Very Sparkly
Oh! I really like this! I totally want Chaos powers and i think it's so cool how Chaos is not inherently evil! It's such an overused cliché!
I have a few questions
- Which Elements are there?
- Can you give me a few sample moves/spells for each power
- Are there any powers/elements geared towards healing?
Edited by ShiningEmmy on Jun 16th 2020 at 1:01:04 AM
Hi i'm Emmy! I'm happy to be here! Uhh... what else should i put here.
Ah, thank you! Very glad you think so ^_^
Yeah, I've come to really hate how "Chaos Magic" is almost always strictly evil by default, with even Marvel Universe (which is comprised mainly of Chaotic Good heroes, compared to DC's Lawful Good) having their brand of chaos powers be the most forbidden and unambiguously evil thing in all existence. Like, Chaos is no more inherently evil than Order, yet the latter gets more good/neutral portrayals. So why not Chaos? XD In any case, to answer your questions:
- The Western Classic Four- Fire, Earth (which includes Metal), Water (which includes Ice), and Air, with Electricity either being an element of its own or a "sub-element" of either Air or Fire (leaning towards Fire since they're both forms of energy that burn things lol). Initially had "Plants" as an element, as a nod to the Wood element from Eastern elemental system, but plants are a great deal more alive than the other elements lol So that's been nixed
- I'll try lol
Elemental has "Fire Blast", "Boulder Toss", "Wave Smack", and "Mini-Tornadoes". Of course, still working out the names ^_^;
Life has the "Bestial Aspects", in which the 'Life Wielder' channels the spirit of certain animals and gains their traits and attributes: Hawk Aspect, for instance, gives them far-reaching sight and greater air maneuverability, while Bear Aspect increases their physical strength and durability, and so on. On the plant side of things, there's "Animate Flora", which makes the target plant become animate lol
Necro's most famous spell, of course, is "Animate Dead", bringing 'life' back to the chosen corpse(s). Aside from that, there's also "Ecto Blast", in which they shoot a ball or beam of ectoplasm at their foes.
Blood is mainly simple control over blood and "consuming" (not as in eating lol) certain types of blood for certain spells, such as using the blood of a snake to fill their foe with venom, or blood of salamander to burn. However, Blood Magic does have a ritual that revives a recently deceased corpse back to life as a vampire.
Chaos's iconic moves are "teleportation", "illusory clones" (which are physical replicas of the chaos wielder that are semi-independent, though very short-lived due to being composed of chaos energy, which is highly unstable), transmutation (which differs from "alchemy" in this setting as they aren't restricted by any laws, such as Equivalent Exchange), and most famously shapeshifting, although that last one is a very advanced technique only a master chaos wielder could perform.
Order's moves are primarily projecting their order energy to act as spherical shields, walls, and other useful constructs. They can also infuse their weapons with the order energy to have strict properties, such as literally setting a ballistic weapon to "stun" and not "kill", if not manifest their order energy as physical weapons. And most infamously, they can nullify another person's Mana and/or Vital Force, rendering them mundane, and there's the move "Will Control", which is the ultimate form of mind and body control that only the strongest wills can hope to resist.
- Yep! Of the Magics, Life and Blood have the greatest healing potential, with Life speeding up the natural Healing Factor and curing both physical and mental ailments while Blood heals by directly repairing the flesh and removing toxins, further aided if they have a type of blood that promotes healing ability (such as menstruation blood, as squicky as that is). Blood Magic, in fact, is primarily utilized by physicians and medical professionals because of how direct it is lol But the Order Power exceeds both abilities in terms of raw healing ability, able to repair all but the most severe wounds (like, they can reattach an arm but can't grow a new one) and all diseases are eradicated by order energy. Only thing keeping the Order Power from rendering the medical field obsolete is that the Order Chosen, primarily being a harsh Lawful Neutral faction, don't utilize their power unless it greatly benefits order: so they will only really heal the masses in the event of a pandemic or mass violence. And though the Chaos Power is primarily about destruction with the only healing capability being a speedy Healing Factor and damage resistance to the Chaos Wielder, the Chaos Power has an advanced move that is the only one of all abilities capable of truly reviving the dead, even when the deceased had passed the "mortal event horizon" so to speak, since the Chaos Power is all about defying the laws of reality (the laws of life and death included). Of course, the success rate is random at best, won't work if the deceased had sufficiently decayed (since otherwise they'd be revived as a partial skeleton), and even then it won't heal away the cause of death so that would have to be addressed immediately upon revival
Alas, since having made this thread, I had decided to rework this "Ability System" as per the Redditor's feedback and came up with something I feel is more effective ^_^; Updates are as follows:
