Custom Magic Mechanics - WIP

[TheWombatOfDoom]

UPDATE! Rewrote some sections on the "OP" on post 11, but instead of updating it there, I've moved the whole Wall of Text to the first post, for ease and to encourage more to PEACH the project. Anyways, here are the additions.

Ancients have “the spark”, which gives them the ability to affect reality through magic. In other words, everyone has the power of belief, but only the Ancients can affect reality with that belief. That power to affect reality is what we call ‘Magic’.

Ancient Characteristics:

The Ancient race is one of the three founding races in Aldain. They are often referred to by the Elves as "True Men", as they are the ancestors (at least partially) of the "Hewn men", the race that was born through the coupling of Ancients and Elves. The Ancients used to be one of the leading populous until civil wars and crossbreeding with other races nearly wiped out the race completely. There are currently only a known handful of them left (between one and two hundred). Ancients do not have a written or spoken language. They communicate by memories. This means when communicating a recount of what happened an Ancient need only transfer the memory to do so. Other more complex things can be communicated through senses, feelings, memories of object and even emotions. The Ancients with this ability can sense other Ancient’s minds in a close proximity, and custom dictates permission must be asked before one talks to (or rather enters the mind of) another Ancient. A connection can be blocked off at either end in a communication at any time. Connections can be maintained once started over a long distance, but the farther from someone is the more energy it takes to send information. It takes minimal amounts of energy to communicate to someone you are in contact with or in the close vicinity of. Additionally, sleep or unconsciousness ends the link. The only exception to this rule is in the connections that the Ancients have with their animal companions called “Creatures of the Bond”. These connections are a sacred bond that each Ancient shares with their respective animal, and they can communicate through a much longer distance than ancient to ancient. The connection between an ancient and their creature is very similar to the normal connection between two ancients, save that it is more powerful. Female Ancients have cats of prey like lions, panthers, cougars, jaguars, tigers, and more while male Ancients have birds of prey, such as eagles, hawks, owls, falcons, and so on. These creatures are sentient companions to each. Mental bonds in general can be disrupted by an external party, and can even be magically blocked if one is committed to the task, but these bonds cannot be broken by anything but death.

The Broken Bond – An Ancient that has lost its Creature of the Bond, or a Creature that has lost its Ancient, will never be able to repeat this connection in another. This separation if left to its own devises can cause the respective half to go mad. To counteract this, most Ancients that have a broken bond are tasked with becoming teachers to train other Ancients in casting, or other tasks in which they are often in contact with other minds, to prevent madness.

I also covered some more details about magic, and added a magical instruction section:

Magic is unlimited to draw from. However as earlier stated, it is limited by what the caster believes they are capable of and what their ability allows them to accomplish. Therefore, Magic is partially inherent (in terms of how creative and imaginative one can be) and partially through scientific study (in terms of studying a wide variety of objects that may be used for a spell). The greater one understands an object, the more accurate the object will become in illusion, or manipulated within physical magic. So, the less you know about casting, the less confidence you have in casting. This causes you to be limited in what you are able to cast. Also, not studying objects or practicing spells often diminishes the quality and effect of a spell. In essence, power is derived (as the equations say above) from interior and exterior of belief. A caster’s interior belief regulates their capacity for magic. The less capacity a caster has the more energy it takes to create spells. Further, in visual and mental magic, it also causes maintained spells to have shorter life spans before the caster would need to rekindle it. At lower power, a fly spell could be something akin to a large hop, as it consumes energy at a rapid rate. As a caster gains power, the flights would grow longer and longer in distance, however power will never make a spell unlimited.

A caster that has exhausted them self casting can recover by means people commonly use to recover from normal exhaustion. Casting is like any other activity a body performs and so recovers similarly from it. Over exhaustion could cause hospitalization or even in some cases - death. The body often attempts to stop a caster before they reach the point of exhaustion, and will begin shutting down to avoid mortal exhaustion. Still, a so willed caster can force their body to beyond this point. Since the ability to cast derives fundamentally in the belief that you can cast, it is common for a caster who has experienced a traumatizing situation or loss by magical or non-magical means to find them self unable to cast for a period of time.

Magical Instruction: Training begins as soon as possible for an Ancient. At first, the parents are responsible in magical instruction. A child when they are in this stage could exhibit some affinity for a particular form of magic. Once a child shows signs for a particular school of magic, they begin to be schooled in that path. As stated earlier, many instructors for magic are Ancients who have had their bonds broken. They take on pupils and work with them at a young age to overcome the five barriers to casting. Each person varies on how quickly or slowly they grasp and understand these principles, and so the time it takes for each caster to be trained varies greatly. The instructors also hone the caster’s talents that would aid them in casting, such as public speaking or persuasive writing, acting, music, or visual art. To become familiar with the material components of a spell, Ancients study natural and physical sciences, history and culture. These seemingly rudimentary tasks will greatly aide casters not only with their interactions with people, but in reality in general. The use of magic is considered by the Ancients to be an art form. Each uses their talents in different ways, and so the results of a spell often are dependent on a caster. Think of casting like a fingerprint. Each result of a spell is similar, but they don’t happen quite the same way. While it is possible for an Ancient to start training after childhood, results vary as to its effectiveness, as it is harder to grasp ways around some of the harder barriers, as age exhibits a more formed belief system than a youth.

Thoughts?

Also! I still need help figuring out overloading.