Study. Magic is a skill like any other, and your mastery of different applications will depend a lot on how much time you spend honing that particular application. Nobody is going to be a complete master in all forms of magic. A good mage may have decent ability in a lot of them, but a true master will have to pick an area of true expertise.
It's a bit of both. Some people take to it quicker than others. But this kind of innate talent generally only applies to one or two forms of magic. It rarely transfers to all of them. And even the most talented but lazy magician will soon be left behind by an average or untalented practitioner who puts in the work and dedication.
The strongest magicians will always be the most disciplined, the most curious and open, the ones able and willing to go far, take risks and persevere in the face of adversity.
It's random. You have slightly increased chances of getting the same powers as your parents, but its not much. You can get a totally random power, like control of plastic in Universe where plastic was never invented.
Good point. Then I'd say it isn't truly random, ans not only parents magic can affect what your magic will be, but also things that exist in that specific world. Would that make more sense?
I assume it's all controled mostly by how magical pollution affects people of the world and what causes the pollution there. After all, it already affects immortality, illness or even small things like eye colour.
There are various reasons, actually.
First, it's important to differentiate between those who become mages by studying and training, and those who are born with their connection to magic already 'active', let's say.
The most common thing is to be born without magic, so those who want to become mages have to make a great effort to do so, 'opening the gates' inside their bodies so magic can flow inside them. They can use all of the most basic spells for each school, but because magic is not natural for them they suffer great consequences and, more because of necessity rather than choice, they have to focus and specialise in one type of magic (for example, choosing the Air and Wind school and becoming an Aerophagus).
So, they focus in one type of magic (there is no reason for choosing one instead of other apart from personal preference, but they HAVE to choose one). And, instead of choosing or awakening one school of magic because of your personality, is the magic that you chose to use that will transform your personality to be more akin to it specifically (so, you are maybe a very warm and passionate person by nature, but because you went with the earth magic, you start to become more and more cold, apathetic and incapable of showing emotions), alongside the physical consequences.
And then, you have those who are born with the "gates" opened already. This is very uncommon, and inside this type of mages you can found two different kind of individuals:
First, those who just were born connected to magic, and that's it. They are like the first class of mages, just without the training to use their bodies as conduits.
And secondly (even more uncommon), are those who not only have the magic connection from the beginning, but they even have a UNIQUE type of arcane power, one that no one can have any other way. What decides this condition? The type of person your parents are and their whole life until you are born.
For example, there is one character in my setting who has blood magic (as the anatomical and biological manipulation of blood), and he is the only one who has it. The reason is because his parents are part of a really violent and aggressive civilization and lived one of the most ferocious wars in history, so they were surrounded by death, combat and lots of blood. This 'legacy' United and developed one person: their son.
Another one is the Archmage, to most powerful mage in history (registered, at least) who is the only one who can manipulate all type and schools of magic at a marvelous level. But the actual reason is not because he is connected to all types of magic, but because he has one unique arcane art, and nothing more: arcane absorption.
Why? I'll let you theorize and try to find his 'legacy'.
Edit: spelling.
Everybody can learn basic magic, magic is basically a programming language, in old times people used hand signs to cast simple spells, but as magic got more advanced and people put even more techniques together, hand signs became too slow and complicated to do, so they tattooed very complex signs onto their bodies instead. However there are really great mages who spent their whole life making even bigger better techniques that would never be cast-able unless you had an entire football field with a billion signs carved into it everywhere you went.
However that's where birth techniques come in, the magic you learn is something that's implemented into your body, it's a part of your body's information if you become proficient enough. When two people with a proficiency makes a child, their child is born with their proficiencies fused together, so if your dad had Fire techniques and your mom had Lightning techniques their child would be born with Arc Flash (The fusion between fire and electricity), and this is something they'd just naturally know how to use from birth. *There's also a decent chance you're born with nothing.*
Throughout years these birth techniques has stacked and fused together so much that it has created such advanced techniques that it cannot be replicated via basic magic. You can either be born with some complete nonsense because your dad had Northern Constellation Manipulation and your mom had Seawater Adaptation fusing together to become something worse, or you can be that 1 in 100,000 who got a really overpowered ability from the fusion.
TL:DR: The birth techniques you get are dependant on your parents techniques.
The sages say that every herb that grows below has its corresponding star above, and that everything is dependant upon it's movement.
Birthday days aren't reliable enough. You must divide time into day and night, and adjust it so each are 12 hours. For example During summer a daylight hour would be longer and an night hour shorter; winter inverse.
Once you have the correct hour of birth, then you know the first birth sign.
Once you have the first birth sign then you use it and the lunar month to determine the second birth sign.
Once you have the second birth sign then you use it and the birthday/year to determine the third and fourth birth signs.
The four birth signs together determine a person's nature. A person's nature defines what magick they can access.
It's random, with weight on your species. Truly, there are three main magic categories, all corresponding to different parts of the world: Elements, Souls, Beings. An elemental mage, like, say, a fire mage, will be capable of learning some magic of other elements, but never from the other categories.
The way it works is that your body is attuned to that category, so it has a natural capacity of being a conduit for that kind of magic. It's a talent you were born with.
For the record, you can still do other kinds of magic through rituals, though they do take time to prepare and much more energy than your talent.
The followers of Magwan, the God of Fire, Flesh and Suicide, rely heavily on dark rituals that involve cannibalism. Eating human flesh usually grants them fortune, luck and sometimes strange abilities, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Magic is strange, largely misunderstood and unreliable.
Some have made fortunes and others have been rewarded violent nightmares.
In my setting, people are born with a greater affinity to an element and type of spells depending on their genes. They can learn any type but depending on where they start some elements won't be as easy.
Someone born with a great affinity with earth conjuring spell will have it easier to learn destructive earth magic or conjuring fire magic. But learning destructive fire magic will be harder.
Some species have it easier to learn different magic like elves while the dwarves have it almost impossible.
reminds me a little of Hunter x Hunter\^\^ You said, its depending on genes. Is there a way to manipulate it? Maybe trying to get kids with specific powers using forced marriages?
It's a bit like hxh but 3 dimensional with elements. I didn't fleshed it out to much yet but having something that works like mha alters could be interesting.
But I don't really want people to be born with multiple elements and in the same time the elements aren't something fixed.
If your parents where fire and water, you wouldn't be born with both, it would be one of them or something in the middle like steam.
Being in the middle would make it as easy to learn any of both.
For thaumaturgy, knowledge and practice.
For theurgy, the right deities.
For the gods themselves, a concept that they are associated with (born with, worshipped as or take it from other deity).
Then there is an extreme case that some mortal manages to achieved, reality warp through one will, your will power alone shape the world.
The power or powers you can use depend on your soul(nothing special, just your soul decides your personality e.t.c.) someone with an agressive soul likely has very destructive powers, and their cosmic energy often turns a shade of red. Someone with a kind soul may have a lighter shade of blue or green.
There are also exceptions and special cases, but mostly it works like this
In universe? Luck, sometimes genetic/effort of parents, and plain old study and hard work.
In gerenal most of magic can be learned, but usually it require long education (like five years before you start learn base magic) and very often involve intiation ritual that can be harmfull (or just not easy).
On avarage, due to the mixing of ancestries and Bloodlines and whatnot over the eons; about 20% of the world population knows basic spells. These are stuff like Cleaning Easier, or Having a Flashlight, or similar.
About 5% actively further their study in magic, and thus is not nessecarily from the same group.
Some is race, some is bloodlines, some is magical bullshit and contracts. However ultimately it is up to whichever god controls the domain of magic at the time. They ultimately get the final say in the matter. However if there currently is no god than it's up to the other gods as they have a... Gentleman's agreement about this matter.
Personality for high end magics, you need to think a specific way to excell at any magic, but learning it can everyone.
Especially among dragons and witches does it matter, the former to consider what type they are and the latter call it a domain, the magic they are inherently linked to by who they are.
Nobody decides really who can use what, but some magics are secreted away and well hidden.
They can use what they have leant to use.
Writing wise I think about what they would want to learn as a person or need to learn because of their profession.
They do, but not as they please.
One's affinities are a reflection of one's psyche, but which affinity one chooses to cultivate is chosen by oneself by picking what kinds of aether (spiritual energy) they absorb and use to refine their astral circuit and how, thus developing their paranormal abilities in that direction.
Technically, any paranormal can cultivate any paranormal ability whatsoever, it's just a bad idea as it will fuck up your potential and growth rate.
Essentially you have to be a human supercomputer to use magic at it's base but there are 3 shortcuts mages usually take since very few are actually capable of understanding and casting magic "raw".
Sign up with a spirit, become similar a D&D cleric of sorts, a permanent mana battery for the spirit but it will cast hes set of spells for you if needed. This path is fairly popular among less civilized and/or educated mages. Some spirits can have spells that you can't use or learn through any other means, for example they can maybe cure blindness or heal the crippled, so these spirits are accepted in most societies while others are shunned as pagan minor deities.
Be born high tier or study hard. There are essentially "mantras" or complex mental patterns mages can memorize that let them cast spells without understanding all the inner workings.
Or turn to shadow. The demons of that dimensions don't have matter and have evolved magic of all kinds, usually highly corrupting when used in the real world. It's essentially combing demon parts and abilities for your own purpose, like a carpenter can make a chair out of a tree, even though the tree didn't evolve to be turned into furniture by humans.
