A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude

David Johnston2 · 05-14-2021, 06:48 PM

As has been discussed at length in the Banestorm setting Magic Aptitude is a recessive genetic trait, or rather a complex combination of multipe recessive traits. But that brings up the question of what alternatives we can think of.

1. Astrological. Magic aptitude could be a product of the right conjunctions at the moment of birth...or possibly conception. This would mean that we might very well see a staccato pattern of mage births as every few years the right conjunction happens and suddenly every child born within the right time frame has a ticket to magic school. If someone wants to found a magic dynasty they would have to manipulate the moment of birth and/or conception to produce a child at the right moment.

2. Teratogenic. Magic aptitude is the random result of prenatal exposure to mana. Which of course could be how astrological conjunctions encourage the birth of mages. Mind you the thought that comes to mind is that exposure to elevated levels of mana might produce other mutations. Being a mage might come along with unnatural traits and even handicaps and deformities. Not to mention possibly producing nonhuman monsters.

3. Divine lottery. Maybe there's a god or a class of spirits of magic whose whim decides who gets the nod. Offerings and worship may tilt the odds.

4. Initiation. Magical styles become even more important because in order to become a mage you have to either be initiated into a style or figure out how to initiate yourself with many years of experimentation. Without initiation no aptitude.

5. Chosen by a familiar. Mage powers aren't natural to humans. You can only get them with granted by familiar, and that takes befriending one of these magical animals.

6. Gadget. Mage powers aren't natural to humans. But there are inanimate sources of magic, staffs, jewels pointy hats, that, when held or worn grant aptitude to the user.

Sunrunners_Fire · 05-14-2021, 08:32 PM

7) litRPG -- In some worlds, an omnipresent "System" either assigns or assesses the potential to use (certain kinds of) magic, sometimes even acting as a gatekeeper that has to be satisfied before the potential becomes usable.

8) Clan-Based -- In some worlds, whether you are a blood relation, adopted or married into the family, being a part of this family means that you can use the associated magics. Usually with the power increasing as the family invests time/energy/resources into strengthening it over time if the setting permits.

ericthered · 05-15-2021, 06:11 AM

9) Infection Based -- magic aptitude is caused by a parasite (or arguably a symbiote). This organism may need to enter the body at a specific time, may only be present in some environments. Has some overlap with teratogenic.

hal · 05-15-2021, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered

9) Infection Based -- magic aptitude is caused by a parasite (or arguably a symbiote). This organism may need to enter the body at a specific time, may only be present in some environments. Has some overlap with teratogenic.

The one thing that has been bandied about, is that Magery is not entirely a Genetic or even physical thing. This is not something discussed about in the advantage itself. The proof seems to lie in the fact that you can posses a body, or even switch souls with your target body - and still be able to cast mage.

Thus, arguably, it is the soul itself, or possibly the consciousness itself, that determines magery.

Ask yourself this:

If I possess a body that from birth, has been blind, can my switching my soul suddenly heal that body of its blindness?

Seems that the rules in GURPS MAGIC are such that by implication - magery moves with the consciousness/soul to the extent that it doesn't require magery in the host body.

As a world building switch that the GM can turn on and off - imagine the GM simply ruling that Magery is indeed a genetic capability, and that to possess a normal body without magery suddenly renders the body hopping soul, bereft of any further spell casting capability.

Emerald Cat · 05-15-2021, 07:18 AM

10) Uniqueness - magery is stronger the fewer parallel versions of you exist in the local multiverse. For example in the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones, "enchanters" are extremely powerful magicians because that specific enchanter was only born in one of the nine worlds that make up her setting.

This kind of setting can get pretty dark if you can improve magery by killing alternate versions of yourself!

David Johnston2 · 05-15-2021, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hal

The one thing that has been bandied about, is that Magery is not entirely a Genetic or even physical thing. This is not something discussed about in the advantage itself. The proof seems to lie in the fact that you can posses a body, or even switch souls with your target body - and still be able to cast mage.
.

In Lord of Light switching bodies causes a temporary loss of superpowers until the soul reshapes the new body enough to give it the ability to use the powers again.

