Worldbuilding Project - Blog Posts

magic-related fun facts

here are a few fun facts about magic and magic users on my planet, Kirotar.

terms like "witch" and "wizard" are not gender-specific, and instead used to describe magic users of different skill levels.

a magician: general term for any and all magic users of any skill level or discipline a witch: term for magic users who are self-taught or learned from friends and family, not professionally educated, have a non-scholarly understanding of magic a wizard: term for magic users who are educated professionally, studied magic at least to a basic level, have a scholarly understanding of magic, learned through curriculum a warlock: specialized and skilled magic users with years of dedicated professional study, sought to learn magic in higher levels of education, masters of magic a magus: magical scientists, those who study, research, and experiment with magic as a career; they are often magicians, but not always

2. people from different places have different styles of performing magic, based on the way they were taught, and each one is unique.

people from Safimatet (the east) typically perform magic with movements of the open palms to direct their magic. people from Besilyon (the south) usually perform magic by making different hand signs, with different positions of the fingers. people from Tovapikus (the west) also perform magic by moving their hands, but they use closed fists instead of open palms. people from Ramocesin (the north) regularly preform magic with dance-like motions of the hands, wrists, and fingers all at once. the thing about this is: each of these styles are equivalent! it's different methods of doing the same thing. it can be compared to drawing with a pencil versus drawing with a pen; it looks different, but the product is essentially the same/very similar. also, these things aren't necessary for performing the actual magic, it's more to assist the user. it's like using a ruler; if a person hasn't practiced drawing straight lines on their own, they'd usually use a ruler, because if they don't, then their lines are a little wobbly and imperfect. the ruler just helps them to get it right.

3. some people on Kirotar perform magic as a job. because it's so highly specialized, people will hire experts to use magic they can't use themselves. for example, builders might hire a warlock of motion magic to help them move heavy materials that they either couldn't lift or would have extreme difficultly lifting otherwise.

4. magic is something that scientists theorize about constantly. there is a lot of magic that could be possible, but it would take too much energy or skill to perform, so they can't test if it would actually work. this doesn't stop them from writing out long equations and coming up with complicated hypotheses about it, though. 5. there is a magical code of conduct which is widely accepted across the planet that dictates what kind of magic can legally be performed. depending on the area, breaking this code of conduct can be a very serious offense. one example of a magical crime would be necromancy/using magic to revive a human being.

that's all for now. there was going to be a drawing with this post (as there has been in the others so far) but I haven't had the motivation to doodle as of late, so I'm just going to post this anyway. hope the facts are actually fun

magic system on Kirotar (2 of 2)

now that I've explained magical energy (see this post) I'm going to explain what you can actually do with magic, how they classify different types of magic, and how it's used by the people living on Kirotar...

(the person in the drawing is one of my characters, whose name is Robbie.)

with Kirotaran magic, the possibilities are unfortunately not endless, but this is not to say that there isn't an extremely wide range of things you can do with it. the humans on Kirotar have a generally accepted magic classification system which details the different types of magical acts that can be performed, but it's important to note that there are no actual different types of magical energy itself; these distinctions are purely artificial, social constructs, if you will.

there are three overall categories of magic, with three subcategories each. here is what I typically call The Tree of Magical Classification:

1. MECHANICAL MAGIC

1a. motion magic, such as: moving matter without contact, manipulating matter's speed, moving matter through solids 1b. force magic, such as: manipulating gravity's intensity, manipulating friction or tension, generating "force fields" 1c. acoustic magic, such as: manipulating a sound's pitch, volume, or direction, generating a specific sound

2. ELECTROMAGNETIC MAGIC

2a. electricity magic, such as: manipulating electrical fields, currents, and charges, generating electricity 2b. light magic, such as: manipulating the intensity or color of light, passing light through matter or reflecting light off of matter 2c. thermal magic, such as: transferring heat between matter, absorbing heat, radiating heat, manipulating the state of matter

3. CHEMICAL MAGIC

3a. bonds magic, such as: manipulating molecular bonds between matter, breaking one object apart, joining two objects together 3b. mass magic, such as: manipulating density, volume, or both, affecting size and/or weight of matter 3c. transmutation magic, such as: changing an element/molecule into another element/molecule, manipulating its properties

the examples listed here are not the only things that can be done with magic, they're just meant to create an idea of what the category entails. everything has a very vague "scientific" explanation based on my limited education on the sciences, and it's meant to mostly obey laws of the universe, like "matter can't be created or destroyed."

now, the second component of magic, aside from magical energy: skill. in order to preform any kind of magic, a person needs to have skill. it's the same as any other talent or activity, and can very easily be compared to something like drawing. sure, most everyone can put a pencil to paper and draw a shape, but in order to create something unique, detailed, and interesting, people have to study and practice for years to develop that skill. magic is the same way.

