Sentient Magicks

Okay, so I'm working on a series and I have this vague idea of sentient Wild Magic type superpowers. But I'm not sure how I want to handle it. And I have this competing idea of having ordinary device magic in the form of charms and potions.

Okay, so I'm working on a series and I have this vague idea of sentient Wild Magic type superpowers. But I'm not sure how I want to handle it. And I have this competing idea of having ordinary device magic in the form of charms and potions.

1. Do you like D&D? perhaps you could use the empathic weapon and living spell template as a starting point.
2. Please Elaborate

Garth Nix's series The Old Kingdom Trilogy has Free Magic, unrestrained energy, and Charter Magic which is controlled by a series of marks whose mages are baptized with a special symbol. That's pretty similar to what you're doing and not exactly uncommon.

Perhaps the Wild Magic will come exclusively from living things and magical devices have had spells cast on them by sufficiently powerful people (or animals), which involves a symbol of some sort.

The magic in the Old Kingdom's not exactly sentient. Unless you're referring to the Free Magic beings, but they're more of 'sentient beings made out of magic' rather than sentient magic itself.

Now, there's this one story, the title of which I can't seem to remember, where a thief boy steals a mage's magic rock and the mage takes him on as an apprentice based on the fact that the rock didn't vaporize him, and the thief boy ends up figuring out that magic is actually sentient. That sounds more like what you're talking about, I think.

Well, here's the whole idea. Some mages are born with powers, which are self-aware. The powers WANT to be used, so they make themselves addictive. But using too much is bad, because powers are basically Cast from Hit Points. These mages are trained to resist the lure of their magick, but ignoring it is just as bad because the powers can gather their strength and burst out of your skull at the first opportunity. Basically, I want your magicks to be alive, to have their own agenda -which is basically to be used- and to be emotional.

I don't have a lot of advice, but I think this sounds like a very interesting idea. I don't see this used very often. You seem to be on the right track here. Just make sure you get the magics' characterisations sufficiently non-human and you'll probably do fine.

I'm not sure how you can explain the non-sentient magics such as potions, though. Do you need those at all? To me, that seems a lot more dull and D&D-like.

Actually, the device magic idea was sort of my default if this whole sentient powers thing didn't work out.

I just like the idea of a Nightcrawler-type character struggling to NOT teleport too much, lol.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles has this, sorta. All magic is derived from the powers of Winds of Magic, which can be highly dangerous and treacherous. Casting spells carries the risk of coming under the attention of daemons, who can make themselves corporeal in strong enough magical environments, so magic is as risky as the amount of power you can harness. That's ignoring things such as spell failure, misspelling and blowing your head off, ect.

Or, basically, magic is the lifeblood of daemons, and too much of it in one place can become sentient and try to kill you — or worse.

Magic flows from a god-like Will (the Force). Aspects of the Will (personified as different Gods?) can manifest in different forms. All magic is a call for aid to the Will. Moreover, characters do not "use" magic, but "are" magical. In the end, all magic users are agents of the Will exerting only a small influence on its plan, or lack thereof.

edited 21st Nov '10 9:58:52 PM by Irongam3r

Some ideas that hit me while reading this thread: can the sentient magicks in one person's head talk to the magicks in another person's head? Can they fall in love/hate (regardless of how their "hosts" feel about each other)? What happens if two people carry the same spell (or opposite spells) and use it at the same time? Can people trade their magicks if everyone agrees? What happens to the magick if the host uses it too much and dies? Is it possible to expunge the magick, and would that be a good idea? If the magick does escape, what does it do?

Another thing: these mages have to be very tightly wound to keep their powers under control every minute of every day. They'd be dour people, like recovering alcoholics, because they can't let themselves have what they want most. They'd have a Slayer mentality (like Buffy), because they could lose control or face the ultimate challenge at any moment. They'd have short life spans. Nobody would want to be a mage, which works out because you have to be born that way.

If the magic can think for itself, there's always the interesting avenue of it suddenly deciding to not work (properly) whenever it pleases. "You don't cast me for three weeks, and now that you're suddenly surrounded by zombies you come crawling back. Nuh-uh, mister, now I'm ignoring YOU!"

Of course your magic may not be exactly that kind of sentient force to be spiteful. Still a fun idea to toy with.

[[Some ideas that hit me while reading this thread: can the sentient magicks in one person's head talk to the magicks in another person's head? Can they fall in love/hate (regardless of how their "hosts" feel about each other)? What happens if two people carry the same spell (or opposite spells) and use it at the same time? Can people trade their magicks if everyone agrees? What happens to the magick if the host uses it too much and dies? Is it possible to expunge the magick, and would that be a good idea? If the magick does escape, what does it do?

Another thing: these mages have to be very tightly wound to keep their powers under control every minute of every day. They'd be dour people, like recovering alcoholics, because they can't let themselves have what they want most. They'd have a Slayer mentality (like Buffy), because they could lose control or face the ultimate challenge at any moment. They'd have short life spans. Nobody would want to be a mage, which works out because you have to be born that way.]]

That's the kind of stuff I'm aiming for. The magicks can communicate with each other - even without their hosts being aware. They can fall in love or come to hate one another.

Basically, magicks are "programs". They can be copied, traded, strengthened, weakened, etc. The magick can only escape the host body after its death, and then it becomes a sort of Free Magic elemental a la Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen.

Magick is very simple in its motivations, but complex at the same time. On the one hand, it simply seeks pleasure and avoids discomfort, but on the other, it wants to create change. The problem is that without a body, magicks can't feel, so they have as much of a dilemma as the mages they "ride".

As for the mages, they are totally screwed up. Most don't live past age twenty, and the magicks become active in early childhood, so they're immediately sent off to learn what they need to learn. They are absolutely miserable, and they obsess about magick and death.