Cool ideas or references to shadow and ligth magic.

[NotTheAntagonist]

I was trying to come up with a basic magic system, standard stuff, you problably seen like all over the place, water, fire, earth and wind, no healing magic since the setting i was coming up with has no divine magic from gods or patrons, magical healing comes alchemy and potion as well a spacial magic, transformation magic, necromancy etc. are all from racial traits from monsters or inteligent races or materials from the setting. That being said, what are good examples of shadow and light magic from to drink off, i like the shadow and light magic duo of re:zero for example in wich shadow is actually distortion (be time or space and seen as debuff magic and even weak but is actually very op if you know how to handle) and light is energy.

 

[FaustVoncleave]

Ok, for starters light as energy has three primary functions that are genrally accepted by readers, death lasers, barriers, and buffs. The main argument for lasers is that light is hot when concentrated, barriers because photon has a pushing force, and buffs because light passes on energy for growth and is permeable. Some more niche abilities are invisibility, illusions/mirages, and scrying(viewing things from far away). These work because light affects the visual field. You can get a lot of ideas for light usage from physics.

Some would say Shadow is trickier to do as it doesn't do much in the real world to draw inspiration from, but I personally see it as the freedom to be creative with it without alienating your audience, and use a character with the shadow attribute in my own story. You can use it for a lot pretty easily, like teleportation through shadows(if you really want to lean into this you can even make an entire other shadow dimension that the user travels through), cloning, item storage, using parts of the shadow as replacement skin to stop bleeding, stretching to touch physical objects too far from the user, slithering into gaps to spy, wiggling to absorb some impact damage, hindering opponents movements, illusions, the list goes on. The only things you really want to avoid with shadow is absorption, as that's pretty heavy in the darkness territory, and if you're using shadow then you want to keep the distinction clear or people will think of it as another reskinned darkness. If you're still looking fir ideas on shadow try looking into folklore and fairytale, they make good use of shadows often and may give you inspiration.

 

[Legi0n]

Your story, your ideas.
My story, my ideas.
Simple.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

*takes notes*

 

[APieceOfRock]

oh boy, light magic. You can do so much with it. One of the most underrated way to use light magic is hardening light. If your enemy is under the sun, you can literally trap and/or suffocate them to death by hardening the light around them. You can also makes loads of illusion (which again is a really underrated magic). Or just make a flashbang if you're out of ideas,

 

[NotTheAntagonist]

Your story, your ideas.
My story, my ideas.
Simple.

Ladys and gentlemans. Thats how you give a tip!

oh boy, light magic. You can do so much with it. One of the most underrated way to use light magic is hardening light. If your enemy is under the sun, you can literally trap and/or suffocate them to death by hardening the light around them. You can also makes loads of illusion (which again is a really underrated magic). Or just make a flashbang if you're out of ideas,

Ilusion is really super underrated, genjustus in Naruto for example are so underdevloped and underused is a crime, if you aint got some fancy ayes they are useless is too 8 or 80.

Ok, for starters light as energy has three primary functions that are genrally accepted by readers, death lasers, barriers, and buffs. The main argument for lasers is that light is hot when concentrated, barriers because photon has a pushing force, and buffs because light passes on energy for growth and is permeable. Some more niche abilities are invisibility, illusions/mirages, and scrying(viewing things from far away). These work because light affects the visual field. You can get a lot of ideas for light usage from physics.

Some would say Shadow is trickier to do as it doesn't do much in the real world to draw inspiration from, but I personally see it as the freedom to be creative with it without alienating your audience, and use a character with the shadow attribute in my own story. You can use it for a lot pretty easily, like teleportation through shadows(if you really want to lean into this you can even make an entire other shadow dimension that the user travels through), cloning, item storage, using parts of the shadow as replacement skin to stop bleeding, stretching to touch physical objects too far from the user, slithering into gaps to spy, wiggling to absorb some impact damage, hindering opponents movements, illusions, the list goes on. The only things you really want to avoid with shadow is absorption, as that's pretty heavy in the darkness territory, and if you're using shadow then you want to keep the distinction clear or people will think of it as another reskinned darkness. If you're still looking fir ideas on shadow try looking into folklore and fairytale, they make good use of shadows often and may give you inspiration.

Thanks dude, i seen those uses for light magic many times but never heard of the science behind it because usually they are or divine or too vague like healing magic but thats actually pretty cool. I also thought about the shadow dimension for moviment and storage but part of me thinks is just too op, but thanks still i will try to balance it out!

 

[FaustVoncleave]

Thanks dude,

No problem, happy you found it helpful.

Ilusion is really super underrated, genjustus in Naruto for example are so underdevloped and underused is a crime, if you aint got some fancy ayes they are useless is too 8 or 80.

Illusions really are an underutilized form of light magic. If you're interested in this form of light magic I'd suggest looking up some clips of Neo from RWBY, she's one of the best examples of using light based illusions practically, the glass shattering motif of her illusions is also really striking. This video is good out of context examples

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I also thought about the shadow dimension for moviment and storage but part of me thinks is just too op, but thanks still i will try to balance it out!

Yeah, honestly the dimensional aspect of it can make it pretty broken, but there's some easy balance fixes. LIke for storing things you could say you can't store things bigger than the character's size or weight because there real dimensions affect the storage space. And for using the shadow dimension for porting you could make the shadow world inhospitable, like maybe the shadows encroach and try to turn you into a shadow, so only short trips are possible. Just some possible work around suggestions. Shadow magic has a lot of room to play with, I wish you luck with figuring out how you want to shape it, and your magic system as a whole.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Remember, we all have a shadow inside us.

