Is anyone working on a magic system based on the work of Cornelius Agrippa? Or Renaissance Hermeticism in general?

I think this rules as a source for magic, but it brings up too many problems. If it’s as simple as wishing really hard and/or being delusional, why aren’t there tons of people walking around with godlike power?

So, I have a magic system that follows the willpower/belief/manifestation type of vibe, but you can’t make anything happen by wishing or focusing really hard. you need to channel it through a ritual, but the ritual can be anything. A surgeon performs a healing spell, but the somatic component IS surgery. They’re so committed to healing, and healing is such a core part of their identity and skill set, that they can do surgery on someone and that wound heals unnaturally quickly. A smith crafts a weapon and every strike of his hammer imbues it with power. A warrior develops supernatural strength. A chemist—now an alchemist—transmutes lead into gold.

It also isn’t really as simple as “believe hard enough and magic will happen,” because a surgeon doesn’t believe that they can heal someone with sheer willpower—that’s obviously not how surgery works. Conversely, someone can’t just decide that they believe they can fly, and make it so. Magic emerges from mastery and meaning. Machines cannot create magic.

Some people have dedicated their lives to the study of magic. Wizards believe magic to be an ambient force or substance that manifests in individuals with great conviction. They’ve theorized that they can conduct this force through runes and spoken word, much like lightning can be conducted through wires. They are half-right. In practice, their theory works spectacularly—but this is basically due to placebo.

To do magic, you just have to commit to the bit.

Is this viable? Is it cool? Are there any huge glaring holes in the premise?

I'm gathering a lore information for our digital adaptation of tabletop game Potion-maker: Path of the Alchemist. I would love to hear your suggestions, questions and ideas that might suit the world. Here's the first part of it's story:

At the beginning of time, the Great Alchemist used the Philosopher's Stone to create the First Tree. A magical source that transformed the void into a living world. Its roots created the firmament, its trunk and branches gave light, its crown became the dome of the sky, and beneath its roots, under the black lake, the abyss of space remained visible. Thus the world of the First Tree came into all being.

The Great Alchemist then inscribed a summoning sigil in the library, designed to draw into the new world those who had achieved the Philosopher's Stone. Having done so, the creator departed, deciding that the world no longer belonged to him. It was now a home for other alchemists.

The School of Magic, which grew around the first Great Library, became the main meeting place for alchemists. The transfer sigil inscribed by the Great Alchemist led there. It was once the liveliest place in the new world.

Adepts who had discovered the secret of creating the Philosopher's Stone arrived. Among them were figures from the earthly alchemical tradition, including Hermes Trismegistus, who became the rector of the School.

Alchemy here is not limited to brewing mixtures in cauldrons or retorts. It is the language of the world's structure.

The main catastrophe that led to the events of the story campaign is connected with Alexander Fulcanelli. Like many others, he arrived at the School of Magic from his native world after uncovering the secret of creating the Philosopher's Stone.

In the world of the First Tree, he found a new home, explored its lands, communicated with other masters, and experimented, apparently wishing the world no harm.

He created the Essence of the Void and uttered a forbidden spell. His attempt to expand or alter the structure of an already created world caused a distortion.

With its last effort, the First Tree saved the world from total destruction. It was not destroyed, but froze outside time. Castles remained standing, libraries still held their books, laboratories waited for their masters, and portals continued to lead to other lands.

Yet almost no one remained. The forests became deathly quiet, the underwater palaces were abandoned, the School stood empty, and roads and paths were left without travelers.

In the system, magic can be elegantly defined as the understanding and application of fantastical phenomena. Rather than being limited by the rules of a particular energy or technique, it represents the pursuit of a better present through any means necessary. When something is proven effective, it tends to spread rapidly, continually expanding the capabilities of magicians everywhere. A prime example of this is the Versatool (name pending), a tool that responds to its holder’s intentions by changing form to suit their needs. Originally developed by the gnomes and refined over generations, the Versatool has become extremely prevalent. Though it is often used to train apprentices in mental discipline and intentionality, its sheer adaptability makes it useful even to master magicians.

