Give your magic character

         Magic is an integral part of almost any fantasy story written, but it can also figure prominently in many other genres. The supernatural bent of many a horror story often alludes to magical origins. Authors will sometimes turn to magic when their characters require extra power or an air of mystery that Sci-fi just cannot provide. Anyone who has ever read Terry Pratchett knows that magic has a place in comedy as well.
         Having your main villain stalk down a cavernous corridor lined with candles that flair to life as he passes by is a very cool effect, but if you want your magic to be believable, you have to stop and consider what other effects adding magic to your story will have. Here are a few ways to make sure that your use of magic enhances your story instead of ruining it.
         It may seem odd that the most important part of incorporating magic into your story is to make it believable. Magic, by its very nature, defies belief. This is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to write about. But you have to remember that all of your stories take place in a certain context and the reader will suspend their disbelief within this context in order to appreciate your work. It is up to you to make sure that your magic system fits the definition of your world.
         I call it a magic system because despite its open nature, magic must still operate under a set of rules. Unlike gravity, however, magic’s rules are not static. Even within the same world, the rules of magic can change, with the season or time of day for example. But, if the magic does fluctuate, it must do so under a predefined cycle. The only way that magic could exist without rules would be for your story to take place in a land so chaotic that even the laws of physics changed randomly. An interesting idea, but most people enjoy reading about things a little more familiar.
         If you are writing a story set in a pre-existing universe, then the guidelines for magic use are already in place and you just have to make sure that you adhere to them. Some examples of this are the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms series (Dungeons and Dragons by Wizards of the Coast), any Shadowrun novel (Shadowrun by F.A.S.A), the entire Star Wars universe (everyone knows this one) and the Vampire, Mage and Wraith novels (World of Darkness games by White Wolf). All of these worlds are created with very different rules of magic, but if you adhere to them, you have a measure against which you can gauge your characters.
         Here are a few examples of how mages fit into these worlds. A young mage, let’s call him Bob for sake of this discussion, is living on Krynn (the world from Dragonlance). Bob has spent all of his young life studying magic by pouring over ancient tomes and cracked scrolls, isolating himself from friend and family alike. Bob’s power has grown over the years and he is ready to tell the world that he has committed his life to the pursuit of his Art. He makes arrangements and journeys to the last High Tower of Sorcery located in Wayreth to be tested by the head of the Order of the red robes. If he passes the test, he will be allowed to continue studying magic and to practice his Art wherever he wants. If he fails the test, he will be dead.
         On another world, the awakened world of Mage The Ascension, Bob knows that he is different. Strange things happen to him all the time and one night the strangeness erupts while he is at a rave. It’s not the first time that he has partied this way, but there is something different about the lights tonight, something hypnotic. He notices a figure standing over by the door, staring at him, her eyes luminescent green. Suddenly, the woman is beside him, he can feel her breath on his neck as she whispers wondrous things in his ear. When she finishes, Bob realizes that the woman was never there and that he is standing in an abandoned warehouse, alone. He knows, somehow, that it was his avatar, the embodiment of his power, which was showing itself to him, awakening him. Bob slowly nods his head in understanding as all of the confusion and the pain that had been wracking his brain for the last five years suddenly coalesces into a crystal clear vision of his power, the words to mystical spells that he had never known could exist filling his mind, beckoning to him.
         In a very short time, I have given the basic framework behind the magic in two very different worlds. In either world however, a fireball would still look, act and feel like a fireball. But the ability to cast it is very different.
         So how do you go about setting up your own framework of magic rules if you are not using existing ones? Most authors will do this without even realizing it. When you decide that your character is a druid who has grown up in the forests of Northern England and is following in the footsteps of his father by learning the ways of communicating with the spirits, you have set a framework. What some authors have difficulty doing is keeping their magic consistent between characters.
         Let’s start by taking a look at some of the qualities that magic has and how using them will affect your world.

         Source of Magic. The source of magic is one of the most important decisions you need to make before your characters can start throwing around spells. There are three basic sources of magic: personal, divine and universal.
         Personal magic means that the power of the magic comes from the caster. It is all contained within him, there is no external source. People familiar with the Paladium roll playing system will recognize this as ISP’s. Once a person has exhausted himself or herself, there is nothing more they can do until they rest and recover their body’s natural pool of energy.
         Divine magic is power that is granted by an external sentient being. This could be a god (in the case of a D&D cleric) or a Totem (in the case of a Shadowrun shaman) or any other supernatural being you can think of. The only power provided by the caster is in the act of casting. The spell user is in fact a simple conduit through which the energy flows. If the spell is a particularly potent one, then the act of channeling can exhaust the caster as their body deals with the enormous strain of conducting so much power. The caveat to this kind of magic is that it cannot be taught. In order to have access to it the mage must have a divine link. Often this is referred to as a “call” and many divine casters have stories of visions that lead them to their destiny.
         Universal magic is the most common form of magic. Anyone with the mental aptitude to memorize complex formulas and incantations can learn universal magic. Often this type of magic will require elaborate preparations and bizarre spell components or some form of focus, such as a wand or hat. As with Divine magic, the caster merely channels energy through themselves, but the energy originates from the “universe” around them and not from some spiritual being.
         The three sources are not exclusive and can coexist in the same world, but it will require a little extra preparation to set up the factors that distinguish between them. As an example, in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, mages cannot use any curative magic. It is the domain of clerics and their deities. On the flip side, mages have access to spells of massive destructive potential. If you don’t segregate this way, the source of magic looses its effect and all you have are bunch of similar spell casters who may dress differently.

