaged in her craft, but as a cacophony of heat and racing thoughts that never stops. She is lost in the noise of the Source. She couldn’t distance herself from her Connection even if she wanted to. She is losing her sanity and falling into ruin, and while the power of her Connection implies great potential as a practitioner, she lacks the stillness of mind to be trained. She is not attuned to the Source.
Attunement is a measure of the balance or harmony of the Connection between an individual and the Source. In the first scenario, the apprentice is naturally attuned. Her Connection with the Source recedes from her attention at times, but when she touches it, she is content. The Source doesn’t overwhelm, confuse, or terrify her. It just feels right. The Source is a part of her. In the second scenario, however, the apprentice is decidedly not attuned to the Source. Its power overwhelms her and in the absence of a mechanism or tool to help her attune to it, she is lost.
Now let’s imagine that her master intervenes by introducing her to Winterbright, an herb that grows in the tundra of the Northern Steppes. He suggests she smoke it or brew it in a tea several times a day. She takes his advice and finds that the herb calms her mind, allowing her to attune with the Source of Magic. Over time, she experiments with the dosage to ensure stability, and she moves forward with her training. Of course, Winterbright might have other effects that could be considered a Cost of attunement (sterility, for example), or it may introduce Limitations in the young apprentice’s use of magic. For example, if she uses too much of the herb, her ability to wield magic becomes impeded.
Spellcraft
The art and science of using the Source to create magical effects is referred to in this framework as Spellcraft. To use magic, practitioners Channel energy along their Connection to the Source, Transform it in some manner, and then Cast it through one or more Connections in the real world. In some approaches to Spellcraft, there is no distinction whatsoever among these activities – channeling, transforming, and casting are executed as a single fluid action. In other approaches, these actions are executed as one or more distinct steps. For example, a practitioner might channel energy from the Source as a distinct step in the Spellcraft process but transform and cast as a single step.
Practitioners typically channel a balance of Harmonic and Void Energy, but some might channel the Source favoring one form of energy over the other. Fewer still might draw exclusively on one form of energy. For example, a necromancer might channel Void Energy to animate a fallen soldier and bend the creature to his will, while a healer might draw on Harmonic Energy to ease a critically wounded soldier’s pain.
Channeling
Channeling the Source requires a focused state of mind that might be innate to the practitioner or might require a drug or meditative practice or tool to attain. Channeling can have a Cost. For instance, a wizard who has the innate ability to channel the Source might grow exhausted from the effort; a mage who relies on a drug to channel the Source might suffer one or more side effects from the substance they use; or the talisman a sorcerer uses to focus her mind for channeling might be destroyed during the channeling process. And so on.
Transformation
Transformation is the core of the art - it is where the creativity component of Spellcraft lives. Transformation is the Spell itself, and while there are no hard and fast rules about how a spell is created and used, the nature of the Multiverse itself has, over eons of deep history, led to the rise of philosophical approaches to wielding magic. In some quarters, a specific approach to spell casting might be referred to as a School or Lyceum. Detailed worldbuilding will bring these philosophical approaches to light. For discussion purposes, let’s generalize all approaches to Spellcraft into two categories: Elemental and Existential.
Elemental Magic focuses on the physical world. Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and Spirit comprise the Elemental framework. An element can have one or more Aspects. For example, Fire has a Heat Aspect and a Light Aspect. An element can also have one or more Opposed Counterparts. Cold, for example, is an opposed counterpart to the Heat Aspect of Fire, and Shadow is an opposed counterpart to the Light Aspect of Fire. These opposed elements form as the intensity of the archetype element is reduced toward and/or below the zero point.
Existential Magic focuses on the cognitive world. Cognition is the keystone of philosophy and art and science. Cognition informs perception, it drives innovation and decision-making, and rationalizes outcomes. Cognition writes history and guesses at the future. It is the Engine of Connection in the living world. Cognition can be viewed as an element, but its complexity sets it apart from the core elemental archetypes (Fire, Air, Earth, and Water), and Spirit is but an echo of Cognition, a remnant element of what once was.
For discussion purposes, let’s consider Cognition an element itself. This allows us to describe a model for crafting Spells that is common to both Elemental and Existential Magic. Some general guidelines follow:
Some approaches to Spellcraft require tools – incantations, gestures, one or more components, unusual environmental conditions, and so on (pretty much anything you can imagine).
All Spells are associated with one or more element. Let’s refer to this as the Composition of a spell.
All Spells are structured in reference to one or more Disciplines. These can be formal, structured practices governed by an organization (a formal School or Guild, for example), or informal practices that arise in a region or among practitioners stochastically. Examples of formal Disciplines include, but are not limited to, the following:
Weave – Refers to the ability to weave two or more elements together to create an effect. For example, a practitioner that wants to create an ice storm would first have to weave Water, Air, and Cold (the Opposed Counterpart of the Heat Aspect of Fire).
Attune – Refers to the ability to attune to an element. Attunement can offer protection, but it can also allow a practitioner to understand an element. For example, a mage might use Attunement to protect herself from fire or to understand the origin of a river stone.
Move – Refers to the ability to move physically or cognitively through an element. A practitioner might use the Movement Discipline to walk across a lake or sift through the memories of an old man.
Enchant – Refers to the ability to imbue one or more magical properties into an object, magical construct, or living thing. A practitioner might create a glyph that triggers a fire trap when traced or read aloud, imbue an elixir with healing properties, or bind a woodland spirit to a mechanical bird.
Control – Refers to the ability to manipulate an element that is already present. A practitioner might cause an ember to spark into a firestorm, force an adversary to drop a weapon, or shape a small stone into a figurine of an owl.