(That means shadow magic is strong by the way.)

 

[BearlyAlive]

wouldn't Shadow magic just be a reverse application of light magic? Since shadows are what happens when dark places get illuminated? So Shadow magic should be a combined use of light and dark combining the properties of both of them.

+1 for illusions, but for both elements. Maybe Light can create optical illusions of stuff while Dark robs people of their optical senses.

I'd also go with Suggestion Magic like light enforces positivity and dark invokes negative feelings. Might also be funny for non-combat stuff like you post a dark mage and a bouncer in front of a door to make sure people know they aren't welcome or put a light mage inside a store to influence people to think more positively while they spend their money. Don't take this too far tho, otherwise you end up with mind control and we all know that's too op.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Hrmm... a tough one. Not many practitioners of the rare Ligth Magic.

Ligth, being Latin for what we call today as Ligament-mancy, is a rare magical art that centered around ligaments and other forms of connective tissue. The ability to cause others to have wicked charley horse attacks is nothing to sneeze at as it can completely incapacitate anyone dependant on using their legs for mobility, as well as being extremely painful. The most famious use of ligth magic being Achilles. Most people believe that he was killed by an arrow to the ankle, but the true story involves someone taking advantage of the area that was not protected by Achilles' baptism in the waters of the River Styx and give him one wicked pain in the leg. You know that feeling when you get hit in the funny bone? Like that, but it killed him.

Hell of a way to go.

Other uses of the art are to collect ligaments put them raw in a bowl and then dump it out on a large sheet of tanned lamb skin and by the patterns the ligaments, it will display the future, depending on the way they lie on the lamb skin. Most people did not know that Nostradamus was a Ligth user and it is how he made his many uncanny predictions. It also has been used by Shawn Penn, but he offended the hindu god of Vayu who governs the realm of skin and that which can be seen through skin, which includes ligaments. Oddly enough, Vayu does not cover muscles, which was claimed by Vishnu (as well as feet. Yes. Vishnu is the god of foot fetishists). Thus, offending the gods, Shawn Penn was punished and we all know what happened to his career.

The path of Ligth is not a popular form of magic, and not well known, but I applaud you for your willingness to think outside the box. Good luck in your magic system, and I hope this helped.

 

[Kidd_Wadsworth]

What about light and dark as order and chaos. Order allows us to organize our thoughts, categorize things and ideas so that they are easily understood, but it also constrains. We chaff under order. (My great aunt felt that dessert should be eaten at the beginning of a meal. She hated the 'rule' that it must come last.)

Chaos allows new ways of coming together. Using chaos, creatures that before could only breathe underwater, might be augmented with the ability to fly. In other words, chaos would allow mixing of new ideas in radical ways. It could also lend itself to lawlessness and thus to violence.

So someone who could control both light and dark, order and chaos, would be able to both understand the complex (by peering into it and perceiving its order, its underlying rules, like scientists perceive the rules of nature), and evaluate new solutions engendered by combinations previously unimagined. But if this person who could control light and dark, order and chaos, were to lose control of it, then overly constrained societies with harsh protocols and unbending social constrains (tyranny at every turn) would result, or chaotic societies where even day and night did not have bounds - one day is 12 hours long the next only 3.

--Kidd

 

[MarukiLikesMikey]

Personally, I've always liked the idea of thieves and rogues who can wrap themselves in the nearby shadows, or cover themselves in their own shadow.

 

[AuntieMaysLittleCousin]

Depends on what kind of story you are writing.

In serious stories that give magic a scientific explanation, magic is just the ability to change the world with the power of you mind. You can also call it psychic powers. In the end, elemental aspects and the like are just the bias of people who use the magic themselves and think it's dependent on elements, while it's actually the other way around.

To understand this concept a bit further, I would recommend you to read Mother of Learning.

If you want a more fantasy-like world in which magic really is magical, gifted by the gods or spirits or whatever you want, Light magic is more about illusions, while Holy magic is the 'Light Sword!!!' or 'Disintegration!!!' kind of thing. Namely, incrementing the power of light, whether by materializing it or downright focusing it on foes. Light and Holy are both commonly merged though.
Shadow magic directly goes about hardening and bending shadows, though I think this is quite an absurd concept since shadow is just the absence of light, not a form of energy or element or whatever. Necromancy, curses and that kind of stuff go to the Dark element.

These are only my rules and/or opinions though.

 

[MarukiLikesMikey]

heres no context

 

[Cipiteca396]

What about light and dark as order and chaos. Order allows us to organize our thoughts, categorize things and ideas so that they are easily understood, but it also constrains. We chaff under order. (My great aunt felt that dessert should be eaten at the beginning of a meal. She hated the 'rule' that it must come last.)

Chaos allows new ways of coming together. Using chaos, creatures that before could only breathe underwater, might be augmented with the ability to fly. In other words, chaos would allow mixing of new ideas in radical ways. It could also lend itself to lawlessness and thus to violence.

So someone who could control both light and dark, order and chaos, would be able to both understand the complex (by peering into it and perceiving its order, its underlying rules, like scientists perceive the rules of nature), and evaluate new solutions engendered by combinations previously unimagined. But if this person who could control light and dark, order and chaos, were to lose control of it, then overly constrained societies with harsh protocols and unbending social constrains (tyranny at every turn) would result, or chaotic societies where even day and night did not have bounds - one day is 12 hours long the next only 3.

--Kidd

I have a serious problem here in that you could just as easily reverse it, with light being chaos and dark being order. Alternatively, you could make fire=chaos and water=order. Or vice versa. Or you could use earth and wind.

Still, it is a viable option.