Which Witchcraft: Choosing a Magic System for your Fantasy

When you sit down and declare yourself a fantasy writer (and aspiring fantasy writers do count), you stand before the overwhelmingly fun ordeal of choosing how magic will work in your story. Whether you're writing an urban fantasy set in the streets of your own city, or building a classic medieval world with kings and swords and dragons, most fantasy tales have a magical component. (Unless you're writing mainly about vampires, in which case you may navigate away from this page.)

Magic is crucial to fantasy for so many reasons. It distinguishes your fantasy world from the real world. It gives your characters something new to use, abuse, oppose and understand. Magic can justify your plot, and, if you keep it consistent, fill in plot holes. Frankly, magic does whatever you want it to do, or, if used well, whatever your story needs it to do.

That's the most important thing to consider when designing your magic system: what your story needs. Magic's a fun thing to play around with, but serving the plot is more important than being interesting. A wizard who can make absolutely anything appear out of thin air is a cool guy to have around, but that kind of power can really drain the dramatic tension. Any magic that doesn't directly support your plot has the potential to destroy it.

It might help to start by asking how much magic your story demands. In Harry Potter, magic is everywhere. All the main characters are wizards, almost every significant object has enchantments or magical properties, and there are spells for almost everything. Contrast that against A Song of Ice and Fire, the epic series by George R. R. Martin. In Martin's world, there's almost no magic at all. None of the main characters (and there are dozens of them) actually have magical abilities. Usually magic is only mentioned in reference to ancient events. When we actually see it used, it stands out dramatically.

So why do those drastically different magic systems both work? Because they serve their respective plots. Harry Potter is a story about magic. When J.K. Rowling talks about her initial conception of the books, she almost always mentions the fact that Harry is a wizard. In fact, without his wizardry, Harry Potter wouldn't be all that interesting as a character. The traits that make him interesting, like his courage and his strong moral compass, become more apparent later, when he's grown up. A Song of Ice and Fire, on the other hand, isn't really about magic. It's about characters in strife. Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister are interesting because they live in a world rife with conflict and vulgarity, and those two in particular have had to deal with society's prejudices as well. They have depth and human interest from the very beginning, so we don't need magic to spice up their world. Harry started off as an eleven-year-old. He had strife and adversity, but there's only so much depth you can give a character that young.

Another really important consideration is the strength of your magic. Setting the limits of what your wizards (or warlocks or whatever) can do is extremely important when it comes to pleasing your readers.

As an example I cite The Belgariad and The Malloreon series by David Eddings. These classic high fantasy works are quite entertaining for a number of reasons, but I've always had problems with the magic. The sorcerers in theses stories, particularly the main characters Garion and Belgarath, seem ridiculously powerful. Their magic system, called "the Will and the Word," is basically the ability to do just about anything you want, just by concentrating really hard. Supposedly their power is limited by the strength of their will, but there's a scene where Garion summons a thunderstorm without any noticeable effort. And that's just to make a point.

Eddings attempts to limit the use of these powers by explaining that Garion and friends spend most of their adventures incognito in enemy territory, and using magic creates a kind of "noise" that alerts enemies to their location. Despite this, one still gets the impression that Garion could reduce anything in his path to dust without breaking a sweat. And the endless journeys seem kind of pointless when you consider how easy (though "noisy") teleportation is for these people.

Let this be a lesson. You never want your readers to start a sentence with "why doesn't he just . . ." That is not a good situation to be in because the characters seem stupid for not knowing their own abilities. If you can fly or teleport, you will never be trapped at the bottom of a well. If your power makes you invincible in combat, you will never hide from your enemies. At least, not unless there are consistent, believable limits on where/when/to what degree these powers work.

Gandalf almost never uses his magic. When he does, it's never flashy or incredibly impressive. If it came to a wizard's duel, he wouldn't stand a chance against Belgarath or Dumbledore, but he's still every bit as dignified and respected as they are.

This is probably what comes to mind first when you think of picking a magic system, but I saved it for last to showcase the importance of other considerations.

Simply put, how does magic work? And there's an infinite number of answers. Since magic doesn't exist outside of the realm you're creating, you can make it whatever you want it to be. Is it a physical force that wizards manipulate? Is it the intervention of spirits from another plane of existence? Do you chant? Do you draw runic circles? Do you focus really hard and count to five? Do you need a wand? A crystal? Mental clarity? Willpower? Mana? Were you born with magic, or can it be learned?

This is the decision that most strongly impacts the general feel of your story. In the novel I'm working on, I take a very scientific approach to magic. It's mostly about telekinesis and temperature manipulation. The main character is a sorceress and the reader is inside her head as she learns to work with sorcery. We know exactly what magic is and how it works. I like this because no one will ever ask "why doesn't she just use her magic there?" Since she knows her magic well (as do I, as does the reader), she will always use it when that makes sense.

The problem, though, which I've realized as my first draft nears completion, is that this solid scientific system makes the magic feel very unmagical. In A Song of Ice and Fire, where magic is rare and never used by point-of-view characters, it remains mysterious. It feels mystical, which is generally how magic ought to feel. In my book, magic loses its emotional significance after the first couple of chapters because we get used to it. In A Song of Ice and Fire, we never get used to magic, not only because it's rare but because we don't know how it works, which means we never really know what it's going to do. Every time magic happens, something unexpected happens. In the case of blood magic and the Others' necromancy, magic is used to exemplify the mystery of something dark and sinister. It seems more dangerous because we don't know how it works. It plays on the human instinct to fear darkness. We're afraid of what we can't see, and magic is the deadliest thing you'll never see coming.

I guess my deeply problematic magic system was partially a response to the one in Harry Potter, which I really don't like. Harry says Lumos, and light appears. But why? Lumos is the light spell because it's derived from the Latin word for light. I took Latin in high school. I appreciate the Latin. But why is Latin the language of magic? Why do Latin words have this power? Why can't they teach their wands English? Sometimes it feels like magic is a giant invisible computer, and you can get it to perform any function you want as long as you know the right command. And all the commands are Latin because the computer was programmed by Romans. Or medieval monks. Whatever. The point is, magic should not be that readily available without being understood.

So that's the gist of it. Seriously consider how you want your world to look and feel when you're designing its magic. If magic is held in runic symbols, there will be big ominous libraries where all magic is cataloged, and literacy will hold the key to power. If magic is only done with a blood sacrifice, wizards will be feared and despised.

Good luck, fellow writers, on your own fantasy projects. I hope you found this helpful.