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[ellixis]

It probably says something about me that while worldbuilding, I treat magic as a basic force rather than an explanation for something impossible. Okay, I want to set this story on a world where people live on islands that float in the sky. Okay! How do the islands float? Magic? Sure, okay, but how does it work?

Comments

[aurora77]

Unexplainable random magic worked as a kid, but now, it has to have rules. Not just that random new power a magical girl develops at the last second when the love interest/friend/world is in dire need and it comes out of nowhere with no explanation. Not just waving a wand and saying, "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo". Not holding up a magical sword and saying some silly words to transform. To be believable, there needs to be rules behind it. Now they don't have to be fully spelled out, but the observer/player/reader needs to be able to figure out that there's some structure there. That it's a matter of physics of the world. That's what makes "magic" work for me in a setting.

Girl Genius~

[shenalia]

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!"

Re: Girl Genius~

[aurora77]

Hee! Yes!

Re: Girl Genius~

[bbblakey]

it's not quite the same without the massive, bold squiggly lettering on "SCIENCE!" but that's certainly how I see it:D

Gotta love Girl Genius.

[lots42]

A new fiction world gets away with one big lie.

[scribe_of_stars]

They sure didn't bother to explain the floating islands in Avatar. Just "WHOOPS, FLUX VORTEX, LOL" and they left it at that.

How about this: There's a thaumic field similar to (and parallel with) the planet's magnetic field. Certain materials can tap the field, and there are places where the field varies in intensity (don't cast anything where the field is strong or it'll get messy). Certain areas have high concentrations of thaumic material--as magnetism has manganese, magic has thaumite. With a high enough concentration, large chunks of rock can break away from the planet's surface and rise up to be closer to the thaumic field.

[shadesfox]

I like going the other way. Take high SCIENCE! and apply silly rules to it. I recently read a book that took this approach where sufficiently advanced science can only function further away from the center of the galaxy.

In your world I would probably lock the islands to celestial bodies. Maybe something about inter-dimensional energy conduits going to specific stars keeps the islands above the rest of the ground.

Random babble~ I should probably sleep now.

[chisotahn]

I loooove building magic systems. It's the first thing I do when I worldbuild these days.