Magic Systems

It’s 2am when I’m writing this and I can’t sleep, so allow me to tell you in detail about the magic system for my upcoming book Dark Soldier.

In Vaela, magic is a very tangible thing. The most common form of it is called crystal magic. In this form, one can actually buy magic by purchasing crystals. You can open up the locked magic inside by reciting phrases depending on the stone you buy. Also depending on the spell that you are in need of, magic can be very, very pricy… unless you are one of those crazy people who actually go to crystal sources to find them. That’s a bit of a risky operation, so most people don’t do that. Instead, the poor are just far less protected than the rich. Due to the fact that the rich are just generally more powerful, especially having powerful magical stones, there’s not much the poor can actually do about it. The stones are often color coded to define their specific trait. For instance, an air-based stone will be colored differently from a fire-based or protection-based stone. The more tumbled, polished and/or purified the stone, the more powerful it is. Thus, the bigger price for the bigger amount of work involved.

Now, there is another way to get magic in Vaela. This form is called beast magic. It means that the user does not actually need crystals to perform magic, but instead has magical energy inside their soul. It is generally more powerful than crystal magic. This type of magic is not very common, and those who have it won’t often use it due to its energy-draining nature. A very powerful spell could make the user lose consciousness, go into a coma-like state, or occasionally, depending on the power of the magic, even kill the magic user after they say the spell. This is not a coveted ability, especially since beast magic users have a hard time using crystal magic.

That’s all I’ll give away for now! Thanks for reading this long spiel and let me know what you think! Also, tell me the magic systems for your fantasy novel! I love to hear this kind of thing.

The Land of Two Magics

If you don’t want to know anything about this series before reading it, skip over this post.

There is magic in this world – the Dark Veil saga, I mean. Today we are going to talk a little about how that works. If you don’t any back story on the books before you read them, you’re going to want to skip this. Don’t worry, I’m not giving away any major spoilers in this article. To be specific, there are two types. There are crystal magics and soul magics. To describe them simply: users of…

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The Land of Two Magics

There is magic in this world – the Dark Veil saga, I mean. Today we are going to talk a little about how that works. If you don’t any back story on the books before you read them, you’re going to want to skip this. Don’t worry, I’m not giving away any major spoilers in this article.

To be specific, there are two types. There are crystal magics and soul magics. To describe them simply: users of soul magic are born with the abilities while crystal magic users need a little help. The idea behind the names is that a soul is a permanent piece of you, but crystals are a pretty addition. How is magic even produced in this series? Well, I can’t say. Now that might be a spoiler.

A little back story on this: the crystal magic concept was there from day one but was not really fleshed out until very recently. Only up until a few days ago did the book have a major character who used them. The idea to do that was when a Tumblr fan asked me to make him into a character in the book. I rarely do that kind of thing for people, so I wasn’t sure how or if I was going to do it. But then I saw something in his main blog – a great amount of reference to crystals. I decided it was a sign, and his character has become one of my favorites already, even before his personality has been fully created.

But how do they work? Soul magic can only produce elemental powers – breathing fire on your enemies, turning them to ice, sinking them into the ground, electrocuting them, blowing them away, etc. The downside is that this magic type can drain its user’s energy to an extensive degree. Using a good deal may cause them to pass out. Too much, of that and you can see where this is going.

Looks like one of those guys had too much caffiene.

Crystal magic, however, is not limited by these things. While it is technically less powerful, it can do a much greater variety of things. They can make an unbreakable barrier around themselves, blast pure energy from their hands, glow in the dark, and a multitude of other things. It’s far closer to the traditional style of magic. Sadly, it is also limited to how often it can be used. Use a crystal too often, and it will eventually stop working altogether. It isn’t cheap to use crystal magic.

“Now, if we just work our money right, we can cover up that leaky roof for a whole month! Without actually fixing it!”

Perhaps you are wondering, is there some animosity between those magic users born with and without magic? If I were to say no, I would be lying for sure. It will play a bigger part in Dark Kingdom than it will in Dark Soldier, but the animosity is real. It’s a bit of a race war. Those using crystal magic envy those who can just use magic on a whim. Those using soul magic envy the unusual and extra abilities crystal magic users have.

Here we see such a battle in action.

But can they get along? You’ll have to read it next year to find out! Even so, come 2016!