Sources of Magic – Part One
Where does magic come from?
It’s something I’ve noticed in more and more stories: some go further than others in explaining just how someone’s supernatural power is, well, powered. I don’t mean the rules for who can use it and how, or the history behind it. I mean whether magic’s defined as drawing on some particular source that acts a little like actual fuel, or if it “works like magic” with all its limits in some other form. Because each choice opens up a whole different set of options for a writer, and it tells a reader some of the directions a story might take.
For instance:
Magic from Thin Air (but, Is some air thinner than others?)
For many writers, the easiest choice is not to choose. Magic’s supposed to be too fun, or at least too fundamental, to the story and the world to make it act like some ordinary kind of energy. So the mythos has other kinds of specific limits, but no sorcerer is going to just run out of gas. If it’s explained, it’s usually that magical energy is floating free in the world, or the space between worlds, and there’s more of it than any mortal spellcasting can drain.
Except… if I look closer, I often see ideas like that leading to a story that takes a wider look at the geography of the world(s), or sometimes the course of history. Even the land isn’t constant, and a tale can do great things like:
- Location, location, location: Are some places richer in power than others, and why? Who controls the supernatural power points, and who’s left in the badlands? You can see a class struggle or a war coming, if it ever stopped…
- Bonus option: The mundane lands. If a writer wants to mention a tragic, familiar world where magic can’t exist, there’s no need to say its physics are simply hostile to it. Just position that place at the far edge of the source of power.
- Power by type: Many of the most fun options in wizardly world-building are contrasting one form of magic against each other. But what if the difference isn’t in genetics or training, what if “the Land of Fire” is where fire mana is thickest, and the mage who comes there used to dealing in illusions has to change his tactics fast?
- Prison zone. Sooner or later most supernatural villains (or heroes) need a way to trap a wizard. It might be that magic-blocking runes or cold iron walls work by simply cutting off the flow of energy they need.
- “The Magic Goes Away.” Of course that’s Larry Niven’s classic book that looked at the question of the world’s mana being used up before our eyes. Any story can ask, what kind of new arcane discovery—or just widespread of training and spelluse—might kick the use of power up to unsustainable levels. Are the people who see what’s coming the ones who’ve been causing it? Who tries to hold it back, by treaty, by force, or by hiding the secrets of power? So many possibilities.
And of course, even if the energy’s free doesn’t mean using it is. Most stores agree that at least concentrating on the power is enough to at least tire someone out. But for contrast:
Magic from Life (but, Whose life, and death)
These are the stories that go for the jugular, where magic’s powered by the most dramatic source of all, the blood or soul or strength of the living. Naturally the possibilities can get very dark very fast, or sometimes reach a new kind of inspiring. Such as:
- Sweat is still sweat: Levitating a rock uses the same source as picking it up, simply the user’s own fatigue. So flying across the county is essentially running a marathon, and lifting a car is either impossible or a way to burn all your strength in seconds; a great straightforward limit. (Although since it’s tracking physical effort, how does that translate to nonphysical powers—how “heavy” are the thoughts a telepath pulls out of someone’s head? Or, if a telekinetic could just reach it, how much strength does it take to stop someone’s heart?)
- So, power is sacrifice: Sooner or later every hero has to be pushed to his limits, and magic like this puts those limits right within reach. (Remember, the first “Marathon runner” delivered his message and dropped dead.) Only the bravest heroes and the most fanatical villains will dare to reach the true heights of power…
- Power is sacrificES: –unless they cheat, that is. All a world needs is one way to steal someone else’s strength for “blood magic,” and even a petty thug or the most well-meaning everyman can be one decision away from all the power he needs, and all the conflict the story needs.
- Strength in numbers: a villain can steal power and a noble hero only uses his own strength, but an even nobler hero would be the one who earned the loyalty and free gift of his friends’ power. Or on the other side, a manipulator can string a cult of “willing” donors along, and victory might go to the largest army after all.
Clearly worlds of the first, geographical type have a head start on comparing whole regions or their setting’s larger questions… while the second can zero in choices and conflicts between individual characters. All good, story-rich options.
Next time, I’ll look at the other two main groups I see.
And for now: there’s a classic Phil Foglio joke that evil sorcerers are impossible to shop for, because all they want is “more power”—unless you get them some alkaline batteries. Wonder how he knows…