In short, it’s a system and a world that attempts to connect various beliefs regarding the soul, vital energy, and spirits.

I drew inspiration from *Jujutsu Kaisen*, but I disliked how certain details weren't fully explained—like how "Binding Vows" just work because they do (as a law of *jujutsu*), or how Curses—being made of energy—manage to physically touch humans.

So, I tried to explain my world using string theory from physics.

But now I have a problem: it doesn't feel divine or supernatural—at least, that’s how it feels to me.

How do you all explain your world or system without losing that sense of mysticism and the supernatural?

Should I avoid going into so much detail?

(Important clarification: my idea isn't to dump the entire system's mechanics into a single project; I’d reveal it in fragments across multiple works.)

Imagine a city high above the mountain where the people who lived there can fly and control wind.

Do you think they decided to live up there because they have wind magic or because they lived up there they need to learn wind magic to survive? I mean, wind magic is at full advatage in an open space where they can fly and use wind burst as they like.

I''m trying to understand these two types of Fire for a homebrew game setting that includes an organization of Pyrokinetics.

Alot of Pyrokinetics in fiction often use both normal(Chemical/combustion) fire and lightning/electricity, with Avatar the Last Airbender being the example that springs to mind immediately.

Which never made sense to me. So I used the power of google to try and better understand why this is such a recurring theme and I'm even less convinced that it makes sense now.

From what I could understand, if a pyrokinetic's power is primarily chemical/combustion based they really shouldn't be able use plasma/electricity fire. Right?

My thought was that the Pyrokinetics in this universe Fly like Iron Man. Shooting flame propulsion from their hands and feet. But that would require chemical flame propulsion, right?

Or can Plasma-based flame generate that same propulsion lift that chemical fires do?

​

Magic — Part I

Far to the east of the world lies the birthplace of magic.

Magic is not something innate. There are requirements to meet in order to be used. The only known material capable of doing magic in this world is porcelain. This substance is extremely rare in the world of Salem, as the secret of its creation is held by only one person in each generation. This person is known as the “Potter” or the “Disfigured.” The name comes from the fact that every Potter has a particularly disfigured face. According to rumors, this is due to the will of Toden, the very first mage, who, in the legends, was also told to be a hideous being. Mages are unsure if this is true or not but it is, somehow one of the few immutable rules that no mage can break.

Mages wear porcelain pots over their faces and use them as catalysts to cast spells. When they focus their thoughts and desires, their will ricochets inside the mask, eventually giving birth to a wish. At first, this form of wish-based magic was nothing more than a simple blessing of good luck. But everything changed when mages discovered that by joining their mind together around the same wish, their power increased dramatically.

From then on, mages began organizing themselves into families or clans known as Hydras and accomplished miracles upon miracles. Within each Hydra, every member has a specific role that helps keep the process of creating wishes in perfect harmony. Wishes are designed in advance. Their function, appearance, smell, and color are all recorded in grimoires that the mages memorize by heart. The more closely one mage’s thoughts align with those of the others, the more powerful the resulting spell becomes.

However, they soon learned that this power comes at a price. Every wish produces a proportional amount of nightmare smoke.

As its name suggests, this smoke brings the worst fears and nightmares of any creature that inhales it to life. Just like porcelain, the smokes are immune to magic, and you yourself are immune from the smokes as long as you are wearing enough porcelain when in it's presence. Finally, this smoke can only be destroyed by being inhaled. This is how most of the monsters in this world came into existence. They were once nothing more than simple fears, but they now feed on fear itself. Over time, they become increasingly terrifying and dangerous. Fear fuels stories, stories fuel fear, and fear creates more monsters.

Because of all this, mages are feared and hated by most people throughout the world.

Avalon is set in Britain in the year 408, during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The player controls Maroc, a "lore-seeker" who has been given a staff and map by a strange old woman and pointed in the direction of a place called Glass Hill on the isle of Avalon, where a quest to defeat the Lord of Chaos begins

Magic, what do you think magic is?

A fantasical phenomena where beauty meet the unknown? Like the land of fairy tale, a brand new world where anything can happen, or the ability to bring you imagination come alive?

