 Fantasy: March 01, 2017 Issue [#8154] |
  Fantasy
This week: Verbal Magic System Creation Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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A Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
Focus on the world building of magic systems and in this case, ones where the character with the abilities uses a verbal method to use the magic. Spells and their creation for the world in question.
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Time has come to work on that magic system for the fun fantasy world you're creating and one of the questions that you might consider when coming up with magic is how the character uses it. There are a few options but for today's newsletter, I want to explore a specific and common method of magic usage. That is a verbal approach, such as spells.
Today's topic is also inspired by having to handle returns to a vendor on my own for homeopathic products. Fun times and all but also an inspiration for my upcoming world building for Aeon's series (cause I seriously need to world build for that series).
Also, it's connected to the little series I started recently since I edit this newsletter once a month and love to discuss magic. Whether a spell is used or not for magic to work is a good thing to determine when creating the system for your world and it can take as much fleshing out or time as you want or can be done in as little as just answering a couple of questions. Depends on how much you want to show in the book to the reader the actual magic in use.
Spells are some of the most common forms of magic, though not all are verbal. Still, one many people think of magic in books they might see ones like Harry Potter as a prime example and in those books they spoke spells and had to learn them. The wikipedia has some interesting information on the magic in that series for anyone who is interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_in_Harry_Potter
A common practice for the creation of spells comes from the use of Latin or modified forms of such. It isn't the only option but it is common for a few reasons including the availability and how it sounds. Other languages that are not as known may help to inspire magic creation, just depends on the research you do. One could even research different spells through our own world and use what they find there. There is the option of keeping the words and usage the same, using latin that relates to the desired result of the spell and such. Or you can use the found information as inspiration and tweak things from there to create someone different.
I might do some tweaking (not quite off latin but certain inspiration from homeopathic products) and create my own spells. Haven't made any final decisions yet. However, with doing world building, it will be good to document and use them for the rewriting process. Whatever method you use for the magic system and spells, you want to make sure that you are consistent in the story. Use the same type unless there is a reason behind the change. That would be my advice when coming up and writing the spells within your story. Because if you use something for levitation in one chapter and ten chapters later something too similar for a completely different situation, you might get some questions from the readers that notice the particulars.
So, now consider whether you want your magic to involve spells or other forms of verbal (or just communicated in some method). Once you decide that, you can dive in and figure out how things work within the world. The fun of world building is at hand.
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How would you create a verbal magic system for your story/world?
Last month, I started this series/focus on magic characters by discussing them as a character. I asked what the writer might call their characters who wield magic and got a few responses.
Comment by Tileira
In my work in progress, magician characters are divided into two factions: the magician trained by the religious order are "Sister Adepts" (or Brother adepts) to differentiate them from members of the order who don't use magic. Apostate or pagan magicians are "witches". The practises and beliefs of both are different, but as you can guess "witches" have a bad reputation amongst law abiding folk.
- Very interesting. I have two forms of magic in one of mine where one is learned through education and the other is based on the natural ability with no spell memorization necessary. And yes, the non-education is considered a lesser form by those that do the spell magic. Interesting to see what others do with their characters and worlds.
Comment by Red
I have a few stories with magic users so it really depends on the world. For the most part a person who can naturally use magic is called a Magi. After that it gets more complicated. A Magi who completes their training at the academy is a Mage, Wizards are like the scientist of the magical world, witches treat magic as a religion, and then you have Seers and Mediums and so forth. So, developing the magical society in my worlds has always been the fun parts of writing my stories.
- I like the term mage, which is probably obvious. lol It does sound like the fun part in the writing and out of world building it's one I'm looking forward to working on soon.
Comment by dragonwoman 
It varies, in fantasy I usually use wizard or wizardess, for tales of the future, often mage, for more modern takes, it's magician all the way For example, my recurring character Marvelous Melnish is a time-travelling stage magician.
- Thanks for the response. Never thought of wizardess. Then again, I'm one to use witch for male or female. And ooo to the time-travelling stage magician as that's a nice idea.
Comment by Joto-Kai 
There are many, many names for magic user. My humanoid character calls them shaman, as a cultural role as much as a skillset. She calls their work "rules-change." Interestingly, urgan shamans abhor magic, as a sign that the gods did poor work.
Her husband, a human, calls himself a sorcerer. This in his culture denotes someone who has a talent for magic, as opposed to a drawn-out arcane education. Mostly this talent is a stubbornness, a refusal to let one's superstition fail.
Wizards are those who study so much that they can figure ahead of time what will make a spell work, and slowly gather the essences needed.
- Nice choices and focus on the specific characters within your story as it can vary depending on the character in question.
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