Polkageist · 05-15-2021, 09:27 AM

Cyclical/Reincarnation - There are a fixed amount of magical 'souls' in existence at any given time, and when one of them dies the soul will reincarnate into a newborn person. The soul may or may not remember their past incarnations, the soul may or may not have the requirement to reincarnate in the literal next person born after their moment of death.

Bargain - Magical aptitude is acquired by bargaining away something valuable. If this is something that can be done at any point then it's a matter of finding the entity with which you can make this transaction. Could also be done before existence, where the soul has a choice to make a bargain unknown to its living incarnation, which will have to deal with the bill coming due at some point in their existence.

Phil Masters · 05-15-2021, 12:48 PM

Derangement - Magic is actually the ability to warp reality by sheer force of will. Sane people don't warp reality, and rarely have the strength of purpose needed to do so. "Magical Aptitude" is actually an obsessive rejection of reality as it is, powerful enough to hammer it into the shape you think it should be.

Prince Charon · 05-15-2021, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericthered

9) Infection Based -- magic aptitude is caused by a parasite (or arguably a symbiote). This organism may need to enter the body at a specific time, may only be present in some environments. Has some overlap with teratogenic.

I've had a few ideas relating to that. For example, Magery as one of the positive side effects of a 'social' disease (that probably has weird negative effects, as well); the disease might well be extradimensional (perhaps an eccentric Cabalist created it, and is running an experiment on a few worldlines) or extraterrestrial. Closer to teratogenic, consider a setting in which all direct hostile magic is covered by Infectious Attack, leading mages to be very reluctant to use direct magic against non-mage enemies, since there's a risk of making them more dangerous. These may work better if new mages have the ability to use some form of magic at default level (especially for the Cabalist experiment idea).

Mages normally having a Dominance advantage could do interesting things to a setting. Could have very unfortunate implications depending on the teachers, though.

Shuckster · 05-15-2021, 02:23 PM

Some ideas include

Set numbers: There will always be x amount of mages in the world at any given time and no new mages will be born until one dies, this could be linked to reincarnation, the reawakened or illuminated advantage.

Discworld: Every seventh son of a seventh son is automatically a sorcerer, guaranteed.

Passed on: the "magic" spark lives inside a mage and must be passed on to a successor before the mage dies or it is lost, rendering the mage nonmagical in the process, this could go along with set numbers.

Former Possession: Being possessed by a ghost or spirit, then successfully casting the entity out through shear force of will allows you to command it's power, this basically would act as the halfway point between infection based and granted by familiar as you have effectively turned the tables on a spirit that wanted to control you.

Innate but very easy to lose: everyone is born magical but due to a very common, very simple thing that renders most people non-magical shortly thereafter, next to nobody grows into a mage. This could be the simple act of having your true name spoken aloud once you are named etc.

Multiversal adorations: Mages are anyone who is not actually from the reality the game inhabits, and therefor count as Unique. Nothing from homeline is magic, but everything that isn't supposed to be here is

Transhumanism: mages are only created, never born naturally, this process involves anything from bio-tech to cybernetics but the magic is surgically or artificially "installed" into the mage in some way.

05-14-2021, 06:48 PM	#1
David Johnston2 Join Date: Dec 2007	A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude As has been discussed at length in the Banestorm setting Magic Aptitude is a recessive genetic trait, or rather a complex combination of multipe recessive traits. But that brings up the question of what alternatives we can think of. 1. Astrological. Magic aptitude could be a product of the right conjunctions at the moment of birth...or possibly conception. This would mean that we might very well see a staccato pattern of mage births as every few years the right conjunction happens and suddenly every child born within the right time frame has a ticket to magic school. If someone wants to found a magic dynasty they would have to manipulate the moment of birth and/or conception to produce a child at the right moment. 2. Teratogenic. Magic aptitude is the random result of prenatal exposure to mana. Which of course could be how astrological conjunctions encourage the birth of mages. Mind you the thought that comes to mind is that exposure to elevated levels of mana might produce other mutations. Being a mage might come along with unnatural traits and even handicaps and deformities. Not to mention possibly producing nonhuman monsters. 3. Divine lottery. Maybe there's a god or a class of spirits of magic whose whim decides who gets the nod. Offerings and worship may tilt the odds. 4. Initiation. Magical styles become even more important because in order to become a mage you have to either be initiated into a style or figure out how to initiate yourself with many years of experimentation. Without initiation no aptitude. 5. Chosen by a familiar. Mage powers aren't natural to humans. You can only get them with granted by familiar, and that takes befriending one of these magical animals. 6. Gadget. Mage powers aren't natural to humans. But there are inanimate sources of magic, staffs, jewels pointy hats, that, when held or worn grant aptitude to the user.

