Magic Inheritance system. Any UI?

I'm working on a fantasy series. There are humans with magic abilities (mages) and humans without magical ability (I'll just call them non mages here) If two mages procreate they will produce a mage child. (there very few exceptions) Two non mages will produce a non mage child. A mage and a non mage has about 80% (might be changed) chance of producing a mage child. But there is a 20% chance that the child will be born with no magic ability. (there is a slight chance they can become an empath) These non mages are not effected in any other way (physiically) by their lack of magic. I wanted to use a slightly differnet magic inheritance system to avoid being cliched, but do you think this has any Unfortunate Implications of "Don't let different races interbreed, or they will produce inferior children?"

edited 7th Aug '12 11:43:40 AM by TheMuse

You worry too much. I see almost no Unfortunate Implications from this; I might be more inclined to do so if 'mage' and 'not mage' wasn't so clear cut. If mage and not-mage parenthood created children with, like, half the power of a full mage, then, yeah, one could make a case about that.

Also, the 80% chance of becoming a mage doesn't make a huge amount of sense, whether from a scientific or common sense perspective.

Yeah. I'm still researching genetics and trying to figure out exactly how to work it out ao it's at least slightly based on some form of actual science.

This may be of use to you; from what I recall and understand, inheritance of magic in the Harry Potter setting is similar to what you describe, and apparently a biology major has come up with a defence of the system.

I've actually seen that before. The inheritatance system would be somewhat similar to that, but I don't want to do something that's been done before.

I don't think that there are Unfortunate Implications. But 80% is so heavily slanted that any community would quickly run out of non-mages.

And always remember: DNA is not immutable. You need an excuse for it to be immutable to magic.

Not necessarily, the mage genes might be rare to begin with, and just because they offer an advantage it doesn't mean it will replace the non-mage genetics completely.

You could make the mage gene recessive, so it is more likely people are born as non-mages. My question is why these people have magic and others don't?

Crystal Glacia's idea reminds me of height variation. If you have a short mom and a tall dad for example, you could be short or tall but you'll most likely be in the medium range between them. If magic is like that then you would have a greater number of half-mages than full-mages and non-mages.

Being recessive =/= less common. Plus, the 80% is a bias that will still cause it to spread.

It's fine, but I don't see any particular break from the usual sort of thing you see with genetic magic, so I guess I don't really see this as being less cliche. A 1/5th distribution is a bit strange in terms of things determined by genetic traits, so that's one thing—you might not want to tend to heavily scientific language in describing it, because it will seem odd if it's explained as genetics but doesn't seem to follow rules of genetic inheritance.

As for implications, I don't see any that aren't on a basic 'these people are special in their genes, these other people aren't' level. You may consider some downsides to being a mage that might make it not such a 'special' designation. Maybe even something as simple as, say, magical diseases or something—so that it's not like the mages are inherently better than non-mages.

On the other hand, you could use the slight undercurrent of privileged inheritance for a bit of drama. A mage wife knows it's not his fault but still gets upset at her non-mage husband because she'd wanted to do magic with her baby but it's a non-mage.

Like I said though, nothing sounds too bad, seems like a fairly average magic inheritance setup, so it's really down to how well you write it.

edited 21st Aug '12 12:26:33 PM by Kotep

How does the environment influence magical ability?

I ask because usually there are places in fantasy settings more magical than other places. If a child is born there, it may increase magical ability or even result in a mage born of non-magical parents. It may also work in the opposite direction, causing the "very few exceptions" of non-mages born of magical parents. For example, if a child is born in a fairy ring, they may have powers associated with fairies. Or if they are born where unicorns live, they can speak to unicorns. You get the picture.

What are factors in a pregnancy which may affect the magical ability of children?

For the same reason as the first question, and also because it's been shown that what mothers eat or drink during pregnancy influence children.

edited 21st Aug '12 9:51:00 AM by Leradny

I was thinking of there possibly being a higher chance of the child beng a mage if their mother is a mage (due to the exposure to their mother's magic in utero) I'm not sure if that makes sense exactly. Also, possibly having that exposure to toxins during pregnancy lowers the chance of the child being a mage due to slight genetic mutations or something.

Is there any practical purpose to getting so detailed with this? I know detail is important in a setting but I don't know if you need all of these minor things planned out unless your story is focusing on pregnant mages.

The muse: That makes sense.

Kotep: The story could also concern the children of said mages, the magical children of non-mages, or a mage/non-mage couple who are uncertain of whom their child will take after. Besides, having an actual reason other than "Mysteriousness of magic" tends to lend a work authenticity.

Yes, I agree with Leradny. As much as fantasy can be basically whatever the hell you want, I still believe magic in it still should have laws it follows.

I get the idea of constructing and following rules. I'm not against that at all. I just think when you get to the point where you're debating over small percentages like that, it's getting closer to a P&P sourcebook than the worldbuilding for a fantasy book.

What are the consequences of the mage gene mutating?