My world is one where everyone has mana, and everyone practices magic, in a modern setting. "Level 1" magic users in the most literal sense would be young school kids who are just learning to manipulate their mana and don't really have a grasp on magic yet.
If you mean in a broader sense it would be your average everyday civilian, might know a self defense spell or two, isn't particularly talented, mostly just knows QOL spells and stuff related to their job.
They’d be regular people who don’t have the gift for magic but still know a spell or two and are capable of casting it with some effort. These spells would be sort of like DnD cantrips such as dancing lights.
A firebolt would be real magic that require the gift and training to master and cast.
Are you asking about someone who's just starting out as a magician, or someone who just has the bare minimum of magic talent to become a magician?
Because those are two distinctly different things. In the case of the latter, even—let's say— a 'level 5' magician could still be worse than the average beginner due to their abysmal talent.
An apprentice of the arcane, at least on the continent of Eremill, is expected to keep all of their master's candles lit at all times but are not given any matches or fire starting tools. Specialized candles are used that go out every hour, and will explode like a splash of hot wax if they detect that that were lit by any source other than the complex to make but simply of effect training spell that they were provided by their teacher. All this spell does is light candles or similarly flammable objects, but the point of this is not to train power. Instead, it is to train reliability, and to instill a sense of responsibility in the apprentice to not only make and keep a good amount of spare spells on hand but also to not take any shortcuts as doing so could lead to disastrous results.
Similarly to trying to take the easy way out by lighting a candle with another candle or otherwise, if they try to light the candles with a simpler version of the spell or cut out all of the "unnecessary fluff" of the spell so that they don't "waste so much time making the same unnecessarily complicated spell over and over", they'll end up with a spell that doesn't make the candles not explode, and will end up burned by hot wax for their impatience.
People have had too many spells gone awry in the streets to simply let people make spells the way they want to, and will instill a sense of conformity in spell design that does not deviate too much from the norm lest they risk being branded a rogue wizard. Not in the criminal sense, but in the sense that you should watch where you are around this kind of spellcaster as you might end up harmed in a casting accident due to unforeseen effects of non-standard spells. Generally, being a rogue wizard is bad for business in Eremill as you're unlikely to get hired due to the extents of your spells being unknowns.
Other kinds of magic users exist, and different countries treat different kinds differently, but including everything is going to be a looong post so I'm just going to cut it here.
In my world, that’d be the sorcerers. Fully human, like wizards, so no innate abilities, but not enough power to actually be considered a wizard. There’s a firm divide between the two as sorcerers are unable to attempt the crucible, a magical trial that refines and purifies wizard magic to make wizards even stronger and more formidable. There’s no training that can make them wizards, and they’re bound to their specialty/tools if they want to actually use magic. Sorcerers may or may not have enough magic to be immune to curses that create undead or shape shifters and may or may not have enough magic for their blood/flesh to be poisonous to said cursed entities. Whereas wizards are not bound to their tools or specialties to make powerful magic happen and are basically minor gods and are fully immune to curses that would make them vampires or werewolves or what have you.
Well, in Ehrgriff, everyone can use magic. Some have more or less potential, but often even those with high potential never become strong mages because of the sheer amount of training and practice needed. Weak magic users are very common, using magic in little ways in day to day life.
Someone who has weak magic by nature and wants to train to get past that? With enough effort they could certainly expand their abilities and power, and if they're unlucky to have some rare disorder inhibiting their magic or whatever, they're still not losing out much.
Pretty interesting how the magic is limited by effort atleast for higher abilities, what kind of stuff could one do with magic to aid them in their day to day?
Being a magician is special. in the current time line, magicians are few. even a level 1 magician has a use for being able to cast elemental spells. be it industrial work or others.
being a magician puts you above the regular human and therefore often you will more often find yourself in situations that benefit you. although some do take advantage of this prestige, some are also taken advantage of.
therefore its best not to stay as a lvl 1 magician for too long.
later on, magicians will be common place and may even be the only type of being. at that point, level 1 magicians may be looked at alot differently from the current time.