         Potency of Magic. Once you know where the magic is coming from, you must determine how powerful the average mage will be. There will always be exceptions to the rule, that’s what makes your characters stand above the crowd, but you need to place limits even on them. If all the magic users in the world need to use arcane symbols or artifacts to cast even the simplest of spells then having your main character be able to shape the local weather with a simple gesture just doesn’t ring true (unless he happens to be the god of thunder in disguise, but the reader must know why this one character can ignore the laws of magic with impudence).

         Proliferation of Magic. The number of people in the world who have access to magic isn’t so important in setting up the magic rules, but it will affect every other part of your world. If magic is easily learned then the worldview of everyone shifts slightly and things like technology will generally not evolve. Spell casters who will be paranoid over the abilities of their peers will run the government and the common folk who have no magic may even be viewed as second class citizens and forced into slavery.
         On the other hand, if magic is so scarce that no one believes in it, then those few who use it will be subject to ridicule, fear and attack. They will often go underground and finds ways to use their art without calling attention to themselves. Think of the witch-hunts brought on by the Inquisition.
         Most worlds opt for middle ground where there are enough spell casters that magic is accepted, but not so many that it influences the day-to-day lives of the common folk. Of course this may lead to jealousy amongst the commoners who will secretly develop devices to hunt down the mages…

         Once you have an idea of how the previous three categories fit into your world, your framework is almost complete. All you will need to do is add your own defining characteristics and then you should find it much easier to include new magic characters and items into your story. What are defining characteristics? Things like magical symbols, diseases that only affect mages, items that magic cannot affect, such as iron are all good examples. They are not really important, although in a cleverly written story they could be, but they will definitely add flavor and uniqueness to your vision of magic. Remember, you don’t need to design a complete, functioning magic system that includes spells description and levels; you just need to provide yourself with some guidelines to keep yourself in check.
         You should also keep this framework handy when editing your story. It is easy to get carried away in the moment when your fingers are moving so fast across the keyboard that it really does feel like the words are flowing right onto the screen. When you’re done, sit back and look at what you’ve written and hold it up against the framework. Does it fit?
         One thing I like to do is have someone who knows magic (a fellow gamer or an avid fantasy ready) review my work and tell me what the limits of my characters are. If they can do that, then I have maintained consistency in my world.
         So now that you have an idea of the types of things that you must think of when adding magic to your stories, lets take a look at some common errors.

         Stereotyping: Terry Pratchett makes excellent use of the archetypical mage in his books, dressed in flowing robes and wearing a pointy hat, but they are supposed to be silly. If you have a bunch of Gandalf look-alikes running around, it will detract from your story. Mages can and should be as diversified as the rest of your characters with ambitions and faults of their own.

         Magic of convenience: Throwing in a healer at a roadside temple to heal your characters right after a major fight might seem like a good idea, but you must be careful not to make everything convenient. Having the characters side tracked to a nearby town where there is only a shaman with limited healing powers who demands a sacrifice for his aid will add drama to the story. If you really need someone right there, it might make more sense if the healer showed up because they had a vision of the terrible battle and journeyed there to aid the characters and simply arrived too late to help out. Someone sitting around alone in a temple waiting for people needing help to stop by is, in almost any world, asking for trouble. Most wizards are smarter than that.
         Even if it is not a character that uses the magic, but it is an item or place that has magical properties, try to remember that the magic was put there for a reason and may have more to it than the characters of your story know. Does this magic helm grant the wearer the ability to see in the dark? Sure, but maybe it also acts as a scrying tool for the enemy lord, allowing him to monitor the progress of your heroes.

         Unbalanced power: It’s very easy to let magic get away from you. After all, if with just a gesture, your mage can incinerate an advancing army, then who can stand against him? If you ask this of yourself and have trouble coming up with an answer then your mage is too powerful. Given this type of power the mage would round up some followers who would work for him simply to be around his splendor and then he would take over the world. Yes, even a “good” mage would do this, eradicating evil wherever it was found and creating a utopian world. It might be fun to write about, but once the reader knows that there is no danger to the mage, they will quickly loose interest. It’s like using cheat codes in a video game. Sure they get you to the end of the game, but is it really still fun?
         It is very rare to find an underpowered mage and most of them are that way for plot reasons, so I won’t discuss it.

         Hopefully now you have an idea of just how much impact magic can have on your story. It can shape your world more than any other single component, so it is very important to tailor your solution to fit your world. If you use the one-size fits all style, you might find your world changing to fit your magic and that will definitely ruin your story.
         With a little planning and consistency you can really flesh out the beauty and possibilities of magic. Just remember that the mage sitting in the back of the wagon waiting to be called on by the Captain of the Guard when the battle starts is more than just a walking cannon. Wizards are people too.