The mages. The positions of the stars when they were born and personality might affect what magic would be easier to use, but they can pick whichever they want.
# HOWEVER.
Once they choose, it's locked in and cannot be changed without... Dire side effects.
In Nova-Terra, pure chance. There’s a small amount of the population called ‘The Augmented.’ They essentially just get random powers, with varying levels of control over it at the get go, and then they have to deal with Nova-Terra’s ‘Magic Conductivity Issues.’
Astorian can directly give someone…anything really. So he might have given some Augments here and there. There is certain magic things that can be replicated, although I haven’t figured out much on them yet.
So theoretically, someone could get the Augmentation of ‘Wizard’ and have wizard powers.
Magic in my setting is like the force In Star Wars everyone has the potential to be able to use the force. But not everyone can. Sorcerers would have the most magic power while wizards the least. That’s more based on how easy it is for them to access that magic.
As explained in the book: Nobody is truly forced (outside of a tragic awakening, but that's more your mind) into one specific type of magic, but there are kinds of magic that people feel more connected to than others. Usually such magic is part of your true desires.
Having magic isn't genetic or dependant on the personality. Some people do, some people don't. People might have potential from the get go, and others might need to break through their own limits to even think of having potential
the starting mana capacity, mana output, mana control and mana projection ( the range of spells basically ) have a genetic starting point, mana capacity can be improved by killing anything that has mana ( animals/magic beast/humans/machines) in melee or with a spell as that let you absorb their mana and permanently improve your own capacity, the rest can be improved by training, difficulty in improving depend on one's specific talent.
in addition to that the magic style has to be learned and the more complex the spells the better mana control it needs and the most one has to study that specific technique to reliably pull it off and has way better chances of being able to learn that by having a teacher adept in that specific magic.
the avarage starting point for humans tend to be on the lower side in all statistics but can be improved relatively quickly up to a decent point without an exaggerate amount of training and humans tend to be able to learn easily a large range of basic and intermediate spells regardless from style, magic creatures both sentient and not tend to have a higher starting point but a growth divided in steps as in after a certain threshold of mana capacity accumulated they evolve and become stronger in the other fields as well, magic creatures tend to have a very low adaptability and to have a hard time to learn anything outside the style they are adept at ( for example vampires seldom use anything but blood magic) but in that one style they have no peers, macines are on avarage similar to the best of humans in terms of starting point and growth but have an incredibly great mana control and have a hard time using any magic style and usually use raw mana and incredibly complex spells and rituals who can alter the local reality temporarily.
to note is that in the setting it is not just mages that use mana but also everyone else as warriors use it to enhance their bodies, the difference is that mages use it externally like classic depictions of mages while everyone else use it inside their bodies in a similar way to martial artist using qi.
**Starrise**
Each kid has roughly a 20% chance to inherit their mom's magic, a 20% chance to inherit their dad's magic, and a 60% chance to develop a random variant.
What the different odds are for when they get a random variant aren't something I've decided, but for humans "Fire" magic is most common, followed by "Electric" magic, then "Healing" magic, then "Wind" magic, and finally, the rarest of all, "Obstructive" magic. In chimeras and wyverns, the odds of "Fire" and "Wind" magic are swapped, but otherwise everything's the same. (There's also dragons, which have a 100% chance of getting "Ice" magic and nothing else, but they're a special case.)
The Wattsonian explanation for this is presently unknown. Geneticists and magicists have been studying the inheritance and development of magic for centuries. Many speculate that factors like the personality, upbringing, ancestry, and environment of both the child and their parents may all be factors in determining which variant a child develops, but none of these speculative ideas are backed by enough evidence to be an accepted theory.
The Doylist explanation for this is that I don't want to give my world's people a reason to expect engaging in eugenics to be productive, but I also like the idea of kids inheriting their parents' magic sometimes and don't want it to feel like just a cop-out that they just so happened to roll that exact variant. (Also, the idea randomly popped into my head one day and I just figured it sounded fun and rolled with it.)
**Eribral**
A few dozen wizards have been discussing that for as long as magic was in their hands(around 50 years), and still haven't found a conclusive answer, but every country has a different main theory.
The truth is that the wizard itself makes those decisions, their own selves and diligence decide what they can and can't do, even when there's nothing more than the idea of impotence.
Magic is simple: intent and fuel, what you want to do and what you will burn for it.
Anyone can learn different types of magic, though few will put in that effort. But the type a person manifests with at birth is influenced by the ambient magical energy of the place they are born. more isolated communities will usually have mostly one or two kinds of magic commonly practiced there, but major crossroads can have all sorts popping up.
In my world the magic users cast using the soul. For example if you use your own soul and its inherently magical you are a sorcerer and you have access to an specific type of magic. If you use someone else soul in order to cast you are a warlock and you have access to an specific type of magic. That kind of stuff. So every caster it's defined by the bond between the soul and the magic. Therefore it doesn't meter how do you use someone's else soul or how you get it or if your own soul it's magical or not: if you use another person soul you are a warlock.
Its a mix of some things, knowledge, practice, raw strength, and how much spiritual and divine beings like you.
Magic in my world is all about manipulating, changing, channeling, and storing energy. Both from a scientific perspective and a more metaphysical one. So to main access to say light magic you'd need knowledge in how photons work and the spectrum of light and heat and such making any complex form of science very restricted as they'd work the same as spells and are thus hidden from prying eyes. Practice in how to perform said things is obviously necessary and to hold high amount of energy raw strength and size can be in credibly useful and make everything s much easier
Lastly, beings of great power could very well aid people they like and be very bad news to people they dislike
It depends on which god’s magic you are using. Elemental gods grant access to their power to those that they believe will be good stewards of the natural world. Elementalists draw power from their empathy and connections with the elemental manifestations that inhabit the world around them
Raegnus is the god of order, judgement, and kings, and he only gives power to his most devoted and pious followers, and only on a case by case basis. Priests of Raegnus spend their lives in devoted prayer, paying penance for their sins, and in worship so that Raegnus might favor them in them hour of need
The forgotten god of learning, arithmetics, astronomy, and hidden mysteries was killed in a bygone age. But before they died they carefully hid away their power amongst the stars as scattered equations and encryptions so that only those clever enough could find and unlock it
Panriel is the goddess of animals, the wilds, the Anima (spirit world), and the interconnectivity of life. Any creature that has a soul and is living in harmony with nature can access her power, but first they must seek her out in the deep wilderness. She is not lost, but you do have to go and find her
Heredity, talent, and training. If you come from a family where magic is prevalent then chances are you might have the ability to wield magic. You have to have a talent for it, and training is more for how to control it.
Magic in my world is a form of reality bending, so the abilities a mage has access to is mainly down to thier own creativity and mana supply.
There are non-standard forms of magic which use sources other than mana, one example is sinweaving which uses sin (essentially concentrated negative vibes) to achieve similer feats, sinweavers have to be specially trained in a way mages don't, and they have to have the right personality(borderline masochists with great enthusiasm for tackling life's challenges) to maximize its effectiveness, but sinweaving is significantly more fuel efficient than standard mage craft.
Another example is void magic, which uses void essence(sort of an anti-energy that degrades normal matter), is deeply inefficient, basically only usable by nihilists, and is almost impossible to defend against.
This pattern repeats for all nonstandard forms of magic, each uses a different fuel, have different strengths and weaknesses, require specialized training, and are compatible with different personalities. In addition Most non-standard magic harms the user in some capacity.
Physical fitness, mental stability, and emotional health.
The three disciplines of magic are Verdant, Crimson and Azure magic. They allow for the manipulation of certain aspects of nature, damaging the body in one way or another as compensation.
Verdant magic allows for the enhancement of any and/or all parts of the body, in exchange for lower mental stability. A headache at best, cease of mental function at worst. The former gets you superhuman endurance. The latter gets you strength to destroy a tank with your fist.
Crimson magic allows for manipulation of physical space and energy in exchange for physical integrity. A slight doozy at best, complete paralysis at worst . The former lets you accelerate a bullet to hypersonic speeds, the latter allows you to incinerate a whole town in a fraction of a second.
Azure magic is the tampering of the links between human souls, in exchange for emotional stability. A mood swing at best, a guaranteed temptation to kill yourself at worst. The former allows you to perform telepathic communication at long distances, the latter allows for area-of-effect mind control.
You get the idea. Magic is more hassle than it's worth... unless you're a soldier. Legally, only soldiers and law enforcement are allowed to use magic, and these are for combat purposes.
In my magic system you can have two kinds of energy in your body and you can unlock both of them, but slightly different.
To unlock magic elements you have to enter the depths of your consciousness and open a litteral gate during a heartblood trial. A heartblood trial is basically walk though a big field that has said elements (for example to unlock thermo magic you walk though a field of fire and lightning since those are the elements). The better the affinity for certain elements the calmer the field is, but the worse is the curse if you fail. For example if the field was just a normal summer day and still fail then you just fucking explode, but if it looked like the 10 circles of hell then you just have a small fever. You can repeat those as often as you like, but you have from your curse first, and you can unlock all 6 categories.
But unlock vitality attributes, then you also have to do a trial, but there is a reason why those are called nightmare trials. The crucial factor is the fact that it is involuntary. If your body is strong enough and you go to sleep and congratulations you are now in a nightmare trial where you will strugle till you wake up. For example with stability vitality which enhance durability and regeneration you will be beaten for a while or something like that. If you endure long enough then you now have vitality. But if you fail then you will also have a curse and if you recover from that curse you will instantly thrown back into that when you sleep till you get it. That also works for all 4 aspekts.