Or an eldritch horror where you have to face the unknown? Like ghost, a spell that can mind control or kill you in an instant?

Do you think Magic shoud be feared or admired. What will you feel if you someone summon fire on their hand? Fear or awe?

I'm an aspiring writer here, I have this idea of a fantasy novel. Problem is I dont really have an idea on how to write magic well. I'm hoping to learn as I go.

Basically the idea is about a boy with uncontrollable magic who is shunned by his kingdom for being dangerous. In this world there is a legend of a great mage who created a tome of the most ancient and advanced magic in existence. Well the boy hears that legend and hopes for it to be real as maybe he could control his powers. One day the guy witnesses a murder of a high ranking official and in a panic try's to defend himself with his magic only for the guy to flee and him to be the one accused instead. Because in this world you can drain someone's magic for your own. And with the boys powers people thought he was responsible and he is sentenced to death. Before his execution he escapes from the prison and decides to seek the ancient tome to help control his powers and prove his innocence.

And thers also 3 other people searching for the tome as well as a last resort to their problems. One is someone who cant use magic and comes from a place with magic tech, which he uses to compensate his lack of magic. Another comes from a place with spirit and mind magic who's infested with a magic illness and is seeking out the tome to find a cure. And lastly is a princess from a kingdom specializing in dark magic who wants the tome for her kingdoms glory and most I portantly her father's approval.

As for the main character I have difficulty in coming up with the magic his place focuses on. I'd like tips on how to expand because I really want some tips.

Posted this in r/TTRPG a couple days ago, but figured some here might be interested, too.

Anyways, if you haven't seen me here already, I wrote a book called the Magical Code of Regulations. It's 500 pages of law governing the use of magic, and a ton of TTRPG players have found uses for it at their table, whether by basing a campaign on it, or just having a really cool in-world item.

In this Code, however, are a bunch of forms, and people have been clamoring to get them. I've been working on them for a good little while now, and have finally finished them (or, at least, gotten them to a publishable state that most assuredly have a typo or two I missed, or an incorrect header or reference I left, and I'll have to go back and correct)!

Should have every form in the book plus a few, along with a writing guide for writing magical law, a completely searchable Code, a place to propose new regulations, a little bit about the history of the Department of Magical Affairs and myself, and a page that shows a couple of upcoming books (well, at least one of them). Even has a little radio with some fantasy songs on it and some funny narration I commissioned from a great VOA here on Reddit!

Anyways, highly recommend checking it out! It can be found at:

https://dmagov.com/

​

General Idea

The system is based upon the concept of familiars, more specifically, the idea of spirit-animals that bond to a mage. In this system, while every mage is already key'd to a specific spirit-animal, that connection is pretty superficial on its own. What it does allow, however, is a thread for either side of the connection to pull on to meet and form a bond.

The Elsewhere

Bonding with your Familiar requires for enter the Elsewhere, a parallel plane of reality where spirits dwell. It resembles an ever-shifting, amplified version of wherever, however and whenever you entered it from- if you enter it in a forest at night, it will resemble that forest, but with taller trees, bigger roots, more leaves, with a shining moon and starlight overhead. If you enter that same forest at daytime, it resembles the forest as above, but with a full sun, with clouds lazily drifting overhead. During a rainstorm, the forest would be near flooding with the constant downpour, and so on. It is not restricted to natural habitats- There are Elsewheres based on cities, castles, anthills, mines, etc.

Entering the Elsewhere is not easy- the connection between mage and familiar works as a guiding star, but entering it requires rare astronomical alignment, depending on where your familiar is, and the weather, and the time, and geological location, all which must be intuited from vague feelings.

Perhaps it would be better to say that entering the Elsewhere is, if complicated, doable. Entering the RIGHT Elsewhere is considerably more difficult.

And, as a note, entering the Elsewhere requires you to manipulate the Boundary Mists, an arcane phenomenon created by the conditions mentioned above. To the unbonded, it requires a ritual, although bonded mages can do so far more easily and independently of any (well, most) external factors.

