Sources of Magic – Part Two

If you know where something comes from, it gives you a head start on guessing where it’s going, doesn’t it? So when you’re reading or writing a fantasy tale, understanding just where that set of magicians draws their magical energy from can point to some of its best storylines.

In the other part of this list I mused on the idea that seemed like the simplest (until we look closer), that power’s simply lying around for use, as well as the hardcore drama of drawing it from someone’s life energy. But I’ve seen two other types as well:

Magic from… Stuff

This is the great catch-all approach: if the other magic systems are fueled from places and people, this one draws from specific things. And just how those “things” work sets so many of the limits of magic.

Note, this isn’t all the “enchanted items” and magic-enhancing wands that are usually part of a world’s magic; those usually seem more like the kind of tools or power batteries a magician might make because of the power he has. I mean worlds where magic itself can only start from one kind of source, ever. Such as:

Magic is Mine(d): In Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn books, magic comes from a talented person consuming bits of the right mineral; from using tin for enhanced senses, to “atium” for a near-invincible glimpse into the future. Other stories might use herbs, fresh dragon’s blood, or whatever the writer comes up with. So for any world where raw power can be dug up or literally snatched from people’s hands, it’s primed for stories about searching out, bargaining for, conquering, and hoarding supplies of the best materials. (Or beating a magician by simple disarming her.) All in all, this can lead to many of the same clash-of-nations story possibilities as the setting-based sources, but even more open to characters getting control of them.
Weirder yet. Metals are a nice simple source, but stranger sources can fuel stranger stories. Brent Weeks fuels his magic from light in the Lightbringer books… in fact it’s light’s color, so we see a man floating in the bright daylight ocean and out of luck because he doesn’t have the gift to tap into blue. Or in Nat Russo’s Necromancer Rising and Necromancer Falling, magic comes from energies left behind by death—so a battlefield is the last place you’d want to take on his heroes.

Come to think of it, the most famous magic of our time uses a touch of this. The Harry Potter books are full of creatures and plants that are inherently magical, but a human witch or wizard is (usually!) powerless without a potion, device, or a wand, and those all seem to be built from pieces of those wizardly materials. Of course the stories didn’t make much use of that angle; Harry never used up his wand’s phoenix feather and had to replace it. But it is still a possible limit… imagine a world, or even a Potterverse future, where wand-empowering creatures became all too rare. Or where only a few magic schools had succeeded in raising the things, or where Muggles realized they could destroy magic’s power by hunting down the creatures that generated it. (So why is the new movie called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them…)

Magic from the Gods

I’ve put this last, but of course it’s the oldest idea in magical fiction, and the myths and beliefs behind it. It says magic is never a human power, it can only be given by spiritual forces, of one kind or another.

And what that means in a story… if the other systems can stories around how people get control over different power sources, this puts the focus on what gods the story has, and what it takes for a person to serve them. With a benevolent god, a story could trap a character between that god’s demands and his own human wishes of he wanted the power for. (Say, Ciara Ballintyne’s In the Company of the Dead.) With a more evil spirit, the same conflict could get dark much faster (any devilish-deal story) or settle into the horror of the people who have to fight that kind of dark power.

And if a story has multiple gods (like the Dungeons & Dragons pantheons with their assorted clerics), a character having to choose one plays up the contrast between their different natures even more. Serving a god of justice and courage might seem an easy choice for a hero… until Mercy offers to give his brother that second chance, or Vengeance holds out a shot at his oldest enemy …

So magic could be based on the difference between places, or making use of people, or managing things, and the last might well be about following ideas. (Hmm, aren’t those the four categories of nouns, that make up everything?)

And like so much else of storytelling, a magic’s source might come down to contrasts. Whatever one point magic depends on, what about that makes the difference between have and have-not characters, and what—or better yet, who—is likely to change that? If the magic takes different forms, is it because the source does too? And all of those might become the choices that heroes and villains have to struggle between.

Looking back at my own writing, it’s clear I built The High Road to mix Place and Thing ideas. Mark and Angie discover they can draw out gravity-controlling magic from only one secret spot that’s been hidden away in the city park… but it’s also dependent on the old family belt that’s attuned to it. Most “objects of power” in stories don’t count as true sources since they always seem to be tapping into a larger system of magic, but here the belt (and some leather scraps that obviously came from it) are the only way to access that magic and fly. If my heroes were separated from those talismans, would it be more or less of a handicap than keeping them away from the park? –By the end of the book, the odds are that our heroes will be able to compare…

And before that, in Shadowed? Paul Schuman isn’t so sure where his power to enhance his senses comes from. When that book ends, he’s only begun to understand.