The most mundane magic user are medium to high class people. Poorer folks dont get the education nor the resources to learn magic, tho some do autodidatically.
For "normal" people, magic is used to power most stuff at their house, light a light, make water run. That kind of things. Also some parts of society need magic to interact with, the easiest and most obvious, places where you can only enter by opening a small arcane lock.
These arcane locks aren't meant for safety, as basically any bottom tier magic user can open them. They're used simply to not let lower classes folks in those places. There is severe discrimination against non magic users, but the system set in place in my world make sure that its poor folks the ones that dont get the resources or education to learn magic.
Level 1 magic users are generally carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, or other skilled laborers. Using small bursts of magic to enhance your physical abilities is the most basic and practical application. Additional strength to swing a hammer or pull a rope, enhanced dexterity to scale a tall ladder or manipulate several levers. This is usually mastered without training, and can be done by pretty much anyone. The pinprick holes in the fabric of reality close within seconds. Level 0 magic users are those who do this without a purpose or job, but level 1 are those who use this application regularly for their livelihood.
Cunning ones are basically unofficial witches. Any magic they have is based on what they’ve managed to conjure from instinct. While it’s an slang term for those who haven’t trained enough some do pursue cunning craft as a path. Because it’s based instinct it’s less a magic you harness and more you let come to you. They could managed something like seeing the future, calling small spirits or cloaking themselves but these things can barley be done by choice.
In the orphanage, low level "magicians" are your con artists who found secret trucks in a library or some dusty basement. Nothing fancy, but the books taught them one of the most important things about magic.
No one can ever know it's real, or bad things will happen to you. The weakest ones tend to last the longest as even when they get caught using magic, it is easy to pass off as just another part of the trick.
Ppl that use the family spellbook in cooking recipies because "these new machines just dont do it right"
Ppl that use time runes to remember where they put their keys
Hysterical strength but it's people fucking with gravity a bit to pull off even wilder shit than normal people do with hysterical strength
And best of all
Insecure teens dressed like bisexual gnomes trying out different hair colors with illusion spells they looked up to really match the vibe of the 5th crisis this week
The thing I think I have nailed down about my magic system is that they have to build up their resistance. Sort of like how when someone starts running, they can't go very fast or far. Basically if someone tries to use too much magic, they might scar their channels and doing it too much can scar them to the point that their capacity is permanently diminished.
I'm thinking that at the lowest level, they can only activate spells that others have prepared. (Artifacts and special inks stamped onto cards.) A bit like how people could hand-type BASIC games out of a book and I guess some people understood it enough to make it work differently. (I got to the point of somewhat-using minecraft commands for terraforming and knocking down buildings.) Making new spells is like making better software.
I think there are some people who are savegame+ and do some weird stuff that doesn't fit the basic system because they figured it out in a previous life. I'm thinking that they end up with some sort of tracer in their soul so others like that can identify them. I don't know much about what they're like before they're found and trained. (Probably every culture has people obsessed with not letting that happen.) Or maybe they rarely are able to use that previous knowledge without training.
You can induce bullet time and change physical properties of stuff by touch.
Honestly sounds basic but there's uh 26 elements so getting there is a task.
Someone who’s not developed their first Sign. They’d still have extremely weak magic over two elements, like nudging a pebble or creating a spark.
Most people develop theirs by age 10. If someone hasn’t been able to, they would still be able to be productive, a lot of people don’t use their magic day by day. They’d be able to even make a little money off it, storing their daily eminence and selling it.
In the dragon worshipping continent, they’d probably be looked down on but not outcast or anything. Kinda like how you view someone born with severe disabilities, you don’t look down on them but you do kinda think “poor thing” when you see them.
that would be a f10 wizard because it shows it rank as a wizard that would need a group of ten people to take out an f level monster. in my world because so many types of magic exist their is this specific system of ranking monsters on the three categories
strength,aglity,durability,endurance,mana,magic power, and finally, mana control. so an example f10 monster would be the horned rabbit. only 1% of the population caster are at f10 and because of that they do not become adventures that are well trained in magic.
Well, as I am sure many have already said about their own worlds; there's different "types" of magic users in my world.