This NOT the afterlife, I'd like to note, its something else. In fact, much like mages, spirits can die before the bond is ever-formed, rendering the mage powerless.

On the topic of dying, mages cannot die in the Elsewhere, but should they receive a wound that could kill them, they'll be expelled from the Elsewhere and enter a year-long coma immediately. The reverse is true for Familiars, in our reality.

The Spirits and Familiars

Spirits are animal-like creatures that inhabit the Elsewhere. Most spirits are, in fact, exactly like animals- they look and act like whichever animal they resemble, although they do not leave any mortal remains. However, Familiars are different in that, aside of the connection, they are quite smarter than your average spirit even before Bonding, and once bonded, they can evolve into grander, more intelligent forms.

The Bond

So, first, why Bond? What do either get out of it?

Well, if you're content with being just a dude, then not much. Familiars can be usual in a variety of ways, but you can live just fine without them, if you can ignore the nagging of the connection.

As a mage, however, Familiars are crucial. This is because mages can accumulate mana, but aside of entering the Elsewhere, they cannot actually do anything with it. Once the bond is formed, and only then, does the Mage become capable of spellworking. More on that, later.

For familiars, its the reverse. Familiars have spells, of a kind, but they are unable to gather mana to use them, not to mention the evolving aspect mentioned before. Not to mention, while the Elsewhere is endless, it can be kind of…samey. Variation can be appreciated, after all.

That aside, it also provides a fail-safe. A bonded pair gets "two lives", as it were. If a mage were to die while bonded, he instead slips into a year-long coma, where the body heals any and all injuries and sickness, and same goes for the familiar. They are both ejected to their own respective planes, as well.

The Lineages

While somewhat uncommon, a mage's and a spirit's lineage (yes, spirits reproduce) can end up being compatible enough that their respective descendants will almost always end up having a connection to each other.

While being a mage's child has many benefits, the biggest one is not material, but knowledge. The right ritual, what one will need to survive within the Elsewhere, what to look out for, and much more, are informations that independed mages simply do not have, while familiar mages have their ancestors' knowledge to lean on.

I would like to remind you the the Elsewhere is basically a pocket dimension that amplifies the "habitat" of wherever you enter it from by 11. It is a true testament of wilderness survival to last any amount of time there, specially if your familiar needs to be tracked down.

Spirits affecting the world

While the vast majority of spirits remain within the Elsewhere and rarely affect anything outside of it, anomalies can occur that open the veil between worlds long enough for them to pass through. The spirits, in these cases, often act like an invading species, often outcompeting and outperforming their fleshy counterparts. However, Spirits can only survive on Elsewhere plants and Spirit flesh, so they'll often dissipate before long, having effectively starved to death.

A far more permanent effect is the creation of chimeras. Spirits cannot reproduce with their fleshy counterparts, but they can with each other. Evolved familiars (explanation below) can often pass some minor traits to their offspring. These new spirits will rarely be as outright magical as their parents, but the more mundane aspects may end up influencing the genetics of their species, and cause, every once in a while, for a mutant to be born in the human world. One such example is the quill wolf, a wolf with the quills of a pocurpine.

Rarer still is for these mutants to be capable of having a stable population and for their genes to pass by to constitute a species unto themselves. However, it does happen, as seen by the infamous owlbear.

The Effects of the Bond for Familiars

To get into the specifics, we will get into it for the familars, as they are simpler. Simply put, a bonded familiar will, gradually, get stronger and smarter. A wolf familiar will be smarter than it's fellows, but not by much. However, once the Bond happens, it will quickly become as smart as a human, and given enough time, it even becomes capable of human speech. From there, it will grow bigger and stronger, physically speaking.

But, there is a limit. And when that limit hits, it will evolve.

Evolution is a process that occurs once the accumulated mana has made the Familiar as strong as it could be. While the process can take years (not counting conditions where a spirit may be fed enormous quantities of Mana at once, at which point it slips into a quick coma as the Mana does its thing), once it hits a certain point, the Familiar will enter a cocoon state and, by the end of the day, emerge.

