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Jun 2017

So the webcomic I'm developing right now contains magic. There are witches that exist in the world and the idea I have right now is for each witch to specialize in a kind of magic like the schools in Dungeons and Dragons:

Now the main character in my story gets magic powers directly from the source that all the witches' magic has originated from. This means his magic should be different, maybe more powerful than the other witches. I really don't have any ideas for it though, and I'm not even sure about the whole magic system I'm using now. Does anyone have any ideas?

Some more info on the story:
It's about a boy called Finn who gets abducted in the 80's and tested on by aliens. He gets frozen in between testing (So he barely ages), and escapes when it's modern day on Earth. The aliens can use magic, and the testing has given Finn magic powers aswell. There have been more cases like him throughout history and their magic transfers through DNA, so their offspring are all witches. Most of the world doesn't know of their existance but there are people who do and some of them are witch hunters because they think magic is evil, and want to protect the world from the witches. The aliens will also get involved in maybe trying to get Finn back because he's causing trouble or something. The story has a retrowave aesthetic and is mainly inspired by Stranger Things.

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    Jun '17
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just a point but have you considered Clarke's third law:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Personally, I would avoid magic, just use the fact the experiments gave him these powers by unlocking latent abilities all humans possess. then you can have fun with the idea that humans can't distinguish the alien tech from magic. He could also have installed some doohickey in his head to allow for his abilities.
Kind of reminiscent of 'Flight of the Navigator' and 'The Tomorrow People'

I've never heard of that before, it's very interesting!
What exactly could the scientific explanation of the "magic" be though?

I actually posted this thread on r/magicbuilding on Reddit too, and I got this comment:

The way I see it, most witches should have a restriction of some sort that naturally follows from the development of their ability through the ages. Finn would be free from this limitation making him more powerful.

I got this idea that the witches restriction could be that they can only use magic from 1 school (as seen above), which is determined at birth through a ritual of some sorts. Finn can use magic from all the schools. This system actually fits the backstory of one of the other main characters really well.
Maybe humans made this system of the schools of magic through generations of studying it, as it does sound very logical.

I actually already have been thinking of a scientific explanation of the magic powers, but it's just really hard to wrap my head around. I'd also need an explanation to why the witches can only use 1 school of magic overtime, and how it gets determined scientifically for every witch. I like the idea of it being a power humans already possess, but that'd leave me with the question of why the aliens would be "unlocking" this power when they abduct someone. Maybe they want to test on the humans in their full capacity, but what exactly would they be testing then? And why aren't the powers "unlocked" already in the first place? Any ideas?

If you want magic, it's okay to just use magic! Creating a technobabble sciencey explanation for said magic doesn't really do anything for the story unless that science impacts the story in some way, or if it helps the mood you want.

Something I kinda try to think about when it comes to magic systems is: what do I need? Do you need this many divisions of magic for your story? Why do you need the different schools -- how do they benefit your characters and world?

Because if the purpose of this system is ONLY so that witches can be restricted to one school while Finn can use them all, then why not just three schools of magic? That's much easier to set apart and exposit clearly to readers than 8. Or heck, even if you dumped the idea of schools altogether and just gave normal witches some Things They Can't Do -- simply say that no witch can divine the future with magic, but Finn can, and you'd keep that quality of the witches being more restricted than Finn is.

That's not to say that's the correct answer or something you should do -- but I think it's important to consider how this system plays into your world and story, or if those 8 classes of magic are just vestigial, being defined out of habit or tradition. D&D needs those for mechanical balance and organisation of a huge system of spells; Harry Potter needs different schools of magic to make magic feel like a science that is complicated to learn and requires specific schooling. How does your story benefit?
If you're using "can only use one school of magic" as a restriction for what your witches can do, then those schools of magic will need to be explained and delineated in the comic -- which won't be hard if they have an actual impact on the characters and the world, but will feel like an unwieldy chunk of exposition if they don't.

In my personal opinion, I think it is weird to have both aliens and witches.

Either make the aliens beings from a parallel magical dimension.

Or don't refer to the humans with supernatural powers as witches. Call them mutants or make up your own word. Don't call it magic, call it super powers or create your own term.

