Interesting Magic Systems

So I've been looking at various magic systems in books, mainly those by Brandon Sanderson or Patrick Rothfuss. They seem particularly unique and interesting (perhaps to my uneducated eye). Does anyone know of any other good magic or high-fantasy-based tech systems in literature or film or any other media? Mainly looking for inspiration, so an explanation of why any particular system would be helpful.

I thought about posting this in Media, but figured it wasn't specific enough to any one particular book/film/etc.

Can never go wrong with Terry Pratchett's system of magic. It operates mainly on ridiculous odds, if-A-equals-A-then-B-equals-F logic, and a "more perfect version of pi" that gets rid of those pesky decimal places. If someone managed to create a graphic novel version of Night Watch, M.C. Escher would have a heart attack.

And yet, in spite of all of it's complete lack of sense, it somehow makes perfect sense.

Unsounded has pymary, which is the best and most coolest "magic" system on the books. Um there's also one in Tamora Pierce's Black Magician trilogy which isn't that unique but it's described really well.

Terry Pratchett is nice too, and I'm certainly in favor of tightening circles by rounding Pi off to 3.0.

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Originally Posted by Neftren

So I've been looking at various magic systems in books, mainly those by Brandon Sanderson or Patrick Rothfuss. They seem particularly unique and interesting (perhaps to my uneducated eye). Does anyone know of any other good magic or high-fantasy-based tech systems in literature or film or any other media? Mainly looking for inspiration, so an explanation of why any particular system would be helpful.

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I like Ralph Hayes' lux in Tales of the Questor. It's a good example of a systematic and fairly well-thought-through phenomenon that explains a lot about various story archetypes. Also, it's totally cool. :smallwink:

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Originally Posted by Proud Tortoise

Terry Pratchett is nice too, and I'm certainly in favor of tightening circles by rounding Pi off to 3.0.

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If reading his stuff has taught me anything, it's that we're better off not doing so. If I remember correctly, one of Bloody Stupid Johnson's flagship inventions was a sorting machine that used a circle engineered with the perfect Pi. It started sorting mail that'd never been written, blew a hole in the roof backwards, and turned a giant bat into something closely resembling chunky salsa, all without being turned on.

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Originally Posted by Jaycemonde

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If reading his stuff has taught me anything, it's that we're better off not doing so. If I remember correctly, one of Bloody Stupid Johnson's flagship inventions was a sorting machine that used a circle engineered with the perfect Pi. It started sorting mail that'd never been written, blew a hole in the roof backwards, and turned a giant bat into something closely resembling chunky salsa, all without being turned on.

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Oh yeah, sure, but what it didn't do was destroy the universe. In any case, what I advocate is universally rounding Pi to three. First, it would make math easier. Secondly, circles are too loose and should be tighter.

The magic system used in Lyndon Hardy's books (Master of the Five Magics et al.) is pretty interesting, and he goes into a lot of detail about it too.

The Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka (our very own Saph) has a fairly in-depth magic system. To the tune of 30-odd articles defining its intricacies on his website, above and beyond what's explained in the books. Also has a very interesting take on divination magic (or "probability", as his 'verse has it). Definitely worth a look. Comparable to some of Sanderson's systems in its scope.


Also the fourth book in the series came out like two months ago so, you know... now's the time

I can't believe I'm saying this (as I kinda hate his work) but if you haven't read Jack Vance's dying earth you probably should if you are interested in comparing different magic systems.

Also, Libriomancer has a pretty creative type of system in it.

My sister wrote a book where "Magical energy" was just another type of energy, like kinetic or thermal, and obeyed the laws of physics to the best of its ability. Kinda liked that idea.

You might like the magic system in the Winter of the World series by Michael Scott Rohan. All mages are descended from the god of smiths and they're smiths of some kind as well, even if they're only jewellers. Magic is a finite resource, there's only so many items you can make (and unless you're a god items are the only way to access magic). It also has neandertals as duergar.

The Magic Goes Away and related works by Larry Niven are pretty interesting; they feature magic as a nonrenewable resource, and the implications thereof.

In case you haven't read them, Sanderson's essays on using magic in fiction are worth a read:
-Sanderson's First Law - An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.
-Sanderson's Second Law - Limitations are more interesting than Power.
-Sanderson's Third Law - Expand what you already have before you add something new.

Broken Sky is an old YA series by Chris Woods. Calling it a magic system may stretch the term a bit (though not too much). Most children are implanted with "spirit stones" at birth, giving them one specific gift. The two central characters can control earth (including making golems) and air/force, respectively. There's also parallel worlds, hive-mind monsters, and wyverns mind-melded with their riders.

