The world it’s set in is almost exactly like the America in the early 1930s, but with a few major differences. One of these is that ‘magic’ exists. Okay, so it’s nothing like the magic you’re used to in fantasy. In order to gain any sort of supernatural power, a person (It could be a person of any age, but there’s a higher chance of survival the younger you are) goes to a priest who performs certain complicated rituals, and subsequently throws the power-seeker into a fire. You see, to gain magic in this world you have to make a sacrifice to gain the power. For example, the fire would entirely burn off a person’s legs but leave the rest of their body unharmed, and after a while the person would discover and begin to train their new self-levitation ability. Make sense? How this magic system works:
<> Person willingly sacrifices part of their body to gain powers.
<> It isn’t always a body part- sometimes a person could lose their sight or hearing or their ability to see beauty.
<> The sacrifices are random, depending on the movement of the flames. They don’t get to choose what they give up.
<> And neither to they get to choose the gained power. Sometimes it will be something almost useless, sometimes it will be something incredibly destructive or amazingly useful.
<> There is a slight chance that the “fire bath” necessary to gain magic powers will kill, and the chances of this happening increase with age.
<> When powers are used they either drain a persons energy or a tiny bit of a person’s life span depending on the destructiveness/potency/usefullness/power of the spell.
I wanted to try to come up with a way of magic working that has never been used before, and I need enough disadvantage caused by magic so that not many people in my world would want it. How does this sound?
It’s a very odd story, and the main character is actually the villian.
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The world it’s set in is almost exactly like the America in the early 1930s, but with a few major differences. One of these is that ‘magic’ exists. Okay, so it’s nothing like the magic you’re used to in fantasy. In order to gain any sort of supernatural power, a person (It could be a person of any age, but there’s a higher chance of survival the younger you are) goes to a priest who performs certain complicated rituals, and subsequently throws the power-seeker into a fire. You see, to gain magic in this world you have to make a sacrifice to gain the power. For example, the fire would entirely burn off a person’s legs but leave the rest of their body unharmed, and after a while the person would discover and begin to train their new self-levitation ability. Make sense? How this magic system works:
<> Person willingly sacrifices part of their body to gain powers.
<> It isn’t always a body part- sometimes a person could lose their sight or hearing or their ability to see beauty.
<> The sacrifices are random, depending on the movement of the flames. They don’t get to choose what they give up.
<> And neither to they get to choose the gained power. Sometimes it will be something almost useless, sometimes it will be something incredibly destructive or amazingly useful.
<> There is a slight chance that the “fire bath” necessary to gain magic powers will kill, and the chances of this happening increase with age.
<> When powers are used they either drain a persons energy or a tiny bit of a person’s life span depending on the destructiveness/potency/usefullness/powe… of the spell.
I wanted to try to come up with a way of magic working that has never been used before, and I need enough disadvantage caused by magic so that not many people in my world would want it. How does this sound?
Yes, it’s an odd story. The main character is the villian.
Ha, I LOVE Fullmetal Alchemist. Maybe I was subconciously inspired. I didn’t think of that.
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In my fantasy story I’m not sure how much to develop my magic system. I’ve got it quite basic as it is, and not much is exlained, even when the characters are ‘taught’ about the magic.
It’s kind of one of those ‘you do this and this happens, it’s just the way it is’ things. But I don’t see how else to explain it — I don’t want to have to weave in some crappy backstory like ”when the olde Gods of Gundoolplar made the worlde theye made the worlde follow certaine rules, and so when ye doeth this, that happens”.
Should I just make it simple, and trust my readers to suspend their belief? (After all they’re not stupid, and the point of fantasy is experiencing something that isn’t real). Or should I create a set of rules and a source of power, along with an origin, and then have to reveal this carefully in a non-exposition way?
fanx (y)
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