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New magic idea from Jim Butcher


Vanguard00

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I thought I'd share to give people ideas, and to recommend the books if you are so inclined.

 

Jim Butcher has a new series out (the "Codex Aleria" series--good stuff), wherein most everyone has at least one "fury". It's a sort of elemental that they can call upon for a variety of effects. They usually "discover" them during the pre/early teen years, though it hasn't been said how this happens. In rural and wilderness settings the furies are very strong. In urbania, less so, but they're also more skilled. Academias believe the wilderness furies are strong because they are more primal, wilder, less tamed. They also believe that the urban furies are weaker but more skilled because they have been 'recycled' over generations, finding a new 'master' once their old has passed on.

 

The furies do have a tangible presence when needed—one earthcrafter’s fury appears as a large dog, another firecrafter’s fury appears as a fiery hawk-- and many people in the wilderness and outlying areas name them. They believe this makes them more personal, and thus stronger. It requires will to control them, but depending on the strength of the fury it’s possible to do most of their crafting with little thought. Only large-scale projects require concentration.

 

It is also possible (and not all that uncommon) for people to have more than one fury in their control. Usually the secondary (and tertiary, if applicable) furies are weaker, but that could be relative.

 

Water furies aid in distance communication (and eavesdropping), flooding, travel on water (of course), and (surprisingly) healing. Watercrafters are notoriously sensitive to emotions, such that they make great lie detectors. This can backfire, however, causing them to lose concentration or, in some extremes, get all kinds of whacky. Water furies do not cross fire and will not go too far up off the ground.

 

Earth furies lend strength and stamina (and some resilience) to their crafters. In addition, they aid in travel using earth ripples and the like. They can shape stone (from very small openings in walls to creating a large castle-like structure), and sense who and what is around them (if they're on the ground). There is some evidence that they can affect certain base instincts in people—fight, flight, procreate…that sort of thing—but this hasn’t been developed much in-story.

 

Fire crafters do about what you’d expect—draw and release heat from their environment, shoot fireballs or blasts, etc. They haven’t been developed as well as some of the others, but like earthcrafters they can elicit emotions, usually of the anger/fear variety.

 

Air crafters can fly, move very fast when they need to, and have limited TK-like abilities (the wind moving something to or fro, picking it up, etc). Again, not as developed, but getting there.

 

There are also other furies of a less-classic nature. Metalcrafters, for example, can forge items that are nearly unbreakable. There are also a rare few that can become godlike swordsmen, speed and strength and sheer fighting prowess, but I can’t remember if they gave their fury a name or not (I think they are similar to metalcrafters). Woodcrafters are nearly as versatile as earthcrafters, but instead of using rock and stone they use wood (duh). They can make trees bend and twist, cause arrows to warp and even turn back on their caster, strengthen or weaken wood, etc.

 

Related in some fashion are some barbarian tribes. Nomads for the most part, each of the tribes has a totem animal; wolf, fox, horse, herdbane (like a giant carnivorous ostrich or something), gargant (a cross between a mammoth and an ox, I think), etc. The tribes work closely with their animals, and often take on characteristics of their totem: gargant tribesmen are very strong; wolf tribesman are fast and deadly; fox tribesmen are quick and sly; and so on.

 

There’s more, but only lightly touched on. I recommend the series anyway, but it’s a fairly cool way to model a non-traditional magic system. I’m very interested in seeing how it turns out.

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Re: New magic idea from Jim Butcher

 

You want a crazy-*** concept of magic? Katharine Kerr wrote a book called Daggerspell. I read it a long time ago, so I don't remember a lot about it, but I recall the magic as being pretty interesting. The whole setting is pretty awesome, too. I'm gong to have to dig it out again one of these years.

 

Here's one review: http://www.yetanotherbookreview.com/daggerspell.htm

 

P.S. - What the heck is with the filter? Dang!!! I thought we were on the internet! Isn't everyone presumed to be a perverted old geezer here?

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