What's the "Magic A" of your universe?

Let's face it: Magic changes from world to world, sometimes not always for the better. But in your setting, if magic exists, I'm sure you've set some boundaries/guidelines for your spell-slingers. So let's see what you got. My setting is heavily influenced by Astro City and Freedom City, so with our mages:

• Doesn't matter what they call themselves; anyone who can cast magic has some mystical ancestry (Atlantean, Demonic, Fae, etc.; there's a long list). This doesn't determine what magic they can use; it just means that their great-great-great-great-(etc.) grandparent got jiggy with a nonhuman in the past (and in some cases, they've got multiple "bloodlines"). There are some folks with magic ancestry who aren't practitioners also (whether by choice, or never finding out, etc).
• Mages automatically have the mystical equivalent of a Babel Fish in them, allowing them to speak, read or understand any mystical dialect.
• They can all do minor "tricks", such as a small firework burst, or Vincent Price's Evil Laugh at the end of the Thriller video (for you D&D players out there, it's the equivalent of the Prestidigitation cantrip).
• They're able to "sense" magical energies like a Geiger counter/PKE meter. How good they are at determining more details varies from person to person.
• The truly epic/Sorcerer Supreme-level practitioners are ones who have "majored" in a specific branch of magic (Voodoo, Alchemy, Elemental Magic, Chaos Magic, etc.) Folks who tend to "mix-and-match", so to speak, while capable of doing amazing things, aren't really functioning at their full potential.
• Most heroic mages usually have 1-3 mystical artifacts/tools to aid them. They're not full-blown "world-destroying" things, generally a weapon of some sort, and something like, say, a shield-generating bracelet, or a medallion that contains the mystic equivalent of Google/Alexa.
• They're capable of changing from civilian attire to their "work-clothes" instantly.

In my fantasy, while the people who have supernatural powers were essentially chosen spontaneously by the universe...

• Each person only has one ability
• Most of these abilities are passive, so they can't be intentionally turned on or off
• They're psychic and spiritual powers (aura vision, seeing ghosts, prophetic dreams, etc)

For my Historical Domain Superperson story, here are the basics of how the super-powered Historical figures' abilities and other things work:

• The historical figures are resurrected in the modern day as supernatural beings. In order to resurrect them, one must be sufficiently knowledgeable about them, have a decent storage of Mana around (which is basically a magic-based energy), and whisper their name. The resurrection process is harsh on the resurrector, as memories of the historical figure they're resurrecting floods the mind, which is overwhelming, especially if said figure led a quite a traumatic life, and puts a great strain on their bodies. If they don't have enough mana, the ressurector will die and the resurrection stops to a halt as the ressurector must be alive for the entire process in order for it to he successful.
• Someone must have done something that gets their name be remembered in history for a long time, even if they turn out to be just a mere footnote in the grand scheme of times, and must be dead for at minimum 50 years to be able to get resurrected. No one can be resurrected more than once, so if they die again, they stay dead. The historical figures, once resurrected, are basically immortal but there are two ways to kill them (detailed below).
• A historical figure is resurrected in their early-mid 20s as that's typically the physical prime age for a human. However if they died before they reached their 20s, they're resurrected at whatever age they died at. So if a child gets resurrected, they stay a child. The only exception is that if they die very young (i.e infants), then they get resurrected as toddlers that have a basic comprehension of the world because otherwise they'll be completely useless. In general, the historical figures don't age at all and are stuck at the age they got resurrected at.
• Each historical figure has a Soul Jar called an Amulet that they carry around them. The amulet is personalized to every historical figure, often having images that relate to then (i.e royal crests) and animals that relate to their Animal Motif, making it an ID as well. The Amulet contains their soul, which is split in two halves; a subconscious that stays in the Amulet no matter what and a conscious half that manifests as the figure's physical body. The historical figures can take up damage that's otherwise fatal to regular humans but still have a limit. If they take enough damage or get beheaded, then they get incapacitated which is where their body fades into a body of Mana myst and return to their Amulet to recover. In order to kill them for good, the Amulet has to be destroyed. Decapitation is the only guaranteed way to incapacitated an historical figure but using what killed them in their first life (i.e shooting at someone who died from gun violence) is usually effective because they're weaker to whatever killed them. If they get incapacitated, then they return to their Amulet to recover. The recovery time depends on how they got incapacitated but incapacitation caused by decapitation has the longest recovery time.
• Their bodies are mainly made up of Mana and they have a special organ called Thaumaturgic Lines that essentially act as an additional set of veins that store and generate Mana. If the historical figure uses too much Mana, then they get incapacitated. Mana is used for their abilities and can be transfered to other historical figures through blood. Mana is purple, hence the historical figures have purple eyes and blood.
• An historical figure's abilities are based on what they're remembered for and what they did in life. So a famous sailor would have water-related abilities while an artist is able to bring their drawings to life. They also have passives that range from extra charmistia to spotting otherwise hard to miss details to a supernatural level. What passives one has depends on who they are.
• The more well-known an historical figure is, the more powerful they are. Rememberence is a crucial part of their being and the most well-known historical figures are called Iconics and Iconics can easily best an non-Iconic in a fight. It's still possible for an non-Iconic to beat an Iconic but it'll take a lot of skill and luck alongside using whatever the situation gives them to do so. If an historical figure is forgotten by all of humanity, then they straight up die and turn into crystallized remains. So if humanity gets wiped out, the historical figures will go out with them as there'll be no one to remember them. This is quite difficult for it to happen considering the story takes place in the modern day with the internet and all but it's still theoretically possible.

