Forming Magic

One of the things that I find underexplored in fantasy is the formation of magic. What happens when magic isn’t formalized, yet real? I’ll shout out Gromito as their comment on the last Fantasy Friday inspired this episode of Fantasy Friday. The comment in question:

In my story, folks are just starting to stumble into using magic so no defined roles, maybe in a few generations. - Gromito

Which is one of the frontiers of magic often unexplored in fantasy, as the story assumes that the world has studied magic enough to start teaching it in schools, or via apprenticeships. Meaning one can learn to be a wizard, witch, sorcerer, or mage and that is a recognized title in the world. Yet before that happens, when magic is in the world but more raw and untamed what does one do?

My first thought is to make magic more like super powers or specific abilities. Steve can see in the dark. Hannah can talk with squirrels. Mike’s healing slaves always work a bit better. Which can work, and give a hint of something extra going on. The problem is with the rise of single super power stories, there’s a chance that the early days will end up implying a world with super powers, or one that will develop super powers, rather than one with a magic system in the background.

Which lead me to my second thought which is build the magic system and then from there have the way characters interact with it be ‘with in the system’ but they don’t realize it. For example if potions are a part of the magic system, and there’s a stew or soup that people make for sick people because it always helps, but tastes so bad no one would eat it otherwise. That could be a proto-potion. If Hannah folds her fingers in front of her mouth, and whispers in a specific way to talk to the squirrels and then holds her ear to her folded fingers to hear the squirrel. Obviously the squirrels know to wait because the squirrels know that’s how the magic works. Hannah has highlighted the semantic components of the magic system.

This raises the question of how does the culture and the characters see the magic system? Do they even know they are using magic? If they don’t know that they are using magic, then what do they think is going on? Is it a gift from the divine? Is it a natural thing? Can everyone use the magic the same way or different people doing different things? These are the ‘leaver questions’ one should be thinking about. Each answer to any of these questions will change a lot about the world, and then how magic can be used in any story.

Imagine a world where the characters don’t realize that they are using magic, or that the magic even exists. Got it? Now contrast that with one where they don’t know they are using magic but attribute it to their mythology. How do the characters think about magic in those two scenarios? Maybe in the former they don’t, it would be like thinking about using your fingers or standing on one leg. Sure children may need to focus on it to learn, but once it’s down it’s muscle memory. In the world where magic is tied to mythology are prayers? Instead of saying “I cast fireball” they utter a prayer to Prometheus (or equivalent) to throw a ball of fire.

Likewise if there is no mythos for the magic, and no one realizes it. Maybe the magic is very inconsistent, as one needs an aptitude for it to ‘stumble into it’ or to be taught by someone who has an understanding of the magic. This can highlight the fundamentals of the larger magic system if handled well. Plus it can ‘mystify’ the magic system and soften it if one wishes for a softer magic system with strong bones.

I’ll go over soft v hard magic in the next edition of Fantasy Friday. Until then.

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