because magic is so varied and needs a lot of practice to perform, people are rarely good at all of it. often, a person will be an expert in a single subcategory of magic, while barely knowing any magic in any of the other categories. other times, a person can be decent at magic from multiple subcategories within the same category, although learning two subcategories that belong to different categories is more uncommon. magics within categories are similar, though not the same. it's sort of like a guitarist learning to play the ukulele (same category) versus learning to play the flute (different categories). a person could choose to learn some magic from nearly every category, but they wouldn't be very good at any of it.

another note is that the amount of skill it takes to do something and the amount of magical energy it takes are proportional. the more complicated something is, the more skill it takes, the more energy it uses. for example, using motion magic to make a puddle of water float in the air is relatively easy, but attempting to lift up all the water in the ocean at the same time is practically impossible because of the sheer amount of skill and energy it would require.

last thing for this post: magic is for everyone. on Kirotar, magic is something anyone can do if they choose to, and while not everyone does, the majority of people do. it's something people use in their everyday lives as a helpful tool, to make things easier, as a convenience. never, ever is it used as a weapon (more on that later). it's something people learn from their grandparents, something people go to school to study, something people experiment with. the study of magic is considered a branch of science on Kirotar, the same as biology or chemistry. it is more or less an integral part of the world and the daily life of the people who live there, even if they don't use magic often.

anyway, this isn't everything I have to say, but this post is longer than my last one, so I think I'll cut it off here. next post will maybe just be some fun facts.

magic system on Kirotar (1 of 2)

my fictional planet called Kirotar features the existence of magic, and I've created a unique system for how it works and how it's used by the people living there. here's one of two posts I'll make about it, where I'll first talk about what facilitates the existence of magic...

(by the way, the person in the drawing is a character of mine named Fabian.)

on Kirotar, there exists another form of energy called magical energy (creative, I know). it exists in and can be possessed by all living things, and it is one of the two components needed to perform acts of magic.

there are also two kinds of magical energy: inherent magical energy and foreign magical energy. they have a few differences in the way they're used and interacted with.

inherent magical energy is just that: inherent. every living thing (plants, animals, fungi, etc.) is born or otherwise begins its existence with at least some magical energy. the amount of energy varies from species to species and individual to individual; for example, plants generally have a lot less inherent energy than humans do, but one human may have marginally more or less energy than another human. it is a fixed amount that doesn't change (excepting some specific circumstances).

when inherent energy is being used, it isn't expelled/depleted. I think the best way to explain this is to imagine it like it's a dial that goes from 0-100% of someone's magical energy. if someone is doing something that uses 50% of their energy, they can do something else that uses 50% of their energy, and the dial is turned up to 100%. the moment they stop, they're not using any energy, it's turned back to 0%, and they can use it for something else. it "replenishes" itself, in a sense, and it can be sustained indefinitely.

when magical energy is transferred between beings, it becomes foreign energy in whatever is receiving it. once inherent energy is transferred from one thing to another, it is no longer replenished, and the fixed amount of inherent energy in the being it came from decreases. if person A has high energy and gives some of it to person B, who has low energy, this results in person A now having a medium amount of energy and person B also having a medium amount of energy, until the energy from person A is used.

unlike inherent energy, foreign energy does not work like a dial. it works more like mana in video games; it is a finite resource. as a person uses it for magic, it is depleted, and they can only sustain the magic for as long as they have more energy to use up. once they run out of energy, they stop.

in order to get more energy, it must be taken from other living things. eating regular meals does not give people magical energy, because even though they're eating plants and animals, by the time they're doing so, the plants and animals are dead. commonly, the people of Kirotar will eat seeds in order to gain energy, because those are alive, even if the amount of energy they gain is small.

since this post is already pretty long, I'll talk about what people can actually do with magic in the next one. hope this explanation makes sense so far. I'd absolutely love to answer any questions about it.

the planet I made up

since I'm planning on talking about my original world/story/characters on here, I should probably introduce the actual world where the story/characters belong first. so, here is a little bit about the planet Kirotar...

(I drew this map myself by hand, for the record, no map-making tools. it took a while.)

this is Kirotar (at least, in the beginning). it's a bit smaller than Earth and has eight little moons. one day there is around 72 hours on Earth.

as shown, there are four major continents and lots of islands in-between them. to the east is Safimatet, the desert continent, to the south is Besilyon, the jungle continent, to the west is Tovapikus, the taiga continent, and to the north is Ramocesin, the grasslands continent. (also, please notice the compass at the bottom-right of the map; it's aligned differently than what's typical for maps on Earth.)

fun fact: each of the continents is actually named after the Kirotaran god that resides over it.

this planet is inhabited by several fictional humanoid species I've made (twelve, to be exact), but I'll talk about those individually later. as of current development, there are a variety of plants and animals living there that aren't too different from those on Earth. overall, Kirotar looks very similar to Earth, but there are plenty of differences.

for example, a form of magic exists on Kirotar, which is often used by humans (and sometimes even animals). my story has elements of fantasy, but also a lot of magical realism. the system I've made for magic will also get its own post another time.

I hope that's a sufficient introduction. more to come soon.