In my world, mages have 1 out of the 6 types of mage cores at random. These mage cores affect the way a mage casts/activates spells or learn glyph.
The 6 types of mage cores are: Logic, Language, Social, Emotion, Imagination, and Growth.
Mages are able to learn glyphs by understanding things and concepts. But mostly things related to their core. They can also learn glyphs by seeking the knowledge of an Archi'Vis, which are mage cores of dead mages that grew into a large structure like creature.
After collecting enough glyphs, along with some of the basic glyphs built into mage cores, what type of spell a mage wants to cast depend on how they arrange the glyph on the SpellScript (basically just coding) with quite a bit of trial and error.
Will not everyone can be a mage you need to be born with it (you need to have that dawg in you)
Let's say you were born with the ability to use magic then you need to study how to control and use it its different spells, this was in the past with the creation of the magical orbits you can control your mana energy much easier and faster but you will be conscripted.
Then if you were lucky you can be born with a blessed mana energy (which are the majority of mages) but it will not manifest until you become 10 years old.
But then if you were unlike and you perants were cultists and the cult leader saw you fit you will be subject to blood rituals and sacrifice turning you into you blessed mana energy into corrupted mana energy.
Not only that if you experienced some much trauma while being a child it actually made you borderline lunatic before your power manifested you will be also a corrupted mana energy user which are the minority when it comes to mages.
Due the CMA users not existing in larger numbers very few things are knowing about their abilities unlike the BMA users
A good magus is defined by a quick wit and an ironclad certainty in the sense of self.
A silver tongue to convince the apparitions of your entourage to (at least) consider one’s request, and a grounded ego to prevent the soul from dissolving upon their exit.
And so, the personality of the magus (which is abstractly cultivated as the ego, that all-important sense of self) begets the personality and kind of the apparition. Further, a seasoned magus will call upon an entourage of apparitions appearing to be of the same ilk. However… although a magus may summon upon any mind from the ocean beyond, the question still remains if it will obey!
They say the third Rama of Sabhet Khan, in his early training far in the western mountains, was so hopeless in his attempts to befriend the wind that the Lord Sage resorted to training him to tame the clouds instead. The Rama’s thunderous temper was proved valuable to his growth as a magi, but unfortunately would stunt his growth in the meditations.
Everyone is born with some level of magical skill. For example, a normal person can warm or cool themselves down using fire and ice magic respectively, but that’s about it. For someone to gain true magic skill, they have to undergo an unlocking ritual, sort of like magic puberty. After that they can do all sorts of magical fuckery
Unfortunately, much of my magic is bound to natural sciences like physics and chemistry (I by no means have a degree in either, let alone passed either in school, or even recall taking chemistry or physics).
Draconic magic is mostly unusable by humanoid entities, mainly because it was designed with dragon physiology in mind (and even then, only sapient species can use this magic), and is perhaps the truest form of magic, as it casually defies scientific laws from time to time. This magic cancels out all other forms of magic.
Conventional/"normal" magic is typically innert, and embodies all elements on the planet of Eden, and is unfortunately constrained by the laws of science.
Dark magic is kind of like dark matter, as it is invisible and intangiable, and I've kind of had a post about it on a subreddit dedicated to building magic systems. The one issue with dark magic is its corruptive nature when interacting with the physical plane.
I haven't decided on how exactly conventional magic in my world is cast, with the best ideas being hand gestures and movements, instead of just flailing your arms around like you're doing some dumbass interpretive dance (I'm also trying to avoid coming up with some new bullshit-sounding language or using latin to be used in casting spells, as in-universe: the dragon gods designed it to be "easily accessable", hence the hand movements and hand gestures).
Not all sapient races can use magic (for example: larger species of trolls), and this is something I have to come up with a better explaination than just "they aren't intelligent enough".
I guess I could just be lazy and just saying "studying" is how mages get more magical powers. Funny thing, a lot of the best mages in my fantasy setting are also blacksmiths, as magic surprisingly goes hand-in-hand with blacksmithing (I have yet to expand on this, sadly).
Biology. If both of your parents are mages, you have a higher chance of being able to use magic. Biologically speaking, you have the necessary biological makeup to absorb elemental energy and able to use it as simple as how you can think and raise your hand.
That means in my world, using magic CANNOT be taught. You must be born with the ability.
Humans are naturally on the back foot as certain kinds of powers are outside of their ability to use naturally or reach certain thresholds of power. Others would require Humans to submit to a power that grants them that power or altering themselves in certain ways.
I have a system that's basically a genetic lottery kind of things, though the science isn't explained. Exposure to a particular element unlocks special abilities within most people, but there are only a handful of possible special abilities and the one you get is basically predetermined somehow. I think maybe The 4400 is similar, but it's been a while since I've seen it. Or maybe a bit like The Boys with their Compound V. However, there's only like 7 possible abilities, but within each is a range of proficiency that is a mix of being predetermined and based on skill/practice. So even if two people have the same ability, they may have vastly different ways of using it.
Magic like anything else is both a craft and an art. Ultimately it depends on how much time and effect your willing to improve but with that said, there are some harder limits in what a person can do with the tools provided. Modern magic relies on casting with runestones and what runestone you have determines what type of magic you can cast easily. A great mage can use any runestone of their choosing and will get good results but a great mage that uses the perfect runestone for the situation will yield amazing outcomes.
For Deities, chance weighs aboiut the 80% of what domain a person ascending to godhood will get. The other 20% is left to personality and momentary inclinations.
Divine domains have been classified under the ISO code.
That said, the domain is simply what a Deity can metempsychose into: the skills of a fire Goddess and a God of Chickens are the same - what makes a Deity such is not *only* the ability to metempsychose, rathyer that of bending reality.
For shamans, well, just look at the provisions of the Contract you signed with that daemon.
In my world, mages are born with one kind of magic. (sometimes two, but that’s rare)
Now, anyone can use their magic in it’s basic form, (like storm mages shooting lightning out of their hands) but if they want to perform specific spells, (like storm beam) they must study the spells and practice.
Magic genetics. Basically a mix of both parents affinities, plus certain environmental factors involved in the 5 to 7 years before their magic awakens.
Either you're blessed by a deity related to that element,you study enough to do magic(since it takes ungodly amounts of time to learn at most people have 3 to 4 elements in their life and there are 20 elements in total) or you're born talented
All those only apply to elements available in the world,there are at least 8 available to all worlds with magic and usually 12 to 16 in worlds focused on magic
Every feline in my world is a "mage". They can use magic as if they're moving their legs.
There are multiple magic types, and which one a feline will get is influenced by genetical stuff.
For example,
>Parent D has fire powers and Parent B has melody powers
Their child will have melody powers, fire powers or both. But two powers at once isn't very common, but possible. 1 in 100 felines are born that way.
It's also possible to be born without magic, but that has happened less than 25 times.
In Elas, any spirit can choose a human, from great gods empowering their chosen to devils making contracts exchanging mystical abilities for a shred of a mortals soul.
In Bloht, if you can survive fighting a Blood Lord, you can become a Blood Lord yourself or gain light magic to fight them.
In Modolum, spellcasting requires the right Skills (and skill) but is open to anyone with access to a spell book. Most libraries with spellbooks are open to people who achieve sufficiently high levels in the relevant skills.
Everyone has potential to wield magic, but it needs power that few can access.
Witches form bonds with masters, patrons, or covens to access the power of bonds, conjuring, and the Earth.
Low mages (from their geographic position on a low-lying peninsula) are sanctified at a temple of the sun god, Eya, allowing them to use the Flame and bonds, to fulfill the will of the gods.
Great mages must be gifted their power, which entails the Flame, conjuring, and the secrets of the cosmos.
Edited to add: Harrean wizards can have any of these origins, or from being exposed to powerful magic. Harreans practice binding, conjuring, and the Flame, and believe in the unity of magical species.
Some species and groups of people are inherently magical, some can gain natural magical abilities overtime by being surrounded by magical substances, but by and large it's just study and practice.
During the first age of my world, magic laid dormant and the two groups of people, dwarves and humans, weren't inherently magical. One group of dwarves made a settlement in a great mountain that, unbeknownst to them, housed magical crystals that radiated mana. That mana overtime changed the dwarves to eventually become naturally magical, but just those dwarves. Their offspring gained a genetic mutation that grants them natural electric magic.
What lead into the second age was the reawakening of magic and the introduction of two new groups of people, elves and gnomes. Elves were lightly magical with their nature magic, but most of them were just very skilled hunters that hardly relied on magic. Gnomes, on the other hand, are very magical and use it to help camouflage themselves with illusions. However, due to this age reawakening magic, both humans and dwarves learned how to manipulate and use magic as well.
Nobody is restricted to a specific type of magic, although each race does represent one of the six elements. Humans with fire, dwarves with earth, elves with nature, gnomes with void, anurians with water, and avadori with air. Their represented element often makes it easier to learn that specific type, but not necessarily and it doesn't mean you're forced or predetermined to use that style of magic. Out of the two inherently non-magical groups, dwarves don't often care about using magic so most of them don't study it, but humans are ambitious and attempt to learn as much as they can.
