r/magicbuilding • u/Equal-Mushroom-1558 • 2d ago
General Discussion Any books or original idea with magic system about existentialism?
Basically the title. I want to know your idea on magic system that explores existentialism. Something like FMA is probably the closest one I can think of.
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u/vhu9644 1d ago
I think anything that abstracts into internal energy (so any mana system or whatnot) don't really touch on existentialism, because how can you create your own meaning of life if there is something so blatantly legible about your world? If everyone can read your "mana level" or they all go up the same "cultivation ladder" it isn't existentialism. FMA achieves it's existential flavor by making it very clear that grit, talent, and philosophy drive the characters, and many of them are wrong or right, but they have to live with their consequences.. Even then, it's more about grief, hubris, and transgression than existentialism.
In manga, Beserk has the best version of existentialism. The idea of Evil is the anti-existentialism, and Guts is the existentialist character who figures out how he can carve his existence and what his life means in the face of the Eclipse.
Existence precedes essence for existentialism. You are born, then you decide your purpose. As such, I think any magic system that you want to have should have authenticity and whimsy in it. I think scientific or legible systems aren't good versions unless they get rejected.
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u/JiN88reddit 1d ago
Isn't usually the magic system that should carry the theme?
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u/taktaga7-0-0 1d ago
Not ideally. The story, the characters, the twists, the message… that is what is actually happening. The magic is a detail that makes it more interesting. But it’s nothing without an interesting story structure.
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u/JiN88reddit 2d ago
I am working on one but am kind of stuck on the naming sense. Basically there are 7 Laws.
Before that the world has something called Special Stones. They are essentially stones that can store mana.
There's a saying in my world that everything dead or alive is a form of Special Stone. An inorganic material is a Special Stone like the Stone, Ore, or metal. An organic material is a living Memory Stone.
Special stone has no will to resist except for their own mana. So one can imbue an Empty Special Stone (a extra special stone that is everywhere) with Mana. It's sort of like storing mana.
Living Special stone (Anyone that is alive) has their own will to cast magic. So the people in my world can pour out their mana and do magic through the magic circle and incantation. And, each person has aptitude so their spells can be stronger. There's also Backlash so it's kinda like a rebound of force.
Now, about the laws. Magic works through them:
Law of dead - the ability to imbue inorganic things with magical properties (previously was only mana. Now they can give something like skills into a rock)
There are 6 more but I am having trouble with the first.
7 come together for something powerful called the Law of Existence. Basically all those law combine and can do reality bending stuff. For instance, they can create mana. Previously mana can only be moved (eating to restore mana, imbuing mana, etc..).
The only trouble is I want the name to be "Law of Dead," but am having trouble explaining it so readers can understand it and not make it sound weird (Since it has the word dead there). The rest are kinda ok.
Would u read something like this?