How does this magic system sound?

Basically it revolves around the idea that a magic user is a sort of solicitor for Magically Binding Contracts between Anthropomorphic Personifications of the things involved;

• If technology works by understanding the "rules" of the universe and following them, magic is more like torte law, where magic users can convince the judge (universe) to work to guidelines rather than hard rules.
• Everything which can be thought of as an individual unit^note This includes arbitrary amounts of something like "this cup of sugar", but they only exist for a brief moment. has an Anthropomorphic Personification of some sort (some are so weak they're closer to non-Turing AIs, some are more like animals, others have full blown personalities) which is based on how other units view them (even non-sapient ones) as well as humans (sort of Clap Your Hands If You Believe if fairies could power one another with their own belief as well as with humans' belief).
• A spell is basically brokering an agreement between one or more of these personifications and paying them off with a bit of energy from your soul to get the desired effect. More powerful AP are easier to negotiate with and can do more impressive things, but tend to be harder to get to know (being intelligent in their own right) and demand higher costs for their services. For example;
  • You could start a fire by either befriending the AP of fire (who's naturally powerful enough to be sapient) and paying them a "fee" to just plop a fire where you want it (in spite of all logic), or you could pay off the AP of a small amount of wood and the AP of the nearby air (not all air) to start burning without any added heat.
  • You could teleport something with a contract between it's personification and something like the air or the telephone network.
• A sapient being has their own personification (as contradictory as that sounds), which is this universe's equivalent of a soul, and accumulates power in the same way (APs "believe" in things which have an influence on them, so magical power is proportionate to how much interaction a person has with the world; wizards tend to do things that let them have a lot of influence for little effort to beef up their power). This power is used to pay off the "contracts".

So, does that sound consistent? Are there any works with similar systems that might be worth looking at for more ideas?

I rather like it. It's pretty consistent.

As I read it, I was wondering if you were going to make a human's AP themselves, but this idea of a soul is even better. Human consciousness is mostly a matter of natural factors- They have a mind and thought without any AP at all.

Their AP would be more powerful because they have at least a single mind automatically supporting it.

It's nice.

I agree. This sounds interesting and pretty original.

However, one question I have is about the precise jurisdiction of things and the extent of these APs. Using your example, there is an AP for the "nearby air" and another AP for "all air". Does the former submit to the will of the latter? If so, does this mean that brokering a deal with the "nearby air" might mean the spell/effect not work as agreed? If not, how does the AP of "all air" do anything since all of its actions would simply be comprised of numerous "bits of air" that are all individually distinct APs.

Likewise, using your fire example, would the AP of "fire" (be able to) simply not allow the "wood" and "air" to create a fire without a heat source since it (the AP of "fire") was not consulted and had not agreed to produce fire for the person? If the AP of "fire" has no say in the matter (wood and air agreeing to create a fire without a heat source), then how relevant would such APs be?

edited 26th Feb '13 3:47:13 PM by peasant

This is quite the interesting magic system.

I'm assuming the wood and air AP will then broker with the fire AP? Something like that.

Basically, the AP of fire is following guidelines, like the aforementioned torte law analogy.

As long as the "normal" rules for fire are satisfied, they couldn't prevent a fire from existing (even if they were so inclined to care about such a thing; remember that it's just the collective existence of fire itself, not some sort of supernatural bureaucrat in charge of regulating it); the wood and air can burn normally, so it's possible to get them to start burning spontaneously. Only the AP of fire has the ability to make concrete burn, or spontaneously extinguish a forest fire, however it doesn't care if fires are started or extinguished through other means (mundane or via contracts with other AP) and all AP operate on the same principles.

So basically, natural laws are a universal contract. Excellent.

An idiot mage could kill himself by making a bad deal. This sounds a lot like Changeling the Lost, but I like the idea that a regular guy could still do the same thing as Merlin.

One question, though: how does the mage communicate with the AP's?

Basically he or she communicates with them by...communicating with them (there's a bit of a "works because it makes itself work" theme in this system); that is to say, they start talking to them like they're there and they're there.