Yeah, usually I try to keep it as minimal as possible. The less "sources" the better, with too many Phlebotinum sources floating around you start to run the risk of them stepping on each others' toes or creating unintentional story breakers. For example maybe in a setting like yours it's all the same magic, but mana is elemental magic being directed, Ki is internal magic being focused, and powers come from seals and artifacts that perform a single magical function. That way it's all more or less under the same umbrella. Maybe it's just a personal preference but I usually go for the minimum possible Phlebotium sources.
edited 30th Jan '18 11:04:01 PM by archonspeaks
They should have sent a poet.Being a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, I kind of need to establish multiple sources, but I also don't want it to be overly complicated. Ki, mana and related concepts come from human beliefs and superstition bending the fabric of reality to allow them to exists, being false magic. The arbitrary laws that false magic follows are human constructs. True magic taps into powers from hidden dimensions or higher entities to warp reality, and can be used to create false magic. So the origin of magic goes like this: True magicians doesn't understand how or why they can use magic, invent laws based on their own beliefs, thus creating false magic that everyone can use, albeit weaker. False magic can also create more false magic, but they're not weaker since it's just belief.
Psychic powers come from Psions, a particle that can interact with other particles to cause unnatural phenomena, such as opening holes in space-time or altering gravity. They only react to a special frequency of brain waves that are found in espers. More of an undiscovered science then straight up magic.
Psions and magic don't interact with each other, so a psychic can just as easily snap a magician's neck as the magician can turn the psychic into a bunny.
It does sound like you can group them up, though. Magic and Ki would effectively be the same force but use drastically different methods.
For reference, Hammon from Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. While it's primarily a Ki effect it's got spell like properties. Ki just focuses on internal effects while Magic focuses on external effects.
Belief and Psionics can likewise be grouped. If we assume people have natural, low level psionic power then we can explain Belief magic as that power manifesting through the Collective Unconcious (See Carl Jung).
@Belisaurius: Interesting
Reminds me a bit of Avatar, where each of the Bending Arts have their own "sub-types" (Earth with Metal and Magmabending, Water with Ice and Blood, and Fire has Lightning), thus one has to adapt their strategy to those types of Benders. And indeed, I guess I could group Mana and Ki with each other. Concept-wise in real life, they're effectively the same thing lol One just has a consistent basis (balancing mind, body, and spirit) while the other is more inconsistent (comes from high intellect, fairies, the devil...)
@archonspeaks: Yeah, I understand the preference
Logically speaking, it is much more beneficial to have less phlebotium floating around as possible for that very reason. And thank you so much for those suggestions
The way Magic and Ki work in my world works perfectly with that system! Well, except for Blood Magic, since blood is very much an internal thing. But then, I suppose I can easily transplant "blood manipulation" over to Ki since blood and chi have an association with each other, and it provides the Ki class more utility since at the moment the ability only empowers the user's physical body to the point of super strength, durability, and fire powerful but short ranged projectiles. Although that would complicate the origin of vampires in my setting, since a Blood Magic ritual is how they're created and Ki in my world doesn't lend itself to rituals and channeling spells...
Though, I'm afraid I can't exactly do that suggestion with "Powers" since they function more like superpowers than traditional fantasy abilities ^^; Like, the setting of my world itself is basically "Fantasy" combined with the "Superhero" genre, wherein multiple sapient races exist in a fictional planet similar to Earth but very different in appearance and such, Magic is a commonly used thing, and a big focus is on exploring the world and how it functions, but the era of the setting is modern with phones, modern tech, and the like and sci-fi elements exist. But anyways, the idea behind "Powers" in my setting is that they are relatively stronger than Magic and Ki but they can't be voluntarily gained like either classes (Ki is physical in nature, so it can be tapped into by anyone with a physical body with enough focus and after externsive training, while Mana required for Magic is spiritual in nature, so the strength of one's Magic, or ability to use Magic at all depends on the state of their spirit, in a manner of speaking), one only has a CHANCE of recieving a Power and a relatively low one at that, comparable to winning the lottery (or, in the case of the Order Power, have to fulfill strict requirements that the average person cannot hope to meet). Though at least the phlebotium for the Powers are easier to manage since there's very few of them, and I'm considering making it even fewer since two of them, Light and Dark, seem more apt for Magic
@Ikedatakeshi: That is an insanely creative idea for an origin of magic
So, it's like, actual magic comes from different dimensions and/or gods, and mages are able to tap into it but don't know the true nature of magic so they make up their own laws that manage to work but produces weaker versions of said magic? And the idea for Psychic Powers is really cool as well
edited 31st Jan '18 9:05:24 AM by KaoticKanine
In my universe all supernatural powers are called magic, even if they do very different things (like Pyromancy or Telekinesis). Magic comes in "flavors" or "elements", with different mages having different affinities for certain elements. The fuel is always the same, life force, which is an energy inherent in all living things. What makes a mage a mage is an unusually large pool of life force, that and a lot of practice (some learn quicker than others though, as with all skills).
