World Building 101- part 3 Magic and Faith or is your Staff in my Cauldron.?

Whew, having built up our world to where we have a dynamic living world, with an established, even if rudimentary technology level. We need to address the next object on our list, magic and religion or as I like to say, magic and miracles.

Some worlds are very magic rich, others a very limited and magic is rare. This is High or Epic and Low fantasy. The word "Low" refers to the level of prominence with traditional fantasy elements such as magic and fantastic creatures. The world where Conan lives is a low fantasy world. Conversely, the world of Narnia is a High fantasy world with talking animals and immensely powerful magic users.

There is a great deal of debate on magical systems in fiction, some writers, most of the ones I have met thus far subscribe to the Vancian system of magic derived from Jack Vance's The Dying Earth stories. This form of magic is a mnemonic system where the caster memorizes spells and once a particular spell is cast, the caster forgets that spell, thus having to memorize it anew the next day.

This is the primary system of magic in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. This system has little in common with real world magical beliefs that have come down through the ages.  This system seems to be what many writers are exposed to, and very few actually research the various forms of magic that humanity has developed around the world.

When I asked how many people have played, or currently play Dungeons and Dragons, many hands shot up. This didn’t surprise me, but it led to a discussion regarding creating a world whole-cloth or using something like the Dungeons and Dragons setting for stories.  The first thing is copyright infringement. Unless the proprietary owners of the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, Wizards of the Coast grant you permission to write stories in their setting…don’t.

Personally, I don’t understand the desire to write in an established setting, using the legends and lore created and imagined by other writers. I understand the argument made that is makes it easier, but it also is a lazy way to write. If you are building a world, a setting and a story that is epic why use someone else’s worlds and words to tell your story.

Back to our topic, in order to create the magic for your world, you first have to define magic as it applies to the world you envision. For our purposes, we can define magic as the use of spells, charms and rituals to cause or control events that benefit the caster. If this is the foundation of the magic system, then you have already established that spells, charms and rituals will be part of the system.

This gives you three different areas of magic; spells, charms and rituals, and each aspect can be learned individually or in any combination of the three depending on how much you want to limit magic.

Once the extent of magic is established, you have to decide how magic is learned. Are there massive arcane schools like Hogwarts or are there secreted cabals hidden in dark corners of the world where the arts are taught only to a select few? Is magic an innate ability that only a few are born with, an elite class with a birthright or is it something anyone with determination can learn?

What about the other side of magic then, divine magic? This is a little different from the magic that wizards sling about, or is it? Is magic considered a divine spark, granted to those willing to pledge their lives to a god or gods who will impart this ability into them? If this is how you envision magic, then you have to develop the religions and gods, demons and other sundry mystical beings that may or may not care about the world imparting power to their followers. Is the main religion a monotheistic one where a single deity grants powers to their priest or a pantheon where numerous gods are worshipped and each one can grant a different aspect or form of magic to their followers.

This leads to other social structures such as government and how the social stratum of your world is built up. Magic and religion can be powerful shapers of your world, not only for individual users of magic, but how it is viewed by the civilizations these practioners of magic reside.

Magic like technology has far-reaching ramifications that have to be examined and developed, even if you are the only one who knows what these may be. By building your magic and religious system in this manner your world will become a living world to your readers because it is complete and makes sense to the setting.