Friday, 19 February 2010
Today's post is about the use of magic in your fictional world. While magic can open a whole box of delights when it comes to your fantastical setting it can also cause a whole load of problems for the unwary author. There are several things you need to think about when creating a magical world, just from the world building perspective, but there are also other questions that you need to consider from a purely authorial point of view.
I think I'm going to sub-divide this into three posts rather than try and get it all into one and possibly just end up rambling all over the place.
Today's post will be on magic and world building, then next week will be magical heroes and quests, and the week after that the problems that magic can cause you as an author. Some of this will probably be relevant to the topic of religion in fantasy which I intend to cover later, but I'll try not to repeat myself too much.
As an author, when you decide to bring magic into your fantasy world, you need to decide how it works. It may not be necessary to spell it out to your audience (pun not intended) and even your characters may not know, depending on how your world is set up, but you need to know the rules. Just as the person designing a plane needs to have a firm grasp of aerodynamics and the laws of physics, but a passenger needs only to know that it will fly. The more you know about your magical system, the more you can manipulate it to your own ends.
The first thing you probably need to know is what the basic laws of magic are on your world. I don't mean laws created by people, but the natural laws. Physics has gravity, momentum, conservation of energy, etc. etc.; Magic must also have laws and like the laws of physics an expert may be able to manipulate them, but they cannot be broken. This is important. Once you've decided on the laws, you must stick to them. If you don't, you risk losing all tension and risk in your story. After all if the laws of magic can be broken whenever your hero (or villain) needs to, then they can do anything they (or you or your readers) can think of
That doesn't mean that characters can't find new and innovative ways of working with the laws that no one in their world had ever thought of - until the first hot air balloon, humans could not fly. The people who invented the very first lighter than air craft didn't break the law of gravity, they simply found a way around it.
There are plenty of laws you can give the magic - can anyone use it or only certain people? Can it only be used in certain places/are there certain places it cannot be used? What is the cost of using magic - does it draw on the caster's life force, energy from the planet, mystical objects? How quickly can that energy be recharged? Can all magic users use all types of magic? Does magic negate the laws of physics or work within them? i.e. if your magic user can fly is this anti-gravity or is he using some other force to achieve that effect? Are there things magic cannot do? e.g. bringing back the dead. Are there risks to using magic? Does it shorten your life/cause you pain/attract demons or monsters? If your world has Gods is there a difference between secular and religious magic?
Once you have a basic idea of what the laws are you can start exploring them in detail.
Who can wield magic in your world? There are many possible answers to this question and a lot of them are clichéd and have been done to death! The first thing to decide is if everyone can use magic, but to different levels; just as everyone in this world can run, unless they have some kind of disability, but very few of us are Linford Christie. if so are there people who through some kind of illness or disability or accident cannot and how are they regarded by society in general? Or is magic a specific ability that belongs to only a few - can you gain it through hard work? Is it genetic? Is it gender based? Is it passed on from Master to Student at the choice of the Master? Is it religious/a gift of the Gods? Is it totally random?
If your magic users are in the minority how are they seen by the rest of the population? They could be ivory-tower academics, somehow apart from the 'real' world that everyone else has to work in. They could be reviled and driven out of places as freaks (although if they're particularly powerful you may have to consider how that works. Personally I'm not that keen on the idea of confronting someone who can throw fireballs, even if I'm accompanied by two or three hundred of my closest friends) or they could be welcomed with open arms, especially if they have powers that can help people - providing food or healing or something else that is in great demand. Maybe they're respected but feared? If there are a lot of them then maybe the people's attitude to them is more similar to our attitude to doctors or firemen? Maybe they're the pop stars of your world.
If there are different types of magic how do magic users decide which one to pursue? Is it simply the same as a school leaver deciding what career path to follow or does the type of magic choose them?
If you have religion (and why wouldn't you? A world without religion would be very unusual, but if that's what you want to write then that's up to you obviously) how does it interact with magic? Are they complementary? Is magic the province of priests and if so is that a natural law or a human one, and if it's a human one how do the priests react to the idea of secular magic users? Is there both religious and secular magic and it works in different ways - either cooperatively or as a rivalry?
The imagery that is associated with magic is also often clichéd - yes wolves and owls and cats and crystals and the moon are all lovely I'm sure, but try looking into the mythology of other cultures and using some of their symbolism for a change or just making it all up. How about some scarab beetles and turtles and crocodiles instead for a change? If your magic is faith based maybe it doesn't matter so much what object they use to focus as long as they believe in its power. If your magic is part of a world like our own, maybe your magic user's faith is focussed through their Blackberry or their Macbook or the badge of their football team...
Magic will also have a major effect on society and technology.