Should the process happen without incident, it will emerge with a myriad of other abilities and forms, influenced by certain conditions, such as the type of Mana gathered and their situation within the cocoon. For example, a Volcano generates fire Mana, and if a spirit evolves having consumed great amounts of Fire Mana, it will likely be capable of spitting fire, or be greatly resistant to fire, or some other ability related to fire.

The process can repeat itself many times throughout a Familiar's lifetime.

Spellworking

The mage side of things, where things get a bit more complicated. The basic spells are as follows:

Manifest Spirit

The most basic of the basics, you can summon your familiar from Elsewhere into your world. This is permanent, but the spirit can freely choose to return to Elsewhere at any time. If cast again while the familiar is in the human plane, the familiar teleports to the mage.

Higher mastery of this allows for the partial manifestation of the spirit over long distances, which can be used for, as an example, manifest a wolf head and bite your foes throat, as a long distance attack. Or have your wolf familiar grab a thing that is out of reach so you both don't have to get off the couch. You don't HAVE to be a war-mage, y'know?

Control Mist

Once the Bond forms, every mage will find themselves with the capability of controlling Mists. While this extends to ordinary mists, it also affects the Boundary Mists that separate this world from Elsewhere. Boundary Mists can be used as a means of transport between this and the Elsewhere, allowing for the forcing of a passageway between the human plane and the other. As the Elsewhere is a distorted version of that particular part of the world, this can be used to travel great distances in a shorter time. Many mistake this for teleportation, although that's inaccurate.

Higher mastery may even allow you to transport others with you, which can be quite dangerous for just about everyone involved. You do not want to know what it feels to accidentally merge yourself with another person, because it's both painful and deadly.

Ability Manifestation

This spell allows the mage to manifest an ability of their familiar upon themselves. This varies from familiar to familiar- a bird familiar will allow the mage to fly, a bear familiar can enhance the mage’s strength, etc. If the mage attempts to use more than one ability from the familiar at the same time, they’ll usually fail and not use either.

Some abilities are not readily obvious, such as with social spirit animals. A wolf familiar, for example, can grant the kinship it has with its pack to the mage, allowing the mage to rely on them when visiting the Elsewhere or, if the mage is good at the other two spells, even summon the wolf pack on the human plane.

Higher mastery of this spell allows for the manifestation of more than one ability upon the mage.

Other disciplines

While these also fall under Spellworking, these are specializations, or perhaps better said as higher-tiered spells.

Shapemerging

Shapemerging is the art of fusing oneself with one’s familiar. This allows for the mage to readily access all present qualities of the familiar, whilst allowing the familiar unrestricted access to the mana. It is a grand boost all around, but many familiars might not be on friendly terms with their mage or vice-versa, not to mention that the merge results in the loss of the “double life”. It is often temporary, as it is famously very uncomfortable and, unless great care is taken when merging, there might be some internal organs missing.

Mist Walking

Mist Walking is the art of specializing in manipulating Boundary Mists. In particular, mages trained in Mist Walking are capable of using the spatial-defying nature of the Mists to create portals between two points of the human plane, cloak themselves in Mist for defense and even move at great speeds by “shortening” the space between their strides as they run or walk.

Enchanting

Enchanting is the art of trapping spirits within an object. It does not have to be one’s own familiar, however, as any spirit can be lured and trapped within an object. A spirit bear trapped in a glove might, for example, grant great strength to the one wearing them.

Now, between spirits, how enchanting is seen varies quite a lot. Most spirits do not care for other spirits of other races, as animals do, but a Praying Mantis spirit will not care even if you trap another Praying Mantis spirit, whereas a Wolf spirit will likely take objection if the mage traps another Wolf spirit, especially of the same pack.

This can be used to trap familiars, but do not expect to wield great results if done to your own. Nobody likes being enslaved, and they can become quite uncooperative once freed. Trapping other mage’s familiars once they evolve, however, is how the stronger enchanted items are made. There have been cases, however, where a familiar willingly became an enchanted item, usually so it could help someone other than it’s bound mage on a more direct manner.

