What Makes a Magic System Great?
/Magic is a familiar concept for any fan of the fantasy genre, and here I will explore some of the best examples of a magic system in fiction. I will be looking at three works of fiction that each highlight an important aspect of any magic system: weakness, theme, and structure. Each of these systems is well crafted and shows how magic can help any fictional world feel complete.
Weakness is a Good Thing
Photo Credits:
http://onepiecegold.altervista.org/devil-fruits-explained/
My first example is a magic system that perfectly melds with its world through the use of weakness. Weakness is crucial in magic as it humanizes the characters that use it, but more importantly, it helps raise the stakes in many situations, making the overall story more entertaining. No story handles this concept better than One Piece.
The primary magic system in One Piece revolves around a mysterious food called devil fruits. Eat one, and you gain a bizarre ability, like turning into rubber or turning into an ox, but this comes at a price; you lose your ability to swim.
This may not be a big deal to most people, but One Piece is a story about pirates who sail the waters of the Grand Line in search of treasure. One Piece’s world is also a giant archipelago with well over eighty percent of the planet covered in water. The characters in this world have to think twice before they chomp down on a devil fruit. The powers might be incredible, but would you really want water, the very thing that surrounds you, the very thing that is crucial to your success as a pirate to also be your greatest weakness?
A System That Reflects Its World
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hostilehippo.deviantart.com
Some power systems reflect the world they belong to excellently showing off its greatest wonders as well as its darkest flaws. The video game Bioshock does this especially well.
The game is set in 1960 in Rapture, an underwater city created to escape the restrictive governments of the surface world. The city’s founder, Andrew Ryan, believed that no person should be bound by law or morality, so he created a utopia where scientific advancements can be made without question.
Bioshock’s magic system, called “plasmids,” paints a perfect picture of how this philosophy is both prosperous and flawed. Plasmids are made from a drug called ADAM which allows a person to gain a multitude of abilities.
ADAM, however, is very addicting, and the citizens of Rapture were desperate for it. Having an underwater city filled with desperate drug addicts with superpowers promptly led to the fall of Rapture, showing that some scientific advancements should be questioned.
The Beauty of Complexity
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images1.wikia.nocookie.net
Finally, the last power system I will be showcasing, and arguably the best one, is Nen from the Manga Hunter x Hunter. Nen is an aura-based power system that grants its users abilities that pertain to their specific “Nen type.” A Nen user is born into one of six categories; enhancer, emitter, transmuter, manipulator, conjuror, and specialist.
The things Nen users can do with their aura are restricted by these categories. For example, a manipulator cannot use transmuter techniques at all and can only use other techniques at a reduced level of strength.
The complexity of Nen is interesting, but its condition based rules are where it’s true genius shines. In order to make a Nen ability exponentially stronger, a Nen user must restrict themselves. For example, one ability allows the user to summon a tsunami, but he can only do so when it’s raining. The concept of restrictions is genius because it forces the abilities in the series to be creative and doesn’t allow any ability to be too overpowered.
Those three series are all excellent examples of what makes a magic system great and should be analyzed by any aspiring writer who wishes to dive into the fantasy genre.
You can read One Piece and Hunter x Hunter here: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump
You can purchase Bioshock here: https://store.steampowered.com/
Hunter Rogers-Millson
My name is Hunter Rogers-Millson. I am a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College. My interests include video games, anime, and classic rock and roll. I aim to one day write and publish my own comic book.
