#Metalsea magic systems

[tryingtimi]

Happy WBW! I'd love to know more about the magic system you mentioned that you said is similar to my chaos magic. I know you said it's not finished... but anything you feel like sharing I'm all ears! 💖

Happy WBW! ❤️ (a week or two later, but I've finally finished the answer lol)

Oh, well, in Project Metalsea I plan to have at least two kind of magic system and one of them, the kind of crystal-container magic's consequence is which a little similar to your chaos magic.

I think to understand the idea, it needs a little context, so I'll start with a sprinkle of lore.

Divine creatures whom humans called gods have died long ago on Onidia and their corpses materialized in the world as colossus crystal skeletons. Now, humans soon figured out that this crystal contains magical energy, which, however does not renew naturally. If a full crystal piece have been drained then it lost its zaphire-like glow, turned into a strange purple and stayed empty.

Until they've found out there's a way to recharge it! (this is where things can get confusing so please tell me if something sounds off)

That method requires someone from the new folk, aka a magical creature who's whole being entangled with magic and someone who learned from the ancient arts how to guide the energy. Then they slowly separate that someone from the energy and charge the crystal. However, for the new folk this means stripping down and tearing their soul out and leaving them a vessel basically. They're becoming a mindless marionette figure without emotions, attachments, but whom still capable of fulfilling orders of that someone who took their soul away. The only connection that remains is towards that one person. Their condition is also permanent, so there's no chance to restore them.

This piece of your answer made me think it can be a little similar to chaos magic:

"The corpses we are able to animate to the point that they are functional, ambulatory, but we cannot restore the bodies to their original condition nor can we revive the essence of what was lost when the person perished—whether you consider that to be the soul or mind or any such equivalent."

[tryingtimi]

Happy WBW! So there are two magic types in your wip? I just read the whole crystal gods one and how it's charged, but how does it work? How do these two magic types different? How big of a role does magic play in your stories anyway and what do you like about it? :D I'm a magic nerd sorry @writingonesdreams

Happy WBW!! Thank you for the ask! ❤️

I love every one of your questions, so I’ll try to answer all of them. However, my magic systems are still in their alpha phases so :D there might be some (or a lot) holes. Anyway, here’s what I’ve got already! I'll cut this here to save some you some space on your dash hehe. (Also tagging @bloodlessheirbyjacques, @jess-p-edits and @aninkwellofnectar because I know you guys were interested in the magic, so uh, here it is!)

CRYSTAL SYSTEM

So, the crystal magic works in a little tricky way. This material kind of acts like a hivemind. If you have a connection to it somehow, you have connection to all of the pieces people broke from the original skeleton.

Since humans don’t have a direct connection neither to the material, nor to the magical energy, the first thing they need is a piece of this crystal attached to their body. Our crystal (dark) mage Darmon for example gonna have an eye replaced with this crystal. That kind of the core what’s purpose mostly is to make the connection happen, so it doesn’t explicitly require charging (but it will be tho, reasons below). Then, they also need a crystal spike pierced into someone that has the energy, so it can drain it and every piece can charge itself. Now, the mage has the connection and they also has the energy contained which makes basically telekinesis capable. A crystal mage can control the charged crystal pieces so long as they have magic inside them and they have one piece attached to their body.

The magical energy is gonna have a different color beause it’s a decaying energy from the point when it was forced out of someone’s body, and it also gonna shape the crystal into a violent shape when it charges it. It will make the crystal pieces more sharper, piercing, deadly.

SOUL (?) SYSTEM

Onto the ancient system which only differs from the crystal one in a sense that it doesn’t need a container. In the times long forgotten, humans had only a handful of people who were graced with the ability to hold magic inside themselves. It was a blessing of a charitable god who especially liked humans. These Keepers were able to leak magical energy when they got physically exhausted (so they were trained to be fighters), what the Shepherds (who were trained to be mages basically) could guide and use for a lot of stuff, including healing too. (They don’t needed crystals because gods were still around and helped them to learn these things without those. But this is one of the holes I couldn't fill properly yet). The energy, also, can't be seen by human eyes, so they had some ability in the past to get through this opsticle, ANYWAY back to the Metalsea stuff lol.