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix (currently comprised of Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, and Across the Wall) is also interesting. Magic is comes in two forms Charter and Free. Charter is all about knowing specific marks and sigils, and somewhat related to music (literally bells and whistles). Free magic is generally corrupt and evil. Also, death is literally a multi-leveled river.

The Black Company, by Glen Cook, presents an interesting mix of pragmatic (sleep and warding spells, flying carpet warships) and ancient/super powerful magic (soul-crushing evil personified and brutal, hard-to-kill bad guys).



Note: I fact-check precisely none of this, so it is all under the label IIRC

Gonna throw my usual Unknown Armies endorsement out there.

First, there's Avatar magick (always with a "k"), which is sort of democracy by way of Jungian psychology, with elements of Hinduism. The idea is that by being in tune with various archetypes present in the collective unconscious, you can tap into their power, but the real goal is to get elected to the celestial planning committee called the Invisible Clergy, comprised of the Avatars most representative of each Archetype. When every seat on the Invisible Clergy is filled, they set to rebirthing the world in their own image.

In other words, the state of world can be said to be everyone's fault. We made it possible, after all.

There's also Adept magick, which functions on obsession and paradoxes. To adepts, paradoxes are absolutely essential; they're flaws in reality where someone with the right mindset, what you might call psychosis, can tug and pry at reality till something pops loose.

The problem is that it's dependent upon the adept's personal understanding of the concept, and when you define what's possible, you also define what's impossible. As such, as an adept advances his knowledge, his worldview will tend to calcify till he thinks he's got it all figured out. Meanwhile, the world moves on, and eventually he becomes deprecated and weak.

He's probably also doomed to spend an afterlife locked in damnation, but that's another story.

The most interesting magic system I played was one where the caster made up poems to cast spells. Then the GM interpreted them anyway he wanted. Something interesting always happened. (That is, interesting in the Chinese proverb sense.) :smallsmile:

The Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirial, and Abhorsen) by Garth Nix is always my top pick for interesting magic systems. To some extent it's just another of the 'use words of power to describe what you want to happen' systems, but I really like the presentation, and I think he does a good job of making magic difficult enough to learn and dangerous enough to use (the more powerful words will literally burn you as you speak them if you don't prepare yourself) that magic does not totally eclipse physical action. In addition, he has a rather unique subsystem for necromancy -- a necromancer literally walks through the river of death and uses various combinations of seven bells to control the dead.

These magic systems are pretty fun.

Summary if you don't like clicking links or don't have time: magic powered by surprise or happiness, spells discovered by brute-force experimentation in magical sweatshops, spells copyrighted by their discoverers and usable by other wizards only with a fee.

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Originally Posted by Savannah

The Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirial, and Abhorsen) by Garth Nix is always my top pick for interesting magic systems. To some extent it's just another of the 'use words of power to describe what you want to happen' systems, but I really like the presentation, and I think he does a good job of making magic difficult enough to learn and dangerous enough to use (the more powerful words will literally burn you as you speak them if you don't prepare yourself) that magic does not totally eclipse physical action. In addition, he has a rather unique subsystem for necromancy -- a necromancer literally walks through the river of death and uses various combinations of seven bells to control the dead.

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Seconding this! That series is one of my favorites too.

Lightbringer series (2 out now) by Brent Weeks has a pretty interesting magic system based on light and colors.

Magic users (drafters) can use the colored light they see to create a physical substance of the color they can draft. Each color has a different property. Most can only do 1 color, some can do more, up to all colors.

Each color also affects the personality of the drafter while using it, and long term use can permanently affect them to the point of insanity.

All of Brandon Sanderson's magic systems are fascinating to me, as are The Old Kingdom magic systems.

As for novel submissions, The Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher has a really interesting magic system (called furycrafting), and then provides a main character that has to deal without it, thus showcasing both a novel form of a magic, and reinforcing that who you are is more important than whether or not you can furycraft. I'd explain it more, but the way Butcher walks you into the details of the system is beautiful--he's masterful at laying out the clues for you to figure out what's going to happen next so that you discover the answer a moment before he reveals it, which makes you feel like the most intelligent person ever.

Which is fun. :smallbiggrin:

Have you come across the "Ars Magica" (sorry can't remember who currently publishes it) game system? I found it a pretty easy magic system to gut and transfer into my homebrew franken-system. It's nice because it lets you take any action, rather than just cast pre-written spells. -- a bit like the "sorcery" in David Eddings Belgariad, tho the original has a very medieval feel.

for simple try the system in "Dragon Warriors" (think its published by Serpent King games) its VERY simple, but gives at least three different types of magic, and would be really easy to expand. -- very much got a medieval/arthurian feel. Also some of the monsters in the betiary are too cool to miss :smallbiggrin:

Hope I haven't missed the point too much!