I have a dark fantasy epic I want to do someday as well. It's a bit like the Mortal Engines novels if anyone's read those. A similar postapocalypse setting with the ruins of incredibly advanced magic technology and spellcraft. In short, an epic fantasy plot and backdrop using military fiction tropes and strategy to get the Mcguffin while deconstructing the idea of sending teenagers on going on a world-saving quest. Magic is anything but easy to use, battles are bloody and hard-won, and the psychological strain gets to everyone in one way or another.

Oops, didn't mean to babble.

@ JT (and Librarian)

The main one. It is absolutely hilarious and very adorable. Key notes:

Tons o' ship tease,

Celestia (and Luna) confirmed to be way physically stronger than Mac,

and our very own Tea Love appears!

Also yeah, starting is just so so hard. I have no confidence to make that jump. Hence why I'm trying to make the characters first then craft the story around them.

Sounds interesting. I'm basically just trying to avert most standard fantasy tropes; most magic in the setting isn't even recognized as magic by the people because it's just an inherent aspect of the world, and as a result it's treated more like science (It basically runs on Magic A Is Magic A and when it isn't it's a really big deal). And the youngest protagonist is 19, and even then she's kinda naive. Well-read, though.

edited 28th Aug '13 10:07:24 AM by JapaneseTeeth

I was asking Librarian.

I'm off. See you good folks later.

See you later, Apple.

I've written tons of fanfics, plus my King Arthur story last year, but this is different.

For my setting, magic is very much influenced by the person using. Everything from your emotional state to mental health is a factor. For instance, a spell cast in anger is strong and destructive, but burns out quickly and rarely provides any good results. People in positive moods who are very happy can create very powerful and stable spells, though they tend to be uneven and slightly random. As a result, meditation and learning to clear the mind of emotions is one of the first things taught as it allows a much greater amount of control and accuracy. So there's a bit of reality warping going on as you can do a lot more if you think you can. It's because of this that insane people are really scary because their awareness is skewed enough that they can start changing the world around them.

edited 28th Aug '13 10:20:08 AM by darkabomination

I'm sorry about college, Applelight.

Yeah, the system I came up with is almost the opposite; the only thing that keeps it from being straight science is that if you look at it closely enough you hit a point where you can't analyze it any further. The results are always predictable though. At least in most cases. If I actually get far enough, one of the plans is to bring in other magical systems that follow their own sets of rules. So you'd have Magic A, Magic B, Magic C, etc. and the interactions between them would be unknown.

The sole exception is a set of artifacts created by the setting's deity, and even then they have rules as to how they work, its just that said rules are "whatever the deity says".

edited 28th Aug '13 10:37:04 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Me too. I hope he finds a good job he's happy with. Sometimes college isn't for everypony. I know there's a lot of good trade schools.

Yeah, trade school might be a good idea. Although he might want to take a year or two off to make some cash in the interim.

Well I'm back from the enrolment session, I'm in a foul mood with my mum about the session. I had to queue for ages in order to learn about the course and then spend MORE time waiting in ANOTHER queue just to hand in my form and have it signed. So fucking stupid....I'm mad about it right now but on the bright side at least I know when I've got to come in and how many days I've got to do. I'm more informed but I'm just feeling bitter about it now....

edited 28th Aug '13 10:42:15 AM by Starscream759

Hopefully you've figured out how it interacts with physics too.

They don't do it online? wow.

Anyway, I'm a bit frustrated since I just discovered that the downloadable version of Objectweb ASM is obfuscated. So now I have to figure out how to build it from source.

@Story: It's complicated how it interacts with physics. The idea is that Magic and physics each follow their own laws, but don't necessarily follow each other's.

Yeah, my original story there's several different types of magic. The most refined one I've come up with is sort of a mix of Fullmetal Alchemist style alchemy and Death Gate Cycle-esque magic. It's created around a series of runes and circles that are essentially the blueprint of the spell, and it's highly dangerous if you get something wrong.

Mine has an underlying logic, sort of. One of the reveals is that the various magic systems such as alchemy, particle-manipulation, combat, and so on are consistent because they are designed that way. Most users just use what they were taught. The original source underneath it all is a form of chaos magic that is very dangerous and shortens the lifespan any time a human uses it. So long ago a group of mages constructed safer and more consistent types. Not to mention that every spell powered by chaos sucks a little more out of the universe, making it a little more static and will cause the universe to stop functioning alltogether and freeze.

edited 28th Aug '13 11:08:25 AM by DARKABOMINATION

I love stories that have complex and well thought out magic systems. It's why I like Brandon Sanderson's work. oddly enough though, that tends to be one of the last things I refine when plotting out a story. I figure out all sorts of things about the plot and characters with just a vague idea that there's magic in there that works somehow. I should really work on that more.

Yeah, it's always nice when the magic makes sense instead of just being "whatever the author thought would be cool today". That said, at least for me it's going to take a backseat to characterization.

If your characters are smart enough, you'll have to figure out how they interact. Though you could always handwave it by saying that magic is essentially random or just works the way everyone thinks it should (though the later might lead someone on a crusade to change they way people think magic works)

My book's magic system is made up of two kinds of magic; Oracular and Mediacy. Oracular magic allows the user to manipulate organic tissue and material, while Mediacy is when the user convinces a spirit to aid them, and usually requires a biological sacrifice of some kind. Magic is very poorly understood by the vast majority of people, and most common classifications mix and split Oracular Magic and Mediacy into many different types of magic, the most damning being "blood magic, " which is widely reviled. Only one tribe of people actually understands magic, having learned it from a race of Eldritch Abominations called the Birch Men hundreds of years ago, and they're so guilty about what they did to get it that they've removed themselves from society and are often regarded as myths at this point.

Since one of the main characters is from this tribe, one of the things I'm playing with is how he takes advantage of this ignorance and how it hinders him. For example, he manages to convince another character that he has cursed her so she won't try to run off, but an escape plan fails spectacularly because the guy planning it was operating off total misconceptions of what the magician can/will do.

Also, have some ATG.

edited 28th Aug '13 11:19:54 AM by Wryte

Well, I'm probably not going to go too deep into the mechanic behind it, but in general it shouldn't be too difficult. That's a long way off, though.

It's much like Moh's scale of Sci Fi hardness. You can write a fine story anywhere on the spectrum (see Harry Poter and HP Mo R), it's just a matter of preference.

Pretty much. Right now it'll probably be a bit harder than MLP is (there are more strict rules about exactly how the stuff functions), but it's probably not going to get to Minovsky Particle levels, mainly because it would get too limiting.