How do your magic users interact with the rest of society? If they're really powerful, then why aren't they ruling the world? Maybe they are or maybe they have strict taboos about getting involved with politics. if there is healing magic, how powerful is it? Because if it can heal anything then people will react to danger differently, especially if you can resurrect the dead. Duels may be more common if the loser can be revived with a wave of your magic user's hand. War may not be seen as a real danger or maybe there's no war because the various powers all have such strong magic users that it's the magical version of Mutually Assured Destruction. If anyone can travel by flying carpet, why would the aeroplane ever be invented? if a magic user can wave a wand and have a magic quill copy a book, then who would waste time on the printing press?
How does the justice system work with magic? Are there separate magical and non-magical courts? Are there magical CSIs? If you have magic that lets you read minds has that eliminated miscarriages of justice? How do you punish someone who can teleport or knock down the walls of a cell with a fireball? How the heck do you even arrest a rogue magic user?
Are there forms of magic that while allowed by natural law are illegal or immoral or taboo and why?
What about the science of magic? You may know what the laws of magic are but do your characters? When it comes to understanding how magic works does your world have it mostly figured out? Do more answers simply lead to more questions as with science? Can they explain things in a manner we would consider scientific or do they believe magic was given to man by the Gods? Ancient cultures have explained the sun rising in the morning and crops growing and thunderstorms using all kinds of imaginative stories, why wouldn't people explain magic in the same way if they didn't understand it? Of course in a fantasy world the Gods may actually have given magic to the magic users and if you don't believe it you can always ask them because they turn up in person every Tuesday...
I could probably go on, but I won't. But my point is firstly that there is a lot to think about when you're world building a magical world and secondly that you are the one writing the laws so don't let yourself be constrained by the way everyone has done it before and tradition and cliché, go wild. Magic should, after all, be magical; not boring.
Links
These links will be relevant for all three of the posts on this topic so I probably won't be posting any next week or the week after unless someone links me to some stunning new resource I've never seen before.
A Way with Worlds: Magic and Technology
Ad Hoc Writers: Magic Builder Outline
Patricia C Wrede's World Builder Questions: Magic and Technology
Patricia C Wrede's World Builder Questions:Magic and Magicians
Magical World Builder's Guide - scroll down if you just want the section on magic
Creating a Fantasy World - the section on magic is on page two.
Fantasy World Building Questions: Magic and Magicians
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Having a Sense of Mystery in your Magic
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Ten Alternatives to Genetic Magic
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Magical Education
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: On Mage Heroes
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Rant on Magic, Part 1
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Rant on Magic, Part 2
I think I'm going to sub-divide this into three posts rather than try and get it all into one and possibly just end up rambling all over the place.
Today's post will be on magic and world building, then next week will be magical heroes and quests, and the week after that the problems that magic can cause you as an author. Some of this will probably be relevant to the topic of religion in fantasy which I intend to cover later, but I'll try not to repeat myself too much.
As an author, when you decide to bring magic into your fantasy world, you need to decide how it works. It may not be necessary to spell it out to your audience (pun not intended) and even your characters may not know, depending on how your world is set up, but you need to know the rules. Just as the person designing a plane needs to have a firm grasp of aerodynamics and the laws of physics, but a passenger needs only to know that it will fly. The more you know about your magical system, the more you can manipulate it to your own ends.
The first thing you probably need to know is what the basic laws of magic are on your world. I don't mean laws created by people, but the natural laws. Physics has gravity, momentum, conservation of energy, etc. etc.; Magic must also have laws and like the laws of physics an expert may be able to manipulate them, but they cannot be broken. This is important. Once you've decided on the laws, you must stick to them. If you don't, you risk losing all tension and risk in your story. After all if the laws of magic can be broken whenever your hero (or villain) needs to, then they can do anything they (or you or your readers) can think of
That doesn't mean that characters can't find new and innovative ways of working with the laws that no one in their world had ever thought of - until the first hot air balloon, humans could not fly. The people who invented the very first lighter than air craft didn't break the law of gravity, they simply found a way around it.
There are plenty of laws you can give the magic - can anyone use it or only certain people? Can it only be used in certain places/are there certain places it cannot be used? What is the cost of using magic - does it draw on the caster's life force, energy from the planet, mystical objects? How quickly can that energy be recharged? Can all magic users use all types of magic? Does magic negate the laws of physics or work within them? i.e. if your magic user can fly is this anti-gravity or is he using some other force to achieve that effect? Are there things magic cannot do? e.g. bringing back the dead. Are there risks to using magic? Does it shorten your life/cause you pain/attract demons or monsters? If your world has Gods is there a difference between secular and religious magic?
Once you have a basic idea of what the laws are you can start exploring them in detail.
