Learning from the Best Magic Systems Out There

Eragon has an interesting magic system i really like. The main magic system uses knowledge as a power as the magic is just a language where every thing you say is true and what happens depends on your imagination, everything costs energy and if u use a spell witch you don't have enough energy for you just straight up die as the spell can't be stopped midway through and will just drain all the energy you have.

I'd argue that Light wasn't changed all that much by the Death Note, but was just given the ability to enact his desires. I mean he's screaming "I am a god" by the end of episode 2

Stormlight archive’s magic system is elite imo and very good to look at

You can't just stop with a mythology; exploring the ecological history of magic on a world will bring new understanding of the world as you develop it. It's very time consuming, however, but really worthwhile.

The classification of magic sistems into hard and soft had a lasting wound in the type of magic system I made, glad to see the breaking of it^^ The fact that magic systems can impact the personalities of the wielder wasn't something I thought of before, so that was an eye-opener too! Great video as always^^

I love worldbuilding, and magic systems are a thing I spent a LOT of time on. I like these worldbuilding videos. Gives inspiration and help on understanding some stuff. Eager to see the next one !

Something interesting I thought about, is how the mage’s style of using magic effects how the magic turns out. A example of this is how people use magic to make traps. This also brought me to magic circles, which made me try to make a circle for different people with each circle being used by different species to suit their needs. Just something interesting I thought of a while back

My favourite magic system is from a ttrpg called Mage the Awakening, there are 10 different arcana (fate, time, mind, space, matter, death, forces, prime, life and spirit) and depending on your mastery of these you can cast spells with various levels of power (players are encoureged to make up their own spells and the storyteller (dm) interprets the rules to decide of they posses sufficient mastery). At a full mastery of an arcanum, a mage can create and destroy phenomena related to it for instance. There is also a dimension of anti-reality, called the Abyss, parts of which can get into our reality if a mage messes up.

I like the idea that Magic is a living entity. You can't control it without it fighting back, but you can't let it run wild either.

Ive been recently reading the Manga Witch Hat Atelier, which has been a really enjoyable magic system to follow. Magic is casted on ink and paper and follows a really hard magic system. Beautiful art as well.

ATLA does such a perfect job of worldbuilding each individual society around the respective bending accessible to them, sub-bending styles are always really interesting how much they can range from extremes like metalbending which was thought to be impossible to minor things like sand benders in the desert

LotR is a difficult case because, although it mentioned that human sorcerors and necromancers exist, their powers are never discussed. The characters in the story who are referred to as "wizards" are, in fact, angelic beings (maiar) sent to contest Sauron, but forbidden to use their powers to do so directly. This is why we never have a sense of how powerful Gandalf's magic might be. In Tolkien's tale, magic doesn't really play a part, so its difficult for me to see it as a "hard magic/soft magic" issue to begin with.

My favourite magic system is in the chinese fantasy series Lord of mysteries, I could go on forever in all the ways it’s just awesome but I’ll keep it short. You drink potion, you gain that potions power, there are 20 something different starter potions that all gives different powers, each starter potions have their own progression tree where you start as a sequence 9 all the way up to 0. To be able to get the next potion you need to act in accordance to said potions “intent/powers/will” for example if you start with the Seer potion you need to act as a Seer, that can be very abstract or literal. You can’t transition between potion lines so the first potion is very important. Ingredients are also a factor for progression. Then there are all the underlying things like gods/churches/cults, the potions and the magical world as a whole is hidden from the average person because the world is set in a lovecraftian cathulu horror world where knowledge is actively dangerous. Drinking a potion symbolises abandoning the mundane and becoming a part of the horror, a “beyonder” (someone who’s drunk a potion) fights a life long battle with madness and becomes horrifying monsters should they lose control and this gets way WAY worse the further you progress, which correlates nicely with the stronger you are the more you suffer the risk of going completely mad. Whoops this got long, uhhh LoM is a long web serial that I personally love but it isn’t for everyone, especially those who like it more faster paced.

My favorite hard magic system will probably always be Mistborn’s system. 16 types of metals, and each one lets you do something different. One pushes on metals equal to your weight. If that metal pushes on something greater than your weight, you get pushed instead. Another pulls metals. One dulls emotions while another incites them. One metal lets you see into the future while another that past. One slows time while another speeds it up.

The kido in bleach is a good form of structure limited by both knowledge and latent power. It also leaves an open end for the incredibly intelligent to create new kido. It’s a very defined structure but also leaves room for potential outliers that might seem abstract. That along with the zanpakuto seem like two separate forms of magic that can mesh well together.

how does this not have more views

Blue is better then red (and vice versa) depending on the scenario. Just think of colour theory. If you want your yellow to pop you arent gonna use red. You use blue. The same can be said about magic systems. One isnt "inherently better" then the other, but it may be more suited for the world you are trying to build. And just like some people like blue more then red, some people like certain magic systems more then others

I like that you mentioned star wars. The way it was with its soft magic sistem was more then perfect, unfortunatelly today force turned into downright devine magic and you can do whatever you want with it and if there are still limitations you go in a pocket dimension that allows you to change reality.

A magic system I've been working on/off has 13 Attributes, 10 Aspects, 0-9 Tiers of Scaling, and the central Anchor for a Spell Circle that determines the overall function of a Skill/Spell. The intent of the magic system is to allow the creation of a vast variety of customized spells for each Practitioner, but to also be as balanced as possible by making all forms of Magic follow the same exact rules set. Sadly motivation is a weak point of mine, otherwise I'd be much further on.

The magic system the series of the witcher shows is one of my favorites, for the fact that you see the effects of the casted magic and not a casting circle or a frase but yet understand what the spell does. Also the touch of an ancient powerful magic known only by a few is something i always appreciate