The new folk does leak this energy too. But, since the knowledge of this ancient magic system were lost through the years, they don't know about any of the stuff above. One of our MC however will find some crumble of information about it and because of the driadlin's changing eye colour, she's gonna start to see this energy. Yeah, I guess the eye colour changing needs some explanation too, but I'll leave that for another time :D. The point is that she's gonna see it, investigate after it and slowly learn the ancient way of guiding this magical energy and heal, boost others etc. Not sure what's it does exactly, yet, but yeah, these two stuff is kind of what I want to keep for sure.

MIXED STUFF

The draar developed a cultural tradition that unintentionally mixes the two stuff. It includes attaching this god-crystal to their body in places where they were injured. So, for example if your arm was so gravely wounded that you can't use it anymore, then there's a very painful ritual that you need to go through to get this crystal basically merged into your body. It's gonna be a part of you (in contrary with the humans whom body incapable of completely merge with the crystal), fills out the wounded bit and it's gonna be almost eternally charged because the magical energy is inside the draar, so it's cricling in their body through the crystal. This gives them a boost in the ability they're the best, ergo if someone can punch hard then they'll be able to punch harder, like a wall-breaking-with-a-single-blow lot harder.

They can gather a lot of energy in the crystal and basically have an own Kamehameha. After using this "ultimate ability" tho, the crystal stays empty for a little while, because all the energy that were inside that and the body were used up together to burst out into a big mass of boost. That results in sudden exhaustion, slowness in motion etc. SO that's why our team's gonna work well, because with the MC knowing the ancient system and seeing the energy, she can direct magic into their drained crystals in a non-violent-neither-morally-questionable way.

Oh, and the energy the magical folk leaks also contains the best ability of the ?leaker?. You know, the one who the magic came from lmao. Which means, if someone's crystal gets charged by another person's leaked energy, then they get their best ability.

That's how Darmon's gonna be a pretty good fighter even tho he lacks actual training. Because our main villain will charge his eye crystal with a good martial artists energy all the time.

Aaalso, this is more a of a side note, but I'll talked about this in another ask, so I feel the need to include: The main villain's capable of this ancient guiding the energy ability, but he advanced it into a level where he can rip out the magic from someone's soul and leave them hollow. This, however has a very big price which I'm not totally sure about yet, so I'll talk about that later in the future. What sure is, he can't use this ability all the time.

Ay, this got waay too long, so I'll end with the last two answers. I think magic will play a pretty big part of the story based on the things I just wrote down lol I just realised too while I was writing. I love magic systems but I suck at forging my ideas of them into coherent stuff, so this is something I need a whole lot of time to develop. What I like about these tho, is their limitations. :D I always fall in love with the limitations of a magic system, they can be very interesting!

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

[tryingtimi]

METALSEA INTRODUCTION.

GENRE: Epic Fantasy, Adventure, Romance. CONTENT: Found Family, Enemies to Lovers, Antagonist to Hero, Hero to Antagonist, Learning to Use Magic, Otherworldly Metal, Original Races, Loads of Bromance, Huge Cast, Ancient Conflict, Science Mixed with Magic, Steamless Steampunk, Otherworldly Creatures, Fantasy Monsters, Journey Together, Battling Nations, Soft and Hard Magic Systems, Growing Together, Processing Traumas. SETTING: A fantasy planet called Onidia torn apart, that a mysterius metal phenomenon holds together. STATUS: World-Building | Outlining. MASTERPOSTS: SNIPPET | CHARACTERS | WORLDBUILDING (more detailed)

SYNOPSIS

War of the Untouched – that’s how history books mention the event where humans and gods clashed in a terrible fight. Even though immortals were vanquished eventually, the after effect of this war reshaped the world in a way no-one could forsee. Mighty crystal corpses formed in the four corner of the planet and godly essence the incident released roamed in the air, changing everything it touched — animals, plants, and mortals alike. Magic and blood entangled and so: new races were created. Humans no longer graced the earth of Onidia. Or so legends declare. Thousands of years have passed after The War. The new folk of Onidia — the driadlin and the draar, however, still can’t shape peace into a less fragile thing than their ancestors. Constantly arguing over lands and power status, they are ready to let conflict overcome convention yet again. Although, this time, Onidia’s secrets might change the course of events. For better or worse.

