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Notable Fantasy Magic Systems?


aimlessgun

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Terry Pratchett's Small Gods--magical power comes from communal beliefs. whatever everyone believes in becomes possible.

Black Jewels Trilogy--magical powers have ranks which correspond to jewel colors. One is born with a certain power of magic, and can upgrade up to 3 ranks when they come of age.

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Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion universe has interesting divine magic. People, called "saints," are able to channel the will of the gods to achieve a specific task. This is often a temporary state and once the task is finished, they can no longer do anything out of the ordinary.

A person cannot study or worship his way to sainthood, these saints are chosen by the gods for two things: their suitability for the specific task at hand and their openness/emptiness or willingness to surrender their will to the gods.

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Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion universe has interesting divine magic. People, called "saints," are able to channel the will of the gods to achieve a specific task. This is often a temporary state and once the task is finished, they can no longer do anything out of the ordinary.

A person cannot study or worship his way to sainthood, these saints are chosen by the gods for two things: their suitability for the specific task at hand and their openness/emptiness or willingness to surrender their will to the gods.

With every additional book Lois McMaster Bujold added to her Chalion universe, there comes a new type of magic:

Book 2 added Sorcery, which means using a demon to get magical things done (always by promoting disorder, for such is nature of demons). This is a form of possession, and one always runs the risk of the demon taking over...

Book 3 adds the slightly safer Shamanism, which means using an animal spirit to get magical things done (like giving people orders they have to obey).

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Weis and Hickman's Death Gate Cycle made use of two opposing magic systems used by two powerful and warring races the Sartans and the Patryns. Both use runes and symbols but while the Sartan system is augmented by singing and dance, the Patryns use tattoos which cover their bodies. While very powerful (the Sartans divide the Earth into multiple worlds, the process of which causes much chaos and destruction) these magic systems are somewhat offset by the universe's need for balance.

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With every additional book Lois McMaster Bujold added to her Chalion universe, there comes a new type of magic:

Book 2 added Sorcery, which means using a demon to get magical things done (always by promoting disorder, for such is nature of demons). This is a form of possession, and one always runs the risk of the demon taking over...

Book 3 adds the slightly safer Shamanism, which means using an animal spirit to get magical things done (like giving people orders they have to obey).

Yes, and I have heard that there may be more books in the series. There is also one "spell" called death magic, IIRC, that anyone can do (meaning they don't have to be saints) but I forget the details. It can only be done under certain conditions and the caster dies as well as the person on whom the death magic is used.

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M. Rawn, J. Roberson, K. Elliot: The Golden Key

Magic is done by painting.

One of best co-operations makes a great read from otherwise average authors. After more than a decade,
another book is on the way
(yes, our dear George has not the reached top of this ladder...yet). Somehow doubt it will have the quality of The Golden Key.

You have more information on this?

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And they keep coming! Added a list at the front so people don't have to dig through the thread to avoid repeats (though additional description is always welcome! Wikipedia is often short on it :( )

When I think fantasy+industrial revolution, I think steampunk.

Ah, I was more thinking of magic basically replacing technology and revolutionizing society in a way that was similar to the industrial revolution in our world.

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And they keep coming! Added a list at the front so people don't have to dig through the thread to avoid repeats (though additional description is always welcome! Wikipedia is often short on it :( )

Ah, I was more thinking of magic basically replacing technology and revolutionizing society in a way that was similar to the industrial revolution in our world.

Ian R. MacLeod's The Light Ages, where the industrial revolution is powered by Aether, a magical substance that does stuff.

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Patricia Mckillip's Land-Rule magic is quite interesting (appears in the Riddle-master trilogy). A land's ruler gets magics and powers that coincide with the nature of his domain. Upon his death, the power moves to his heir.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman's Chapel Hollow characters use a basic elemental magic system (air-water-fire-earth), but she pulls it off quite well.

Eric Nylund's characters in Pawn's Dream have a duality based magic system;

Every caster uses a standard fantasy magic discipline - Necromancy, Fire, etc. but everything works on dualities. For every magic action there is an opposite backlash that must be dealt with. The more dualities a caster can maintain about himself, the more powerful he becomes in his discipline.

Another example of an elemental magic system well handled is in Lorna Freeman's Covenants series. Every elemental also has a nice "Dark Magic" variation.

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M. Rawn, J. Roberson, K. Elliot: The Golden Key

Magic is done by painting.

One of best co-operations makes a great read from otherwise average authors. After more than a decade, another book is on the way (yes, our dear George has not the reached top of this ladder...yet). Somehow doubt it will have the quality of The Golden Key.

You have more information on this?

More info:

http://joesherry.blo...wn-diviner.html

http://www.melanierawn.com/diviner/

Gorgeous pictures at 2nd link.

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I can't remember the name of the trilogy but it's based in the future on a colony planet that's been cut off from earth.