Who can wield magic in your world? There are many possible answers to this question and a lot of them are clichéd and have been done to death! The first thing to decide is if everyone can use magic, but to different levels; just as everyone in this world can run, unless they have some kind of disability, but very few of us are Linford Christie. if so are there people who through some kind of illness or disability or accident cannot and how are they regarded by society in general? Or is magic a specific ability that belongs to only a few - can you gain it through hard work? Is it genetic? Is it gender based? Is it passed on from Master to Student at the choice of the Master? Is it religious/a gift of the Gods? Is it totally random?
If your magic users are in the minority how are they seen by the rest of the population? They could be ivory-tower academics, somehow apart from the 'real' world that everyone else has to work in. They could be reviled and driven out of places as freaks (although if they're particularly powerful you may have to consider how that works. Personally I'm not that keen on the idea of confronting someone who can throw fireballs, even if I'm accompanied by two or three hundred of my closest friends) or they could be welcomed with open arms, especially if they have powers that can help people - providing food or healing or something else that is in great demand. Maybe they're respected but feared? If there are a lot of them then maybe the people's attitude to them is more similar to our attitude to doctors or firemen? Maybe they're the pop stars of your world.
If there are different types of magic how do magic users decide which one to pursue? Is it simply the same as a school leaver deciding what career path to follow or does the type of magic choose them?
If you have religion (and why wouldn't you? A world without religion would be very unusual, but if that's what you want to write then that's up to you obviously) how does it interact with magic? Are they complementary? Is magic the province of priests and if so is that a natural law or a human one, and if it's a human one how do the priests react to the idea of secular magic users? Is there both religious and secular magic and it works in different ways - either cooperatively or as a rivalry?
The imagery that is associated with magic is also often clichéd - yes wolves and owls and cats and crystals and the moon are all lovely I'm sure, but try looking into the mythology of other cultures and using some of their symbolism for a change or just making it all up. How about some scarab beetles and turtles and crocodiles instead for a change? If your magic is faith based maybe it doesn't matter so much what object they use to focus as long as they believe in its power. If your magic is part of a world like our own, maybe your magic user's faith is focussed through their Blackberry or their Macbook or the badge of their football team...
Magic will also have a major effect on society and technology.
How do your magic users interact with the rest of society? If they're really powerful, then why aren't they ruling the world? Maybe they are or maybe they have strict taboos about getting involved with politics. if there is healing magic, how powerful is it? Because if it can heal anything then people will react to danger differently, especially if you can resurrect the dead. Duels may be more common if the loser can be revived with a wave of your magic user's hand. War may not be seen as a real danger or maybe there's no war because the various powers all have such strong magic users that it's the magical version of Mutually Assured Destruction. If anyone can travel by flying carpet, why would the aeroplane ever be invented? if a magic user can wave a wand and have a magic quill copy a book, then who would waste time on the printing press?
How does the justice system work with magic? Are there separate magical and non-magical courts? Are there magical CSIs? If you have magic that lets you read minds has that eliminated miscarriages of justice? How do you punish someone who can teleport or knock down the walls of a cell with a fireball? How the heck do you even arrest a rogue magic user?
Are there forms of magic that while allowed by natural law are illegal or immoral or taboo and why?
What about the science of magic? You may know what the laws of magic are but do your characters? When it comes to understanding how magic works does your world have it mostly figured out? Do more answers simply lead to more questions as with science? Can they explain things in a manner we would consider scientific or do they believe magic was given to man by the Gods? Ancient cultures have explained the sun rising in the morning and crops growing and thunderstorms using all kinds of imaginative stories, why wouldn't people explain magic in the same way if they didn't understand it? Of course in a fantasy world the Gods may actually have given magic to the magic users and if you don't believe it you can always ask them because they turn up in person every Tuesday...
I could probably go on, but I won't. But my point is firstly that there is a lot to think about when you're world building a magical world and secondly that you are the one writing the laws so don't let yourself be constrained by the way everyone has done it before and tradition and cliché, go wild. Magic should, after all, be magical; not boring.
Links
These links will be relevant for all three of the posts on this topic so I probably won't be posting any next week or the week after unless someone links me to some stunning new resource I've never seen before.
A Way with Worlds: Magic and Technology
Ad Hoc Writers: Magic Builder Outline
Patricia C Wrede's World Builder Questions: Magic and Technology
Patricia C Wrede's World Builder Questions:Magic and Magicians
Magical World Builder's Guide - scroll down if you just want the section on magic
Creating a Fantasy World - the section on magic is on page two.
Fantasy World Building Questions: Magic and Magicians
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Having a Sense of Mystery in your Magic
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Ten Alternatives to Genetic Magic
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Magical Education
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: On Mage Heroes
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Rant on Magic, Part 1
Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Rant on Magic, Part 2
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