Nano: More Magic Musings
Oct. 17th, 2010 07:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalI think I'm going to ditch the idea of magic being based on destroying the atomic structure of things. It's interesting, but I'm not sure how to work it into the story and it's a bit too limiting. OTOH I want it to be something that ordinary folk have a very good reason to avoid using.
So I think I'll borrow a little from LMB's Wide Green World and have it be life draining. Casting magic tends to suck the life out of everything in the general vicinity, making it a solitary occupation under the best of circumstances, because you can't control what you're draining. This fits in with the current set up quite nicely, because it makes magic something that's almost exclusively used by the story's main threat, but the heroes can use it if they're desperate enough.
Racial Views:
The People: Don't trust it at all. This is tied in with the high first time infant mortality. Unusually for them, they take the highly superstitious view that first-born cubs are actually sucking the life energy from their mothers as they're being born, accounting for most birth complications, ect. Use of magic is strictly illegal, aside from the usual legal exceptions given to Triumvirate team members. Which just means being a Person in a triumvirate means the family doesn't talk to you much...
Wazagans: Being creations of the Dragons (yeah, new background detail) they have the highest percentage of mages in their population and the most experience with magic. Mages are respected, to a point, but their holy writings caution against magic not consecrated in God's name and it's always used very carefully.
Humans: Tend to be rather indiscriminate in it's use. This is good (they pull of stuff other races wouldn't even try) and bad (they pull up things other races wouldn't ever want to meet).
Dragons: Invented magic and to some extent are magic. But there's a good reason why much of their land is desert now...
So I think I'll borrow a little from LMB's Wide Green World and have it be life draining. Casting magic tends to suck the life out of everything in the general vicinity, making it a solitary occupation under the best of circumstances, because you can't control what you're draining. This fits in with the current set up quite nicely, because it makes magic something that's almost exclusively used by the story's main threat, but the heroes can use it if they're desperate enough.
Racial Views:
The People: Don't trust it at all. This is tied in with the high first time infant mortality. Unusually for them, they take the highly superstitious view that first-born cubs are actually sucking the life energy from their mothers as they're being born, accounting for most birth complications, ect. Use of magic is strictly illegal, aside from the usual legal exceptions given to Triumvirate team members. Which just means being a Person in a triumvirate means the family doesn't talk to you much...
Wazagans: Being creations of the Dragons (yeah, new background detail) they have the highest percentage of mages in their population and the most experience with magic. Mages are respected, to a point, but their holy writings caution against magic not consecrated in God's name and it's always used very carefully.
Humans: Tend to be rather indiscriminate in it's use. This is good (they pull of stuff other races wouldn't even try) and bad (they pull up things other races wouldn't ever want to meet).
Dragons: Invented magic and to some extent are magic. But there's a good reason why much of their land is desert now...