Evoke – Refers to the ability to conjure an element, seemingly from nothing. A practitioner might create a wall of ice on a mid-summer morning or create shadows where there should be sunlight.
Transmute – Refers to the ability to change the nature of an element. A practitioner might turn a river stone into a gemstone or alter a terrifying memory of a close friend.
Invoke – Refers to the ability to call on a spirit or entity for aid. Invocation can take many forms. For instance, a practitioner might ask an ancestral spirit about a past event or request aid in the form of magic from a Deity. For some practitioners, Invocation may be the tool they use to connect to the Source of Magic or even access Spells.
Summon – Refers to the ability to summon a spirit or entity. A practitioner might summon wind elementals to harass archers on the battlements of a keep or call forth a lesser demon from the Abyss to do their bidding.
Casting
Casting delivers the spell effect to the target along an existing Connection or a transient Connection created by the practitioner. A target can be just about anything one can imagine: a physical object, including a living creature, or any component thereof; a physical space; or one or more elements of the cognitive world, such as a thought or a memory or perceived notion.
For example, a practitioner might create shadows to hide from the watchful eyes of palace guards by lowering the intensity of light on the surfaces it illuminates, creating shadows that reduce the chance of being detected. This approach is an example of Elemental magic – the mage uses the Control Discipline to manipulate Light (which is an Aspect of Fire). She lowers the intensity of light, creating shadows where there should be none. The Connection she uses is the one that exists between the light source and the surfaces it touches – a physical, real world Connection – and anyone looking at the space will see shadows.
But this is only one approach to creating shadows. Suppose now that our mage specializes in Existential magic. She might create the same outcome – an apparent increase in shadows – by Evoking shadows in the minds of the observing guards. She creates the illusion of shadow that allows her to navigate the space undetected. The Connection used by the mage in this example is created by her – it is transient and arcane in nature. She connects directly with the minds of her targets to manipulate their knowledge of light and shadow in the space she intends to move through. Anyone not affected by the spell will see the space as a well-lit area with a young woman skulking through it.
Costs, Limitations, and Weaknesses
The nuance of the Costs incurred, and Limitations imposed on practitioners of magic will be developed in the narrative of the work that uses this framework. I’ve included some examples above, but these are by no means exhaustive. Fundamentally, the ability to use magic, at whatever level of skill, has a Cost. A practitioner always sacrifices something, even if it isn’t particularly obvious to him. And, from a narrative and character development perspective, Limitations are more important than powers.
It is also important to understand the Weaknesses of magic. For example, what can be exploited by an adversary? This question isn’t particularly easy to address outside of the narrative of a story, but here are a few thoughts.
First, this framework relies on a practitioner’s Connection to the Source of Magic. It may be possible to hinder or break that Connection, cutting the practitioner off from the Source for a time. A practitioner that does not have access to stored magical energy, would lose the ability to cast Spells.
Second, this framework requires that the practitioner use one or more physical or cognitive Connections (existing or transient) associated with the intended target to cast a Spell. It may be possible to alter or block these Connections, thereby reducing the effect on the target or preventing the effect altogether.
Third, this framework allows for the development of Counterspells that can reduce the effect of a Spell or counter it entirely. A counterspell acts on the structure of a Spell as it is being crafted (the transformation process) and/or cast. For example, a mage might intervene while her opponent is uttering an incantation, creating one or more error conditions, or modify some aspect of the Spell as it is being cast.
A counterspell directly attacks the Spell being cast. It acts on the Spellcraft, not the Connections, so it is critical that the caster understand what his adversary is doing so that he can counter it. If his adversary simply wills a Spell into being, without gestures or incantations or a focus, it might be very difficult to know how to counter the Spell.
A counterspell is not simply a response to a Spell that has already been cast. If a mage casts a light Spell to reduce the effect of a darkness spell his adversary has just cast, good on him and well done. But he’s just layering magical effects, not stopping the previous Spell.
Final Thoughts
This framework establishes simple, metaphysical guidelines for how magic works in my fiction and RPG storytelling. Here are a few key observations and questions that I try to keep top of mind.
First, all living things have a Connection to the Source of Magic, but it is rare for a creature to be overtly aware of their Connection. It is rarer still for a creature that is aware to be a formal practitioner. Most creatures experience magic in subtle ways. A sailor might, for example, have a knack for predicting changes in the wind. Is his exceptional intuition where wind is concerned the result of his Connection to the Source – that is to say, magic – or is it simply experience? In the narrative of a story, we may not know the answer to such a question, though the truth of it might unfold as the narrative progresses (if there’s a good reason for it).
Second, formal practitioners of magic can profoundly impact the world around them. It’s important to consider the effect of magic on landscape and environment, economics and geo-politics, society and culture, art and technology, religion and science, and so on. A single practitioner of magic has the potential to change the world, profoundly so if they wield great power. Imagine, for example, a Seer in the employ of a Merchant House. She uses her power to anticipate the moves of competitors, understand opportunities before they emerge, and protect the trading interests of her House. How would such a person impact the economics of the region in which her House operates? Now imagine that she stands at the side of a ruler, someone who wields immense military and economic power. What are the possibilities?
Third, magic has a Cost on practitioners and the world in which they operate. How does society change, for example, if the Cost of using magic causes male practitioners to lose their sanity (as in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time setting)? Would a matriarcal society emerge? Would men avoid using magic altogether? Would they do so through choice or by edict? Would an immensely powerful male practitioner lose his mind and bring ruin to the world? The possibilities are varied and deep. The Cost of using magic has the potential to drive worldbuilding and narrative.