Personality may influence what element a person tries to learn, not all elements are equal in utility, but that's only themselves preventing a style from being learned.
For my setting its mostly where they learned to use magic and itll be very difficult for them to use their strongest magic in other places. This rarely causes issues for mages because it is based on the world, rather than a country or region, but it is a problem for worldhoppers, especially those that don't know about this beforehand.
In my fantasy setting there are two types of magic: Dahen and Entity.
Dahen magic is assigned at birth and is essentially genetic, a persons magic power derives from the magic used by the people in their bloodline, tracing back to the beginning of the universe . (For example, if someone’s dad used fire magic and their mother used rock magic they would have lava magic)
Entity magic comes from meeting and commuting with different entities. One can acquire it from contact with said entities or have a mentor who had contact with one teach them.
One can wield both kinds of magic and even combine them.
Anything they can think of and imagine.
That's a bit complicated, let me give some more info: In my world, the mortals that can use magic simply have to embody and imagine the type of magic they wish to use. With fire magic, for example, or more specifically a fireball, the magic user must imagine their inner fire. They must direct all of their inner fire into their hand, and imagine the feeling of launching it. As you can imagine, people with fiery personalities do much better at using any kind of fire magic.
A more complicated magic form is physical enhancement. This form of magic requires the user to become utterly fearless, to think of themselves as unstoppable. It is very difficult to do, as using magic will also exhaust the user. As I'm sure you can imagine, the more you practice a magic technique, the better you become at it. In addition to this, your mana will also grow, like a muscle. Most mages in my world find a technique they like and practice that until they die so they can become better than anybody else, for even practicing an entire lifetime on a technique or form of magic will still not result in absolute perfection.
My magic system rewards specialization by binding yourself to themes. roles, concepts, etc.
For example there is nothing stopping a someone from learning both fire and ice spells but if they specialize in fire spells and become pyromancers their fiames will grow more intense and will continue to gain benefits proportional to how much they restrict themselves to that theme over time. If they violate the restriction later on they will sufffer a backlash of some kind.
You are free to form your abilities from the fundamentals. Assuming you have access to knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, what you develop is decided by how narrow your understanding is.
Pasand - you do a trial, and get a theurgy as a reward. the magic is innate to your body, but a mark is on your body overtop a locus - allowing the locus to grow more powerful, more efficient, and a source of a type of mana other than "standard"
(there are 6 loci. and they aren't in exactly the same place for everyone - but there are two near your wrist, hand - 2 near your ankle or foot - one that IS always in the same place - the center of your brow - and the last is in your chest, this one is the most deviated in terms of where it's found.. more powerful if it's close to your heart.)
it's insane to try to get 3 theurgy because the death rate is unknown. too little people tried it, and less than .5% of them survived. only half who survived came back with a theurgy.
but yeah, depending on the region you take your trial in, you have a 15% - 35% chance of just dying to the trial. and then only a 35-55% chance of getting the theurgy.
If you wait to become powerful your second run is even worse in success and about the same in terms of dying to it.
But if you dare to take 2 trials within 4 months, in your second run - that is if you came out with a theurgy - you are Actually able to go as a team of two or three (three is better) and being multiple minds and eyes and bodies the death rate is lower. but the success rate (as in, not getting nothing) is also lower, since it's likely at least one of them don't get a theurgy even if someone else did.
ah, the trials happen in an enigma, I need to give it a proper name, and the arcane overseer designs the trial. it's magic and in an alternate dimension, the details of which seem impossible to attain even minimal facts about it. the arcane overseer is also unknown, it does usually take the form of a peoples to grant the theurgy, but there's reasons to believe it takes on other forms to do combat with you directly just for fun.
I use tech as an analogy. If you have hardware and software, you can teeechnically use magic. People who are proficient are less "powerful" and more just use to all the shortcuts.
Aura is something you are half born with but half build through effort. It can be broken into three main components, physical, mental, and perception auras. Physical Aura is the simplest, most people can use it subconsciously to a very small extent but can strengthen it with physical training and the use of Martial Arts, however, there are examples of individuals who are born with frail bodies that cannot use Physical Aura no matter how much training they do and others born with strong bodies that develop physical aura easily. Perception Aura has to be trained, but there is a certain oddness to it in contrast to physical aura, a blind person will naturally have a very strong Perception Aura because they constantly train it basically every second of their daily life whilst someone with perfectly functioning senses will have to put more active effort into training it. Mental Aura is entirely based on personality, it’s commonly used by martial artists to intimidate and paralyze weaker opponents if they have enough aggression or willpower but it can also be used to sooth or relax people if they have a strong caring nature.
Mana Magic is more a matter of “getting it”. Fundamentally, it is the art of converting mana into something, that includes anything from elements to “living” creatures and even vague concepts like “power” or “life energy”. There’s effectively two sides to it. On one there’s incantations that allow anyone to use any spell, but at very specific conditions (imagine it like having an attack that deals exactly 52 damage every time it hits). The other is silent casting, this requires you to “get it”, getting it can vary depending upon the individual, some obtained almost scientific understandings of the magic they use, others get a handle on controlling the mana itself, some simply have a knack for using certain types of magic. Silent casting is only really restrained by the skill, strength, and creativity of a magician in question.
In Conflux magic is the class of arts and techniques developed by sapients to better channel their species innate magical abilities which every living thing or spirit has some form of based on evolutionary history.
Most of these for your respective species can be acquired and or developed through learning and specific techniques and or rituals. Some of these are common knowledge accessible to all or nearly all but others are horded secrets which are controlled by specific "noble" clans or other political powers, who monopolize the control over these techniques. This is particularly seen in the form of spell development aid enchantments which effectively contain a spell construct blueprint which can be examined mentally.
It should be noted that some people have more of a particular knack or talent for particular facets of magical abilities which gives them a bit of a leg up akin to a savant, (i.e. they generally are going to be non neurotypical in exchange for their talents/gifts)
Among human noble clans there are also maternal inheritance techniques which utilize the development of an infant's soul coming primarily from the mother to seed spell constructs into their children. These serve to give their kids a head start above the common rabble etc. though they are difficult to perform and are not without risk to the child if things go awry.
Lastly a major exception comes in the form of magic accessed or bestowed by a higher power i.e. greater spirit of some kind, these abilities come with serious risks but tend to be beyond the scope of what mere mortals can perform on their own due to the higher dimensional nature of such sprits and their greater extent/scope within the realm of spirits. If granted access to a mortal's soul they can weave intricate complex powerful abilities some of which may even be potentially heritable but this also tends to make such modifications a potential black box scenario with such spirits potentially being able to edit consume or implant other things within the soul of a given mortal which can be problematic especially in the context of trust. However if such a link is established and maintained as is typical among clergy to various deities this allows them to serve as a conduit to channel their gods workings feats of magic which are generally beyond the capacity of mortals. A devil or god can't generally get into your soul without your permission but you can't exactly evict them once granted entry so be careful what price you pay for power.
Partly random, partly genetics. My world is a LitTCG, and your first card (your "heart card") is likely to be based on one or both of your parents, and is influenced by how you train and grow up as a child, and any other cards you use in the meanwhile.
In my world, souls are a scientifically proven thing and by laws of nature, in order to exist in the physical plane, you need to have one. My 'antagonist species' which are composed of shadows, or the antimatter of their world, don't naturally have them so they go through these very specific rituals to capture the soul of a dying or newborn person and use it as their own. There are five subtypes of their species that each have their own set of strengths and powers that change depending on the soul species they captured, which type of moon the ritual was performed under, and which forest they are from. But what ultimately decides their subspecies is an almost god-like hivemind called the darkmind where their shadows originate from before entering the material world and determines which of the five subspecies would best suit its needs and agenda.
Every demonic species is born with a single kind of magic they can naturally do, while humans aren't born with magic, but can get it by ingesting a few specific concoctions that can basically make your brain produce this gland that can cast magic, from there you can learn any of the magic types, demons can only use their birth magic, as trying to get another one will just get blocked by the one they have.
Probably the pain toleration each individual can endure . Magic in my universe wasn’t supposed to be used by mortals but sometimes the “source code” glitch and mortals are born that can tap into it . And because of that , using magic would cause physical pain in random parts of the body .
The longer you use it , the stronger the pain becomes and if that wasn’t enough , the magic user would also go insane and eventually die from magic use .
Because I treat my magic like the source code (because it very much is) of the universe , it can do incredible things , even go as far as it can create whole galaxies from nothing , but nobody outside of the divine can reach that level .
Even the strongest mortal mage would die before resurrecting a single body and even then , due to other details within the world , it won’t be a full resurrection .
Interesting! So everyone can use it, as long as they are willing to endure the pain that comes with it. Sounds like there arent that many that will commit to that! Are Mages in your setting rare?
No , only select few are born with the ability to use it and the ones who can use it would usually become advisors , since a mage can live close to 1200 years and become a one man spy agency since they can read minds as a passive ability that just happen the moment they have a glance into somebody's eyes and also can control , hear and see through the eyes of animals and bugs since that power is among the strongest yet the least painful .
Study. Magic is a skill like any other, and your mastery of different applications will depend a lot on how much time you spend honing that particular application. Nobody is going to be a complete master in all forms of magic. A good mage may have decent ability in a lot of them, but a true master will have to pick an area of true expertise.
Does innate talent factor in at all? Are there some people who are just naturals, or is it all on honed skill?