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on May 3rd 2023 at 8:17:20 AM

So E-Nasir would cause all the copper around him to become terrible?

Though come to think of it, that sort of power could be pretty disruptive to modern life given where we use copper nowadays.

“NOOO COPPER! Eh heh heh…” - Coppery the Copper Sprite

Perhaps, but I figured that Ea-Nasir would be able to generate and manipulate copper.

I guess the main shtick with my setting’s magic is that humans/mortals just flat-out can’t do magic. It’s totally impossible.

Only spirits can do the things that mortals describe as magic so all magic stuff is the result of summoning or binding spirits. It’s something of a plot point that a character needed to have his soul removed by a spirit so that he could be possessed by another spirit all so he could perform one spell. And if he wanted to do a different kind of spell, he would need to find a spirit who could do that spell and have it possess him.

Although, really, he should have just had the spirit bound to an amulet or something. That would have been more efficient but he would have had to find a spirit willing to do that for him. The only magical thing humans can do without a spirit is summon spirits.

Magic in Kishlaith is simultaneously a case of Clap Your Hands If You Believe and an actual practice grounded in rules and laws that must be followed if it is to be successfully carried out. It is also highly dangerous and requires extreme caution for even the smallest of spells.

Magic can be learned by nearly anyone, as long as they are a living sapient mortal. The reason for this is because only mortal bodies can supply the necessary component that all magic uses—-aura energy. A mortal of Kishlaith consists of three parts—-a physical body, a soul, and an aura. The aura is the energy that binds the soul and body together, the "glue" for lack of a better word.

At its most basic, magic is essentially using one's aura as currency to slightly "nudge" Kishlaith's reality so that a desired outcome can be achieved. Bringing forth a raging fire where there was nothing more than air previously, causing the wind to blow in a certain concentrated direction, forcing a body's tissues to heal at a rate far faster than it normally should...the list can go on and on. There are an infinite number of ways magic can be used, although in the modern era with all spellcasting rigidly looked over by the Mages Guild, many of these schools of magic have been forcibly phased out of existence.

Because of its reality-warping nature, magic inherently relies on the belief of the caster. If the caster thinks that rubbing his fingers together and believing that purple flames will erupt from his hands, then it will happen. Just as if another caster thinks pointing a staff made of oak and saying "Erif!" will cause purple fire, then it will also happen.

However, if the staff-and-word caster writes down her findings and spreads them, then more people will use that method and the finger-crossing method will fade, simply because more people are using the staff. That doesn't mean the original finger-caster will lose his powers, just that no one will really be able to learn his method, because a lingering doubt will prevent them from achieving it due to having heard most of their life that the staff-caster's method is the One True Way.

