Rate My (Weird) Magic System!

Writing General Writing
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Warning: I like my magic slightly disturbing😊

The following text was just stripped from my WA outline article. Basically me just running down the list of what I want the magic to be. Ask me questions so I can develop it further!

What do I want magic to BE?

  • I want magic to have an oceanic motif, especially revolving around water and the depths.
  • For the love of god, don’t make it a video game system.
  • Spellcasting should be difficult/dangerous enough to be uncommon. Alternatively, it should have a prerequisite or a cost.
  • All humanoid species have the potential to use magic.

Where does magic come from?

  • Magic comes from two sources: the sea and the sky.
  • Ever since the creation of the Great Storm, the sea and the Abyss have been tainted, resulting in the magic from the sea being corrupted.
  • Magic from the sky is still “pure”, and, while more different to control, it cannot “corrupt” the user with Sea Curses.
  • Maybe the modern day weird activity of the deep creatures is due to low usage of magic? It kinda piles up. Like how the Native Americans intentionally burned forests to prevent large-scale fires

What makes an individual able to use magic? What makes them better at it?

  • To dictate and control the spell, individual Deepspeakers paint glyphs onto their bodies with Abyssal Squid Ink. The shape and patterns of the glyphs affect the magic when it’s sent through the glyph.
  • Alternatively, one can tattoo glyphs onto themselves, making a permanent mark of their magic. Doing so is convenient, but makes the side effects of a failed cast more severe.
  • Casting spells requires the individual to ingest sea water mixed with certain ingredients. If the user plans on casting spells later, they consume a plant which paralyzes their stomach for several hours.

How do Sea Curses play into magic now? What are the other consequences?

  • Sea Curses typically manifest from fault in the efficiency of the caster. Inefficient magic results in the energy bottling up somewhere on the individual’s body. This warps a part of the person’s body into an oceanic shape. Such as giving them scales, octopus skin, useless gills, etc.
  • Manifesting a sea curse causes exhaustion, and tends to be painful.

What’s needed to cast magic?

  • A special bioluminescent ink called Abyssal Squid Ink. This ink is rare, as these squids spend much of their time in the Abyss. They are one of the few creatures that can navigate back and forth from the Abyss.
  • For waiting to cast spells, the individual must paralyze their stomach through the use of a special weed called Oceanlock
3 Likes
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this is cool, i’m curious what kind of spells are possible if the system is ocean themed

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Wanted to be a bit more soft-magic on the spells, but here’s some examples I made so far. Keep in mind the system has roots in D&D 5e, so uh… yeah.

  • Animating a barrage of shells to lacerate a target.
  • Partially turning one’s bones to liquid to move through small spaces.
  • Summoning tentacles, blades of volcanic glass, and rain.
  • Creating wind and lightning from the sky.

Spellcraft is not my forte, sorry.

2 Likes
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Avatar aang about to cause great flood

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I need to read this a bit later

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How I’d be in this world fr

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I admit Deepwoken did serve as inspiration. For a Roblox game, it has some darn good lore.

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darn good music too

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Okay what the fuck this is way too similar to my own magic system

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We don’t have a right to speak when you can’t even find the lore outside of the game (everything is retconned including ingame)

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I primarily mean the wiki. I’m not going on a discord server for lore. That ain’t worth it.

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Okay, so I am so very sorry for not noticing this sooner. But better late than never; let’s address your questions:

One: you can actually cast without swallowing the material. Doing so requires a bowel, and you won’t really be able to direct the spell, as it no longer courses through you. Good news is though—it’s much less likely to curse you. This is how the Selkies originally practiced magic for the most part. While the standard method was used, they didn’t really have a need to direct the spells. Most of such spells affected only the environment.

As for increasing your surface area for painting or tattooing glyphs—you could, but you’d get limited returns. Firstly, remember the square-cube law: you’d have to gain a LOT of weight to noticeably increase your surface area. Also, the surface area you already have should suffice for most spellcasting purposes.

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ocean users when they see a curse user:

water splash!

HELP I’M DYI-

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Pretty cool, maybe I’ll ask if my system is interesting as well.

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You’re kinda mixing this system with Arcane Odyssey’s. Sea Curses here just cause deformations to a person and taint their bodies with a bit of magic.

Also, that magic is the same type found in the ocean, so it wouldn’t conflict like in AO.