What’s some weird ‘magic’ you've read about, or imagined?

[RainingFish]

I once asked Grok the earliest recorded use of a magical fireball in fiction, to which it gave me Robert E. Howard's "The Scarlet Citadel," published in 1933. This story features the wizard Tsotha-lanti using a shimmering, explosive magical attack, interpreted as a fireball-like spell.

If true, It’s interesting that something less than a hundred years old has become so common that it’s hard to imagine fantasy without it. A lot of ‘magic’ has been invented over the years. Some of it has become commonplace, and some of it not so much. What are some of the weirdest or most unique magic systems you’ve read about or imagined? Share your wildest ideas!

Here are some weird ones I read about before.

A world where magic is easy and powerful, but you have to have it, and by having it I mean it exists in objects that people fight over. If you have it you’re powerful. If you run out or otherwise don’t have it, you’re just a normal person.

A world where there were two types of magical energy, order energy and chaos energy. You build up these energies by doing certain chaotic or orderly things, and then you can use it to cast chaos or order-based spells.

A world where magic is worked by hand gestures. The people who could do a bunch of intricate magic hand gestures without mistake were the powerful ones. The MC couldn't do this so he invented a machine (similar to a computer) which cast lots of weak spells really fast which could build up into a powerful force.

A world where everyone is born with a certain magic. Most people are born with magic of limited usefulness like putting words on a wall, but some are very powerful, and in the right situation even seemingly useless powers can have their place.

A world, or rather a multiverse, where each world has seven laws of magic. The MC tried really hard to learn one of these, but couldn’t. Later he found out it was because he was one of a special group of people who have the ability to change the laws of magic in the world. I remember that there was some really interesting useless magic in the book like a ceremony that could create an infinitely dull knife.

 

[StoneInky]

I once asked Grok the earliest recorded use of a magical fireball in fiction, to which it gave me Robert E. Howard's "The Scarlet Citadel," published in 1933. This story features the wizard Tsotha-lanti using a shimmering, explosive magical attack, interpreted as a fireball-like spell.

If true, It’s interesting that something less than a hundred years old has become so common that it’s hard to imagine fantasy without it. A lot of ‘magic’ has been invented over the years. Some of it has become commonplace, and some of it not so much. What are some of the weirdest or most unique magic systems you’ve read about or imagined? Share your wildest ideas!

Here are some weird ones I read about before.

A world where magic is easy and powerful, but you have to have it, and by having it I mean it exists in objects that people fight over. If you have it you’re powerful. If you run out or otherwise don’t have it, you’re just a normal person.

A world where there were two types of magical energy, order energy and chaos energy. You build up these energies by doing certain chaotic or orderly things, and then you can use it to cast chaos or order-based spells.

A world where magic is worked by hand gestures. The people who could do a bunch of intricate magic hand gestures without mistake were the powerful ones. The MC could do this so he invented a machine (similar to a computer) which cast lots of weak spells really fast which could build up into a powerful force.

A world where everyone is born with a certain magic. Most people are born with magic of limited usefulness like putting words on a wall, but some are very powerful, and in the right situation even seemingly useless powers can have their place.

A world, or rather a multiverse, where each world has seven laws of magic. The MC tried really hard to learn one of these, but couldn’t. Later he found out it was because he was one of a special group of people who have the ability to change the laws of magic in the world. I remember that there was some really interesting useless magic in the book like a ceremony that could create an infinitely dull knife.

Worlds where you get stronger magic by shaboinking the MC.

 

[GlassRose]

A world where magic is cast using language, different languages have different strengths. The more people who believe in the 'power' of a language, the more power it has, but every user of that language drains power from it, making the most powerful magic come from languages that everyone knows about, but that nearly nobody actually knows how to speak. Stuff like the language of Kings, the language of the Ancients, the language of Dragons.

 

[Esia]

A world where magic is embedded within clothing that grant unique abilities and can even reshape the world around them.

 

[expentio]

I liked Vacant Throne, where magic was applied by handcards. You had to first create an immensely complicated pattern with special ink, which only a handful of people are capable of, because it fries your mind otherwise. Then your mind has to be able to access the meaning, or, you know it, it gets fried. Tier one and two are more mundane, tier three advanced, and everything above is slowly reaching into divinity in their complexity. There was one tier four spell that put the user into a loop until they reached their desired outcome.
Scribing and using are both difficult, but in different ways. Scribing requires immense time, and while able to cast, the wielder may not have a knack for drawing those lies without the slightest mistake. Casters, magical agents, and so on, all had a deck of cards they would draw from to use as required. Each card destroying itself upon completion.

I liked the system, as it was a mitigating factor towards efforts. One had to work around, find time to draw, spend a lot of training to gain drawing skills. (Though, in the end, it became too much of a "slay the gods" story for my taste, and it felt like characters mattered less and less, as bonkers the limits became.)

 

[StoneInky]

A world where magic is cast using language, different languages have different strengths. The more people who believe in the 'power' of a language, the more power it has, but every user of that language drains power from it, making the most powerful magic come from languages that everyone knows about, but that nearly nobody actually knows how to speak. Stuff like the language of Kings, the language of the Ancients, the language of Dragons.

Reminds me of social media follows/popularity/cliques.
You want me to know about your language? Okay, you should know about mine. Mutual follow! Now we're both a little stronger. Repeat.

Another thought. Language itself is a social construct. If near nobody knows how to speak a powerful language, what's stopping you from saying you know how to speak said language... while making random words up?

Hello. I speak Celestial. as;ilvwe4nm.x, cuvcl.

What defines the 'language'?

 

[Akkizakura]

A world where magic is cast using language, different languages have different strengths. The more people who believe in the 'power' of a language, the more power it has, but every user of that language drains power from it, making the most powerful magic come from languages that everyone knows about, but that nearly nobody actually knows how to speak. Stuff like the language of Kings, the language of the Ancients, the language of Dragons.

Reminds me of social media follows/popularity/cliques.
You want me to know about my language? Okay, you know about mine. Mutual follow! Now we're both a little stronger. Repeat.

Another thought. Language itself is social construct. If near nobody knows how to speak a powerful language, what's stopping you from saying you know how to speak said language... while making random words up?

Hello. I speak Celestial. as;ilvwe4nm.x, cuvcl.

What defines the 'language'?

Repeat after me!

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

Now we're both a little stronger.

 

[Daitengu]

I think the weirdest magic was an MC who powered up via tittie milk of his class mates.

 

[AYM]

Repeat after me!

‌

Now we're both a little stronger.

I think the weirdest magic was an MC who powered up via tittie milk of his class mates.

It has an anime.

 

[Akkizakura]

I think the weirdest magic was an MC who powered up via tittie milk of his class mates.

It has an anime.

And the MC looks like Kaneki.