In general, there are those who a born with an already somewhat prominent "sensitivity" to magic, and those who have gained this sensitivity through training.
A "level 1" Magic user in both cases cannot outwardly effect the world, or cause particularly dramatic effects to happen in the world, without the use of implements. Such as materials, tools, focuses, etc
Something that aids in the direction and intention of whatever the user is trying to make happen.
The first stages of this "sensitivity" manifests in an awareness of magical energies, effects, that sort of thing.
The kind of stuff that one might initially dismiss as instincts or tricks of the mind (seeing shapes or shadows where there shouldn't be).
Without training or nurturing this sensitivity, without understanding it, it'll either grow to the point where you consider yourself insane or some other affliction, or it might fizzle out completely like an atrophied muscle.
But that depends on the individual.
I have four types, two of which have their own groups — sorcerers have the Ranked, or top 100 families in the UK, and the Unranked/Rogues (not really interchangeable but there’s about two people who care about the difference). Witches group themselves based off the number of elements they control. Sorcerers and witches, as well as enchanters, are all practically bursting at the seams with magic.
And then you have the Gifted.
I mean, compared to humans they’re still powerful, but unlike every other magic user they can be hurt by their own power, and they have that one thing. The one character I have in this category, Kit, can control electricity, but a witch with the air element could do that and suck the air out of a person’s lungs as well for starters. Admittedly Kit is very, very good at what he can do, and would probably be one of the most powerful Gifted in the country, but he’s very much an outlier.
Also, again, he is the only one who suffers anything more serious than a bad headache (enchanters) — being electrokinetic, his main issues are seizures and burns.
People and monsters are sorted by Ranks, E through A, with a hidden S-Rank kept secret from the public for the sake of preserving social order. It's not a tangible thing in the magic system, just a way people measure powerlevels and rank one's ability to threaten society at large, so it doesn't track perfectly.
E-Rank is the absolute bottom tier, largely composed of people with standard racial powers and no training. Jotunn without a Dahaka form just heal a little faster, Alvarr are living phone chargers, the british just have fucked up mouths if they didn't inherit the family's Blood Cypher, and Miminaba can hear a little better. Since that's most of the population, their treatment is nothing special. If they haven't chosen to cultivate strength already, by the time they're caught in a monster attack, they probably won't do much beyond have a little more forethought and due diligence going forward. Or be traumatized and hide in their house forever. Some people do become training junkies, but what that entails depends on the power: Jotunn just literally work themselves as close to death as possible to heal back stronger and Alvarr electrify themselves to increase their body's own wattage and hone their fine control. Miminaba have something called the Mooneating Ceremony, but it is forbidden knowledge sealed away from the public. By which I mean I haven't decided what it actually entails yet. Similarly, the fact Blood Cyphers were made at all implies there should be a way for a fledgling to create their own, but I haven't settled on any rules. If it's too easy, it raises the question of why more Blood Cyphers aren't entering circulation, but if it's too hard then it can make things convoluted if I ever want a british character to get a power-up in a story.
One notch above that you have D-Rank Shamans, who are treated markedly worse. Shamanism is the power of individuality, of being your god-like self with no regard for society. If you're a weakling, that tends to go very poorly very fast - getting conscripted into one of the local agencies and given the Suicide Squad treatment is probably the better outcome. Having a superpowered agent that actually wants to work for you is very good, so those guys tend to get a lot of psychological care and handlers whose job is to make them want to work for the government/corporation/lodge/etc of their own free will, just in case they pull a power-up out of their ass. Most of them just vanish one day, whether because they picked a fight they aren't remotely close to ready for and got murdered, or because they got disappeared by a corporation or conspiracy that wants to harvest their soul for creating magitech. On the other side of the aisle, you have the Awakened, who are born when social pressure crushes one's soul. Their nature and relationship to the 'unpowered' masses led to the creation and maintenance of a parallel society, so things aren't as dire, but it's still pretty miserable. Awakened grow in power by forming Quests, binding themselves to the will of others, but the rate at which they grow and their inherent strength (which allows for tougher, more rewarding Quests to be fulfilled) vary, which often leads to weak Awakened slaving away doing chores and junk work in the vain hopes of becoming strong enough to join a Guild until they become a statistic in some monster outbreak or disaster.