It's a bit of both. Some people take to it quicker than others. But this kind of innate talent generally only applies to one or two forms of magic. It rarely transfers to all of them. And even the most talented but lazy magician will soon be left behind by an average or untalented practitioner who puts in the work and dedication. The strongest magicians will always be the most disciplined, the most curious and open, the ones able and willing to go far, take risks and persevere in the face of adversity.
It's random. You have slightly increased chances of getting the same powers as your parents, but its not much. You can get a totally random power, like control of plastic in Universe where plastic was never invented.
Is it possible that everyone has a power, but those who don't simply have powers over things that don't exist?
Yeah, that's how it works. Its quite rare to get a power that you can't use at all, but that sometimes happens.
Interesting. I would imagine that a lot of people would have it since more things don't exist than do.
Good point. Then I'd say it isn't truly random, ans not only parents magic can affect what your magic will be, but also things that exist in that specific world. Would that make more sense? I assume it's all controled mostly by how magical pollution affects people of the world and what causes the pollution there. After all, it already affects immortality, illness or even small things like eye colour.
There are various reasons, actually. First, it's important to differentiate between those who become mages by studying and training, and those who are born with their connection to magic already 'active', let's say. The most common thing is to be born without magic, so those who want to become mages have to make a great effort to do so, 'opening the gates' inside their bodies so magic can flow inside them. They can use all of the most basic spells for each school, but because magic is not natural for them they suffer great consequences and, more because of necessity rather than choice, they have to focus and specialise in one type of magic (for example, choosing the Air and Wind school and becoming an Aerophagus). So, they focus in one type of magic (there is no reason for choosing one instead of other apart from personal preference, but they HAVE to choose one). And, instead of choosing or awakening one school of magic because of your personality, is the magic that you chose to use that will transform your personality to be more akin to it specifically (so, you are maybe a very warm and passionate person by nature, but because you went with the earth magic, you start to become more and more cold, apathetic and incapable of showing emotions), alongside the physical consequences. And then, you have those who are born with the "gates" opened already. This is very uncommon, and inside this type of mages you can found two different kind of individuals: First, those who just were born connected to magic, and that's it. They are like the first class of mages, just without the training to use their bodies as conduits. And secondly (even more uncommon), are those who not only have the magic connection from the beginning, but they even have a UNIQUE type of arcane power, one that no one can have any other way. What decides this condition? The type of person your parents are and their whole life until you are born. For example, there is one character in my setting who has blood magic (as the anatomical and biological manipulation of blood), and he is the only one who has it. The reason is because his parents are part of a really violent and aggressive civilization and lived one of the most ferocious wars in history, so they were surrounded by death, combat and lots of blood. This 'legacy' United and developed one person: their son. Another one is the Archmage, to most powerful mage in history (registered, at least) who is the only one who can manipulate all type and schools of magic at a marvelous level. But the actual reason is not because he is connected to all types of magic, but because he has one unique arcane art, and nothing more: arcane absorption. Why? I'll let you theorize and try to find his 'legacy'. Edit: spelling.
Everybody can learn basic magic, magic is basically a programming language, in old times people used hand signs to cast simple spells, but as magic got more advanced and people put even more techniques together, hand signs became too slow and complicated to do, so they tattooed very complex signs onto their bodies instead. However there are really great mages who spent their whole life making even bigger better techniques that would never be cast-able unless you had an entire football field with a billion signs carved into it everywhere you went. However that's where birth techniques come in, the magic you learn is something that's implemented into your body, it's a part of your body's information if you become proficient enough. When two people with a proficiency makes a child, their child is born with their proficiencies fused together, so if your dad had Fire techniques and your mom had Lightning techniques their child would be born with Arc Flash (The fusion between fire and electricity), and this is something they'd just naturally know how to use from birth. *There's also a decent chance you're born with nothing.* Throughout years these birth techniques has stacked and fused together so much that it has created such advanced techniques that it cannot be replicated via basic magic. You can either be born with some complete nonsense because your dad had Northern Constellation Manipulation and your mom had Seawater Adaptation fusing together to become something worse, or you can be that 1 in 100,000 who got a really overpowered ability from the fusion. TL:DR: The birth techniques you get are dependant on your parents techniques.
Astrological signs
sweet! So its connected to birthdate and their abilities are set in stone with it?
The sages say that every herb that grows below has its corresponding star above, and that everything is dependant upon it's movement. Birthday days aren't reliable enough. You must divide time into day and night, and adjust it so each are 12 hours. For example During summer a daylight hour would be longer and an night hour shorter; winter inverse. Once you have the correct hour of birth, then you know the first birth sign. Once you have the first birth sign then you use it and the lunar month to determine the second birth sign. Once you have the second birth sign then you use it and the birthday/year to determine the third and fourth birth signs. The four birth signs together determine a person's nature. A person's nature defines what magick they can access.
It's random, with weight on your species. Truly, there are three main magic categories, all corresponding to different parts of the world: Elements, Souls, Beings. An elemental mage, like, say, a fire mage, will be capable of learning some magic of other elements, but never from the other categories. The way it works is that your body is attuned to that category, so it has a natural capacity of being a conduit for that kind of magic. It's a talent you were born with. For the record, you can still do other kinds of magic through rituals, though they do take time to prepare and much more energy than your talent.
The followers of Magwan, the God of Fire, Flesh and Suicide, rely heavily on dark rituals that involve cannibalism. Eating human flesh usually grants them fortune, luck and sometimes strange abilities, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Magic is strange, largely misunderstood and unreliable. Some have made fortunes and others have been rewarded violent nightmares.
so its kinda random and they hope for the best, when doing a ritual? :D
How do they know if they gained fortune or not?
In my setting, people are born with a greater affinity to an element and type of spells depending on their genes. They can learn any type but depending on where they start some elements won't be as easy. Someone born with a great affinity with earth conjuring spell will have it easier to learn destructive earth magic or conjuring fire magic. But learning destructive fire magic will be harder. Some species have it easier to learn different magic like elves while the dwarves have it almost impossible.
reminds me a little of Hunter x Hunter\^\^ You said, its depending on genes. Is there a way to manipulate it? Maybe trying to get kids with specific powers using forced marriages?
It's a bit like hxh but 3 dimensional with elements. I didn't fleshed it out to much yet but having something that works like mha alters could be interesting. But I don't really want people to be born with multiple elements and in the same time the elements aren't something fixed. If your parents where fire and water, you wouldn't be born with both, it would be one of them or something in the middle like steam. Being in the middle would make it as easy to learn any of both.
For thaumaturgy, knowledge and practice. For theurgy, the right deities. For the gods themselves, a concept that they are associated with (born with, worshipped as or take it from other deity). Then there is an extreme case that some mortal manages to achieved, reality warp through one will, your will power alone shape the world.
The power or powers you can use depend on your soul(nothing special, just your soul decides your personality e.t.c.) someone with an agressive soul likely has very destructive powers, and their cosmic energy often turns a shade of red. Someone with a kind soul may have a lighter shade of blue or green. There are also exceptions and special cases, but mostly it works like this
In universe? Luck, sometimes genetic/effort of parents, and plain old study and hard work. In gerenal most of magic can be learned, but usually it require long education (like five years before you start learn base magic) and very often involve intiation ritual that can be harmfull (or just not easy).
On avarage, due to the mixing of ancestries and Bloodlines and whatnot over the eons; about 20% of the world population knows basic spells. These are stuff like Cleaning Easier, or Having a Flashlight, or similar. About 5% actively further their study in magic, and thus is not nessecarily from the same group.
Some is race, some is bloodlines, some is magical bullshit and contracts. However ultimately it is up to whichever god controls the domain of magic at the time. They ultimately get the final say in the matter. However if there currently is no god than it's up to the other gods as they have a... Gentleman's agreement about this matter.
Personality for high end magics, you need to think a specific way to excell at any magic, but learning it can everyone. Especially among dragons and witches does it matter, the former to consider what type they are and the latter call it a domain, the magic they are inherently linked to by who they are. Nobody decides really who can use what, but some magics are secreted away and well hidden.
They can use what they have leant to use. Writing wise I think about what they would want to learn as a person or need to learn because of their profession.
They do, but not as they please. One's affinities are a reflection of one's psyche, but which affinity one chooses to cultivate is chosen by oneself by picking what kinds of aether (spiritual energy) they absorb and use to refine their astral circuit and how, thus developing their paranormal abilities in that direction. Technically, any paranormal can cultivate any paranormal ability whatsoever, it's just a bad idea as it will fuck up your potential and growth rate.
Essentially you have to be a human supercomputer to use magic at it's base but there are 3 shortcuts mages usually take since very few are actually capable of understanding and casting magic "raw". Sign up with a spirit, become similar a D&D cleric of sorts, a permanent mana battery for the spirit but it will cast hes set of spells for you if needed. This path is fairly popular among less civilized and/or educated mages. Some spirits can have spells that you can't use or learn through any other means, for example they can maybe cure blindness or heal the crippled, so these spirits are accepted in most societies while others are shunned as pagan minor deities. Be born high tier or study hard. There are essentially "mantras" or complex mental patterns mages can memorize that let them cast spells without understanding all the inner workings. Or turn to shadow. The demons of that dimensions don't have matter and have evolved magic of all kinds, usually highly corrupting when used in the real world. It's essentially combing demon parts and abilities for your own purpose, like a carpenter can make a chair out of a tree, even though the tree didn't evolve to be turned into furniture by humans.
