{"id":479,"date":"2011-04-28T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=479"},"modified":"2014-03-12T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T18:33:15","slug":"creating-a-magic-system-final-and-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=479","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Magic System Final and Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 1<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Part 2<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Part 3<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Part 4<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Part 5<\/a>\u00a0–\u00a0Part 6<\/a><\/p>\n

So it’s been a little while since I’ve updated this series, and for that I apologize. However, in the meantime I’ve been working on finalizing the contest that will run after this post is over, as well as being delayed by the real life monster. I am now back, and have enough free time that I’ll be able to resume posting fantasy writing tips each week.<\/p>\n

With that said, lets get back to Ferrous Timber. For those who can’t remember the first post about the magic system, it’s here<\/a>. So we’re half way through the Creating a Magic System posts, and we have Magical Interaction and Items and Artefacts to go, as well as Other Considerations. Lets get to it.<\/p>\n

Choice #5: Magical Interaction<\/strong> \u2013 How does one half of Ferrous Timber affect the other half? There will be no direct counterspelling, no clear opposition from one side to another, but if spells from both halves of the magical system are cast on a single object, they malfunction, either through collapsing and having no effect, or ending up with a result that is entirely not the desired one for either side.<\/p>\n

This does not mean that they cannot be used together at all, but that there are few occasions where that is possible. Because of the mental and stylistic differences between the two halves, very few people have had cause to learn both, and even they rarely try and combine both aspects of magic into one.<\/p>\n

People have accepted that magic is a part of their daily lives, although they will always treat mages with a strong degree of wariness and dislike, because of the drain that is placed upon the lifeforce as spells are cast. Part of this is because anyone can utilize magic, and much of what the populace sees daily is farmers, iron apprentices, and others using magic poorly.<\/p>\n

Because it is available to anyone, even a moderate degree of skill does not confer any considerable social status or respect from outsiders, any more than being a particularly dangerous warrior might do. However, those with extreme skill and fame are known in the same way that other rulers of legend might be, and are accorded treatment fitting their fame.<\/p>\n

Choice #6: Items and Artefacts<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0Items that store magical energy exist in Ferrous Timber, but only with very low energy levels stored in them. Higher energy levels tend to bleed off into the surrounding environment unless the containment is designed exceedingly well. Most of these items are used as energy storage batteries, places that mages can gather energy and hold it, waiting to use it at a later date, rather than draw on the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n

Because of that, the group that has the best quality and highest quantity of these items is the military, because otherwise they could be without magical support on the battlefield. For people working in a day to day environment where magic is needed, such as a farmer or a blacksmith, they have generally located their shops so as not to interfere too greatly with one another, or come up with an arrangement where local mages only use their powers at certain times of day or certain days of the week, insuring that there is enough energy to go around for the creation of magical items.<\/p>\n

Tools and other objects that are made with magical energy are very common. Most of the better muskets, cannons, and other heavy machinery has been designed and built by someone with a Ferrous bent, using magic to strengthen and reinforce the metalwork being used, while someone with a more Timber leaning would use it to perhaps shape a tree into a particularly elegant piece of furniture, or craft an exquisite children’s toy out of wood.<\/p>\n

As items made with magic are so commonplace, no one finds it out of the ordinary for even a poor person to have acquired one or two pieces, although usually only the quality that would be made by an apprentice, rather than the real goods made by a master of his craft. Most of these items have been blessed with durability, be it a knife that stays sharper longer, or a bowl that doesn’t break when dropped on the ground. Very little in the way of magical energy remains in these items after their creation, for it has been drained and shaped to a given purpose.<\/p>\n

Great artefacts are thought to be possible, as people shape their skills into ever more elaborate foundations, but there is little in the way of truly powerful items. There is one exception to this, and that is Ferrous mages have discovered how to animate objects using magnetic fields. Because manipulating these fields is quite difficult, most of the items that utilize them are small, a toy, a clock, a microscope or similar. There are a few who have experimented further, and managed to scale up the magnetic fields to create true automatons, but as of now they are still clumsy and given to breaking under the stress. One day, perhaps soon, they will become much more, but for now they remain little more than curios.<\/p>\n