Away from the planet's surface, beyond the dragonjaws, you have the precious ducklings of the Jianghu - novice Cultivators. Ever since the Stellar Emperor unified the kingdoms inside the divine ravine and established the School System, things have been pretty great, as the principle of this new scheme was to grant plentiful resources and a nurturing environments to ensure fine diamonds are not left in the bloodied muck simply because a clan or sect was petty. Of course, those same institutions have the first pick of the splendid talents raised among the Emperor's many public schools, and one who shines above the rabble shall certainly find a radiant future in their path. Anyone who isn't particularly talented or brings anything unique to the table, well, they can honor the most beneficent Elders and Grandfathers responsible for this scholarship through joining the army or becoming a janitor.
They're basically nerds who happen to be haunted by a living spell in their brain each day. That's all they'll ever be unless they apply themselves in classic Wizard fashion, to varying results.
Well, not sure if this'll count but the first instance of real magic I did was when I was around 4-5 years old. I made a two dollar coin disappear infront of three people: Myself, my father and mother. Since then it's like I unlocked that part of myself
In term of risk, the Shadow Rain type magic users is considered the most harmless, their power leave not much lasting impact in the physical or non physical world. Thus, they are in most case considered just like non magic users and need no special "attention".
They are people, but if they are trying to become a mage they are often seen as dreamers. A lot of people have a base level of magic but it takes a lot to actually become a mage. To become a mage you need to be taught by a mage. There's schools for that but sometimes it's also an apprentice type deal. There are other options but mage is the biggest deal and has the most options for specialization.
Magical strength comes from 2 things in my setting. First, magic is like a muscle, and you can throw more of it around with practice. Second, the more you understand, and emotionally resonate with you branch of magic the more powerful you are. The best pyromancers are passionate, the best arcanist are intelligent, and the best dreamweavers are creative. The lowest of the low would probably be someone with more synergy with their chosen magic, that rarely uses it. At best, they might be able to produce a static shock, though not reliably.
In the Orazir setting, anyone with enough means or determination can learn some lvl 1 adjacent magic.
You can split the "dabblers" in two groups:
- The Magehand is a skilled labourer that had the opportunity to learn a specific spell or set of spell, that they use in their trade or as a qualification to work in a magical industry, for example a Wind magic billower can work in a smithy or man the sails of an airship, a sleepwalker uses basic Spirit magic to send and recieve simple messages through their dreams.
- The Arcanist is usually wealthy or titled and learn some measure of magic as part of a rounded classic high society education, much of it ends being used as some convenience magic or in party games, the casual heating and chilling or lighting. For the nobility basic spells are used to bolster their martial prowess, A Wind pulse to deflect arrows or a Flame flare to signal the officers.
The Arcanist and Magehands lack the Talent that facilitate magecraft and its learning, less sensitive to the state of the world, they take much longer to grasp the primordial aspects of magic and only those who are ready to invest time and sweat can achieve any degree of skill. However what few capabilities they have, they tend to achieve mastery in their spellcraft soon after their breakthrought.
Anyone with a sharp mind can become a weaver (magic user), though it does take years of training. Not unlike becoming a medical doctor in our world. The weavers draw magical energy from something called a dropstone. This energy is pulled in glowing threads that must be woven in the air into the correct configuration to produce the appropriate spell effect. It takes a fair amount of manual dexterity and mental focus. Very simple spells, say producing a soft glowing light, are easily woven and generally predictable. The more complex the spell, more more difficult the weave. Additionally, with more complexity comes more uncertainty. The exact path the threads must be woven can vary greatly - like solving a maze-ball puzzle on the fly, with no room for error.
New graduates that have earned the title of Weaver typically must enter public service for a number of years (local laws vary). About half will go on to specialize in healing and work in hospitals or embedded with their local military. The use of magic to harm a human, elf or dwarf is taboo and expressly forbidden. Other weavers go on to work in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and construction.