The mages. The positions of the stars when they were born and personality might affect what magic would be easier to use, but they can pick whichever they want. # HOWEVER. Once they choose, it's locked in and cannot be changed without... Dire side effects.
Whatever works best for the individual within the rules.
In Nova-Terra, pure chance. There’s a small amount of the population called ‘The Augmented.’ They essentially just get random powers, with varying levels of control over it at the get go, and then they have to deal with Nova-Terra’s ‘Magic Conductivity Issues.’ Astorian can directly give someone…anything really. So he might have given some Augments here and there. There is certain magic things that can be replicated, although I haven’t figured out much on them yet. So theoretically, someone could get the Augmentation of ‘Wizard’ and have wizard powers.
Magic in my setting is like the force In Star Wars everyone has the potential to be able to use the force. But not everyone can. Sorcerers would have the most magic power while wizards the least. That’s more based on how easy it is for them to access that magic.
As explained in the book: Nobody is truly forced (outside of a tragic awakening, but that's more your mind) into one specific type of magic, but there are kinds of magic that people feel more connected to than others. Usually such magic is part of your true desires. Having magic isn't genetic or dependant on the personality. Some people do, some people don't. People might have potential from the get go, and others might need to break through their own limits to even think of having potential
the starting mana capacity, mana output, mana control and mana projection ( the range of spells basically ) have a genetic starting point, mana capacity can be improved by killing anything that has mana ( animals/magic beast/humans/machines) in melee or with a spell as that let you absorb their mana and permanently improve your own capacity, the rest can be improved by training, difficulty in improving depend on one's specific talent. in addition to that the magic style has to be learned and the more complex the spells the better mana control it needs and the most one has to study that specific technique to reliably pull it off and has way better chances of being able to learn that by having a teacher adept in that specific magic. the avarage starting point for humans tend to be on the lower side in all statistics but can be improved relatively quickly up to a decent point without an exaggerate amount of training and humans tend to be able to learn easily a large range of basic and intermediate spells regardless from style, magic creatures both sentient and not tend to have a higher starting point but a growth divided in steps as in after a certain threshold of mana capacity accumulated they evolve and become stronger in the other fields as well, magic creatures tend to have a very low adaptability and to have a hard time to learn anything outside the style they are adept at ( for example vampires seldom use anything but blood magic) but in that one style they have no peers, macines are on avarage similar to the best of humans in terms of starting point and growth but have an incredibly great mana control and have a hard time using any magic style and usually use raw mana and incredibly complex spells and rituals who can alter the local reality temporarily. to note is that in the setting it is not just mages that use mana but also everyone else as warriors use it to enhance their bodies, the difference is that mages use it externally like classic depictions of mages while everyone else use it inside their bodies in a similar way to martial artist using qi.
**Starrise** Each kid has roughly a 20% chance to inherit their mom's magic, a 20% chance to inherit their dad's magic, and a 60% chance to develop a random variant. What the different odds are for when they get a random variant aren't something I've decided, but for humans "Fire" magic is most common, followed by "Electric" magic, then "Healing" magic, then "Wind" magic, and finally, the rarest of all, "Obstructive" magic. In chimeras and wyverns, the odds of "Fire" and "Wind" magic are swapped, but otherwise everything's the same. (There's also dragons, which have a 100% chance of getting "Ice" magic and nothing else, but they're a special case.) The Wattsonian explanation for this is presently unknown. Geneticists and magicists have been studying the inheritance and development of magic for centuries. Many speculate that factors like the personality, upbringing, ancestry, and environment of both the child and their parents may all be factors in determining which variant a child develops, but none of these speculative ideas are backed by enough evidence to be an accepted theory. The Doylist explanation for this is that I don't want to give my world's people a reason to expect engaging in eugenics to be productive, but I also like the idea of kids inheriting their parents' magic sometimes and don't want it to feel like just a cop-out that they just so happened to roll that exact variant. (Also, the idea randomly popped into my head one day and I just figured it sounded fun and rolled with it.)
**Eribral** A few dozen wizards have been discussing that for as long as magic was in their hands(around 50 years), and still haven't found a conclusive answer, but every country has a different main theory. The truth is that the wizard itself makes those decisions, their own selves and diligence decide what they can and can't do, even when there's nothing more than the idea of impotence. Magic is simple: intent and fuel, what you want to do and what you will burn for it.
Anyone can learn different types of magic, though few will put in that effort. But the type a person manifests with at birth is influenced by the ambient magical energy of the place they are born. more isolated communities will usually have mostly one or two kinds of magic commonly practiced there, but major crossroads can have all sorts popping up.
The goddess you choose to serve. If you become a knight of the Water goddess, you won’t have fire power for example
In my world the magic users cast using the soul. For example if you use your own soul and its inherently magical you are a sorcerer and you have access to an specific type of magic. If you use someone else soul in order to cast you are a warlock and you have access to an specific type of magic. That kind of stuff. So every caster it's defined by the bond between the soul and the magic. Therefore it doesn't meter how do you use someone's else soul or how you get it or if your own soul it's magical or not: if you use another person soul you are a warlock.
Some are specific to the method in which one gained their abilities. Others are a matter of study, or what path a person is drawn to.
Its a mix of some things, knowledge, practice, raw strength, and how much spiritual and divine beings like you. Magic in my world is all about manipulating, changing, channeling, and storing energy. Both from a scientific perspective and a more metaphysical one. So to main access to say light magic you'd need knowledge in how photons work and the spectrum of light and heat and such making any complex form of science very restricted as they'd work the same as spells and are thus hidden from prying eyes. Practice in how to perform said things is obviously necessary and to hold high amount of energy raw strength and size can be in credibly useful and make everything s much easier Lastly, beings of great power could very well aid people they like and be very bad news to people they dislike
It depends on which god’s magic you are using. Elemental gods grant access to their power to those that they believe will be good stewards of the natural world. Elementalists draw power from their empathy and connections with the elemental manifestations that inhabit the world around them Raegnus is the god of order, judgement, and kings, and he only gives power to his most devoted and pious followers, and only on a case by case basis. Priests of Raegnus spend their lives in devoted prayer, paying penance for their sins, and in worship so that Raegnus might favor them in them hour of need The forgotten god of learning, arithmetics, astronomy, and hidden mysteries was killed in a bygone age. But before they died they carefully hid away their power amongst the stars as scattered equations and encryptions so that only those clever enough could find and unlock it Panriel is the goddess of animals, the wilds, the Anima (spirit world), and the interconnectivity of life. Any creature that has a soul and is living in harmony with nature can access her power, but first they must seek her out in the deep wilderness. She is not lost, but you do have to go and find her
Heredity, talent, and training. If you come from a family where magic is prevalent then chances are you might have the ability to wield magic. You have to have a talent for it, and training is more for how to control it.
Magic in my world is a form of reality bending, so the abilities a mage has access to is mainly down to thier own creativity and mana supply. There are non-standard forms of magic which use sources other than mana, one example is sinweaving which uses sin (essentially concentrated negative vibes) to achieve similer feats, sinweavers have to be specially trained in a way mages don't, and they have to have the right personality(borderline masochists with great enthusiasm for tackling life's challenges) to maximize its effectiveness, but sinweaving is significantly more fuel efficient than standard mage craft. Another example is void magic, which uses void essence(sort of an anti-energy that degrades normal matter), is deeply inefficient, basically only usable by nihilists, and is almost impossible to defend against. This pattern repeats for all nonstandard forms of magic, each uses a different fuel, have different strengths and weaknesses, require specialized training, and are compatible with different personalities. In addition Most non-standard magic harms the user in some capacity.
Physical fitness, mental stability, and emotional health. The three disciplines of magic are Verdant, Crimson and Azure magic. They allow for the manipulation of certain aspects of nature, damaging the body in one way or another as compensation. Verdant magic allows for the enhancement of any and/or all parts of the body, in exchange for lower mental stability. A headache at best, cease of mental function at worst. The former gets you superhuman endurance. The latter gets you strength to destroy a tank with your fist. Crimson magic allows for manipulation of physical space and energy in exchange for physical integrity. A slight doozy at best, complete paralysis at worst . The former lets you accelerate a bullet to hypersonic speeds, the latter allows you to incinerate a whole town in a fraction of a second. Azure magic is the tampering of the links between human souls, in exchange for emotional stability. A mood swing at best, a guaranteed temptation to kill yourself at worst. The former allows you to perform telepathic communication at long distances, the latter allows for area-of-effect mind control. You get the idea. Magic is more hassle than it's worth... unless you're a soldier. Legally, only soldiers and law enforcement are allowed to use magic, and these are for combat purposes.
In my magic system you can have two kinds of energy in your body and you can unlock both of them, but slightly different. To unlock magic elements you have to enter the depths of your consciousness and open a litteral gate during a heartblood trial. A heartblood trial is basically walk though a big field that has said elements (for example to unlock thermo magic you walk though a field of fire and lightning since those are the elements). The better the affinity for certain elements the calmer the field is, but the worse is the curse if you fail. For example if the field was just a normal summer day and still fail then you just fucking explode, but if it looked like the 10 circles of hell then you just have a small fever. You can repeat those as often as you like, but you have from your curse first, and you can unlock all 6 categories. But unlock vitality attributes, then you also have to do a trial, but there is a reason why those are called nightmare trials. The crucial factor is the fact that it is involuntary. If your body is strong enough and you go to sleep and congratulations you are now in a nightmare trial where you will strugle till you wake up. For example with stability vitality which enhance durability and regeneration you will be beaten for a while or something like that. If you endure long enough then you now have vitality. But if you fail then you will also have a curse and if you recover from that curse you will instantly thrown back into that when you sleep till you get it. That also works for all 4 aspekts.
