The Nature of Magic

[IlyaP]

Something I've been thinking about lately, that I was hoping to discuss with fellow readers of the fantastic: what is the origin/source of magic in varying texts?

Take for example Dragonlance, where Raistlen casts spells by reading out loud from a book, suggesting that magic is learned, rather than some innate/genetic ability, not unlike the writers of worlds in the Myst books and games - which is quite unlike the wizards depicted in Patricia McKillip's Od Magic, where magic - the ability to warp reality, physics, read minds, shapeshift, etc., are all based on a genetic lottery, not unlike channelling in The Wheel of Time (TWoT). And even that has forever reminded me of Star Warsian force powers - an ability to manipulate nature due to some form of energy or current that we cannot see that somehow exists around us.

But then, in contrast to that, in Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell (JS&MN), it seems as though magic is inherently "democratic" if one can access the faerie realm, which somehow supplies it to magicians. Yet in other texts, like Matt Stover's Acts of Caine, magic is seemingly thaumaturgic, and essentially a boon or link from a deity. It seems to me as if all too often, the logic, or explanation behind it is kept intentionally vague (see also: A Song of Ice and Fire), a thaumaturgic link (viz. Lord of the Rings, Acts of Caine), gifted from another realm (JS&MN), or accessed via objects (Guenhwyvar in the Drizzt novels, ter'angreal in TWoT, etc.).

And then there are the andat in Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet, where a very specific, function-driven idea can be given physical form, but that manifestation is a mixture of the thinker's personality, the andat's personality as it ages after being brought into existence, and the nature of the idea itself. The quartet never explained why only some people could (seemingly) will andats into being and others couldn't, nor the realm(?) from which they were summoned. It was a wholly unique approach (to the best of my knowledge) to the idea of magic.

I'm coming at this from a quasi-academic perspective, on account of the many, many years spent in academia, but I've long been interested in this, as - if we contrast this with, say, science-fiction novels, where there is a technology or existing physics system that allows for the creation of devices and machines that gift users with the ability to, say, fly faster, or build space colonies, or build computers, etc.

My best friend and I have discussed this at length, and we haven't been able to come to a decisive conclusion around this, but what we're both interested in trying to make sense of, for ourselves, as lovers of fantastic literature, is what magic *is*. Obviously, different authors will have different ideas. And there is of course the distinction between magic and magick, which adds further layers of interpretation.

So what makes magic work? And from where does it originate?

(This is obviously something that could well and truly be a massive grad paper, if not a PhD, which is not the purpose here. I'm more interested in the thoughts others have, based on what they've read, studied, and how they approach this question.)

[One-Winged Balrog]

Are you interested in Watsonian or Doylist types of explanations? Doylist is a more interesting side to explore, IMO. From purely in-universe POV, magic can be anything the writer wants.

But what makes us, as readers, like magic?

On one hand, we like magic to be mysterious and supernatural. Supernatural, by definition, is above nature. Out of ordinary. Hard to understand. Dangerous.

On the other hand, we want magic to to be empowering. We want to be the ones throwing the fireball at the ogre. So magic should be something you rely upon, a source of advantage.

On the third hand (a wizard did it!), we also want magic scrolls, magic schools and hard, throbbing magic systems. In other words, we want magic to be technology with fantasy aesthetics.

There is a contradiction here. Combining all these qualities in a single work might be impossible.

[shortstark]

Interesting, what grabs me though is the mention of Andats, which to me is the most imaginative take on magic I think I have ever come across. 

[Underfoot]

19 hours ago, IlyaP said:

  And then there are the andat in Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet, where a very specific, function-driven idea can be given physical form, but that manifestation is a mixture of the thinker's personality, the andat's personality as it ages after being brought into existence, and the nature of the idea itself. The quartet never explained why only some people could (seemingly) will andats into being and others couldn't, nor the realm(?) from which they were summoned. It was a wholly unique approach (to the best of my knowledge) to the idea of magic.