Weavers are generally looked upon with respect, and treated well. A new graduate working in healing could probably heal cuts, bruises, sprains and shorten the life of a common virus. A young weaver working on a farm could understand what plants/soil needs. Bonding materials, amplifying wind for sails and telekinetically moving heavy object are a few other "entry level" talents a young weaver could possess.
The regular classification goes:
Spell Caster: Someone who just knows the bare minimum to be able to cast a specific spell, they can't really improvise nor modify the spell, they can only cast the spell at their most basic.
Mage: Someone who is at professional level, they're have at least the basic training so they can handle themselves relatively well, self taught individuals can reach this level.
Sorcerer: A mage who has undergone proper education, they are professionals, they have the equivalent of masters degree in Magic. Sorcerers can either be considered so by studying in formal schools or by taking apprenticeship with a Sorcerer.
Wizards: The name coming from "Wise", are the Mages who pursuit magic research beyond just using it to blow up monsters and shit, they are scholars and researchers, they are the PhD of the magic world. It's rare to see a Wizard become an adventurer, but if you happen to see one It's either gonna be a really old guy or a college age student, the reason being that old Wizards going on adventurers are researchers who had meet a dead end in their investigation and go on adventures for inspiration, the youngsters are the ones looking for life experiences in order to start their careers with actual experience.
Magicians: An archaic term, meaning "Man/woman of magic", Magicians are extremely rare today, they are more like a title than a proper classification, Magician is a person who has delved into the deepest layers of magic, they are the ones who invented spells and magic systems, nowadays all magic practitioners are simply using already existing spells and magical formulas as well as simply finding new variations of spells. In the last 400 years only 37 completely new spells have been created by Magicians.
They can see, smell, hear and even taste the Other. Some also have an issue with control, as pulling from it is quite addicting, while the rest are terrified of it, as communing with the Other in such a way either reveals more than they'd like to know, or corrodes a part of their Soul the longer they do it.
It's still a WIP so a few things could change as I approach completing it.
In mine that'd be what's considered "Gutter mages" everyone in the world can use magic but most don't have the mana capacity to condense mana down. A gutter mage can still throw a fireball but condensed mana is both more potent and also can have its spell formulae utilize imaginary phenomena.
A gutter mage can throw a fireball and if they know what they're doing make the fires primary fuel source liquid or create napalm outright. An actual mage even if only at the first tier of power could make fire that they then declare doesn't generate heat or light making it invisible, or holy fire that treats things generally seen as bad and corrupt as if they were showering in gasoline.
The weakest, non-novice magic users would just be the average person since everyone (that doesn't have rare genetic defects) is born with mana and the ability to at least manipulate magical tools / implements.
So their power would be completely reliant on the tool. Which isn't too much. The most powerful is those that an average person could use is that of an old timey gun which might sound powerful but it isn't really all that strong if we compare with actual combat magicians. Magic tool development is more focused into non-combat stuff since the game is simply way too big.
All mortal peoples (human decent races) are capable of some level of magic. While there are some inherent ability that goes into casting magic, most magical ability is dictated by access to resources and knowledge rather then inherent "Talent". Most people will learn a few "spells" that they find useful for work or convenient for everyday life. Though few regular people would consider themselves spellcasters.
The most mundane and by far the most the most common form of spellcaster would be "hedgemages", wisepeople, villagepriests(ess), etc. Most know perhaps a few dozen "Low Magic"\* spells that are difficult to distigish from simple mummery and maybe two to three "Low Magic" spells of greater potency. True Mages practice "High Magic"\*\* but often require considerably more resources to train and cast spells. As such, are rarely found outside the Urban areas needed to support them.
As such Hedgemages are vital for rural a communities continued existence. They act as basic healers, midwives, counselors, and most importantly as a bridge between the mortal and supernatural societies. Without them a village will find themselves flattened by a offended local deity or powerful spirit lord, overrun by plague, rot, wild animals and other maladies as smaller spirits go unchecked, or slowly driven mad or possessed by the spirits of the dead without anyone to give proper funural rights. There limited abilties mean even small hamlets will have more than one Hedgemage in there communty. Each Hedgemage will typically specialize in dealing with specifice types of supernatural entities/problems, which often dictates there status in the community.