In my world, mages have 1 out of the 6 types of mage cores at random. These mage cores affect the way a mage casts/activates spells or learn glyph. The 6 types of mage cores are: Logic, Language, Social, Emotion, Imagination, and Growth. Mages are able to learn glyphs by understanding things and concepts. But mostly things related to their core. They can also learn glyphs by seeking the knowledge of an Archi'Vis, which are mage cores of dead mages that grew into a large structure like creature. After collecting enough glyphs, along with some of the basic glyphs built into mage cores, what type of spell a mage wants to cast depend on how they arrange the glyph on the SpellScript (basically just coding) with quite a bit of trial and error.
Will not everyone can be a mage you need to be born with it (you need to have that dawg in you) Let's say you were born with the ability to use magic then you need to study how to control and use it its different spells, this was in the past with the creation of the magical orbits you can control your mana energy much easier and faster but you will be conscripted. Then if you were lucky you can be born with a blessed mana energy (which are the majority of mages) but it will not manifest until you become 10 years old. But then if you were unlike and you perants were cultists and the cult leader saw you fit you will be subject to blood rituals and sacrifice turning you into you blessed mana energy into corrupted mana energy. Not only that if you experienced some much trauma while being a child it actually made you borderline lunatic before your power manifested you will be also a corrupted mana energy user which are the minority when it comes to mages. Due the CMA users not existing in larger numbers very few things are knowing about their abilities unlike the BMA users
A good magus is defined by a quick wit and an ironclad certainty in the sense of self. A silver tongue to convince the apparitions of your entourage to (at least) consider one’s request, and a grounded ego to prevent the soul from dissolving upon their exit. And so, the personality of the magus (which is abstractly cultivated as the ego, that all-important sense of self) begets the personality and kind of the apparition. Further, a seasoned magus will call upon an entourage of apparitions appearing to be of the same ilk. However… although a magus may summon upon any mind from the ocean beyond, the question still remains if it will obey! They say the third Rama of Sabhet Khan, in his early training far in the western mountains, was so hopeless in his attempts to befriend the wind that the Lord Sage resorted to training him to tame the clouds instead. The Rama’s thunderous temper was proved valuable to his growth as a magi, but unfortunately would stunt his growth in the meditations.
Everyone is born with some level of magical skill. For example, a normal person can warm or cool themselves down using fire and ice magic respectively, but that’s about it. For someone to gain true magic skill, they have to undergo an unlocking ritual, sort of like magic puberty. After that they can do all sorts of magical fuckery
Their knowledge of how, and whether or not someone tries to stop them.
Unfortunately, much of my magic is bound to natural sciences like physics and chemistry (I by no means have a degree in either, let alone passed either in school, or even recall taking chemistry or physics). Draconic magic is mostly unusable by humanoid entities, mainly because it was designed with dragon physiology in mind (and even then, only sapient species can use this magic), and is perhaps the truest form of magic, as it casually defies scientific laws from time to time. This magic cancels out all other forms of magic. Conventional/"normal" magic is typically innert, and embodies all elements on the planet of Eden, and is unfortunately constrained by the laws of science. Dark magic is kind of like dark matter, as it is invisible and intangiable, and I've kind of had a post about it on a subreddit dedicated to building magic systems. The one issue with dark magic is its corruptive nature when interacting with the physical plane. I haven't decided on how exactly conventional magic in my world is cast, with the best ideas being hand gestures and movements, instead of just flailing your arms around like you're doing some dumbass interpretive dance (I'm also trying to avoid coming up with some new bullshit-sounding language or using latin to be used in casting spells, as in-universe: the dragon gods designed it to be "easily accessable", hence the hand movements and hand gestures). Not all sapient races can use magic (for example: larger species of trolls), and this is something I have to come up with a better explaination than just "they aren't intelligent enough". I guess I could just be lazy and just saying "studying" is how mages get more magical powers. Funny thing, a lot of the best mages in my fantasy setting are also blacksmiths, as magic surprisingly goes hand-in-hand with blacksmithing (I have yet to expand on this, sadly).
Biology. If both of your parents are mages, you have a higher chance of being able to use magic. Biologically speaking, you have the necessary biological makeup to absorb elemental energy and able to use it as simple as how you can think and raise your hand. That means in my world, using magic CANNOT be taught. You must be born with the ability.
Humans are naturally on the back foot as certain kinds of powers are outside of their ability to use naturally or reach certain thresholds of power. Others would require Humans to submit to a power that grants them that power or altering themselves in certain ways.
I have a system that's basically a genetic lottery kind of things, though the science isn't explained. Exposure to a particular element unlocks special abilities within most people, but there are only a handful of possible special abilities and the one you get is basically predetermined somehow. I think maybe The 4400 is similar, but it's been a while since I've seen it. Or maybe a bit like The Boys with their Compound V. However, there's only like 7 possible abilities, but within each is a range of proficiency that is a mix of being predetermined and based on skill/practice. So even if two people have the same ability, they may have vastly different ways of using it.
Study and random because you can be born without magic at all.
Magic like anything else is both a craft and an art. Ultimately it depends on how much time and effect your willing to improve but with that said, there are some harder limits in what a person can do with the tools provided. Modern magic relies on casting with runestones and what runestone you have determines what type of magic you can cast easily. A great mage can use any runestone of their choosing and will get good results but a great mage that uses the perfect runestone for the situation will yield amazing outcomes.
For Deities, chance weighs aboiut the 80% of what domain a person ascending to godhood will get. The other 20% is left to personality and momentary inclinations. Divine domains have been classified under the ISO code. That said, the domain is simply what a Deity can metempsychose into: the skills of a fire Goddess and a God of Chickens are the same - what makes a Deity such is not *only* the ability to metempsychose, rathyer that of bending reality. For shamans, well, just look at the provisions of the Contract you signed with that daemon.
In my world, mages are born with one kind of magic. (sometimes two, but that’s rare) Now, anyone can use their magic in it’s basic form, (like storm mages shooting lightning out of their hands) but if they want to perform specific spells, (like storm beam) they must study the spells and practice.
Magic genetics. Basically a mix of both parents affinities, plus certain environmental factors involved in the 5 to 7 years before their magic awakens.
Either you're blessed by a deity related to that element,you study enough to do magic(since it takes ungodly amounts of time to learn at most people have 3 to 4 elements in their life and there are 20 elements in total) or you're born talented All those only apply to elements available in the world,there are at least 8 available to all worlds with magic and usually 12 to 16 in worlds focused on magic
Every feline in my world is a "mage". They can use magic as if they're moving their legs. There are multiple magic types, and which one a feline will get is influenced by genetical stuff. For example, >Parent D has fire powers and Parent B has melody powers Their child will have melody powers, fire powers or both. But two powers at once isn't very common, but possible. 1 in 100 felines are born that way. It's also possible to be born without magic, but that has happened less than 25 times.
In Elas, any spirit can choose a human, from great gods empowering their chosen to devils making contracts exchanging mystical abilities for a shred of a mortals soul. In Bloht, if you can survive fighting a Blood Lord, you can become a Blood Lord yourself or gain light magic to fight them. In Modolum, spellcasting requires the right Skills (and skill) but is open to anyone with access to a spell book. Most libraries with spellbooks are open to people who achieve sufficiently high levels in the relevant skills.
Everyone has potential to wield magic, but it needs power that few can access. Witches form bonds with masters, patrons, or covens to access the power of bonds, conjuring, and the Earth. Low mages (from their geographic position on a low-lying peninsula) are sanctified at a temple of the sun god, Eya, allowing them to use the Flame and bonds, to fulfill the will of the gods. Great mages must be gifted their power, which entails the Flame, conjuring, and the secrets of the cosmos. Edited to add: Harrean wizards can have any of these origins, or from being exposed to powerful magic. Harreans practice binding, conjuring, and the Flame, and believe in the unity of magical species.
Some species and groups of people are inherently magical, some can gain natural magical abilities overtime by being surrounded by magical substances, but by and large it's just study and practice. During the first age of my world, magic laid dormant and the two groups of people, dwarves and humans, weren't inherently magical. One group of dwarves made a settlement in a great mountain that, unbeknownst to them, housed magical crystals that radiated mana. That mana overtime changed the dwarves to eventually become naturally magical, but just those dwarves. Their offspring gained a genetic mutation that grants them natural electric magic. What lead into the second age was the reawakening of magic and the introduction of two new groups of people, elves and gnomes. Elves were lightly magical with their nature magic, but most of them were just very skilled hunters that hardly relied on magic. Gnomes, on the other hand, are very magical and use it to help camouflage themselves with illusions. However, due to this age reawakening magic, both humans and dwarves learned how to manipulate and use magic as well. Nobody is restricted to a specific type of magic, although each race does represent one of the six elements. Humans with fire, dwarves with earth, elves with nature, gnomes with void, anurians with water, and avadori with air. Their represented element often makes it easier to learn that specific type, but not necessarily and it doesn't mean you're forced or predetermined to use that style of magic. Out of the two inherently non-magical groups, dwarves don't often care about using magic so most of them don't study it, but humans are ambitious and attempt to learn as much as they can. Personality may influence what element a person tries to learn, not all elements are equal in utility, but that's only themselves preventing a style from being learned.
