forum Elemental Magic

Started March 03, 2018 by @Fast-Talks

tune

Does anyone have any ideas on how to use elemental magic in an Urban Fantasy book without making it seem cliche or OP?

You could have a hidden school for people who discover they have elemental magic but its well hidden and only those with the power of an element can find and see it. You could also have the government treating people with elemental magic differently and trying to not believe in their existence making them all go underground or undercover and trying to hide their magic?

You could possible have it like, contradict them kinda?

I've seen this somewhere, but I cant remember where. For example, maybe you have a girl whos always fired up and supper temperamental, but her element is water. You get what I mean?

Elemental magic will always seem a bit cliché, but I think you can still make it new and interesting. Perhaps go with something where families have a niche for a certain element, and each family member has a sort of variation of that element. For example, if one family is water-based, perhaps the mother can manipulate the phase of water, the father can sense water and its properties, a son can see into bits of the future or sense omens through water, a daughter can manipulate water vapors to even lift other objects, etc.

A variation of the family-niche idea is to just give the characters abilities that are more centralized and focused. Instead of their magic being "Fire," maybe their magic is igniting objects with just their fingers, or they can withstand incredibly high temperatures without any effects. This alone will not only be less cliché, but it will give your characters individuality, more limits to their ability, and will push you to be more creative in writing their ability. Good luck!

The idea in my story is that these six (eventually eleven about) find these wards (stones) that were created a long time ago by these almost god-like deities, that give them elemental powers, and they have to learn to harness them to guard- and eventually save- the world from one of the ward holders that gets corrupted by his stone.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to have them learn to control their powers in a semi-realistic way. I was thinking of having an I am Number 4 spin on it; in the book, when his powers were manifesting, sometimes they'd start going off at the worst possible time. So I'd do it where the Protag could be trying to hold his s/o's hand, and his powers would go off (he's the fire ward), or equally, if not more, inconvenient and dangerous, he's trying to take something from a classmate and singes the paper or something.

Any tips after the clarification?

Well, when my MC is learning how to use fire magic, her arms kind of catch on fire without her wanting them too, and it's very hard to get a hang of actually learning to control and manipulate the flames- at first they're literally just flames that ignite on the sleeves of her shirt (so she has to wear short sleeves) whenever she tries to use fire magic.

Then later on in the book when she gets emotional her arms ignite again (think Warren Peace from Sky High), but she can just casually shrug the fire off.

Maybe have your character have a higher temperature than normal humans can withstand and have his skin get hot to the touch when he's angry (or even when he's feeling you know… "passionate" like during a kiss or something), or have his emotions basically CONTROL his abilities (he can't use them when he's sad, they're uncontrollable when he's afraid, etc.). Idk, I'm just throwing around ideas.

Well, when my MC is learning how to use fire magic, her arms kind of catch on fire without her wanting them too, and it's very hard to get a hang of actually learning to control and manipulate the flames- at first they're literally just flames that ignite on the sleeves of her shirt (so she has to wear short sleeves) whenever she tries to use fire magic.

Then later on in the book when she gets emotional her arms ignite again (think Warren Peace from Sky High), but she can just casually shrug the fire off.

Maybe have your character have a higher temperature than normal humans can withstand and have his skin get hot to the touch when he's angry (or even when he's feeling you know… "passionate" like during a kiss or something), or have his emotions basically CONTROL his abilities (he can't use them when he's sad, they're uncontrollable when he's afraid, etc.). Idk, I'm just throwing around ideas.

Ooh that's a good idea! I like writing magic-y stuff mixed with emotions

@Fast-Talks Thanks! I do too!

I'm a big fan of Earth magic, so rather than just have people throw rocks around, you could take an Infamous 2 spin and have it based on certain modern aspects like concrete. One of the characters in that game was able to create massive structures and fuse pieces of concrete to her victims' bones, and the main gimmick was that the MC had far less experience than her when using that power. You could have something like that, where the character is simply inexperienced and needs a boost to take on a big enemy.

In terms of what a character could control, concrete, dust, smoke, and glass come to mind, and if we go off of the emotional aspect there could be some fun there (when the character is sad, their eyes literally get glassy, when they're angry, spikes come out of them)

I like the idea you've got, try to use multiple elements and keep everything concise!

I'm a big fan of Earth magic, so rather than just have people throw rocks around, you could take an Infamous 2 spin and have it based on certain modern aspects like concrete. One of the characters in that game was able to create massive structures and fuse pieces of concrete to her victims' bones, and the main gimmick was that the MC had far less experience than her when using that power. You could have something like that, where the character is simply inexperienced and needs a boost to take on a big enemy.

In terms of what a character could control, concrete, dust, smoke, and glass come to mind, and if we go off of the emotional aspect there could be some fun there (when the character is sad, their eyes literally get glassy, when they're angry, spikes come out of them)

I like the idea you've got, try to use multiple elements and keep everything concise!

this is so cool???? I love it?????

This dude is very good at explaining different things about writing. The link below is about a magic system with clear rules and stuff that might be useful. I can't really explain it myself