If you are really really set on witches, well historically, witches powers were closely tied to the elements (fire, water, earth, air) as well as things like psychic powers. Nature, the sun, the moon, and stars also play a large role.

hmm... you could go a divergent / hp / other popular YA thing path and make the schools of magic defined factions with personalities, and Finn maybe doesnt fit into one at all. maybe in a way that makes his magic seem broken at first. maybe its unrefined because its just been dumped straight on him without years of honing and unbringing in a magical culture.

Okay so, my boyfriend and I just came up with a new idea:

I've had the idea for a while that the aliens are magic users and they abduct humans (and other alien creatures) to test some kind of parasyte or implant on them, which alters their genetics to make them part alien in some way? Which causes them to have magic powers, too.
Now me and my boyfriend just came up with the idea that, like in D&D, you need material components to cast most spells. But, in D&D this can be replaced by a spellcasting focus (Like a wand or staff). Our idea was that this parasyte would be Finn's spellcasting focus, so he can cast most spells without needing to use any materials for it. Because the parasyte alters his genetics, the magic gets passed on through DNA, but these witches don't have a parasyte to be their spellcasting focus so they need to prepare their spells using materials and the like (just like witches irl).
This doesn't mean I'll be exactly using the D&D spellcasting system, I'm just going to use it as a base.

The witches in the story are descendants of past cases like Finn, if that wasn't clear already.

It'd be interesting to explore how it's hard for Finn to control his magic powers at first. It's easier for the witches, as they have to prepare their spells in some way first. Finn doesn't have this burden, so it'd be like in Harry Potter where when Harry gets angry at Dudley for yelling at the snake, he makes the glass disappear (But a bit more extreme in Finn's case maybe).

I'd also still need a proper motivation for why the aliens are testing this parasyte on other creatures.

Hi. So first, I would just like to say this parasyte sounds like what happens in the game Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, where the protagonist becomes half demon and gains supernatural abilites from demon parasites. Not mocking your idea, just wanted to point out some similarities from the first thing to come to mind.
That said, I had some ideas for why the aliens are experimenting with this parasyte. Perhaps they want to weaponize it, and so experiment on other species to see what happens before using it on themselves. Or, they infect humans with it, wait for some time, then harvest them for some byproduct or something. Or they think it somehow can cure all diseases, and magic powers are a side effect. I know these might be cliches, but they're just as good reasons as any. Also, I'd look up that game I mentioned for ideas, because the skill system involved swapping parasites. I hope I helped a little bit.

I'll definitely see what that game's about, thanks for recommending it!

I have been playing with this idea a bit too! It'd be cool to figure out some bad side effects to it that the aliens haven't gotten out yet but Finn now has to suffer from.

i actually reeeealllyyy like that yer going for magic and witches instead of scifi and techno stuff. ya usually never see comics about magical aliens. one of my comic peeves actually is when they have magic but then some sciencey person comes in and is like "lol thats not magic you n00bs its science. duh" i think its cool when science just lets magic be magic

so anywho i guess ya could try to figure out how the aliens got their magic to begin with. like did they study it and learn how to use it? then program all the info into people they experimented on?
or did they get somethin in their DNA from a alien god that gave them magic? and they found a way to create that thing themselves by the experiments?
i like the idea of finn being able to use lotsa schools of magic tho. or maybe he can mix schools of magic. or make a brand new school of magic. theres tons of fun stuff ya can do!

Thank you! I really like the idea of magic being a main element of a more sci-fi themed comic. It feels very unique in a way.
It's a bit scary too though, I'm afraid people will want an explanation for it and I'll sound lazy if I just say "It's magic!" >.<

Thanks for all the ideas! :smiley:
Maybe the aliens made or found the magic parasytes somehow but want to test them on other creatures first to enhance them before using them on themselves? Like was mentioned above, maybe they want to use the magic as a weapon for.. something, but they want to perfect it?

i think if ya get the rules down for magic and dont just pull magical plot twists outta yer butt then it wont seem lazy at all! im excited to see it tho. so far the comic sounds rad

Thank you so much! I'm planning on starting to draw this summer break and I'll probably start posting around August/September! :smiley: