prismatica | 001

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[Edward's been seeing all of these different posts come up. It's obnoxious to him, but he can see the potential of being able to communicate with so many like this, so he decided to give it a try.]

It's come to my attention that there's a few people here who use "magic." From what I've seen, there's nothing like it where I come from and I have a few questions for anyone who's willing to answer. In science, you've got different laws that everything follows. Is that the same for magic? Does some magic have laws while others don't? Are there different fields of magic? What are they? Where does the energy or power come from? What makes it "magic" and not a field of science?

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For me, it largely comes down to presentation or effect. I'd class my own abilities as breaking established rules of physics and other sciences, but finding how to induce the desired effect does involve some research that may as well be its own form of science.

I'm definitely starting to think that way about some of it at least. A lot of people mentioned certain criteria that has to be met or rules that have to be followed for magic to work. It's just that a lot of these rules fall outside what I would consider scientific laws.

There's also been some overlap, which I found surprising. At least one person said that they consider alchemy to be magic. I'll always view it as a science based on what I know about it, but it's interesting all the same.

What kind of magic do you use?

So, based off my understanding: alchemy is similar, but more focused on chemistry (and breaking it) than the other sciences.

My magic is based mostly on manipulating seven elements and balancing them in various ways to invoke various effects, to describe it simply. I suppose there's a more technical term for this, but use of such things was rather rare where I'm from -- most magic is just called "magic" unless it has a very odd way of being presented, such as alchemy.

That's pretty accurate. There's definitely a lot of overlap between chemistry and alchemy. Biology is also a part of it depending on what kind of alchemy you specialize in. I know in Xing, alchemy developed as a means of practicing medicine, so people who practice over there probably know just as much about human biology that they do about chemistry.

I've heard of the four basic elements, those being earth, water, air, and fire. I haven't heard of a system for seven of them though. What are they?

Four elements is a very Western magic system. Well, in my world, at least -- you mentioning the name of Xing (a territory of some kind, going by context), confirms we're from separate worlds. What I've built is a variant on the five-element system of the Wu Xing, from the nation of China. Their five-element system was wood (the latter of which also covered wind), fire, earth, metal, and water. The Wu Xing had a lot of importance in Chinese philosophy even outside of magic; the five elements are ordered as a very specific progression -- representing growth, flourishing, a turning point, decline, and ending.

The sixth and seventh, in my case, are sun and moon. Mostly these are more supportive, but not completely without their own properties -- particularly in that the solar element is more active, while the lunar is more passive.

I can follow most of the logic behind those elements. I'm not sure how wood and wind are related, but I'll take your word for it for now.

Let me know if I got this right, but you manipulate those elements to do various things. What do you mean by 'active' and 'passive' though? Does it have something to do with how the other elements are changed?

Yes, basically, to both of those. Solar magic projects outward more, while lunar magic pulls closer inward, relative to the caster. They aren't always necessary, but are helpful.

I see.

Does it have to be day for you to use solar magic and vice versa? What about moon phases? Do they have any effect on lunar magic?

Thankfully, no. To either of those. That would make micronmanaging certain spells more than a little difficult.

That seems pretty convenient.

I think I'm dried up on questions for you. Thanks for your help! Was there anything else you wanted to add or ask me?

For the moment... not really. If you think of anything else, finding me to get in contact shouldn't be too hard, right?

From what I gather so long as we don't lose these little devices we should be able to contact each other whenever we want.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

	
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