Intro

I’ll admit that, when it comes to fantasy, I’m more of a warrior type of person than a wizard type of person. (I mean, come on, who’s visually cooler: the guy running right up into the bad guys’ faces with a big sword, or the guy in the robes standing in the back and shooting the occasional fireball?) But, personal bias aside, there’s no question that wizards—and any sort of magic-user, whether they’re more based on arcane, nature, holy magic, or something else entirely—are pretty much always some of the most powerful characters in your typical fantasy setting. So, if you’re going to have them, it’s important to have an idea of how their magic works—just so that you know how to limit them, if nothing else.

Now, when we think of magic systems, I think that a lot of our minds kind of immediately jump to the most complex ones out there, like the ones you see in a Brandon Sanderson book or something. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that (Sanderson’s magic systems are probably my personal favorites), but I think that it does give people the idea that a magic system has to be that complicated and detailed in order to work or be believable. Which then leads people to be intimidated and overwhelmed when they’re trying to come up with their own, which never leads to anything good or productive.

So, I’m here to tell you what I personally think a magic system has to achieve, regardless of detail or complexity, and to share how I do it in my own projects. Without further ado, let’s get to it!

What Does a Magic System Have to Achieve?

Everything I’m going to say here, obviously, is just my personal opinion, so you’re welcome to agree or disagree as you please. But, in my mind, a magic system should answer these five questions:

1. Where does magic come from?
2. How do people gain the ability to use magic?
3. How do people channel magic?
4. What can magic do, and what can it not do?
5. What is the price of using magic?

If some of these sound vague or complicated, don’t worry; I’m going to explain each of them now.

Where Does Magic Come From?

All magic in fantasy comes from somewhere. Sometimes it comes from things like the elements, or some divine entity, or the minds and intellect of those using it. There are even several fantasy worlds out there where magic comes from an actual place or a single shared energy source that its practitioners tap into every time they cast a spell. Whatever the case is, I think it’s always a good idea to have a rough idea of where magic comes from in your world, even if it doesn’t have much relevance to the overall story.

The two main reasons for this is because it can help give you an idea of what magic can do, and it can give a sort of theme to your magic. Like, if you’ve got element-based magic, the theme is obviously elements. And you might have it that magic can do anything that a real-world element can do, and anything that elements can’t do is beyond the magic-users’ abilities too. So, they can summon lightning strikes at will, but they can’t resurrect the dead, for example.

How Do People Gain the Ability to Use Magic?

Maybe people have to study and train for years to learn how to command magic. Maybe some people are just born with the ability. Or maybe someone has to be exposed to some sort of energy or artifact to gain the ability. Obviously, the possibilities are just about endless here, and it’s fun to tinker with.

No matter what it is, though, this is important to know, especially if your story features a character learning how to use magic—but also for if the character already knows how to use it from the beginning, because it’ll likely be important to their backstory.

How Do People Channel Magic?

Do magic-users have to utter certain magic words to channel their powers? Perform specific movements? Use a magic wand or some other type of focus? Sacrifice blood? Some combination of several things? These are only some examples of all the different things your characters could have to do to put their magic to use.

This is mostly just a vibes thing, and it might be somewhat determined by where the magic comes from. But it can have a greater impact on the story too, particularly if the way they channel magic is something that might be inconvenient in some situations. (You know, like if they have to be able to talk in order to use magic, but they’re captured and gagged at some point during the story. Then they might have to try to get free without using their magic.) This is another thing that could be used to keep a magic-user in check, so they can’t just blast through everything all the time and ruin any sense of challenge or conflict.

What Can Magic Do, and What Can It Not Do?

Sometimes, you might be able to get some ideas for things that magic can and can’t do just by answering some of the questions I talked about earlier. But sometimes you might pick a theme or magic source that doesn’t make it very obvious—like, say you’re choosing to do a more traditional wizard, or “arcane”-based, type of magic system—so it’s good to stop and really think about what people can do with magic in your world.

This might seem like a daunting task but, for me, it’s as easy as writing down a couple of lists: one of things that magic can do, and one of things that magic can’t do. What should go on each list? Well, that’s totally up to you. You can base it on things like the theme of your magic system or the source of magic in your world, like I mentioned earlier, or, if those don’t spark anything, you can just choose whatever you want or think would be interesting.

Obviously, magic might be able to do a lot of things in your world, so you don’t necessarily have to write down everything that it can and can’t do. I’d suggest writing down at least four or five things in each list. Even if you can’t get everything down, this should still serve as a nice framework that you can refer back to if you ever find yourself trying to decide if it would make sense or not for magic to be able to do a certain thing.

What is the Price of Using Magic?

The hardest part of writing a magic-user is that it can be really easy to make them super overpowered, to the point where it’s hard to think of a conflict that would actually be a conflict for them. Like, if you can just turn all your enemies into toads and walk past them to get to your goal, why wouldn’t you? Answering this question can help mitigate the chances of something like that coming up.

I’ve already talked about ways you can start limiting your magic-users’ powers while you’re answering some of the previous questions and, depending on what you come up with for those, you might not need to bother with any sort of “price” at all. But, when I’m talking about a price for using magic, I’m talking specifically about negative effects that might happen to a person as a result of using magic, not just the limitations of magic itself. These can be useful because they can force a character to be more selective about when or how they choose to use magic, giving them more reasons to try to navigate challenges in different ways. They can also, depending on how severe your price is, add a nice dose of tension to your story too.

When I say price, though, I don’t necessarily mean something super bad or dramatic. (But it totally could be.) When I’m writing magic, for example, a lot of the time my “price” is just that using magic takes a lot of focus and energy. So it wears the users out if they do it too much and, if they push it too far, they might pass out or something. It’s not good, but it’s not necessarily the end of the world. (I mean, unless they pass out at a really bad time, of course.) Your price can be as serious as you want—maybe, whenever someone uses magic, it takes time off their lifespan, or they risk going insane or something—but it should definitely be something that your characters would want to avoid.

Another thing you should keep in mind is that, the more serious your price is, the more likely it’ll probably be that a character would try to avoid using magic as much as possible. So, if you want a character to be using magic all the time, you might not want to have it so that they risk losing their mind every single time they use it. (Unless, of course, they’re a character who just doesn’t care or is very confident in their ability to resist the ill effects.) Otherwise, a milder price might be the better option. In my opinion, the more serious prices are generally better for if you want your character to mostly be doing things without magic, but turn to it when things get desperate, creating a cool and dramatic scene.

Magic Systems and World Building

Another thing that I try to think about whenever I’m creating a magic system is the connection between magic and the world of the story. Like, how has the existence of magic affected the world and the people living there? How do people tend to perceive magic? Does everybody know that magic’s real, or is it only known by a select few?

I could go on and on with questions like these but, the point is, it’s a good thing to think about. If something as powerful as magic existed in the real world, it’s sure to have had some pretty big effects on things. So, by coming up with some ways that magic has shaped your world’s history or that it affects people’s day-to-day lives, you can really make it feel a lot more believable and like the magic really belongs.

Outro

Creating an entire magic system from scratch can be an intimidating task but, by keeping the things I mentioned in mind, I can give myself a solid starting point—and, hopefully, you can too.

That’s all for today’s post! Thanks for reading!