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View Full Version : Magic System Idea: Truespeech, Transmutation, and Elemental Essences (Feedback?)



Amaril
2014-11-25, 08:26 PM
Alright, so this is an idea for an RPG magic system that my brain has spat back out at me after exposure to Patrick Rothfuss' The Kingkiller Chronicle and some limited information on Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive (my friend refused to tell me any more about the latter because, apparently, spoilers). I think it has potential to work in a fairly rules-light game, possibly as part of a homebrew system; as far as I can tell, it would be generally somewhat weaker and more limited than D&D magic, but allow for a lot of creativity by individual players within its narrower scope. I'd appreciate some feedback on it, if possible :smallsmile:

The Basics
The premise of the system is that every object in the world, from a fallen twig to the moon, has an associated essence or spirit. These spirits are generally weaker and less willful than ones you see in a lot of similar cosmologies; the only things they normally know and understand are what they're supposed to be (a rock knows that it's a rock), and what they're naturally supposed to do (the rock knows to fall to the ground if unsupported and be difficult to break when struck). For most people, this is basically meaningless, but a few mortals are born with the ability to communicate with these essences by speaking, and to hear what they say back. The language the essences use is similar to a form of truespeech, but it's just as much mental communication as physical, based more on pure ideas and concepts than actual words. It sounds like gibberish to anyone without magical ability, and requires no learning or effort on the part of magic-users to speak; to them, it feels like they just talk in their native languages, and the essences understand them. At least, that's how it works in theory--in practice, the essence of an object isn't always able to fully understand what a magic-user wants to communicate, which is where the difficulty of magic arises.

The problem is that most inanimate objects, the most common material magic-users work with, aren't all that smart. Their perception of the world is limited by their lacking mental faculties, and things are further complicated by the fact that their minds usually work very differently from those of people. Because of this, magic requires more than just telling an object what to do; you have to know how to tell it in a way that it will understand. This is where true names come in. When, for example, a sword thinks "I am a sword", it doesn't really think it purely in words; its identity as a sword is expressed as a complex concept, involving its history, the process of its making, its detailed physical properties, and any number of other traits. Every object's essence understands itself differently, but, thankfully for magic-users, there are certain common threads between disparate objects that connect them enough to serve as a basis for communication. What this works out to is the true names of elements and substances: wood, iron, water, fire, etc. If a magic-user understands the nature of a substance well enough--things like where it comes from, how it behaves, and what it's used for--they can express that understanding to the essence of an object made from it, and the object will understand them. From there, they can then explain to the essence what it is they'd like it to do. This is only the first part of the process, though; most essences are so used to what they're meant to be and do that convincing them to change or behave differently is very difficult, and requires a lot of negotiation. These abilities--communicating with essences, making them understand, and convincing them to obey--are the core components of magic.

There are further complications. To make an essence of one substance become another, one must know the true names of both the original and desired elements. Very few objects one encounters are made purely from one substance or element, and the less connection an essence has to that true name, the harder it is to communicate with. And some essences--those of objects with great history or significance--are harder to communicate with and convince than others purely by virtue of being more complex, powerful, or set in their ways. However, all these can be worked around by a magic-user of sufficient experience and skill. Proficient casters can make solid objects vanish into thin air, or instantly set themselves ablaze with no fuel; they can command heavy weights to lift themselves without being touched, make an enemy's sword rust away and break, or create a complex sculpture out of a shifting mass of sand.

Dark Magic
Unfortunately, magic also has a much darker and dangerous aspect. Not only inanimate objects and substances have essences; self-willed living beings and people do too, in the form of souls. Souls are a lot more complex and powerful than even the strongest of normal essences, which is what gives living sentient creatures free will, but the basic concept of each is the same, and souls can be manipulated by skilled magic-users just the same as anything else. When a magic-user knows the true name of a particular creature, such as cats, serpents, or fish, they can use their gift to bypass the conscious minds of those creatures and control their souls, making them slaves to their will, or inflicting horrific harm on their bodies by making them change in ways they weren't meant to. The soul of a human is complex enough that a magic-user must know the true name of that individual human to affect them this way, rather than of humans in general, but once this is done, the victim must be uncommonly strong-willed and self-aware to resist such affects. The practice of using magic on sentient beings is almost always branded a dark art, and banned in most civilized places; though it can have harmless and even useful applications, such as healing, the complexity of working such magic and the significant chance of it going wrong deter most people from accepting it.

Familiars
Normally, working magic is a time-consuming process, since negotiating with essences is rarely fast or simple. Sometimes, though, magic-users don't have the luxury of going through the whole ordeal and want to be able to make things happen fast. Most accomplish this using familiars. A familiar is an object whose essence the magic-user has established a lasting agreement with to perform certain services or functions for an extended period, without needing to be convinced all over again every time the mage wants something else done. One mage might have a sword as a familiar that has agreed to burst into flames whenever its wielder speaks a certain command word, and a staff they've persuaded to bend and twist to bind whatever they strike with it. A mage can have any number of familiars, but acquiring a new one takes skill, and few can manage more than a small number. Additionally, more complex functions and detailed agreements can only be understood by stronger, more intelligent essences, so the most powerful familiars require particularly significant, intricate, or ancient objects. Some mages prefer familiars that will only serve them, but it's entirely possible to have a familiar that will serve anyone who picks it up, allowing non-mages to make use of some extremely useful tools and tricks. A few magic-users who do not shy away from dark magic prefer living familiars, animals who have been compelled into permanent service and can make use of their natural intelligence to perform any number of useful duties.

How All This Would Work in a Game
In whatever game this system would be used in, magic-using characters wouldn't have set lists of spells. Instead, each would have access to a limited number of true names to use for their magic. When a mage wanted to use magic, they would simply choose an object with an essence they knew a true name for and try to convince it to do something for them, just like talking to another human character. This could work based on whatever form of diplomacy skills or other social mechanics the system has, or potentially be left completely to in-character conversation. As one might expect, this would often have the effect of making impromptu magic during battles or other time-sensitive scenes impractical, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing--I see this as being more suited to out-of-combat use anyway. Some experienced mages might still be able to do certain things in combat, like commanding a stick (something with a simple essence, easily and quickly persuaded) to catch fire and throwing it at an enemy. More could be accomplished with familiars, which would essentially take the place of magic items.
As an aside, given that I don't actually know much about the magic system in The Stormlight Archive, which is most of my inspiration for this, it's possible I might just be duplicating that system wholesale by accident. If that's the case, feel free to let me know, and I promise I didn't mean it.