One last question, if you’ve seen the manga and anime Fullmetal Alchemist: Its alchemy draws on a single, consistent system. But the way its power involves currents of energy, stored power, and what’s beyond the Gate… it spills into all four.

Now that’s impressive.

On Google+

Photo by Matt Romack Photography

A little Summer Reading

CONFESSIONS of SYLVA SLASHER by Ace Antonio Hall

SPRING BREAK GETS WILD ON THE LIVELIEST CRUISE IN THE PACIFIC UNTIL THE UNDEAD CRASH THE PARTY.

Eighteen-year-old Sylva Fleischer and her friends raise the dead for a living for police investigations and mourning families. Two years after her high school crush, a hot guy named Brandon, is assumed dead, Sylva’s friends convince her to go on a spring break cruise in an effort to suppress her depression over him. But when passengers mysteriously die and reanimate into flesheating zombies like she’s never seen before, Sylva plunges into a horrifying struggle between a ship infested with the undead and the scariest thing of all: a second chance with Brandon after she discovers he’s still alive. This is a zombie story that eats right to the core and leaves you licking your chops for more.

Got zombies? Sylva Slasher does…

–click for more

About the author:

Ace Antonio Hall graduated from Long Island University with a BFA. He is a former NYC middleschool English teacher that now resides in Los Angeles. Ace’s short story dead chick walking made the Fall 2013 edition of the best-selling Calliope Magazine and his science fiction story, they, won the Honorable Mention distinction for the 2013 Writers of the Future Award. For updates and news, follow him on Twitter @aceantoniohall or visit www.aceantoniohall.com

BLOOD LINE by Lynn Ward

Lauren Pell is chief of security for the Terran station on Krhyllan, a planet wracked by ancient feuds and hatreds. When the king’s young son Deran is attacked by the savage Blood Painter assassins, the feared Blood Painters, Lauren fights, schemes, defies—whatever it takes to rescue him.

Convinced she failed to save the life of her own child, she will save this one, even if revealing some secrets endangers Krhyllan itself.

–click for more

About the author:

Lynn Ward is a native Texan recently transplanted to California. A speech pathologist in her day job, she reads, does martial arts and humors a neurotic cat. Blood Line is her first novel, after having sold short fiction in the past. Currently, she is working on a new novel and exploring the wilds of Los Angeles.

MAMA by Robin Morris

As the Conover family drives from L.A. to Chicago strange things begin to happen. Nine year old Michael sees a face form in the window of the family car. Two creepy children stare at fourteen year old Alison at a motel. A car follows the family for many miles, then hits their car and drives away.

Wherever the Conover family goes, wherever they look, they see a large woman and her children coming closer. The woman and her children are superhumanly strong. They can enter a locked room without opening the door.

Confused and scared, the Conovers can’t comprehend what is happening to them. Everywhere they turn they see the woman and her children. The woman is Mama, and as she teaches her children, like a lioness teaching her cubs to hunt, the Conovers realize that they are the prey.

–click for more

About the Author:

Robin Morris has had stories published in print anthologies and on the web. She collected many of her stories in “Halloween Sky and Other Nightmares.” This is her first novel.

PREY by Katy Mann

Christa, a shy college student, is interning at a Chicago law firm. One morning, she spots a mysterious stranger across the street from her office. This seemingly casual incident tears Christa from her world and sends her into a terrifying struggle with the remorseless immortal, Mack.

Mack comes from another time and place, not so long ago in years, but very far from Christa’s urban world. Mack came of age in the era of bootlegging, where the strong took what they needed to survive, and he has become interested in Christa.

On a trip to Europe, Christa comes across evidence of the supernatural, which she tries hard to ignore, but on her return she ends up being trapped in a clandestine network where human blood is farmed to satisfy vampire thirst.

Soon she becomes caught in a power struggle between two covens, a fight that threatens her mortal existence and forces her to make choices leading her into a deeper understanding of humanity and her own soul.

This is not a love story.

Prey is a novella and has a word count of 35,000 words.

–click for more

Katy Mann grew up in the Midwest where she attended the University of Chicago. She moved to California with her tabby cat, Gus, in 1995. A life-long reader, she divides her time between the real world, when necessary, and the worlds created in books and her imagination, when possible.

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…

Photo by garlandcannon