Magic in the Lands of Legend

Magic is something that is mysterious yet close by. It is important to some and barely a thought for others. Magic is something the gods don't touch and is how they distribute their miracles. It all depends on who you ask and what they do with magic. 


Magic has been documented being a small creature that flies around, curious. The form of magic is different based on who casts it and their relationship with it. Those that respect magic and cast it correctly say it is a creature they find cute and friendly. Those that don't respect magic say it is a creature that is scary and carnivorous. It follows you but only listens and springs into sight if you have an offer. Offers are the core of spellcasting. First you make an offering. This offering will be eaten by the creature. The favourite food of magic and the most reliable offering is a promise. You make a promise like "For the next hour I shall not speak. In return I ask to help me find my sheep". Then, each word spoken (magic understands all languages) is fed to the creature. The creature then disappears with the spoken words, then reappears with a blue puffy wool-like material. 

 

From Fabricate Ireland an example of mana made form
 

This material will be shaped to solve your problem. In the example above, the sheep would see an illusion of food leading towards the caster. Magic takes a "path of least resistance" approach. Why should magic teleport the sheep or cover them in light when it could just make them hungry and go to their owner. It can do more supernatural things, but you need a exact promise and a suitable price. You can fire lightning from the sky. You are just going to need one impressive promise and a hefty price. There is a lot of ways to cast it within this structure. Some have found gemstones and blood to be suitable replacements for promises in dire circumstances. Others make one big promise that they keep for the rest of their lives and get a deep well of magic to pull from.

From tumblr An example of magic in LOTR

 

The idea I had for magic is how Gandalf in lord of the rings doesn't cast a lot of flashy magic. It's more subtle and I liked that, and preferred it to the almost sci-fi lasers of heroic fantasy. The issue I had with it was that only Gandalf and a few other characters had magic. I wanted my setting to feel fantastical and full of magic without having to answer a lot of questions on why doesn't everyone cast spells if it is so powerful. I also heard a cool piece of fantasy writing advice of "find the familiar and make it strange". This magic system is just the client-server model, which is how a lot of the internet works. I just applied it to magic. Also, since the system for this setting had no classes, I decided to make magic reflect this and anyone can cast a spell. Steel characters cast similar to the example farmer. Spell characters make a big promise to have a well of magic ready to go. 

From Liquid Web The Client Server Model

If you have any questions about this system or how a particular thing works, let me know!

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