An Intro to Magic Systems

I want to start out by saying: I am no English major. Hell, I haven't even graduated high school at the time I'm writing this. I would write about the current political climate, but I'm not smart enough to do that so - here we are. Talking about a part of world building that in my stories has become my magnum opus. The magic system.

So from the video games, to the cartoons, to Magic: The Gathering - I'll give a child's perspective of magic systems. If you want an adult's go look at Brandon Sanderson. But first, definitions.

Ah, yes. Brandon Sanderson. An adult. His essays are far more interesting than my nerdy rants.

Sanderson came up with two terms: soft magic and hard magic. You can do read the first part of his essay that I've already linked above, but TL;DR: soft magic is where the specifics of magic is not clearly defined and us, as the reader, are not exactly sure what the limits of magic are. Think Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Or lots of MMORPGs. On the opposite side of the spectrum is hard magic where the reader understands what magic can do and how it works. It doesn't need to be a science, but it's not - *poof* A WIZARD DID IT!! Good examples would be the 2005 series, Avatar: The Last Airbender and the 2001 manga (and 2009 anime), Fullmetal Alchemist.

It's better imagine the hard vs. soft magic systems as a spectrum rather than baskets. Lovely picture from me here:

I worked really hard to make this, guys. I don't have adobe software so I had to do gradients by hand.

Personally, I find harder magic systems far more interesting as I feel like I could immerse myself into a world and maybe, if I dare, dream of learning to do it myself. However, softer magic systems are not without their merits of making the fantasy more grand and mystifying.

I'd like this blog to focus on the discussion of magic systems in different mediums ranging from video games to books, and what I think of them. Knowing me however, this blog will go on tangents about hopefully, fantasy. I don't do well talking about one topic, no matter how expansive it may be.

Ending my first blog post I'd like to say again - I am no English major. I am no author. There are far more experienced people in the world to teach you have to write a good fantasy novel. I'm just high school student in a creative writing class who's been world building for 5 years with no page of actual plot. This blog was started as an assignment. I don't even know if I'll continue after the necessary 10 entries. This is simply another blog in the vast internet of mostly porn and a lot of poor content. My blog will probably start out as poor content, but I hope to grow. I'd love criticism. I need criticism. It's better for someone to hate your words than to ignore them.