LANDS OF ONIDIA

ILLATHIA ― The nation of driadlin. The place of culture and modernism. Blooming fields, rich in mountains, plants and fully susitanable land where people can build homes without actual hardship. It contains seas, rivers and most of the the mysterious phenomenon, what illathian call Metalsea. It's capital is the grand city of Evalon where everything that matters happen. Or so the the King proclaim. pinterest ATARQ ― The great nation of the draar which capital is Bronnok, the place where you can get the best na'koro juice in the world. It's the land of difficulty with a lot of danger and unexplored corners. pinterest LAQUNIA ― A kind of mysterious place somewhere between the two big nations, where desert is all around, so the environment do not seem to be able to sustain life. There are still legends among the driadlin however. Lengeds about a third culture, what they call Shar-Dlin and which the draar insist upon existing. pinterest

PEOPLE OF ONIDIA

DRIADLIN — Their ancient lore says they were the most valuable Untouched before The War, experts in finesse and tactical fields, so their ansectors stayed the farthest from the direct battlefield and the gods. This resulted in lesser changes in features; pointy ears, slender, tall figures. However, the godly essence still gave them more. They've been gifted with eyes that's color can change based on what the driadlin focuses on the most and gain benefits that help them be expert on that field. They're also received the Wildness; a condition where their little bone spikes on their shoulders, elbows, wrist and heels grow out, their teeth, ears and nails get sharper and their whole appearance turn into a more savage one. A disturbed state of mind – be it positive or negative – brings out this condition, so it's one of the most humiliating event of someone who accidentally goes Wild in public and they're not a warrior going to war. DRAAR — The descendants of Untouched whom fought the closest to the gods. Magical energy were so direct their looks became a mix of every mythical avatar of the god they fought with. They're the people of combat and community. Thanks to their durable body, they can stay alive on the dangerous plains and plateaus of the great Atarq since their last war with the driadlin. SHAR-DLIN — Based on the myths and bed time tales, they’re a very isolated lot with an eccentric culture and a strange appearance. Their look (in theory) is a mix of a driadlin and a draar, but everyone's got their own variation. Someone has horns, someone has pointy ears, someone may got some scales.

MAGIC

Important note: Magic isn't used in the beginning. The new folk might have some magical aspect, but no-one knows how to use magic if they even have an ability for it. So the cultures were formed around a non-magic user world. There's gonna be at least two kind of magic. One is the ancient magic that's most similar to soul magic with some healing ability and an another aspect that I'm still working on. The other one is chargable crystal magic. Will extend this part later on!

RELIGIONS

under development, but already having something

FAITH OF VEILNIEVE — Supreme Goddess of vision and perception. The one and only deity the driadlin worship. They live by the idea of valuing things they can see, so they try to keep their vision clear by forging a society that is worth looking at. Devotee of Veilnieve are wearing veils before their eyes so they can keep their vision pure to see truth, and truth only. Priests and Priestess of Veilnieve can never take off their veils – in contrary with avarage citizens who must need to wear it only in religious gatherings –, except in the temple which also serves as their home from the moment they join the chruch. FAITH OF UD'RAQ — Supreme God of expression and speech. The one and only deity the draar worhip. The way they speak is the aspect which they value the most. The resonance, the tone, the rhythm of their words gives the true meaning of what they say. A change in resonance and the same sentence's meaning changing with it.

CHARACTERS

CRONYL ELDENWER — The exiled orphan boy, who grew up to be a secret rescuer of those in need. A somber young man with the determination of creating a place where the people can have freedom and control over their own lives without fearing attrocities and the royals. The only question is: can he achive this goal before his past and his thirst for revenge eats him up alive? pinterest | playlist AVELYN DIONE — The pristess apprentice, soon-to-be actual Pristess, who's curiosity and clumsiness leads her into a secret that can shake her entire culture and pherhaps the whole world even. pinterest | playlist SYONEHLIA DIONE — Avelyn's sister, the oldest of the Dione family, who's responsibility would be to make the family greater. However, she prefers freedom and the martial arts over the role of heiress, which heavily influences her choices and actions in the future. pinterest | playlist BRA'AKA — The draar prisoner of war, who's forced to fight in the colosseum of Evalon for entertainment. Missing his family and desiring to win back his honor, he does everything he can to break out and go home. pinterest | playlist DARMON STROTAGOR — The skilled mage on the dark, hidden side of Onidia. A man who lives by his ideals, so long as they’re right. But after a very long time, his ways to reach his goals are getting tested. pinterest | playlist IZOHR — The metalshaper, who’s sister’s sudden disappearance forces him to investigate after prophecies and vows long forgotten. pinterest | playlist

