Feedback on my Magic System?

The magic of Terrus-Aqua is based on the individual. I intended for this to cover the widest array of magical abilities possible while still adhering to a fairly extensive class system, and physics.

By the way, place names are in Latin and terms applying to people are Greek—in case you were wondering why it is called Terrus-Aqua and not Gaion-Hydra (I am sure I mangled the endings, though. I wanted a masculine connotation for "Earth" and a feminine connotation for "water".)

Not finished yet, please keep calm while I edit.

How Magic Works

Every magic user has a source of internal energy they can use to manipulate the world around them.

Executing magical actions is generally a movement-based system, particularly with telekines and summoners. Meditation is used to hone concentration and control; some form of this exists in every training system. As the user becomes more advanced, less physical effort and meditation is required to perform.

(more later)

1. Sensory Abilities

• Magical Extensions of Physical Senses: Magical vision and hearing are strongest, though it is not uncommon for all five senses to be present.
  • Resistance is a trait that allows the person possessing it to withstand magic. As an extension of the immune system, resistance is inborn and usually developed through repeated exposure to magical actions. It is not uncommon for two magic users to have a child completely without magic. In healers, this is often a vestigial trait due to the fact that their magic is encouraged to be exchanged between patients and retrieved in a timely manner.
• Telepathy, Empathy: These only qualify as senses when the user is able to recieve thoughts/sensations up to and outside a range sufficient for professional use, but their broadcasting ability is narrower than required for professional range.
  • Chronopathy is a rare form of time-based empathy enabling the user to recieve information beyond the present, usually pertaining to the past. Mages who can recieve information from future events are called prophets.

2. Internal Manipulation

• Magotherapists (or healers): The most common mages. Their power is an internal source of magic which supports their own physical abilities as well as those of other people when the magic is shared between them. As a group, they are the narrowest broadcasters, commonly unable to use their magic outside of arms' length and often requiring direct skin contact.
• Polymorphists (or shapeshifters): Use an internal source of magic to alter the physical bodies of a living being. Automorphists are people who change their own bodies, while anthropomorphists can change other living beings. They are the least common mages.

3. External Manipulation

• Telekines: Can move objects without physical contact.
  • The most common type of telekines are those who use their power as an extension of their physical ability. They are characterized by ranges below one hundred feet and higher strength on average.
  • Chromokines and phonokines: Those who manipulate light and/or sound waves. Due to working with nearly weightless or invisible subjects, they are characterized by the dexterity of their technique. Their range varies but on average ranges from direct contact to five hundred feet. Often seen in conjunction rather than isolation with each other.
  • Thermokines: Called weather mages or elemental mages, the rarest of the three classes. They can use their powers to manipulate water, air, fire, and earth on a molecular level and have the longest ranges, which in some cases extend thousands of miles.
• Telepaths/Empaths: Can broadcast their own thoughts or emotions as well as sensing those of others. Often seen in tandem with other magical abilities.

4. Summoners  ^*

^{I will think of a proper Greek term later}

• _____, or summoners: Mages whose power comes from an internal source, but this magic can be manipulated to exist entirely outside of any living body. Thus, a healer whose range extends beyond skin contact would not qualify, and neither would a polymorphist who changes the shape of other people as well as their own.
  • "Summoner" is a colloquialism and misnomer. In ancient times, these magic users were thought to have brought the fantastic creatures into existance from another world.

5. Alchemy

Alchemy is the science of reproducing magical effects via non-magical means.

• Spagyrists or iatrochemists are those who work with healers to create antidotes and potions.
• Tereochemists and bellochemists are often in the military, working to create armor and weaponry respectively.

6. Measurement of the Extent of Magical Ability

To be edited later.

7. Education, Professions

To be edited later.

8. Stereotypes, Integration of Mages Into Society

• Magic has no direct effect on electricity, unless a thermokine happens to be working with both simultaneously.
• Incantations and spells are a rarity, except in the case of summoners. Mostly a colloquialism, the official term is a "magical action".
• In Regards to Magical Actions Taken, and Death of the Magic User Before Cessation:
  • Magical actions are likeliest to stop on the death of the user if they are from healers, polymorphists, and two of the three telekines, due to the internal and/or supportive qualities of their possible actions.
  • Due to the nature of thermokines and summoners, whose actions often perpetuate externally and beyond the control of the user, there is no guarantee of an end to said actions. In such cases, another thermokine or summoner must be present to stabilize the situation if possible.
• Magical Defense divisions are not biased against magic users. Many officers employed are magic-users themselves.

9. Magical Defense

Magical defense divisions are found in all police departments and militaries.

• Resistance: While it is encouraged for most workers in these divisions to have higher than average resistance, there are a select few in each squad with average or lower levels. Since their colleages would be able to withstand much more danger than a civilian would, these people gauge the extent of a malicious action at the beginning of an operation without sacrificing the welfare of civilians, and the majority of them donned treated armor when the danger level has been accomodated for.
• Weaponry: To be edited later.

edited 9th Dec '10 11:12:18 AM by Slan

Most of this is a glossary of terms moreso than a "system" breakdown. You're asking people to read and memorize a lot of details in order to offer commentary.

My bad, but I didn't expect anyone to reply until I was finished editing the first post anyway.

Sounds interesting. Reasonably well-balanced and diverse.

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

This isn't really a system yet. It's a list of types of magic, but it doesn't say much about how they interact. It seems great, though. I like that you actually have a system for naming them.

Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.