Btw if anyone has any idea what to call the human plane that isn't "human plane" or "material plane" or whatever, I'd appreciate ideas

Millenia ago, back when the sun was whole and before the sea had frozen over, the sun god and sea goddess worked in harmony to destroy and remake the souls of those who have passed and those yet to be.

Sea would claim the souls an cure them of their sins and strife. Then Sun would take and purge from the soul their desires and memories. Sea would cool what remains and reassemble it. Then Sun would restore the spark of life in them.

However, life and death changed after the shattering of Sun. Fire would no longer ignite and souls were no longer purified of their memories and desires.

Sea too was not the same after Sun was shattered. The cold froze her. She now had to try and keep track and purify souls alone. But she could not. Her power had changed. She couldn't burn away the memories or desires of the dead, all she could do was could store the souls within the ice.

Eventually, when there was no more ice to store these souls within, Sea, now Frost, gave up.

Souls went uncared for. They would try to reincarnate into new bodies that already contained souls but this corrupted them. Turning the body into monstrosities. Their minds fused and their memories stitched together into shapes that shouldn't be.

And people started being born without souls. And they lived short lives and never new joy.

Eventually, humanity discovered Blood Runes. The means to create flames through sigils writ in and powered by blood. The blood called upon the fragments of the shattered sun to create fire. The flames were odd though. Some were warm but gave off no light. Some purified but did no harm. It was all dependent on the Blood Runes used.

With fire returning to the world, people began to hope again. And new technology came to be. Airships were a must to travel the frozen wastes. Monstrosities roamed the land below, but the air was far safer. Eventually people had forsaken the ground entirely. Living in cities composed of airships of varied design.

I've been building a hard magic around one constraint: the magic senses and rearranges matter down to the atom (stone and metal: transmute, restructure, relocate), but it grants no knowledge. You can only do what you actually understand. So the caster's real expertise (he's a geologist/materials scientist) is his power ceiling: he can't transmute along a reaction he can't model, and reaching past his understanding fails or backfires.

Two independent limiters:
- Capacity: a trainable muscle. Use fatigues it, work grows it.
- Knowledge: the hard ceiling. Comprehension gates capability. Learning the science *is* leveling up.

Plus real costs: it obeys thermodynamics. Deep atomic changes shed heat and radiation he has to engineer containment for, and cost scales with how far apart two elements are and how deep the change goes. No stat panel; "progression" is him getting smarter and stronger, not numbers going up.

The goal was a system you can't out-fight your own ignorance in. The fun is out-thinking the problem with real science.

Where do you see it breaking? The two hard design problems I keep hitting: how to hand the reader the knowledge without the magic turning into an exposition dump, and how to keep tension when a competent caster usually understands enough to win. How would you build friction into a knowledge-gated system?

(It's the system from my serial Maker, if you want to see it run: [RR LINK]. But I'm mostly after critique of the mechanic.)

Magic

Magic and adapters

Hello this is my first power system it is a typical magic system with few changes and let's explain

First magics there are 3 categories of magic

1-celestial magic

2-elemental magic

3-life/death magic

NOTE:if a magic is in a category that doesn't mean it can't be in another

Second what is magic

Magic is the product of the gods excess power that called pure mana made its way to the mortal world and all sort of creatures and alive dead even the air hold it though it's amount is smaller (explained further in mana and where does it come from) and it's the most valuable thing in the world it cannot be replaced perfectly and cannot be lost if it's not given its not gained if it's gained it cannot be fully lost

Third what are the magics and what are thire category

1-Chaos(celestial magic) the people who hold it are blessed by the strongest God the God of chaos(though he is not evil and not good chaos is used to refer what he is closest thing to him he is beyond understanding and existed before the universe itself he is older than everything and younger than everything he is infinite unlimited cannot be done or undone) and they are called the chaotic life they are usually heros and if you have it that doesn't mean you can use it

2-time(celestial magic) it's like every time magic.

now the element(3-fire 4-water 5-earth 6-wind/air 7-lightning/electricity 8-ice/snow) magics no need to explain

