forum hey guys i have a new magic idea and i need someone to ask me about it to make sure there's no loopholes

Started October 24, 2019 by @Leo-Valdez-Is-The-God-Of-Chaos

tune

So here's my idea: every living thing has magic (better known as souls) in it, with some species having stronger magic than others, or stronger in one type of magic. so the revolutionary part: for creatures who are weaker in magic, there are wands, but to power the wand, you put part of your soul into it, and your magic powers the wand. It's like static electricity, if you poke someone and they get zapped, it might be obnoxious. But if you poke them with a piece of wire, that will be much more effective.

The magic is categorized into three types based on behavior and reactivity. Type one is called 'White Magic' it works on organic material, things like healing, growing, shapeshifting even, etc. It is more effective in wands of wood and bone. Type two is 'Black Magic' the opposite of White Magic, it corrodes and attacks organic material. killing and harming mostly, it is conducted best through metals. The third type is 'Elemental Magic', mostly just Avatar stuff like telepathy. It works best when using stone or metal wands

any questions?

Weight factor should be considered regarding the stone/metal wands. It sounds and probably looks cool, but it might be tiring to hold for long periods of time. So is there anything the people have come up with to counter that? Enchantments, physical innovations, etc.

Is it considered controversial that 'Light magic' needs requires bones and wood? Are creatures deliberately killed to get bones? Are entire forests cut down to mass produce wooden wands?

What's the logic behind wands strengthening magic? If it's just something to channel the magic into, can any other medium be used as a focus? Why and why not?

Is absolutely anything possible with magic? Are the limits of magic just the limits of how much energy you have to produce it?

If so, what makes wands limited to a certain material, if magic is all-powerful? Is it an inner belief thing or a physical limit? If you 'believe' hard enough, can you focus magic into any other material? Could you focus magic into another living being? Or flesh? Or plastic, rubber, glass, leaves, water?

If there's magic medicine in this world, how does that work? Does the magic manifest in the materials used for the medicine? And if it can manifest in the medicine, can that material be used as a magic focus for weak magic users too?

Bones, nails and teeth are made of similar chemical elements. Can nails and teeth substitute bones?

What constitutes as 'wood' for wands? Do soft stems count? What if you use tree bark only? Do you have to process it/carve it, or can a regular stick broken off work? Are trees sentient in this world and do they possess conscience? Are there any ''lesser'' beings fighting for their rights to be recognised? How developed is this world, considering the limits of magic?

awesome questions!
in order:
a lightweight enchantment can be put on a wand, but it might take another wand to do it.

bones and wood make good conductors of White Magic because they contain traces of life. Wands aren't often mass-produced, as most people will only need one in their whole life.

a 'wand' is just anything you use to channel magic through. you can make anything into a wand, though larger things will require larger pieces of soul and may effect your health. one of my characters actually just has a five-shot revolver as a wand.

the limits of magic are essentially your ability to perform it. elves, for example, are stronger in White Magic and don't often need a wand, while humans aren't very strong in any form of magic and so will need a wand even for more basic spells. magic can rarely stretch beyond it's users surroundings, like you couldn't cast a spell to eliminate half of all life in the universe, but you could, with exertion, end all life within about ten feet of yourself.

wands aren't exactly limited to certain materials, it's just better or worse outcome. think of a wand as a multiplier; a human doing magic on his own has White Magical ability X times 1, but when he has a wooden wand, it becomes X times 3, while with a stone wand, maybe X times 2 or X times 1.5. a metal wand will probably be X times 1.5 or less White Magic effect. see? and turning a still-living thing into a wand would most likely kill it, with having two souls inside. but one character I wrote up had actually turned himself into a wand, it didn't work out too great, but he survived and had amplified his power extremely.

there isn't exactly magic medicine, but potions don't require magic to brew, and can have often the same effects as spells.

when I said 'wood and bones', I meant really just any organic material, nails, teeth, hair, plant stems, and there isn't really a process to making them, it's mostly just a magic instinct thing.

and for the last questions, any organic material works. yes they do. it will still work best with White magic. No, you can turn literally anything into a wand. if trees are sentient, no one has found a way to communicate with them. Where there are races there is racism. This world is more of a blend of modern technology and medieval technology, because magic is part of science.

“All magic comes with a price, dearie” ― Rumplestiltskin, OUAT

What's the price that the user has to pay?

it depends, sometimes it will cost energy, sometimes it will hurt to perform a spell, sometimes maybe you are so naturally inclined at a certain spell that you can perform it without so much as lifting a finger. it really depends on user, spell, wand, weather, mood, item effected, etc. there are so many things that can make the slightest differences it what it takes to perform any spell. but the price normally ranges from slight fatigue to perhaps an awful nosebleed. if you push to far or try to hard, I suppose it could break your wand and put the full magical strain onto you, which would certainly kill most anyone.

Woah. Science and magic eh? I’ve read a really good piece that bridged modern science and magic really well.

So. Since this is a blend of modern science and magic, do the laws of conservation of energy still apply? What is known about the universe by the people, and how do they know it? What specific experiments did they do to lead them to the factual conclusions, that allowed them to invent modern technology?

Did they go through something similar to the Age of Enlightenment? If not, then how did they discover the scientific method? (of testing and experimenting)

You mention a lot about magic energy, but that kind of clashes with modern science, about the laws of actual energy and such. Well, I guess that depends on what magic is being done, but in scientific terms, little things amount to a lot of energy. So does the “magic energy” from souls line up with our world’s studies on energy? What are “souls” defined as, and how do they produce this magic energy?