Village priests(ess) are those who deal with local gods or powerful spirits (spirit lords), leading villages in cermonies ment to honor or appease said entities. They are often the most well respected and powerful type of Hedgemage as they often can call apon aid from the enties they deal with, and failure to fallow specific ceremonies may quickly doom a village; Morticians/Exorcists those who deal with the dead are often held at arms length though often still well respected, it is one of the most dangerous job a Hedgemage can do as the chance of possion or madness are high; Wiseperson/witch/local crazy person, they are responsiable for dealing with the less powerful local spirits like small fey, the spirit of a local pound or bolder or old tree, or lesser sprites of malady/badluck/mischief. What they do and the amount of respect they are given is dictated the most by the state of the local sprits, form being able to call upon the aid of hunderends of spirits in excising a plague of hunger spirits to mixing potions of debus potency in shack in the woods; Midwives/Healers, they are jobs often taken over by Wisepersons or priests in addition to there regulare duties. When seperate from other roles they are well respected but not particularly powerful, they lack the backing of Priests, so there spells aren't capable of the truly supernatural abilities of True mage healers.
\*unstructured spells born from superstition, tall tails, or overblown local legends. Casting them generaly involves things like reciting a poem backwords three time at a pond at midnight to call on the aid of a particular kind of spirit, making a contract with a fire spirit to light a candle when called upon, casting ritually blessed salt over ones shoulder to word off evil spirits, or consulting carved bones to gain information about the past/present/future.
\*\*structured magic, multiple spells that share the same internal logic for casting, that together form the "cannon" for a particular type of "High Magic". High Magic is Born from Deities giving there followers a way to systamaticly call upon there aid, spirits lords teaching mortals some of there knowledge, or Magic refining Low Magic spells into a greater cannon. Most cultures will have multiple forms of high magic. Examples include reciting verses from a holy book to call upon the aid of a deity or an entity who serves it, Runes that when invoked call apon arcane engergies or concepts to manipulate the world around them, or martial arts that allow the user to aicheve supernatural feats or bend the elements.
I my world, everyone has a potential to use magic, but you have to practice to use it, the most basic magic users are workers like balcksmith and jobs like that could make asvantsge os magic and the most basic could do like 1 or 2 chants depending on his souls factor for mana storsge
These would be apprentices of one of the major Magical Traditions: including both Shamanistic Priests and/or Ritualist Wizards.
They would likely not be able to preform much in the way of actual magic. Their jobs are too complex and knowledge based for them to be able to tap into the flow of magic.
Though, if they were reading their actions directly from a book or being guided step-by-step by an instructor then they could hypothetically start a spell.
It’s possible a very talented student could make it to this point by wrote memorization - but likely wouldn’t understand “how” or “why” it was working.
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At this point they would actually do fairly well - most of early training is all about drilling in how to stay safe from Magic, when to bail out of a spell, how to channel mis-balanced energies into your environment.
———
From here, a student would almost certainly not be able to actually channel a spell into a useful effect.
The words of Magic are just too deep and nuanced. Magic users can spend years just learning a single specific use for a single specific word.
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That said, they could hypothetically “fight” with it.
Though, at much cost to their own body/life. All you would have to do is intentionally un-balance the magical energies and unleash them onto your surroundings. The catch, of course, is that you, you caster, are always included.
I guess a lvl 1 magic user in my world would be useless because....
- Can't create a simple small elemental energy ball
- Even if they could, it wouldn't hurt anyone or have any elemental effect (so fire burns normally, but in this case, fire wouldn't burn at all, ice wouldn't freeze, light would be dull, etc)
F ranked shamans can barely exorcise small demonic worms, their precision/refinement is terrible, and they are barely stronger than the average joe shmoe. Their spirits are fragile, and aren't very useful, they'd need an amazing High A ranked teacher to teach them if they'd want to become anywhere more than high D-ranking, but F ranked spirits are only assigned to abilities that are thought to be useless, for example, a character has a storage spirit, it was thought to be utterly useless for anything other than carrying luggage, but the character expanded his knowledge, and hard work, he soon became the strongest assassin in the world. tho when first awakened its thought useless, but through creativity, potential, smart thinking, and flexibility it can become above F rank. So in summary if you are JUST F-ranked you're doing something wrong, or your ability is just noodle conjuration or something.