Specific spells aside, magic is extremely dangerous just by its very nature. Because it uses aura energy, each spell eats away at the energy that holds the caster's soul to their body. If too much is lost, the caster will begin to suffer physical symptoms, and if all of it is lost, then the soul will spontaneously leave the body, resulting in death. Worse, repeated magic use "thins" reality around the caster. This opens them up to being contacted by the Nameless Gods, malevolent entities that desire to consume the souls of Kishlaith's inhabitants. They will nag, badger and offer deals to magic-users at all times, and accepting these offers will inevitably result in the magic-user having their soul eaten.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on May 8th 2023 at 11:40:55 AM

For Magic A of My Novel Universe,Fictionverse Project is Concept Power which is based on Various Concept from Natural,Supernatural & Manmade Concept and they have so many variant around Fictionverse Project Multi-Omniverse such as Transformation Power,Double Soul,Summoner Skill etc

Copied over from a similar thread in World Building:

Users of the higher magics are people (generically called seijins, because that's the most common type) tied to one of three sources. The powers of the Earth (seijins), the Celestial Heavens (tenjins) and to a force of corruption opposed to the Heavens (majins). Not all magic users are seijins, but these are the ones able to naturally command the force they link to and shape it into wondrous effects, wielding it like a variety of Magic Knight or wizard classes. Ritualists can use these forces by cookbook, but if you want real power, you need a spiritual link.

There's a grab bag of ways to become a seijin. For humans, being born with it or getting it by random chance is pretty darn rare - though elves are natural seijins (and Dark Elves are distinguished by being inborn majins), and someone born half-mortal, half to a spirit is likely to be linked to their spirit parent's power. The most common way is either through deep study and use of Ritual Magic and/or mystical initiation, the blessing and link to a magical spirit (especially tenjin, though some seijin gain power through bonding to a seirei), or through being corrupted by Makai and being a really lucky bastard (that's more likely to cripple your spiritual capacity than give you a majin link). Once you have a spiritual link, it's usually there for life, and allows you to develop your spiritual power further. Seijins usually have enhanced lifespans, physical and sometimes mental capabilities, as well as spellcasting powers.

Seijins are relatively rare among humans. There's no way to mass-produce them reliably unless you're an elf (or part of one particular tenjin family), the most reliable methods to become one require a lot of work and a bit of luck, and while the Art isn't a secret exactly, you still have to convince a teacher, a spirit or a god that you're worth trying to teach or empower and aligned to their ideals of how power should be used. Most seijins are thus either members of the nobility or a temple or sect of some kind (commoners with latent talent are absolutely a thing, but most of them are quickly co-opted), and most of the latter have ties to the monarchies - being a seijin of significant power is a fast road to status. That said, free adventurers are rarely persecuted if they don't want to join up; they're a known and respected profession and often join Adventure Guilds.

Magic doesn't have a moral aspect to it as such, but mahou is...well...The Dark Arts; celestial religions call Makai the embodiment of evil and terrestrial ones (focusing on the seirei) consider it a corrupting and dangerous influence, and the latter is correct. Makai is not really safe to mess with; it's a shortcut to power, often carries a price, and the necessary mindset to channel and control mahou involves a mix of intellectual detachment and analysis, willpower, and being able and willing to impose your will on the world and on other people - you aren't likely to find a humble majin, and if you do they'll be much weaker than they would be if they embraced the proper mindset. However, as I carefully noted above, these aren't evil traits; plenty of majin in the past have been great heroes. Meanwhile, while tenjin tend toward being deeply compassionate, connected to others and strong in faith, and they most often gain their powers by becoming clerics of beings who are generally trying to do right by humanity, these traits can go sour and create some of the worst villains. (In fact, the group who are inborn tenjins run one of the nastiest empires in the setting.)

Okay, let's see...

• Magic is usually granted to those who are deemed worthy of it by some extraordinary force.
  • Likewise, magic-users can have their powers revoked if deemed unworthy of them. This is most often caused by the magic-user using their powers for personal gain.
• Magic-users tend to have children who have magical powers.
  • Most of such instances came from a number of noble families, who claimed descent from a creator god, thus having by far the most potent abilities recorded.
• Magic-users tend to have one to three abilities when they receive them, but can acquire more over time, especially from the teachings of other magic-users.
• A magic-user cannot learn magic that contradicts their established powers (so a pyromancer cannot summon a downpour, for instance).
• Magic tends to grant the magic-user various quirks, such as an extended lifespan; most sapient races in the land have a life expectancy of around 35, but magic-users of those same races could have a lifespan of 70 years on the lower end.
• Magic is allowed by incantations, which can be recited verbally or mentally. One can tell how long a magic-user has had their powers by how they recite their incantations; newer users favor doing so verbally, while more seasoned users are more accustomed to their powers, and have memorized them to the point of just needing to think them to allow the magic.