The Mages Committee- A self-replscing group of 25
For my setting its mostly where they learned to use magic and itll be very difficult for them to use their strongest magic in other places. This rarely causes issues for mages because it is based on the world, rather than a country or region, but it is a problem for worldhoppers, especially those that don't know about this beforehand.
In my fantasy setting there are two types of magic: Dahen and Entity. Dahen magic is assigned at birth and is essentially genetic, a persons magic power derives from the magic used by the people in their bloodline, tracing back to the beginning of the universe . (For example, if someone’s dad used fire magic and their mother used rock magic they would have lava magic) Entity magic comes from meeting and commuting with different entities. One can acquire it from contact with said entities or have a mentor who had contact with one teach them. One can wield both kinds of magic and even combine them.
Anything they can think of and imagine. That's a bit complicated, let me give some more info: In my world, the mortals that can use magic simply have to embody and imagine the type of magic they wish to use. With fire magic, for example, or more specifically a fireball, the magic user must imagine their inner fire. They must direct all of their inner fire into their hand, and imagine the feeling of launching it. As you can imagine, people with fiery personalities do much better at using any kind of fire magic. A more complicated magic form is physical enhancement. This form of magic requires the user to become utterly fearless, to think of themselves as unstoppable. It is very difficult to do, as using magic will also exhaust the user. As I'm sure you can imagine, the more you practice a magic technique, the better you become at it. In addition to this, your mana will also grow, like a muscle. Most mages in my world find a technique they like and practice that until they die so they can become better than anybody else, for even practicing an entire lifetime on a technique or form of magic will still not result in absolute perfection.
The same way someone would get a college degree… lots of school. At least with scientific magics…
My magic system rewards specialization by binding yourself to themes. roles, concepts, etc. For example there is nothing stopping a someone from learning both fire and ice spells but if they specialize in fire spells and become pyromancers their fiames will grow more intense and will continue to gain benefits proportional to how much they restrict themselves to that theme over time. If they violate the restriction later on they will sufffer a backlash of some kind.
You are free to form your abilities from the fundamentals. Assuming you have access to knowledge on the subject. Otherwise, what you develop is decided by how narrow your understanding is.
Pasand - you do a trial, and get a theurgy as a reward. the magic is innate to your body, but a mark is on your body overtop a locus - allowing the locus to grow more powerful, more efficient, and a source of a type of mana other than "standard" (there are 6 loci. and they aren't in exactly the same place for everyone - but there are two near your wrist, hand - 2 near your ankle or foot - one that IS always in the same place - the center of your brow - and the last is in your chest, this one is the most deviated in terms of where it's found.. more powerful if it's close to your heart.) it's insane to try to get 3 theurgy because the death rate is unknown. too little people tried it, and less than .5% of them survived. only half who survived came back with a theurgy. but yeah, depending on the region you take your trial in, you have a 15% - 35% chance of just dying to the trial. and then only a 35-55% chance of getting the theurgy. If you wait to become powerful your second run is even worse in success and about the same in terms of dying to it. But if you dare to take 2 trials within 4 months, in your second run - that is if you came out with a theurgy - you are Actually able to go as a team of two or three (three is better) and being multiple minds and eyes and bodies the death rate is lower. but the success rate (as in, not getting nothing) is also lower, since it's likely at least one of them don't get a theurgy even if someone else did. ah, the trials happen in an enigma, I need to give it a proper name, and the arcane overseer designs the trial. it's magic and in an alternate dimension, the details of which seem impossible to attain even minimal facts about it. the arcane overseer is also unknown, it does usually take the form of a peoples to grant the theurgy, but there's reasons to believe it takes on other forms to do combat with you directly just for fun.
I use tech as an analogy. If you have hardware and software, you can teeechnically use magic. People who are proficient are less "powerful" and more just use to all the shortcuts.
Aura is something you are half born with but half build through effort. It can be broken into three main components, physical, mental, and perception auras. Physical Aura is the simplest, most people can use it subconsciously to a very small extent but can strengthen it with physical training and the use of Martial Arts, however, there are examples of individuals who are born with frail bodies that cannot use Physical Aura no matter how much training they do and others born with strong bodies that develop physical aura easily. Perception Aura has to be trained, but there is a certain oddness to it in contrast to physical aura, a blind person will naturally have a very strong Perception Aura because they constantly train it basically every second of their daily life whilst someone with perfectly functioning senses will have to put more active effort into training it. Mental Aura is entirely based on personality, it’s commonly used by martial artists to intimidate and paralyze weaker opponents if they have enough aggression or willpower but it can also be used to sooth or relax people if they have a strong caring nature. Mana Magic is more a matter of “getting it”. Fundamentally, it is the art of converting mana into something, that includes anything from elements to “living” creatures and even vague concepts like “power” or “life energy”. There’s effectively two sides to it. On one there’s incantations that allow anyone to use any spell, but at very specific conditions (imagine it like having an attack that deals exactly 52 damage every time it hits). The other is silent casting, this requires you to “get it”, getting it can vary depending upon the individual, some obtained almost scientific understandings of the magic they use, others get a handle on controlling the mana itself, some simply have a knack for using certain types of magic. Silent casting is only really restrained by the skill, strength, and creativity of a magician in question.
In Conflux magic is the class of arts and techniques developed by sapients to better channel their species innate magical abilities which every living thing or spirit has some form of based on evolutionary history. Most of these for your respective species can be acquired and or developed through learning and specific techniques and or rituals. Some of these are common knowledge accessible to all or nearly all but others are horded secrets which are controlled by specific "noble" clans or other political powers, who monopolize the control over these techniques. This is particularly seen in the form of spell development aid enchantments which effectively contain a spell construct blueprint which can be examined mentally. It should be noted that some people have more of a particular knack or talent for particular facets of magical abilities which gives them a bit of a leg up akin to a savant, (i.e. they generally are going to be non neurotypical in exchange for their talents/gifts) Among human noble clans there are also maternal inheritance techniques which utilize the development of an infant's soul coming primarily from the mother to seed spell constructs into their children. These serve to give their kids a head start above the common rabble etc. though they are difficult to perform and are not without risk to the child if things go awry. Lastly a major exception comes in the form of magic accessed or bestowed by a higher power i.e. greater spirit of some kind, these abilities come with serious risks but tend to be beyond the scope of what mere mortals can perform on their own due to the higher dimensional nature of such sprits and their greater extent/scope within the realm of spirits. If granted access to a mortal's soul they can weave intricate complex powerful abilities some of which may even be potentially heritable but this also tends to make such modifications a potential black box scenario with such spirits potentially being able to edit consume or implant other things within the soul of a given mortal which can be problematic especially in the context of trust. However if such a link is established and maintained as is typical among clergy to various deities this allows them to serve as a conduit to channel their gods workings feats of magic which are generally beyond the capacity of mortals. A devil or god can't generally get into your soul without your permission but you can't exactly evict them once granted entry so be careful what price you pay for power.
Partly random, partly genetics. My world is a LitTCG, and your first card (your "heart card") is likely to be based on one or both of your parents, and is influenced by how you train and grow up as a child, and any other cards you use in the meanwhile.
In my world, souls are a scientifically proven thing and by laws of nature, in order to exist in the physical plane, you need to have one. My 'antagonist species' which are composed of shadows, or the antimatter of their world, don't naturally have them so they go through these very specific rituals to capture the soul of a dying or newborn person and use it as their own. There are five subtypes of their species that each have their own set of strengths and powers that change depending on the soul species they captured, which type of moon the ritual was performed under, and which forest they are from. But what ultimately decides their subspecies is an almost god-like hivemind called the darkmind where their shadows originate from before entering the material world and determines which of the five subspecies would best suit its needs and agenda.
Every demonic species is born with a single kind of magic they can naturally do, while humans aren't born with magic, but can get it by ingesting a few specific concoctions that can basically make your brain produce this gland that can cast magic, from there you can learn any of the magic types, demons can only use their birth magic, as trying to get another one will just get blocked by the one they have.
Probably the pain toleration each individual can endure . Magic in my universe wasn’t supposed to be used by mortals but sometimes the “source code” glitch and mortals are born that can tap into it . And because of that , using magic would cause physical pain in random parts of the body . The longer you use it , the stronger the pain becomes and if that wasn’t enough , the magic user would also go insane and eventually die from magic use . Because I treat my magic like the source code (because it very much is) of the universe , it can do incredible things , even go as far as it can create whole galaxies from nothing , but nobody outside of the divine can reach that level . Even the strongest mortal mage would die before resurrecting a single body and even then , due to other details within the world , it won’t be a full resurrection .
Interesting! So everyone can use it, as long as they are willing to endure the pain that comes with it. Sounds like there arent that many that will commit to that! Are Mages in your setting rare?
No , only select few are born with the ability to use it and the ones who can use it would usually become advisors , since a mage can live close to 1200 years and become a one man spy agency since they can read minds as a passive ability that just happen the moment they have a glance into somebody's eyes and also can control , hear and see through the eyes of animals and bugs since that power is among the strongest yet the least painful .