Hey again. The purpose of this post, as with the others, is to review works of fantasy with interesting magic systems and discuss how those ideas can be used or adapted by aspiring magic builders. I’m going to be focusing on books that I’ve read for the time being and will be focusing mostly on the magic systems, though I will be discussing the plot and quality of the work as a whole in a broader sense.
Okay, so I’ve been talking a lot about elemental systems. Let’s take a break with a discussion about soft magic systems. It feels like it’s almost a paradox to say soft magic system, since the very idea of a magic system is that there are rules and limitations on phenomenal cosmic powers and soft magic systems are magic systems that... eschew the clear rules and limitations imposed by hard magic systems. But the truth is that there’s an art to soft magic systems, implying just enough structure to assume that laws might conceivably exist but defying any attempt to make concrete declarations of what those laws might be. This kind of magic is like the kind found in the ancient myths or the classics of fantasy such as Lord of the Rings and Conan. But if you want a modern example that nails that balance, look no further than The Witcher.
Likely, some of you are pretty confused right now. Didn’t I have a rule about only talking about books? Well, google it: The Witcher video games were based on a series of books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. They were supposedly a big hit in Poland, but didn’t receive an English release until 2007, when the video games made them more popular abroad. And the books themselves are really good, presenting the usual fantasy fare but with an Eastern European twist and a lot of musing about what a monster is and what it takes to fight a monster. In this series, often times the things people think are monsters are merely misunderstood outcasts and seemingly normal people can turn out to be the real monsters.
But what about the magic? Magic is something that exists in the world of The Witcher and we frequently meet mages over the course of the story, but the exact nature of magic is somewhat hard to pin down. The Witcher’s have their signs, which appear to be simple hand-signs that can be invoked to enhance one’s self and ward against monsters, but few details are shared about exactly how these work. Sorcery also exists and and is said to be based on drawing and manipulating energy from the four classical elements, but it seems that pretty much every mage that we meet who practices this does so in a different way, simultaneously establishing that magic is a highly personal art and making it hard to pin down what the rules are. Beyond this, the world of The Witcher appears to be generally steeped in a vague sort of magic, the kind of magic you experience in the ancient myths of the Greeks and the Norse that allows monsters and magical curses and items containing their own magical power to be relatively commonplace. This is the kind of fairy tale magic that you’d see in a Grimm’s fairy tale, where a person can be cursed to become a horrible monster and the curse can only be broken by true love’s first kiss.
So what is there to gain from this magic system? One important thing to acknowledge is that there are definitely rules, sort of. If you extensively read the books (and a lot of that side lore from the games) you’ll find that there is a lot of thought put into how exactly sorcery works, but the information is dispersed a piece at a time, and only when it is required to service the plot of one of Geralt’s tales or to fill out a book that you can choose to read or not in the games. This creates this wonderful tone where you can sense that right there, just within arm’s reach is the structure and understanding you crave, but you can’t quite reach it. This is compounded by the fact that mages in this world are so solitary and distinct from one another. This isn’t a world where mages compare their notes about how magic works, so we never really get a unified theory beyond a few prominent works that present a solid foundation for a hard magic system and nothing else.
But I think the greatest strength that the series has is the fact that much of the information we get about how magic works comes not from people who understand and practice it, but instead from the common folk who know only rumors and shreds of information. In this way, we are presented with both the real facts and the ridiculous rumors with the same emphasis, with only Geralt’s succinct commentary to discern truth from fiction. For example, in one scene a commoner, knowing that the witchers wield magic but not knowing much else, proclaims that he holds a turtle-stone, an amulet that supposedly protects the holder from evil magic, and is thus safe from Geralt’s sorcery. Geralt then confides in the reader that these stones are nothing more than superstition and don’t actually do anything. I don’t necessarily think that this element of superstition fits every setting, but it is used in this setting to incredible effect and it goes a long way towards making an already loose magic system even more mysterious.
So what do you think? Feel free to comment on my opinions, criticize them, or ask your own questions in the comments below. * The Master of Five Magics: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/cfaebz/forgotten_grimoires_the_master_of_five_magics/ * The Kingkiller Chronicles: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/ci30qg/forgotten_grimoires_the_kingkiller_chronicles/ * The Gentlemen Bastards: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/cl62ld/forgotten_grimoires_the_gentlemen_bastards/ * The Seventh Tower: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/cpf1gg/forgotten_grimoires_the_seventh_tower/ * Shades of Magic: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/cr6tjb/forgotten_grimoires_shades_of_magic/ * Avatar: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/cud9cb/forgotten_grimoires_avatar/ * Codex Alera: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/d6wzr4/forgotten_grimoires_codex_alera/
Submitted September 27, 2019 at 07:06PM by atomicpenguin12 https://ift.tt/2nNAoff
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