05-14-2021, 08:32 PM	#2
Sunrunners_Fire Join Date: Mar 2010	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude 7) litRPG -- In some worlds, an omnipresent "System" either assigns or assesses the potential to use (certain kinds of) magic, sometimes even acting as a gatekeeper that has to be satisfied before the potential becomes usable. 8) Clan-Based -- In some worlds, whether you are a blood relation, adopted or married into the family, being a part of this family means that you can use the associated magics. Usually with the power increasing as the family invests time/energy/resources into strengthening it over time if the setting permits.

05-15-2021, 06:11 AM	#3
ericthered Hero of Democracy Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: far from the ocean	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude 9) Infection Based -- magic aptitude is caused by a parasite (or arguably a symbiote). This organism may need to enter the body at a specific time, may only be present in some environments. Has some overlap with teratogenic. __________________ Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!

05-15-2021, 07:18 AM	#5
Emerald Cat Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude 10) Uniqueness - magery is stronger the fewer parallel versions of you exist in the local multiverse. For example in the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones, "enchanters" are extremely powerful magicians because that specific enchanter was only born in one of the nine worlds that make up her setting. This kind of setting can get pretty dark if you can improve magery by killing alternate versions of yourself!

05-15-2021, 09:27 AM	#7
Polkageist Join Date: Sep 2007	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude Cyclical/Reincarnation - There are a fixed amount of magical 'souls' in existence at any given time, and when one of them dies the soul will reincarnate into a newborn person. The soul may or may not remember their past incarnations, the soul may or may not have the requirement to reincarnate in the literal next person born after their moment of death. Bargain - Magical aptitude is acquired by bargaining away something valuable. If this is something that can be done at any point then it's a matter of finding the entity with which you can make this transaction. Could also be done before existence, where the soul has a choice to make a bargain unknown to its living incarnation, which will have to deal with the bill coming due at some point in their existence.

05-15-2021, 12:48 PM	#8
Phil Masters Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: U.K.	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude Derangement - Magic is actually the ability to warp reality by sheer force of will. Sane people don't warp reality, and rarely have the strength of purpose needed to do so. "Magical Aptitude" is actually an obsessive rejection of reality as it is, powerful enough to hammer it into the shape you think it should be. __________________ -- Phil Masters My Home Page. My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG.

05-15-2021, 02:23 PM	#10
Shuckster Join Date: Nov 2014 Location: Near Chicago	Re: A World Building Decision: Magic Aptitude Some ideas include Set numbers: There will always be x amount of mages in the world at any given time and no new mages will be born until one dies, this could be linked to reincarnation, the reawakened or illuminated advantage. Discworld: Every seventh son of a seventh son is automatically a sorcerer, guaranteed. Passed on: the "magic" spark lives inside a mage and must be passed on to a successor before the mage dies or it is lost, rendering the mage nonmagical in the process, this could go along with set numbers. Former Possession: Being possessed by a ghost or spirit, then successfully casting the entity out through shear force of will allows you to command it's power, this basically would act as the halfway point between infection based and granted by familiar as you have effectively turned the tables on a spirit that wanted to control you. Innate but very easy to lose: everyone is born magical but due to a very common, very simple thing that renders most people non-magical shortly thereafter, next to nobody grows into a mage. This could be the simple act of having your true name spoken aloud once you are named etc. Multiversal adorations: Mages are anyone who is not actually from the reality the game inhabits, and therefor count as Unique. Nothing from homeline is magic, but everything that isn't supposed to be here is Transhumanism: mages are only created, never born naturally, this process involves anything from bio-tech to cybernetics but the magic is surgically or artificially "installed" into the mage in some way.