Randomness<\/strong> \u2013 Magic in the setting is not random, but can certainly be misapplied. However, when the two sides interact, it is very likely to produce an unexpected outcome. Most people assume this is due to randomness, but these interactions do follow rules. It is simply that no one has ever learned what all of those rules are, and so cannot fathom what happens.<\/p>\n

Sourcing<\/strong> \u2013 Magic is an external force, an energy that surrounds and comes from all things, but finds itself concentrated in iron, in other metals, and in wood and trees. These can be drawn on with the proper application of skill and ritual, but draw too much and the source in question will crumble, splintering apart and dying.<\/p>\n

Range<\/strong> \u2013 What magic can be performed in Ferrous Timber tends to have line of sight qualities. If it cannot be seen, it cannot be effected. Certain supremely powerful mages can affect large areas, such as attempting to change the weather over a town, but that requires a stupendous amount of energy, and will usually kill off all the surrounding magical sources before the spell is complete. Most magic is performed on something that is actually being touched, as that gives the mage the most precise means of guiding the energy properly.<\/p>\n

That wraps up the Ferrous Timber magic system, and I hope it gave you an insight into designing and building your own. Now, I’m sure some of you scrolled right down to the bottom to see what kind of contest I was talking about, so here goes. This is a two parter being run in conjunction with the brilliant L.M. Stull, and will be judged by myself and by Amy Davis.<\/p>\n

Contest Part 1<\/strong> \u2013 Create a magic system, using roughly the format outlined here. 2,000 words is the goal.
\nContest Part 2<\/strong> \u2013 Use that magic system to write a 5,000 to 10,000 word short story, and submit both it and the magic system to L.M. Stull<\/a>. She’ll blind them and pass them on to the judges, and we’ll pick which ones are the winners.
\nPrizes<\/strong> \u2013 And the part I’m sure you’re all wondering about. We’ve got a $50 Amazon gift card for the first place winner, and a $25 card for second place.<\/p>\n

The contest will start from today, and run until May 31st, which should give you plenty of time to plan and get your submissions in. That said, I hope you enjoyed this series, and best of luck to you in your writing going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1\u00a0–\u00a0Part 2\u00a0–\u00a0Part 3\u00a0–\u00a0Part 4\u00a0–\u00a0Part 5\u00a0–\u00a0Part 6 So it’s been a little while since I’ve updated this series, and for that I apologize. However, in the meantime I’ve been working on finalizing the contest that will run after this post is over, as well as being delayed by the real life monster. I am now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[6],"tags":[50,19],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-7J","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":440,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=440","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":0},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 1","date":"February 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 In my eyes, what sets fantasy apart from any other setting is magic. How it is handled, the strength, the interactions, but mostly its very existence. Magic is the glue that holds a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":449,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=449","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":1},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 3","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 So over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect both a magic system and a setting, and how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system. Now I'm going to examine Magical Interaction and Items and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":463,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=463","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":2},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 5","date":"March 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 So, I've spent the last four posts giving my thoughts on how to design a magic system, but I'm sure many of you are curious as to how all of this would work in practice, so I'm going to spend this post and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":454,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=454","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":3},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 4","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 Over the course of the series, I've looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect a magic system and a setting, how Style and Powers shape and define that magic system, and finally how Magical Interaction and Items and Artefacts impact the setting and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":444,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=444","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":4},"title":"Creating a Magic System, Part 2","date":"February 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1\u00a0-\u00a0Part 2\u00a0-\u00a0Part 3\u00a0-\u00a0Part 4\u00a0-\u00a0Part 5\u00a0-\u00a0Part 6 Last time, I looked at how Strength and Prevalence affect both a magic system and a setting. This time around, I'm going to look at Style and Powers. First off, a little background on each. Style is how the interactions with magic are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tips"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":494,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=494","url_meta":{"origin":479,"position":5},"title":"Writing Prompts #1","date":"May 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I'd change things up a little bit this week, and given people three writing prompts to choose from. One is SF, one is Fantasy, and the last one is, well, something. 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