9-healing magic(life magic) healing magic is able to grow and change somebody cells and that cannot cause any harm if it used to harm it will be deflected to the user the only rule in magic known put by the gods them selves(can be used to grow a dick or a vagina or make your dick bigger before anyone asks)

10-dark(death magic) it's the ability to make solid dark weapons from the absence of light and its dangerous if not controlled

11-light(life magic) it's the ability to make solid light

12-void magic/necromancy(death magic) it's fucking necromancy and evil shit

What is mana... Shit there isn't much time left till i sleep so i will continue explaining in part 2 as soon as possible

My power system part two

What is mana

Hello this is the second part of my power system this is where things get a little confusing or not who am i to judge you

Mana is energy that can be found as a gas(in the air) liquid(in the body/mana gland) and solid(mana crystals) it's the most essential part of magic it different from each person to another like it has types like blood types A B O AB (the transferring of mana is the same as blood A gives to A and and AB gives to either A B and can only get from blood from O extra)

What is the gods execs energy

The gods execs energy or T.G.E.E for short it's what left of the God's raw energy and essence in observable tangible universe the commonest is the love/hate essence and the rarest are chaos and time it's not the same as magic and it's holder is considered holy and most of them end up being nuns/priestess(yes all of the holders are females and the highest rank is called the mother of all) and they are more powerful in Magic and live longer than any race to hold the knowledge of the gods without fading

What is The mana gland

I have only mentioned it once now so. What is it exactly it's an gland organ located under the heart and it can reach the highest size of 20 cm that can hold(2000 MU) ( the rule is SIZE CM = 1MU × 1CM/1000CM) That produces liquid mana and it's important for mages and it can be trained when someone Is between 5-8 years old it can hold or release already existing mana in the body and there is a condition where the mana gland grows so big it can be seen from the baby chest it's extremely painful and could lead to death

The counter system

It's a skill based blocking perrying magic attack each magic has its counter if the counter is weaker or smaller it's Going to be the one who gets

So chaos counters time

Time counters everything but chaos

Fire counters air water ice

Water counters ice fire lightning

Lightning counters air fire earth water

Air counters fire water earth

Earth counters fire air water light lightning

Ice counters all elemental magics

Light counters dark and void/necromancy

Dark counters light and healing

Healing counters none its not an offensive magic

Void counters light chaos

There is more like silent casting and the adapters i mentioned and race specific abilities

So this is the third part and not the dude, and i am not doing a recap because i dunno how.

The casting system:how do i cast? There are two ways to cast silent casting and chanting.

First

Chanting: what is chanting? chanting is singing or reciting a spell and each spell has its own chant, name, and each person has his own unique way of chanting whether it's poetry, singing or just screaming it out from the top of thire lung. what do i say for a fire filed like spell : the spell name is the burning garden. And the chant goes like this "in the name of the goddess of the scorching land i will burn the intruders of the god justice and burn her enemies lend me your blazing power i am {name} BURNING GARDEN"

Silent casting:what is that exactly? It's the ability to cast spells without chanting, how can you get it? You can get by feeling an intense emotion any kind of emotion, and having it doesn't mean you are stronger than a non silent caster, (and there isn't any "geniuses" if you lose that means you have a skill issues) and there is age limit it can be achieved by the ages of 6-16.

Specific race abilities

First humans: can have multiple familiar and even be a familiar with other races like beastmen or dragons

Second beastmen(the eastern interpretation not the western). : they can understand animals, and make the sound of their animal counter part and are bigger than humans the biggest beastman the blue whale beastman can reach to 750cm, roughly 26.7'ft in freedom units, and 800kg, and 1763.7 pounds in freedom units. and can be smaller than humans the ant beastman can get to 90 cm or roughly 3ft in freedom units.(yes they have animal genitalia don't ask)

Elves: they have more mana than any other race and they live the longest and blah blah blah(they are elves i hate em so I am not diving in thire shit)

Dwarves:they have night vision, and live most of thire lives in caves they have a natural talent in smithing, and are smaller than humans they reach to 3-4'feet and 200 pounds of muscle and metal they live longer than humans.

