Sacrifice as a Means of Obtaining Power in Fiction

[khorboth]

The Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Freidman had magic of this type. It worked on any scale. It's a great series, though somewhat dark. (disclaimer: It's been a few decades since I've read it)

For instance:

The great repository of human knowledge was destroyed. This allowed humans in general access to limited magic through the power of belief.

A main character tortured his family to death and BECAUSE he loved them, this act was a great sacrifice which granted him great powers which he could use without further sacrifice.

Being bound to the service of "evil" as one protagonist sees it is sufficient to give him lasting power. The continual sacrifice of his moral code allows him power which he is then occasionally able to use to further his true "good" aims.

Cutting off an arm may be sufficient to grant great strength in the remaining body.

After rigorous training in how to focus, the shedding of a little blood was sufficient to protect a small area from magic for a few seconds.

They were usually thematically linked unless there was sufficient training to redirect the energies or some outside power doing the same, though that power usually required total devotion.

[dataweaver]

I've tinkered with a “rare magic” system (rare in that magic is rarely invoked) that's built by using the Meditation, Study, or Holiness option from GURPS Thaumatology to acquire Impulse Points which are then spent on Impulse Buys according to the Divine Intervention option found on p.9 of Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys. As one variant, I considered allowing the practitioner to acquire more Impulse Points through a sacrifice, taking on an appropriate Disadvantage. That said, I also allowed an inversion of Trading Points for Money, where sacrificing something worth 10% of the campaign's starting cash gives you an Impulse Point to spend as above. Magic in this system is slow, painful, or expensive.

My hypothesis behind this system was that because Impulse Buys cost character points, they'd count as suitable abilities for a point-driven magic system, such as Meditative Magic. What I found is that the price tends to be too high for what you get: it takes months of buildup before a single-point Impulse Buy is doable, barring sacrifices.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

I'm wanting to device a Magic system where every ability gained demands a steep somewhat related sacrifice on the part of the practitioner.

Examples of sacrifices and potential boons received in exchange are all welcome. Especially if they draw from mythology.

I'm wanting to apply this system to a medieval setting, where Magic is Serious Business (TM), and while useful is rare and dark.

Probably the most influential would be Snorri Sturluson's take on One-Eyed Odin.

Nennius' story of Merlin at Dinas Emrys and the Roman rite of devotio where generals offered themselves to the gods then threw themselves into battle are other examples. 'Sacrifice the builder to complete the building' also shows up in India about Kumbhalgarh Fort, so requiring the maker to sacrifice themself to complete a great work can be a good trope.

Mystical traditions which insist that practitioners refrain from certain foods or sexual practices are ubiquitous (even Theosophy!) If a ritual fails, that just means that some filthy pervert backslid and snuck some bacon/a nap/a beer/a quickie!

[Polydamas]

Also, there is a whole series of stories about the gift with a catch. From Casandra to various stories about cheating death at the cost of becoming a skeletal monstrosity/a blood-hungry charnel thing/prime minister of a southern European country, to the song "Chickasaw Mountain," those can be a source of inspiration even if you have to tweak the balance between bait and switch.

Kromm talks about why so many stories about the undead have a moral "maybe dying is not so bad" in GURPS Undead.