AUTHOR'S NOTE | TAGS

I need to organise my tags and everything, but it's finally done. I'll update and change some stuff in this post as I go since this story is still in the worldbuilding phase. This is also going to be a series, so the synopsis goes for the whole story. That’s why there's no character mentioned there. However, the other synopsis on my main intro post is the premise of the first book. I'm confusing, sorry lol! TAGS. snippets | worldbuilding | moodboards | character dynamics | magic systems | eye colours | technology | tunes | influence | Darnehlia ship | Cronlyn ship | picrews

Thank you so much for checking it out! ♡

TAG LIST: @bloodlessheirbyjacques, @jess-p-edits, @circa-specturgia, @blind-the-winds, @wildswrites, @dyrewrites

[tryingtimi]

Greetings! This is @measlywritingblog . Happy World Building Wednesday! I got a really weird worldbuilding question for you if you'll have me-

For any of your worlds that aren't set on modern-day earth: how does your world do safety standards? (Safety standards would be things like safe building codes, standards to protect workers, hazard labels, the likes).

Are universal safety standards non-existent? If so, are there particular individuals/institutions that have developed some?

If your world is an alternate version of our own, or if there is some sort of universal safety standards, how have they been affected by other things in your world's setting? Are palaces mandated to be designed to withstand dragon attacks? Has there been a special warning symbol developed to represent dangerous magic or technology?

(if this doesn't really apply to any of your worlds or stories, it's totally alright if you ignore this ask.)

Hi, @measlywritingblog! Thank you so much for this ancient ask, took me a while to get to it. And I really like it!

Though, I think the only safety standard in the Metalsea world would be mostly because of the gemrains. In Onidia (the world’s name) there are some occasions, when gemstones fall from the sky, much like than ice rains in realy life. There are professions for prediction what kind of a rain will reach the places, so based on that, they have developed some systems.

For example, if there will be a diamond rain — which is the most dangerous one — then they’ll use a specific melody for alarm that will be played out everywhere in the city/town. People ran to their houses then, and they can safely wait out the end of it, because houses built from stones that can endure the struggle.

I might develop this further, because it’s an interesting topic and could definitely be fun to explore. Especially with designs for safety labels and such.

[tryingtimi]

Happy Story-teller Saturday! (hah, got ya back and also your theme is incredible and I live on your page now) Metalsea is absurdly fascinating, and I am curious to know what your favorite part of creating it was. What parts of it did you enjoy putting together the most?

Hey, lovely! Thank you so much, please! I'm so happy you love my page and my baby, ah. I'm lurking through yours too whenever I get proper freetime, so it's a plus.

Now, about Metalsea my beloved passion project. Honestly, I have a blast worldbuilding it, because I'm a sucker for a fully packed fantasy world, lol. It's still under development in most of the parts, because even if I have my foundations for the world, religion and magic, I only notice what's missing during writing. It might work like that for others too, but yeah, hehe.

My favorite part is, though, is working on the religions and the magic system. Especially the colour-chaning eyes. That one was purely based on my visual-lover brain, and the fact that I love colourful eyes. Wanted them to have something relevance besides looking neat. I still need to establish how many colours do they have, and which is for which profession/skill, but it's fun to work on with my partner after work, since I develop my ideas, words, stories with his help.

I also can't leave out character dynamics, as it's something I'm the most focused on in my creations and in other's too, when I consume art. I'm obscenely interested in people, so the interactions are one of the most interesting things for me. And tumblr prompt games are a huge help in figuring out those too, so that is one more reason hehe. Plus, I think this is one of the things I can best explore the themes I'd like to show.