- Vital Force is now the "source" for Magic as well as Charles Atlas Superpower and related physical abilities, and in-universe is the culturally neutral term for Chi, Chakra, Mana, Aether, Orenda, and related concepts. And on that note, just as before, Vital Force exists within all living things and also exists in certain non-living things (mainly gems and natural forces like storms), but the "strength" of an individual's Vital Force varies, so you still got individuals that are better than others at certain things involving Vital Force. And to keep Magic relatively uncommon, the Magic abilities are a great deal harder to get an affinity for, let alone learn them, thus most people opt to be "Badass Normal"
- Magic itself has also been changed into three strict categories; the Arcane Method, the Spiritual Ways, and the Dark Arts. The Arcane Method is essentially Arcane Magic but with the explicit addition of Psychic Powers and Alchemy. Spiritual Ways is Life Magic and Elemental Magic combined with each other, and adds in some "spirit-based magic" (such as praying to a Nature Spirit for help or using totems to bring about certain effects). And the Dark Arts is Necro Magic and Blood Magic combined into one, with a third component yet to be thought up (darkness manipulation is highly tempting, but I have this compulsion to try and abide by the laws of physics, and the true nature of darkness makes manipulating it an impossibility). A fair bit easier to get an affinity for and learn compared to the other two Magic abilities, but far less ethical lol But still having objectively good uses, with the blood component retaining greater healing ability. Just that the Dark Arts as a whole relies a good deal on sacrifice, and not many are willing to sacrifice parts of themselves
- Although, I'm honestly starting to consider making the Elemental component a universal thing for all Magics and the Powers, since an Arcanist/Psychic has as much ability to conjure flames as a "druid/shaman", and also thinking of removing "Blood Magic" altogether and have it be that blood/flesh can be "consumed" by any type of Magic Wielder for greater magic effect and rituals. But of course that warrants giving the Dark Arts a new secondary component or simply move the Necro portion to Arcane Method and came up with a new style altogether...
- The Powers, Order and Chaos, function exactly the same as conceptualized. Only real change is that why they are classified separately from Magic is that the Order Energy and Chaos Energy that fuels both powers completely replaces the Vital Force of an individual; hence why they cannot use Magic and why these Powers impact their lives in change a massive way
- Deliberating on a third Power, for the sake of a trio lol Question is what "flavor" that Power could be. "Cosmic" can't be done, since time and space manipulation is already taken up by the Arcane Method...
So sorry for this Wall of Text ^_^; A very bad habit of mine
Edited by KaoticKanine on Jun 17th 2020 at 10:24:33 AM
For some quick context, I've been devising this world for a "series" I've been planning for the longest time; said world being a "kitchen sink" sort with primary elements of fantasy (in the form of having multiple sapient species, the use of magic, and classes) and superheroes. And to that end, I've been trying to construct an "ability system" that allows for as many types of abilities as possible while avoiding being nebulous. I thought I made a solid foundation, but I keep feeling something's not right...
I already posted this on Reddit, admittedly, and got some solid feedback. However, I accidentally left out some important details about this "series" that skewed things. Namely how the story was about an ordinary person in an extraordinary world, and all of a sudden got their lifelong wish for a "superpower" (with the major caveat being said power is not ideal to their intentions and goals). And this is intended to be an animated series (although most likely it would have to manifest as a literature series), but able to be easily translated to video games. But nonetheless, it being a mainly superhero genre means more abilities for more types of characters. So, before I enact any major revision, I'd like to hear what you guys think of my setting's "ability system".
The ability system is split in three classifications: Vital Force, Magic, and Power.
Vital Force is essentially my world's equivalent of "Chi", albeit focused entirely on the physical aspects of the concept. Vital Force exists within all living things and its natural function is that of a constant yet stable 'physical enhancement'. The average bear of my world is capable of damaging tanks as a result of Vital Force, and the many sapient individuals use Vital Force to grant themselves Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Toughness, or otherwise keep up with those who use Magic and Powers. But of course, to get even a decent use out of VF, they still need to hone their bodies: be it through disciplined training or harsh and dangerous living.
Magic describes a set of abilities that utilize "Mana", which in this context is a spiritual energy that exists within many but not all life. For something in my world to be classified as magic, it must use Mana. To sum up each Magic:
-Arcane, the "wizardry and alchemy" magic; utilized by both scholars and entertainers alike to bend reality in their favor, such as producing portals, manipulating time, lightening gravity, and polymorphing their foes. Inspired by Warcraft's "Arcane Magic" and the magic of MCU!Dr. Strange.