The magic system isn't really magic it's something intrinsic in the planet allows it to tap into people's subconscious. This causes various things from peoples conscious to physically manifest themselves, it also causes technology like guns to not work properly. Some control is put over this magic by tying it's conscious use to sacrificing objects and while anyone with sufficient willpower can use it some people have the ability to see the energy that allows this to happen. (it flows through the planet like the energy from ley lines would) These people have a much easier time of using it than normal people. It can be used for anything from healing and making toys to creating demons from peoples fear. (which has happened so know no one goes out at night because it is not safe)

I'm pretty sure I've botched the description so I'll give you what is pretty much the most interesting piece of the overall plot, so that someone who's read it more recently can give a better description. (If they realize what story it is)

One of the character's in the story is the long dead founder of the dominate religion, and a neo-count to boot, he gained immortality by sacrificing his family to an evil entity created by the nightmares of people. The religion he founded is based on using the collective willpower of all the inhabitants of the people who subscribe to it to create a god to control the planets energies.

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Ah, I was more thinking of magic basically replacing technology and revolutionizing society in a way that was similar to the industrial revolution in our world.

Maybe Steven Brust's Dragaeran novels. During The Phoenix Guards and the other Khaavren books, magic is unrefined, and it's use is fairly limited in that it can mainly be used to enchant objects, like creating what are basically the magical equivalents of muskets or maybe flintlock pistols; by the Taltos novels, things like teleportation are becoming common and even starting to replace regular shipping.

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Ian R. MacLeod's The Light Ages, where the industrial revolution is powered by Aether, a magical substance that does stuff.

Good call. Forgot about that one. (Actually, probably blocked it from my memory on the grounds of it being too depressing to cope with. Still, worth reading--once.)

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Maybe Steven Brust's Dragaeran novels. During The Phoenix Guards and the other Khaavren books, magic is unrefined, and it's use is fairly limited in that it can mainly be used to enchant objects, like creating what are basically the magical equivalents of muskets or maybe flintlock pistols; by the Taltos novels, things like teleportation are becoming common and even starting to replace regular shipping.

Hrm interesting. I was looking into the Dragaera stuff and it apparently crosses some lines into sci-fi, despite featuring witches and sorcerers and such. What about such powers is science-fictional?

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Janny Wurts' The War of Light and Shadow had an interesting set of magic systems in play AFAIR, but I can't remember exactly how they worked. Most use of magic seemed to involve subtly changing people's ways of thinking through the use of compulsions. However, the main character was also capable of affecting people with the power of his music, and there were some elder creatures that used to exist in the world who were intrinsically magical.

Wish I could remember it better, but unfortunately all the compulsions flying around meant that past a certain point the characters weren't really themselves anymore (though it was interesting for a while...but then the pace slowed right down and it wasn't anymore).

ST

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Hrm interesting. I was looking into the Dragaera stuff and it apparently crosses some lines into sci-fi, despite featuring witches and sorcerers and such. What about such powers is science-fictional?
Nothing. It crosses into SF when the heroes begins to meets gods who really are extraplanar existence or dragons, or little girls, or

family

, and hostile aliens (that is, aliens warring with the gods, somehow).

Dragarea also includes shamanism, psionics, and living weapons. Also necromancy, alter plane travel, immortality, reincarnation, and time travel. The "everyday" magic ends as a mass-market product because civilisation manages to find a stable source that can be tapped by almost everyone at will, easily, and fast. Transport, construction, technology... once it's written as having been integrated in society like technology after an industrial revolution, it's no surprise it would cross into SF at one point, if you think about it.

There's Mieville doing that, in a way, in Perdido Street Station. Also Swanwick in his Iron Dragon's Daughter. Of course also Marion Zimmer Bradley in her Darkover series (though it's explained as psionic power awakened by some plant, whatever).

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Melanie Rawn's The Dragon Prince books use magic based on sunlight. 'Sunrunners' can use sunlight to travel with their mind or talk to other sunrunners who are in sunlight. They run the danger of cloud cover breaking their connection, causing them to become lost and not find their body again. They can weave strands of light to do other magic effects. It seemed to have limits so it wasn't world shatteringly powerful, but as the series went on, they could do more and more things. I liked it more when it was a bit more limited. She also introduced sorcerers, who could do many of the same things, but used starlight instead of sun. Each person with this talent had a unique visual representation of their mind that is described as a stained-glass window - other sunrunners use it to identify each other when talking on sunlight. They could even communicate with dragons this way, but in a very limited fashion. Interestingly, her take on dragons was much less magical and more solidly rooted in mundane biology, even explaining a dragon's gold. (alchemical reaction to the heat the dragon egg shells are subjected to)

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One of Eddings' magic systems was described earlier, that of the Belgariad/Mallorean series, but the one for the Elenium/Tamuli is different (even though the plot's identical): magic is really enacted by gods, which act in various ways in response to prayers (which are traditional, but if you're on good enough terms with the god, not actually necessary). The Church Knights, who worship the remote Elene god, actually pray for assistance to various Styric (despised foreigners for Elenes) gods, which they obscure by describing the prayers as incantations. The relative power of a god depends on the number of its followers.

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