Actually, magic goes beyond supernatural things, the very fabric of reality is defined by magic. There is a special flavor of magic that can't be controlled by mages that basically writes the rules of the world, another flavor (this one is usable) is what enforces/applies them. So a mage with an affinity for that flavor can apply the laws of physics as they wish (turn gravity upside down or negate it) but they can't change how gravity works.
Those two are the "fundamental" types of magic, then there are six "primal" flavors, which more or less equate to Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life and Darkness. Earth and Water actually don't do what they typically do but instead are used to make alterations in yourself and other things respectively.
You can do everything those elements can with the enforcing fundamental magic but the difference is that it's much harder. It's the difference between casting a heal spell and "manually" setting bones back into place with your mind.
There is also the practice of infusing runes into objects, changing their properties, which in-universe is distinct from magic (since anyone with the right training can do it and it doesn't require life force) but in the end is nothing but a different way of applying fundamental magic.
You could use a similar concept in your universe, yes there are different kinds of supernatural abilities but they all stem from the same source. It would be a bit more complex in your universe since you do have a large range of abilities but with sufficient explanation it generally should work.
Hm, so magic is essentially the fabric of reality and any living thing is able to manipulate it with their life force, with those that have greater life force having better power, and their personality more-or-less defines the type of magic they do? That's very interesting
I suppose I could consider that "affinity" idea for my setting, having a singular source of "energy" provide a wide range of abilities based on the individual. Individuality is a big theme of the "story" for this setting, and a lot of the planned abilities are already defined by a person's personality. Those with Nature Magic are those who strongly associate with plants, animals, or both. Psychics place great emphasis on the mind and psychology. Chi/Ki for those who value their physical prowess to the point of willingly undergoing Training from Hell. Those with the Cosmic Power tend to be those who can handle the enormity of the universe, or otherwise have a vast interest in outer worldly affairs. Chaos Users strongly associate with the concept of Chaos (which, just to avoid any assumptions, is NOT 100% evil crap, just a neutral force that embodies freedom, creativity, confusion, and destruction, and indeed Chaos Users can be any of the chaotic alignments), and ditto for Order Users but in the opposite sense. Of course, maybe I should reveal all the planned abilities of my world to better help deciding on making multiple or a single phlebotium, if that's alright with you all ^^;
For some reason, a lot of settings like to arbitrarily define magic and psychic powers as having distinct, unrelated sources. There's enough precedent for it that you can get away with it without too much trouble, as long as you take the time to establish the rules for each.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Hello all! This is my first ever time starting a thread on these forums, so I apologize if this turns out "unprofessional".
Anywho, for years I've been doing some serious worldbuilding for the setting of my "main story". I won't reveal too much about it, since I don't want to risk ruining my chance to make it official an "official work", but I will say that a major aspect of this setting is that most of the sapient population in this world have special abilities; Ki Manipulation, Functional Magic and directly related sub-types, Psychic Powers, you get the gist.
Because I'm a chronic overthinker about how things work and such, I'm compelled to have these abilities have different sources depending on their "class", with "Magic" for example being its own class of abilities and are identified as utilizing Mana; if an ability doesn't require Mana, it's not Magic. Meanwhile, Ki Manipulation is obviously fueled by Chi/Ki, which is similar but very different from Mana, and Psychic Powers in this setting are considered a "Power" rather than Magic as it is fueled by psionic energy, and all other abilities classified as a "Power" are fueled by their own unique phlebotium. I initially considered having the Elemental Powers of this world be their own class as well, but couldn't think of a sensible "fuel" for that, so I decided to make that a Magic since all other fiction do. Of course, this brings its own hassle of explaining how and why there's so much of these "power granting energies" existing in this one world and how they co-exist, why certain abilities require this but THAT one doesn't, keep things consistent basically. But such is the nature of having numerous phlebotium fueling different abilities instead of just one singular source
But that got me thinking; how do the rest of you handle multiple phlebotium in your own worlds, preferably in a consistent manner? How many exist in a given setting, how and why, and how do they play off of the other phlebotium? Why go for the complicated path of multiple "fuel sources" for abilities instead of a single one? I think this would make for an interesting discussion, and help us out with planning out our phlebotiums in our worlds in the process
edited 30th Jan '18 7:35:28 PM by KaoticKanine