A Thought Experiment I Thought I'd Share

[Thraben]

I'm doing some creative exercises disguised as a longform novel. I'm not advertising that, it's just necessary context for people that will inevitably ask me 'why' when I follow up with the actual point of the post.

I've been doing some magic system tinkering for a thing I'm making. In this process I came up with the idea of defining all my concepts for magic systems I could use in this fic down to their simplest possible forms. For example;
'Magic let's you create something from nothing and lets you control that thing temporarily.' is a hypothetical root of a single 'Fireball' spell.

So, I came up with a thought experiment: What's the simplest and most complicated way to describe what your magic system *is* at a fundamental level. I'll give you my answer for the project I'm working on.

Simplest: Magic is a list of discrete ways of interacting with the world, that can be chained, combined, etc. for greater effect.

Most complicated: Magic is coding, except every mage uses the same hardware (their brain) but needs to create their source programming language before they can even attempt to write programs (spells) that will work. There is no available for free or purchase compiler, not even any plaintext document to code in. You must create a programming language compatible with the machine but understandable by you before you can even start. And then, once you've done that, you still need to learn to write complex code using only your very human brain. The only way to find out if it works? Fuck around and find out.

So, anyone feel up to breaking their system into its simplest explanation and its most complex?

 

[JHarp]

Thats a bit difficult. Screw it lets have a crack at it.

Simplest I could put the system into is probably:
Control over the inherent qualities within that shift the dimensions and planes of the universe to influence phenomena.


As for the most complicated:

Magic depends on the affinities people have with different conceptual planes which can be in part due to their heritage, upbringing and qualities of the soul, which allows them to influence and control parts of the world, magic and dimensions, in order to produce repeatable effects.

Magic is inherently tied to a variety of factors: Intent, Will, Emotions, Belief, Attunement, Environment and the Planes, with things like Intent, Will and Emotions being 'driving forces' while Attunement, Belief and the like are supporting forces.

Where you need to exert a primary force to exert an influence upon the world and the secondary supporting force with only a few exceptions which cannot cast magic alone but can increase or multiply the driving force further.

Depending on the affinities to the four planes of existence, Physical, Astral, Mental and Spiritual, and then the driving force and supporting forces you can harness, along with your heritage affinities to those 4 planes and experiences that alter your affinities throughout your life, you are capable of forming a core of your magic.

Your affinities tend to inform the type of expression your magic then takes, as you cannot channel the physical plane well through runes they tend to help with maintaining its structure rather than producing an effect, and Sorcerers tend to be Astral attuned casters, more often than not, with some beings such as Fae being able to exist within the Astral Plane along with it being where many wizards channel their emotions.

And then I'll skip the lectures on forming cores, the imposed rulesets and preference casting to attunement and a whole list of other things including my master list of research for spell development I've written up.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Simplest: Magic is the ability to tap into forces outside of the character to make changes to the area around the character.

Most Complex: Magic varies by method and source. Sources can be the Fundamental (Elemental) Forces (Metal, Plant, Water, Fire, Air, Void, Spirit) or Celestial (Demonic or Divine). The Methods may be Conscious (a character can tap into one or more Sources and use them directly or combine them in multiple ways to attain specific effects), Involuntary (Wild Talents exist, people who seem to randomly access one or two Forces with the outcome and power level tied more to their emotional state than to their intentions, but some of the Celestials grant fixed abilities that are either persistent, like a magical increased ability, or sporadic, like giving the character "lucky breaks" or making them occasionally trigger specific reactions from others, fear, desire, etc.), or Focused (Focused abilities are "pre-packaged" to some degree; healing abilities are the most common; they may tap multiple forces or just one, but the end result is always the same, with the only deviation being the raw power the magic-user can tap).

 

[LoneQuack]

What an interesting experiment...

I have two magic systems in my book, so lets give it a try.

Simplest: Gather quint -either use it as an enhancement on yourself or piew piew elements with it.

Most Complex (fck me, I haven't even reach the point in the story to explain it yet...): For one to perform any type of magic, they need to have a Quint core. That is a natural phenomenon and depending on your race, environment and way of life quint reacts differently. Or at least that's what its believed.

In truth fire, water, earth and wind aren't that much different. They come from the same source after all. The distinction lies on the subtle but crucial guidance of quint. The confusion among the people arises from their misinterpretation of manifestation of said element in their initial demonstration of their element.

For example if one first used fire while in a fit of rage they would naturally associate fire with anger while the reason behind the manifestation in such a way was something entirely different.

Accidental or not, once one masters/ fully comprehend said path/element, they are able to manipulate the corresponding element to its higher/purest form, which is the pinnacle of quint yet the first step to even understand Quintessence.

If quint is the essence of the world, Quintessence is the world itself, however unlike quint it is completely different.

No core is needed, but instead, true connection with the world. The key to it, is knowledge and understanding of fundamental principles that hold it together. After this point on, things begin to be even more abstract with more philosophical, theoretical and mythical aspects taking place, so I can't explicitly explain something general.

 

[2wordsperminute]

Simplest explanation: Messing around with energy.

Most complex: So there are words, right? Now what if some words that have seemingly no meaning in the only surviving language in the world could be used to manipulate energy? Now, of course, this wouldn't be for free. The words have to take energy from the person saying them in order to have the effect of magic. And almost anything can be done with the words if you know the right ones and know how to string them together. Even molecular or atomic bonds can be tampered with in order to form a different substance from essentially thin air. Now, how does it accomplish this without essentially nuking the environment whenever you use magic to create something? Good question.

 

[Epithet]

Simple: Humans intake Mana in the air when they breath, which lets them use magic! :D

Complex: Mana is taken in through the nostrils to the lungs, where it is processed similarly to oxygen, except it uses the Mana Bile, an organ specifically evolved to process 'Pure Mana' - the name for mana outside of ones own body - before being directed to the Circuit, the name for a secondary set of veins alongside the regular veins, which has focal points - 294 to be precise, scattered throughout the entire body.

Magic is preformed by intaking a large amount of Pure Mana and filtering it through the Mana Bile before it can be fully broken down, and using a focal point - such as the one at the end of your index finger - pushing it through one of the twelve available facets of the focal point, which is weaker.
Upon being pressured, it breaches the focal point - muddling itself with ones own blood, which is an incredibly conductive substance for magical phenomena, and breaches yet again, this time through the skin - the tensing and relaxation of the muscle fibers in your body, alongside sheer willpower, is used to change the outcome of the extremely volatile magical element.

If we all only took in Mana, we would run out in a few hours - so this is how we solve it.
Our bodies, intaking Mana, take in far more than actually necessary - around 74% of it is used for the body. That remaining 26% of the Pure Mana we intake is lead down the Circuit to the appendix, which is used to condense that excess mana, alongside a regular supply of our normal mana, to our appendix - which clumps it together.
It is then removed from our body by breathing out or, in cases of high Pure Mana build-up, released through excrement.

 

[AshleyRowan]

So here's how magic works in my The City of Witches.

Simple: Poetry lets you tune in to the universe.

Complex: There is an energy that is invisible to conventional science. It connects everything and is woven into reality. If you find a way to tune in to that energy it will let you manipulate reality. Every spell will require preparations. Some more and some less. For some reason magic loves rhymes so if you want to guarantee effects then remember to write your spells rhyming. There is not one spell that can give you desired results. There are only spells that are known to work.