Do sustained enchantments/charms continue to cost energy? How do potions work, in terms of keeping energy for magic?

I’m kind of interested by this lol. Is there any specific incantation needed for a spell? If you go by the scientific method, the next question to ask would be “why does the universe require this specific word to be pronounced to achieve the effects of this spell?”

in order:
most mechanics and technology is just magic powered, so there isn't exactly a major concern of burning the world into oblivion with carbon dioxide. there isn't a lot known about the universe, as the world itself still remains partially unexplored, there is very little interest in flying to the moon. scientific study is mostly the same as our own: trial and error, and guesses put to the test.

their age of enlightenment was brought about by people who got annoyed at philosophies, so they decided to concoct a way to answer the questions that these people ask.

the magic energy thing can't really clash with modern science in that world. it would be like someone standing in the forest while uttering the words: "there's no such thing as trees. natural towers of wood are scientifically impossible." While the whole area of 'Magic Energy' is uncertain, it is a very broad field of study, tied closely with biology. souls are mostly just considered what makes something alive.

ongoing enchantments don't continue to cost a traceable amount of energy, but will often require a large amount to begin with. and potions aren't exactly a magic in the way that life forces are. they are more of a chemical reaction than a spell. it's just a chemical reaction that our world would consider magic due to the incomprehensibility of it.

there isn't really an incantation for spellcasting, but sometimes, as in martial arts, it helps to shout.

anyway, I hope this helps! :)

Would a person benefit from having multiple wands made of different stuff? What's stopping people from getting several very specialized wands instead of 1 all around one?

Can wands break? What happens if they do?
what happens if someone else manages to steal your wand and use it themselves? Could a really good thief go around and steal a bunch of peoples' wands and cause chaos?

how big or small can these wands be? could I have a telephone pole wand? a toothpick? Would this cause any issues? (besides the obvious too big to carry/to small to hold)

For the first question, I might have mentioned this in an earlier post, but to turn something into a wand you must put a part of your 'soul' into the wand, thus giving it it's magical ability. To separate your soul at all will likely have some hazardous effects on your mental health, things like fatigue, maybe short temper etc. But to do it several times will be utterly devastating to your mental and physical health. It would be possible, although not recommended.

Yes a wand can break, although breaking it would be extremely difficult and may require another wand to break it. The effects of a broken wand on it's owner would probably be something similar to Voldemort losing a horcrux. A part of the soul would be permanently destroyed.

If you stole someone's wand, you may have some ability to use it based on how close to it's owner you were. If Fred Weasley stole George Weasley's wand, he might be able to perform even the same magic as George could, on account of how similar the two are, and how close.
If a master thief stole a bunch of wands, people would be pretty po'd. Not to mention theft of a wand is pretty serious, given that you could break it and partly kill it's owner.

There isn't really any limit at all on a wand, though it has been theorized by scientists in their respective wand-related fields that a larger wand may require a larger part of the soul. In theory, you could even turn a living thing into a wand, if your soul is stronger than it's. This is uncertain, however, due to the fact that there is no known incedent of someone actually trying it.

Hey! I've actually had a similar idea to this before. I know you're primarily looking for how to keep it balanced, but consider this idea: necromancy.
A person can put a smidgen of their soul into a corpse and effectively reanimate it. If they do it too many times, however, it's very taxing on their soul - less soul means more evil. This explains why necromancy is such a terrible art (other than just raising people from the dead) and why, though it's powerful, it is rarely practiced except by the most desperate.
Hope you have a great day!

That was a stroke of genius and I will now have a great day

I have a few more questions if your still looking for them,

does a more "well made" wand function better? By this I mean would a wood wand I hand carved work better as a wand made of a rotting stick I found on the floor?

Do people like to decorate their wands? How? are there certain trends or fashion movements? Are wand decorations a thing you can buy (think phone charms), or do you have to DIY it (hand carving, painting, etc)?

do people have assumptions about others based on what kind of wand they use? Like stone wand users are stern, bone wand users are creepy, etc.

Seeing as how different wand materials do certain magics better, would a wand made of both metal and wood work really really well? or would it just be normal? If it works really well, a wand made of dozens of things would be the best right?

I like your ideas! I also like finding loopholes so this is very fun for me! If you ever need something like this again I'd be more than willing to do so!!

in answer from top to bottom
The appearance of a wand doesn't change the performance, but if you were to hand carve a wand, you'd probably be more attached to it/appreciate it more than picking up a rotten stick off the ground, in which situation you'd probably be kinda grossed out just holding it. (or maybe that's just me bc where I live rotten wood is wet wood)

people would undoubtedly decorate their wands, and I think I mentioned this earlier, but sometimes the decorations serve practical uses as well, such as adding feathers strengthens light magic or copper wire to strengthen dark.

assumptions based on wands are of course common, you'd probably make immediate unconscious assumptions about someone based on their phone case or keychains, but when someone pulls out a knife and casts a carbonating spell on their drink, people will likely stereotype you for having a knife wand.

now that you mention it, blending materials would be a great idea! of course, volume is important with a wand too. if you used mostly elemental magic, you'd probably rather have a metal wand than a wood wand with rocks sticking out of the end.

also if anyone wants to use this magic then please do, I'm more of a worldbuilder than an actual writer, so if you can utilize this, be my guest and pm me if you need worldbuilding ideas

just read through this and damn you best be writing a graphic novel. i need this…