This is one of my favorite magic systems from some of my favorite books ever, and think it is actually fairly well explained. Poets take natural concepts like the idea that water flows down and wrap that idea into text, binding that concept into a physical form. That concept could only be bound as an andat once, and many andats were "wasted" (created and then released) early on, so it became more and more difficult to find/describe a concept that could bind something useful. That's why those magic users were called poets, they were trained in logic and creativity and history (via questionable methods) to find a new way to bring a force of nature into andat form. 

I don't remember exactly how andats were passed on from one poet to another, but the andat was bound to a poet, so if the poet died the andat was freed. The poet could also pass it down or free it themselves. 

Very cool idea

 

[Kyll.Ing.]

I've given the idea some thought over the years. If I ever were to write a piece of fiction with a magical setting, it would work somewhat like this:

Magic is the manifestation of willpower. It is a means to make something imagined happen. It can be done by conjuring objects, energy, or forces, or by teleportation or transformation or a few other basic mechanisms.

However, the difficult part is to precisely define what you want to happen, and how. The way from willpower to reality is full of intricacies that must be taken care of, otherwise nothing happens or something will go spectacularly wrong. Say for instance that you want a piece of wood to levitate. You can't just cancel gravity's affection of the wood, then it would just remain on the floor until acted on by an external force. Invert gravity? Now it accelerates upwards instead. Lifting it in some way, then? By what force? Tension from above, compression from underneath? A single vector on the centre of gravity, or a uniform force spread across its entire volume? How to balance the force so the wood stops in mid-air, never mind so it stops spinning? Cancelling out velocity and rotation is tricky business. Now imagine it with a non-rigid object, like a cloak. Or a clot of cream. Tricky business.

In short, doing magic would be very similar to programming. The magician works in a physics engine, and would have to define precisely what they want to happen, like a programmer coding a video game or setting up a multiphysics simulation. 

Fortunately, programmers don't work with ones and zeroes. There are existing frameworks to work within on almost every level, from the basic machine code to operating systems, to programming languages, to code packages for each programming language. And even some visual code tools and libraries to assemble code out of pre-existing parts, rather than having to write everything from the ground up.

Likewise with magic, there would be similar frameworks set up by arcane researchers of the past, ways to channel raw magic through words, and languages of those words that could be used to cast spells (that is, multiple languages could effectively work the same magic using entirely different words - like how Dutch and Chinese could both be used to make the exact same detailed descriptions of an object, even though they sound nothing alike). And then there could be further refinements of words and phrases into commands of stunning complexity despite the simple nature of the triggering word - for instance, like how a computer responds to the simple string "format C://". 

In other words, an aspiring spellcaster would need to learn a language, with its list of commands and the structure of how to give them. Commands would have to be given in a set order depending on the language (just keep in mind how something as simple as an "if" loop looks very different depending on what program you use to define it). But with mastery of a language, pretty much everything is possible. Or, well, there are always limitations, and that would also be something a spellcaster would have to learn.

Building up a magical system of one's own is like building software from the ground up - a challenge for the master of the arcane, but technically doable. Self-taught magicians would be very rare, however, and rarely able to do anything intricate unless they've really thought things through (as shown above, even the simplest task can be intricate if you break it down). Forget making skulls talk, conjuring an army of demons, or transforming ropes into snakes. A "raw" magician might just be able to create blasts of force or heat, with very little precision. 

I've thought of a few other aspects of my magical system, but this is enough of a ramble already that I think I'll stop here for now.

[shortstark]

7 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

I've given the idea some thought over the years. If I ever were to write a piece of fiction with a magical setting, it would work somewhat like this:

Magic is the manifestation of willpower. It is a means to make something imagined happen. It can be done by conjuring objects, energy, or forces, or by teleportation or transformation or a few other basic mechanisms.

