How I Write: Cohesive Magic

In a fantasy setting, magic is woven into the very fabric of the world. But this only matters if the reader can feel it in the writing.

I've touched on Magic before in my article about Believable Technology, but it's an important enough subject for its own article. (Not to mention, I get asked about my thought processes behind my own magic a lot, so I'm writing this in part to have somewhere to point to!)

Foundations of Magic

The first item on the agenda is to determine the foundations of your own magic. No, this isn't the part where you write about your world's creation myth for how magic came to be. This is where you set the foundations for how your world recognizes and interacts with magic.

And the best part? It really comes down to three important questions:

1. How available in magic?
2. How cheap is magic?
3. How acceptable is magic?

That's it. Your answer to those three questions will flavor everything about how your setting interacts with its magic, regardless of whatever specifics you set for your system.

Magic Availability

Availability doesn't just mean who can cast it, but also how they learn to be good at it. If anyone can become a mage but the training is difficult, expensive, or dangerous, magic may be much less available than a world where only a fraction of the population can use it, but those who can just know how on instinct.

Is magic available to everyone? Anyone who puts their mind to it? Only those bitten by a radioactive raccoon? Does it require a post-doctorate education? Political connections? Illegal research? A wanton disregard for one's own survival?

Who and what determines whether or not someone can use magic, and how available is that pathway to the average person?

Magic Cost

As with availability, this doesn't refer only to monetary costs. If someone can do amazing, fantastical things with their mind just by moving a pinky finger, but it takes a piece of their soul every time, that's still a high cost.

Education also comes into play when determining the cost of magic. Higher costs to learn generally mean a higher cost for others to gain access to those who know the skills, at least to a point. If lessons are monetarily expensive, or if they are dangerous, then the percentage of the population who knows those skills will be lower. This makes them either more expensive to hire or harder to locate.

Likewise, if magic is readily available and highly instinctual, such as a planet populated entirely by different kinds of superheroes, then its cost is likely low and magic will be visible everywhere.

Magic Acceptability

This is where a setting's cultures come into play. How acceptable is magic to the people living in the world? Are those who practice lauded as heroes or prosecuted as criminals? Are they valued for their contributions to society or proclaimed lazy for their refusal to do things in more traditional ways? Or perhaps magic is the expected solution to everything, and those who don't practice are the ones who face ridicule?

The cost and availability of magic play heavily into here, as well. If the costs are high for those around the mage, such as if magic causes permanent changes or pollution, there will be pushback, particularly from those who can't cast magic. Maybe magic users have to hide their abilities from the rest of the world, because the rest of the world has forgotten about magic? Maybe mages are persecuted because of distrust from the general population, or perhaps they've taken control of the government and it's those who cannot use magic who are persecuted.

Impacts

From here, it's time to analyze how the people of a setting interact with magic and those who can use it. 

If magic is accessible, cheap, and acceptable, it's going to be found in every facet of society, particularly if it proves easier than more traditional technologies. From magic teapots that heat water, to magic modes of transportation, if there's a way to do it magically someone probably figured it out.

If magic is rare, expensive, and shunned, on the other hand, it might have minor to no impact on the development of the world. More traditional technologies will typically rule here, although of course there will always be the fringes where someone with the means and motivation will lean on magic in an attempt to stand out. Perhaps there are even special technologies crafted to deal with the effects of magic, or the punishment of errant mages.

Or perhaps the world falls somewhere in the middle, with magic serving to either augment the technologies of the world, or providing a whole alternative existence behind everyday existence, for those who know how to look.

This is the foundation on which I build my magic.

Magic Classifications

When classifying magic, it's important to keep in mind that "magic classes" are not for magic's benefit, they're for ours.

People like to categorize things. Everything is a lot to take in at once. But if we put it into labeled boxes we can talk more easily talk about things we don't understand, and focus in on certain aspects of things without feeling overwhelmed by the whole.

Who are Magic Classes for?

The main concern when beginning to choose categories is to decide the audience. Are they for the reader? Or the characters? Because this makes a difference.

For the Reader

Categories for a reader will be based on how they work. They can deal in absolutes, because the author has created this world and so gets to set all the rules. The characters may not understand all the rules, or even know what they are. Perhaps they misunderstand how things work.

None of that matters when classifying for the reader. The system is absolute. The reader will know all. 

This method is better geared toward harder magic systems, where the rules are firm and defined.

For the Characters

If, on the other hand, those categories are set based upon how the people of the world understand magic to work, then the categorization can be little more than the tip of the iceberg. The narrator is faulty, and so is the classification. 

This method leans into the characters' relationships with magic, both with how they use it and how they understand it. Softer magic systems benefit from this focus, as it allows magic to retain its sense of wonder and uncertainty. It also leaves more room for surprises when things don't work exactly as expected.

Vazdimet

I use a character-centric approach to my magic classifications in Vazdimet. The eras of Vazdimet and Fillimet use the same magic system, but reclassified based upon further discoveries in the space age about one of the sources of magic's power. 

As a result, Vazdimet's classifications are completely different and built entirely around this new discovery. (They've also realized magnetism is not actually magic, and have forgotten some of the less-useful-in-space abilities that were commonplace in Fillimet).

I like using a character-focused view on my magic, as that allows me to show magic growing and changing as societies grow and change. But there are benefits to both systems.

Flavors of Magic

All that's left now is to decide the flavors of your magic. This is what determines how magic feels, both to the world and the reader.

Is it mysterious and little understood? Then perhaps it's best to only define a layer or two below what's needed for the story, and leave the rest to the imagination.

Is magic focused on a specific aspect of the world? Combat or divination or necromancy? Then lean into how that would impact the world, and its perception of those who practice magic.

Does the world have a stereotypical magic system, similar to those used in a lot of TTRPGs? This will have many predefined classes, tropes, and expectations, which an author can freely choose follow or subvert as desired.

In Vazdimet, magic is treated very much like a technology, with its own laws and sources of power. This means it's less about wonder and more about practicality, and how it can be used in every facet of life.

Whatever flavor is chosen will color the emotions of both the magic and the world in which it exists.

Magic and Technology

It wouldn't be one of my articles if I didn't write something about using magic as a technology. You can read in more detail in my article, "How I Write: Believable Technology," but here's a quick list of things to keep in mind.

Magic's prevalence in technology is highly dependent upon a variety of factors.

• What are the strengths and limitations of Magic versus traditional tech? What are the costs?
• What are the cultural opinions and meanings behind each?
• Which is more readily accessible? Easiest? Cheapest? 
• Which has the smallest repercussions to use? To abuse?
• What causes the smallest impact if it goes wrong?
• How well is each understood?

Not all of these will apply to every situation, but it's a useful list to consider when writing a world where both co-exist. One of my favorite parts of fantasy is exploring the ways magic and technology can merge and intertwine. Just because medieval is often considered the default setting doesn't mean it has to be.

Summary

And there you have it. You are now armed with all the building blocks I use to construct my magic systems: understanding how a magic fits into the world, who I'm classifying it for, and how I want it to feel. 

Vazdimet is a high-magic science fantasy setting, so I get to consider how magic and traditional tech compliment each other when it comes to space travel and modern day conveniences, and it really gives my world a unique flavor of its own.

May you find your own flavors to color the pages of your world. Happy writing!