[tryingtimi]

All the links and details for my important worldbuilding and lore elements. More about the races and the uniquness of every nation will be in their individual posts. Constructing and extending this post as I go.

Onidia as a Whole

Nations

Illathia | Atarq | Laqounia | Heloris

General Worldbuilding

Project Page | Glossary

The Planet's Uniqueness

METALSEA. Onidia is the name of the world and planet where the Metalsea series takes place. It’s first and most important aspect of it is the Metalsea itself. In the ancient times, this planet got torn apart into two half and so the Metalsea is a phenomenon that is a golden-bronze machine which holds both part together. The name "Metalsea" comes from how the driadlin (the race of the people living mostly in Illathia) refer to this phenomenon in-world. It contains no screws, no fittings, nothing that of the kind of steampunk stuff. It's literally just a simple golden-bronze thing that despite its metal-like texture, still wobbles and waves like water. Some say it is sentient.

Detailed Metalsea Post

GEMRAINS AND METALCLOUDS. Onidia has usually liquid gems fall from the metallic clouds that gather around the sky. There are however, storms, where these gems solidify. They have various kinds, and most of them are not that harmful. But there are some that require the people to take shelter from; like the diamond storms for example. The nations deal differently with these rains.

Detailed Gemrain Post

STARLESS SKY. Onidia has no stars on the sky. The only light a nigh can offer is the one the moon possess. There are, however, some creatures that carry stars in their body, so the world is not entirely starless.

Nature and Magic

MAGICAL ENERGY. Magic in Onidia is something that roams everywhere basically. As time passes, this magical energy grows and gathers in some places, shaping everything further.

Magic System Post

ANIMALS AND MONSTERS. Considering how the magical energy is everywhere, it also shaped and still shapes the wild and plantlife further as well. In fact, sometimes it mixes the two, adding some mushrooms to the back of a tiger etc. However, when something absorbs considerably big amound of this energy, it ends up turning into more of a monster, than a very weird version of an animal.

Monster Manual | Bestiary

[tryingtimi]

What are some of your biggest world building influences? Got a favorite series of books that you try to emulate? Also, as you told me, feel free to ramble your little heart out about your WIP.

*tucks chin in palms and swings feet* *waits patiently*

I love love love influences questions <3 So thank you for this one!!

One of the biggest world-building influence for me is weird or fun real life experiences/things in general. Either mine or one of my relative's – usually my father's or grandma's because those people had a crazy life omg. The last thing I got an idea from was when I needed an MRI for example. That machine was wild, and it was an awful but interesting experience, so it kinda gave me an idea for the base of the magic system in Project Metalsea and some cultural stuff for the draar. But another example: a significant orphanage-like place where anyone's got a place no matters their origin or anything like that and is led by an old draar warrior woman was influenced by the whole attitude and life philoshopy of my grandma (and most of my family in general) and I just love this bit of my story so much. This was one of the first thing I figured out, because I knew I wanted to put her and her mindset into some of my work. This draar woman, who I'll call Zaherra, will be that cranky, yet very well respected character who adopts everyone into her home and becomes that one person for them who will teach them how to toughen up for the world. She's not gentle with words and doesn't sugarcoat anything, so teens often going as far as telling her they hate her, but they'll still go to her when they get beaten up or something, because they now, whatever they said to her or did to her, they'll get a bowl of soup with only one word of reprimand and then a comforting silence and caress on the head 'till they open up. The whole idea of the draar rebels comes from this and her too. Hehe I love to talk about her and this.

But I also use some of my vivid dreams that stuck with me after waking up or interesting stuff I read online posted by NASA, AskHistorians subreddit or these kind of stuff. I'm very into weird pieces of history too. And of course I'm influenced by other media content too! The idea of IQRUS came from playing with Doom Eternal and watching some deep water documentary after I read some Lovecraft novels too lmao. What a day that was.

So, honestly, I can be influenced by literally anything as long as it tickles my interest.

Also I'm impressed by the Stormlight Archive series, so I guess that could be the one I try to emulate, even tho I really try to differ from it too.

Omg I probably could write more, but it's getting very long already haha. Thank you so much for the ask @aschlindartroom! It was a blast to ramble about this! ❤️❤️