However, the difficult part is to precisely define what you want to happen, and how. The way from willpower to reality is full of intricacies that must be taken care of, otherwise nothing happens or something will go spectacularly wrong. Say for instance that you want a piece of wood to levitate. You can't just cancel gravity's affection of the wood, then it would just remain on the floor until acted on by an external force. Invert gravity? Now it accelerates upwards instead. Lifting it in some way, then? By what force? Tension from above, compression from underneath? A single vector on the centre of gravity, or a uniform force spread across its entire volume? How to balance the force so the wood stops in mid-air, never mind so it stops spinning? Cancelling out velocity and rotation is tricky business. Now imagine it with a non-rigid object, like a cloak. Or a clot of cream. Tricky business.

In short, doing magic would be very similar to programming. The magician works in a physics engine, and would have to define precisely what they want to happen, like a programmer coding a video game or setting up a multiphysics simulation. 

Fortunately, programmers don't work with ones and zeroes. There are existing frameworks to work within on almost every level, from the basic machine code to operating systems, to programming languages, to code packages for each programming language. And even some visual code tools and libraries to assemble code out of pre-existing parts, rather than having to write everything from the ground up.

Likewise with magic, there would be similar frameworks set up by arcane researchers of the past, ways to channel raw magic through words, and languages of those words that could be used to cast spells (that is, multiple languages could effectively work the same magic using entirely different words - like how Dutch and Chinese could both be used to make the exact same detailed descriptions of an object, even though they sound nothing alike). And then there could be further refinements of words and phrases into commands of stunning complexity despite the simple nature of the triggering word - for instance, like how a computer responds to the simple string "format C://". 

In other words, an aspiring spellcaster would need to learn a language, with its list of commands and the structure of how to give them. Commands would have to be given in a set order depending on the language (just keep in mind how something as simple as an "if" loop looks very different depending on what program you use to define it). But with mastery of a language, pretty much everything is possible. Or, well, there are always limitations, and that would also be something a spellcaster would have to learn.

Building up a magical system of one's own is like building software from the ground up - a challenge for the master of the arcane, but technically doable. Self-taught magicians would be very rare, however, and rarely able to do anything intricate unless they've really thought things through (as shown above, even the simplest task can be intricate if you break it down). Forget making skulls talk, conjuring an army of demons, or transforming ropes into snakes. A "raw" magician might just be able to create blasts of force or heat, with very little precision. 

I've thought of a few other aspects of my magical system, but this is enough of a ramble already that I think I'll stop here for now.

You are partially describing Bakkers magic system with the use of precise language both spoken and thought to conjure  a thing, with the gnosis going further by conjuring the essence of the thing itself.. classic example instead of a dragon breathing fire you get fire in it's pure form.. Bakkers calls it utteral and inutteral, with a more advanced form using a second inutteral to  teleport.. fascinating...

[Zorral]

Ursula Le Guin's magical systems in her Earthsea books are more than satisfactory:

https://earthsea.fandom.com/wiki/Magic

Quote

Magic is a supernatural force controlled by Old Speech and to a lesser extent spells spoken in Hardic runes. There are various practitioners: Weather workers: Those who are wind bringers and with power to control the weather, summon mage wind and tame the sea and the winds.

https://wethenerdy.com/the-magic-of-earthsea/

Quote

 

Magical power stems from having an innate gift or affinity for sorcery, but also an arduous schooling process, in which male wizards learn the true language. This language, spoken by dragons, is what is referred to as the “language of the making”—To know someone or something’s true name is to have power over them or it. So, each person is given a “use name” as well as learning their true name from a wizard in a naming ceremony. Words, being the ultimate source of power, create a straightforward metaphor for identity; names are hidden out of fear of vulnerability, given as nicknames or signifiers, taken and reclaimed by characters, and some characters choose to make their true name known to all, rising above fear itself.

Being that magic within Earthsea is dependent upon the knowledge of another language, it is difficult to exploit, and a privilege to learn; the use of magic is thus limited to a mage’s knowledge of a language that they can never be fluent in.