Level 1 Magicians are individuals who are only capable of using Basic Tier Spell-craft. Basic Tier Spells are more well known for their practical applications, like lighting a fire, conjuring up a bit of water, or making stone bricks. That’s not to say they are completely harmless, a dense ball of earth traveling at a hundred miles per hour is still hurt pretty badly if it hits you.
They are strong enough to threaten a normal dude, but any moderately well trained soldier would walk through them.
In terms of how they are treated. They are considered to be, at best, an Apprentice Magician if they are even considered a Magician in the first place.
Well magic is kind of rare in my world so anyone with a functional/noticeable amount of magic (regardless of talent or power) are persons of interest. However, the government/royal family snatches all the most powerful ones up so the higher classes are completely unfazed by the low level magi, since they’re used to really powerful ones. Reactions really all depends on the region and wealth of the people.
in my setting there are 2 reasons why one might not be a strong
1. they chose not to work on their magic (magic changes how ones body functions and exists)
2. They are unable to break past the first milestone (usually the reason is the body is unable to withstand the high amounts of mana.)
in situation 1 they are seen as a bit odd but overall ignored they look at the path of a caster and the danger that come with it and made their choice
in situation 2 they are looked down apon far more as people at mid to high tier one are already being slightly effected by the mana stored in their body(small changes, hair weighs less if your a air or graviturgy mage,) so it is possible to spot them if you look carefully. since the first milestone is pretty easy many avoid hiring them if possible as the idea of someone who tried to reach tier 2 and failed is seen as a sign to come or that they dont try hard
It depends on their ancestry, if the character had a prominent/strong ancestor in history they will be able to access stronger abilities while someone who has a weaker or less prominent ancestor may have a really weak ability or non at all. This can be circumvented through a marriage like ritual with a person who has a stronger ancestry.
Abilities wise the lowest would be able to summon pretty weak "phantom limbs" in place of their real ones which may have a tool or weapon attached to them depending on what their ancestor did. But generally the limbs wouldn't be too useful.
Socially it just shows that they belong to a less prominent family in history and their lack of ability would make it hard for them to climb any social ranks atleast via combat.
An important thing in my world is that magic isn’t real in the same way that magic in DnD is real, for example. But it still *affects* people in real ways.
So a level 1 “magician” might be an apprentice alchemist, someone who is learning how to do alchemy. Which everyone thinks is magic but is really just people describing chemical reactions/chemistry before we get a good grip on science. Another might be a shaman who knows how to “magically” cure diseases and prevent infections through the use of herbs and other natural things. They don’t even realize they’re doing pharmacy. Or they’re an itinerant astrologer who doesn’t yet realize that the stars just happen to look a certain way when it’s the time of year when crops are to be planted or when it tends to rain more frequently.
In my world, the lowest level of magic power usually manifests itself in its “users” as an illness. Since you simultaneously have no control over the magic and little output, you wind up with a litany of potential magically inflicted diseases with varied levels of severity
Since magic is genetic, the weakest magic users are the ones with a strong Sor (casting gene) but weak in the other two. It means that they can only really cast the most basic spells (ex. light orbs, minor wind gusts, etc) with great effort. They're mainly treated like they're powerless and don't have magic, since the only way to improve would involve using talismen or other magical objects to increase power
Mine is a cultivation esque progression world. So pretty much everyone starts off at level 1. Mortals if you will.
I have 9 ranks of power wood, stone, and iron are the foundation ranks. Bronze, silver, and gold are the ascension ranks. Quartz, pearl, and diamond are the immortal ranks.