-Elemental, which is exactly what the name implies; has the unique "rule" in that practitioners can manipulate as many elements as they want, but those who specialize are much better at their chosen element than the "jacks of all trades". Although the latter are much more versatile. Think of Avatar: The Last Airbender mixed with the Elementalists of the Guild Wars series.
-Life, the "animals and plants" magic; as with Elemental, mages of this Magic can specialize in the animal aspect, gaining perfect communication with wildlife and even mildly shapeshift into their desired animal. Or specialize in the plant aspect, having unparalleled manipulation of plant life and gaining plant-exclusive traits such as photosynthesis. For reference, think of Druids and Rangers/Hunters of most RP Gs (namely the Warcraft series and Guild Wars)
-Necro, the "undead" magic; uses their Mana to manipulate ectoplasm, with which to command ghosts, grant themselves ghost-like abilities, and reanimate corpses. NOT inherently evil or even corrupting like in most fiction: Necro Magic is just as capable of good as any other ability, and even the reanimating of the dead ain't bad so long it's either the corpse of non-sapients and/or the brain is entirely decomposed (in which the resulting reanimation is little more than a robot).
-Blood, also exactly what name implies; different types of blood (and blood quantity) yield different effects and blood mages can manipulate blood, making them terrifying foes. Yet Blood Magic also provides one of the most effective healing of all abilities, and indeed most medical professionals are blood mages.
And then there's the Powers, which are yet another set of abilities but are utilized by their own energies and tend to be much more powerful than Vital Force and Magic, but with the trade-off of being much rarer. While a whole army could be composed of nothing but Magic wielders, any one nation would have to be extremely lucky to make a five-man group of Power wielders. But such a group would have a significant impact regardless... Current planned Powers are:
-Chaos, gained by getting stricken by Chaos Energy whenever, wherever, and however it manifests itself (which is, of course, completely random and unpredictable), and surviving the process. Those who come to wield this power essentially become living vessels for chaos energy and constantly produce the stuff, if not become the energy itself. Unlike most fiction is NOT pure evil or demonic in nature: simply chaotic. Sure, the Chaos Power mainly benefits the individual who wields it and is best suited for wreaking destruction and confusion, as well as being quite literally unpredictable, but it also grants complete freedom (as in, any form of mind control can't work and can never be restrained/contained) and break any limits to the wielder and those they choose, among other useful supportive "spells". There's also the more neutral abilities of illusions, transmutation, shapeshifting, and minor reality-warping. Additionally, the Chaos Power has a unique affinity depending on the individual, and how the Chaos Energy that granted them the power manifested (if the Chaos Energy manifested as lightning, the resulting chaos wielder's energy resembles and functions similarly to electricity and gain some resistance to electricity, among related attributes). Truly, the Chaos Power would be the strongest of all abilities if it weren't for the luck factor in the effectiveness of individual abilities, as well as the tendency to stir up or attract trouble.
-Order, the exact opposite of the Chaos Power. Gained by being a naturally orderly/lawful person, which is predetermined by the Order Energy that fuels the ability, the Order Power is much more defensive and supportive, alongside many other utility "spells". Any group or army is more effective with an Order wielder, and the wielder themself are no slack in the combat department; even if they aren't effective fighters in their own right, the Order Power lets them strip away the abilities of others (including Vital Force), rendering them mundane, among other forms of powerful crowd control. Most infamous of such moves being "Will Control", which is mind control, body control, and spirit control all at once. However, for as practical and dependable as the Order Power can be, it is very strict in usage and not as "versatile" as its counterpart or other abilities.
-Psychic, gained by being imbued with Psionic Energy (still working out details of how that is done. Since I'm planning on the energy being cosmic in origin, perhaps an uncommon cosmic event sees Psionic Energy "visit" the planet and do its thing). Psychics typically start off as purely mental, only able to affect other minds via telepathy, clairvoyance (seeing in the eyes of another), and literal empathy. But some do start off as psychokinetic, unable to influence other minds but perfectly able to influence the world itself with their minds via telekinesis, levitation, and the psi-blast. Psychics that gain the ability to influence both the minds of others and manipulate the world with their mind are dubbed "Master Psychics" and gain the additional ability to create tulpas via manifesting their imagination into reality.
Edited by KaoticKanine on May 18th 2020 at 10:03:32 AM