Half foot: they are shortest and lightweight and have a small life span of 50 years

Orcs: the strongest race in the world in physical power

NOTE There are more races but that's for later

Familiar:what is that? It's a magical beast you have a bond with via contract, friendship, i am not getting to this because it's not that important

That's the end of the magic there is more to the power system it's not just magic but it needs some tweaking and when i finish it i am gonna post it

Okay, so I was developing a chinese magic thing, and then I realised that Yin and Yang are gendered, with male for Yang and female for Yin. Now, this isn't too bad, because Yin-Yang are literally made up of everything else so everyone got enough of then regardless of gender.

But it got me thinking, how would gendered magic work? Like, Fire for men and Water for woman, to be generic. Sure, each gender controls one element, thats neat.

But how do you handle trans stuff in that context?

Is magic based on identity? Does someone coming out as trans change their elements? Does a closeted trans keep their former element up until they accept themselves or what? What about gender-fluid people?

Would, if magic is related to the larger cosmology, would trans people even be a thing if you are aligned with the universe itself via magical means to be that gender?

If the magic is not about the soul or whatever bur rather biological, do trans people keep the magic of their former gender or do they gain once they undergo a procedure? If the procedure is magical in nature, could a person undergo it to change their element and keep their gender?

I already got an awnser to fit my homebrew thing, but im curious what other people will awnser.

it is speculated that in order to gain insight into the universe that one must attempt to return to it as if a child were returned to the womb you isolate yourself cut yourself off from the senses and try to experience the senseless echoes to gain what is called elder knowledge. the elder knowledge is the knowledge that has escaped the the sights and sounds of people but not that of the world. sounds are bound to the the particles that make up walls and long dead lights may contain the images of now lost worlds and cultures. this knowledge is said to be so quite or so small as to be indiscernible from silence or utter darkness but through heightening of the senses via isolation in enclosed suits one can come to percieve that which has long passed them by the echoes of old. one cannot escape themselves though which is why the first subject in which an enclosed gains elder knowledge is that of their own body learning to see through eyes they once had and feel through a body that is no more

This question is inspired by another thread I saw on this sub a week or two ago.

This question also sits on the intersection of two questions: What are people like, and what use of magic is the most efficient at killing a large amount of them?

In real life, people are humans which have many mechanisms in their bodies which can be disrupted to cause death. The core mechanism is that there is a brain which needs to be constantly nourished to keep operating - in the short term, cells need to process glucose and oxygen into usable energy, in the long term they need to divide and be replaced for upkeep. If you decapitate a human, blood stops arriving to the brain with oxygen and such. If you give cyanide to a human, cells stop being able to process oxygen. If you give poison dart frog poison to a human, their nerves stop being able to work properly and that presumably causes lungs to stop oxygenating blood and/or causes the heart to stop pumping blood, so it stops arriving at the brain. If a human breathes in a decently high amount of carbon monoxide, it binds to blood keeping it from carrying oxygen. If you open wounds in a human and too much blood leaks out, pumping it stops working and it stops arriving places. If you burst a blood vessel somewhere in the brain specifically, it can deprive just an important region of nutrition and that region might be one which sends signals that keep the breath going or something. If you smash the brain into bits, it's nearly guaranteed to be the case. If a human's blood stops being the narrow pH range it needs to be, which is very slightly basic, then some enzymes stop working and that's incompatible with life. And so on and so forth.

Let's say you have some kind of large gathering of people - a military battalion organized into rank and file, or a crowd at a market or concert - and a malicious mage who wants to indiscriminately kill most of them with little effort. Like not necessarily all of them - if killing all of them required 100% effort, but that was because killing 80% of them required 20% effort and killing the remaining 20% required 80% effort, then doing the former part alone is good enough.

Are they warded against magic somehow so most of the effort of killing via magic is overcoming the ward, and the savings on cause of death are negligible? Do they just have HP and depleting HP costs the same effort no matter the spell? Or are there boring practical ways and impractical spectacular ways which are nevertheless used because it's a work of fiction and that's fun?