MAGIC!
Okay so i have been thinking of doing this for like 2 years at this point then i remembered i made this blog so now i will just put my process for this thing here, i may take a while to finish this project due to how easy it is for me to lose interest on something but i will finish this even if it takes me years to do so.
I have looked into this topic to some extent, i know what hard/soft magic systems are, what these systems should do in a story, etc. I have avoided looking at the creation process other people have for these since i don't to be influenced in that way, though i know i already am being influenced by all the fantasy stories i have seen, i just think the making it without a reference as to what the actual writing process others use is, might be better as a writing exercise to me.
My goals with this project are to better understand the purpose of these systems in a setting, improve my own writing to some extent and to create a system to draw magic circles for future use, something that creates a cool looking magic circle that you can actually deconstruct and understand what it's purpose is, this will likely be the hardest part of this project because i suck at art.
To get started i want a system that can be versatile for most settings i would want to use it in, as a step in that direction my current idea for it is to have it be based on connections, connections between words, concepts, people, etc. Like the very act of casting a spell on this system is to build a network of the connections necessary for the effect you want, for example those connections could be what makes up the effect you want or what it's conceptually related to it or the meaning of it or whatever other type of connection i think of! Though of course this does make this a hard magic system but that is only to me, to the characters in the setting this could seem like a soft magic system if the connections are not obvious to them, which to me is good enough.
For the main setting i want to use this system on, it will have 2 kinds of connections, those being Rational and Feelings. Rational would be connections decided by logical reasoning like a science, for example water's molecular formula would be in the connections necessary for any spell requiring water, and Feelings would have things like drowing, sadness, etc. as the connections for water.
I have no fully explored this idea just yet so this system for sure needs more work but as a concept i think it's good!
The system mentioned for making magic circles is something i don't have much done for yet so that will have to be on the next post about this which may take anywhere from a few days to months.
Anyways thanks for reading! If you have thoughts about this you can like scream them into the void and i may hear them.