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.
Tag: magic
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.
@thurisazsalail That is totally fantastic and I want to write it so bad! I actually could easily do that with one of the magic systems in the book I’m already working on. One of the many types of magic in the series is based heavily in potions and crystals, and people often have to pay a lot of money to use the magical stuff. So it could work!
“The wild has to be kept wild.”
-Addom, Dark Soldier: the Novel
Since we don’t have official images, this is the best I can give you.
Follow for more on Dark Soldier, a novel coming early 2016.
LARPing and Short Stories
A collab by four fantasy writers for a short story? Could it be true? It is!
A cool story and exciting news for Dark Soldier fans! As many know, I got a chance to do some LARPing (or Live Action Role Playing) today. For those of you who don’t know what that is, LARPing is basically a live version of Dungeons and Dragons. There are powerful enemies, epic quests, zany characters, crazy outfits, and occasionally thunderbolts. No dice, though. I got to role-play as a…
LARPing and Short Stories
A cool story and exciting news for Dark Soldier fans!
As many know, I got a chance to do some LARPing (or Live Action Role Playing) today. For those of you who don’t know what that is, LARPing is basically a live version of Dungeons and Dragons. There are powerful enemies, epic quests, zany characters, crazy outfits, and occasionally thunderbolts. No dice, though.
I got to role-play as a character from my own series! That was awesome. But you won’t see him up until the fourth book of the Dark Veil series.
Here is an image of that character, Camendyr.
Camendyr actually has black hair canonically, but I did not have time to fix that issue in my costume. The look is cool enough that I may just change it to look more like this. The time period that he’s from is actually most similar to 1920s Europe, so his looks isn’t quite commonplace. In fact, he IS a homeless guy. And a druid. And a priest. And yes, face paint is common for priests in the Dark Veil series.
Most people doing the LARPing believe it to be like this:
But in reality, it’s far more like this:
(Spoiler: the guy on the right turned out to be the most epic character at the end.)
And now for brief stories on the characters, from left to right.
Ardus is a ranger, a member of a society on the brink of extinction. When he (the character is canonically male) finds his family to be in trouble, he starts making a blood trail to lead them the enemy off their tracks and onto his. He is destined to forever be a wanderer in the desert.
Camendyr is a Vaelan priest and druid. He did not at first believe in deities at all, though he worked in the temple. But when he was but a teenager, he heard the voice of the Creator and followed it out into the wilderness. He seeks the One who will eventually end all suffering.
Odola is an earth mage and shepherd. She can control plants, earth, and even the sky itself. Little is known of her past, simply because she won’t tell it. She appears to be innocent, but don’t let her fool you too much. She is one person you just do not want as an adversary.
Nanu is a dangerously powerful necromancer. Born from a set of ultimate creator beings, she fled from her parents after her father declared war on her mother and all that she had created. She can use her powers to teleport across the multiverse and raise the dead to life to do her bidding.
Omega is a phoenix in human form. He remembers very little of his past, due to some amnesia he gained a few months prior. But he knows what he is, and there’s no telling when he’s going to break out of his current form. Who knows what inhuman power he could unleash if he decided to do that?
But why am I telling you all this? Because all of these characters except Omega are creations of fellow writers. Only two out of the five are not directly from any series. But that won’t stop us. Why? Because right now, we’re collaborating on a short story. That short story will explain in detail what happened during that LARP trip. But in this story, this is no dress-up.
This is the basic plot of the story, as of right now.
Through a form of excruciatingly powerful magic, five characters from very different fantasy worlds come to land in a place called Perthshire, New York. They are soon sent on a quest by the powerful earth mage Odola. They all come with very different goals, but they must all work together by the end.
You see, they are not the only things that found the portals.
Prepare for adventure, comedy, drama and general fantasy awesomeness!
At least, this is the basic plan for right now. Would you like to see a collab by four fantasy writers? Let me know what you all think in the comments!
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…
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.
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.
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.
But can they get along? You’ll have to read it next year to find out! Even so, come 2016!
Little Folk by Gabriel_Penn
Check it out! This was fun to write and awesome to read over again!
I’m making a new character!
I have come up with an idea for a new character for the second draft. I don’t know how well it’s going to go, but here’s to trying! *raising earthen goblet filled with ale into air* I came to realize that a there are a lot of magical people in this book that I’m writing. Specifically, a lot of them are just born with it. But what if there was someone who wasn’t? With the way that magic is set up…
Gabriel to Earth 