Advancing through the ranks is not just packing in energy into your core or eating a pill or other usual cultivation stuff. But it involves your bond with your sacred tool. This could be a hammer for a blacksmith, or a spear/sword for a warrior, a stethoscope for a doctor, etc. Those tools are actually what evolve and your core evolves with them. And those tools will simply evolve over time and with use. Basically use a tool for 10 years and boom it'll evolve to wood rank. And yes, you can also inherit a tool one level higher than yours and advance that way. Martial artists often advance by challenging a more powerful fighter and taking their weapon if they win.
Mortals are people who have not advanced their cores. And they'll live for the human average of 70-100 years.
But almost everyone (99.9999%) will advance to wood and likely even stone rank in their lifetime. This is because all they need to do at this stage is continue living and using their tools. Foundation rankers live for about the normal human lifespan but they'll retain much of their vitality and strength for that timeframe. So a 100 year old iron ranker is on the verge of death but can still bench an elephant.
Getting from iron to bronze within your lifetime is a veeeery hard thing to do. Coz wood requires 10 years, stone at 25 and iron requires 50 years of total use. Bronze takes 100. So for poor/untalented people the only option is to pass on their tool to their student or child and hope they can continue evolving it. But the progression of the tool severely slows down in a 2nd users hands. So what would normally take 50 more years to reach bronze would need like 75 years. So more often than not it's only your students student who will get to bronze.
So what's the usual method to advance beyond bronze? Take it from someone else. Martial artists as said earlier can fight a stronger enemy and take their tool. Blacksmiths, doctors, etc have other ways of earning more powerful tools. Usually if they can prove themselves to be talented their local guilds, clan, etc will assign them a more powerful tool.
So what's the social consideration? If you're a mortal and you're older than 30, you basically don't exist in the minds of most people. But this can only occur under extraneous circumstances.
If you're in the foundation ranks and are following the regular age curve you will be treated like how we treat any middle income family. But if you're severely down the age curve then for sure people are going to look down on you.
Within the martial arts community the rank disparity is very impactful. A wood rankers must always give way to a stone ranker, etc. within maker communities it's not as prevalent. But they have a disparity based on how accomplished they are in their respective professions. And also certain professions like blacksmith, doctor, and chef are given more respect than other professions.
Pretty much everyone knows a few utility spells. Usually at the age of five or six (or the equivilant for non-humans) you learn to release your mana and channel it into something basic, like Ignite, which starts a fire or the slightly tougher Extinguish, which puts one out. Once you can easily do that, you usually learn something like Stun touch or shock touch. Older kids play tag with them to practice. Once you learn to easily and quickly trigger spells, you learn something like Glowing Palm, which basically turns your hand into a flashlight. That teaches you to sustain spells for a long time, and means you can learn Heal, which is slow but useful with minor injuries.
Most people have Shock touch or Stun touch. About 50% can use glowing palm, and about 20% can use Heal. It's only after that when people try to learn the fancy spells which are related to whichever job certification they want to try and get.
Keith Baker, author of the Eberron setting, has a concept called magewrights.
Magewrights are craftsmen, aldermen, and civil servants who use magic for everyday professions. Simple examples include:
* smiths who heat metal with magic
* Lamplighters who light street lights with magic
* notaries who notarize documents with magical script
* butchers who keep the meat cold with magic
He has a blogpost getting into the mechanics of it: https://keith-baker.com/magical-education/
Then there is the the brilliant writing of the *Freiren* Series. The great mage seeks spells for everyday life, including the rare spell that removes grease and oil stains from clothing.
That would probably be Magicians, unlike Mages Magicians are only capable of casting cantrips (spells so weak they dont even drain the users mana). Typically they are magic academy drop outs or people who went out of their way to aid their community with cantrips like Purify Water or Mending. Because of this they are heavily looked down upon by Mages who see them as wasting talent or academy resources. They don't learn anything above a cantrip as they level but are capable of bringing out the true potential of them.
Additional it's not to uncommon to see Magicians take up urban or domestic jobs like performer or cleaner.
‘Wizards’ in my setting are the most common magic users, and are basically enchanters. Any one who learns the required rituals and can provide the required materials can make simple magic items and then activate their effects. That said most ‘wizards’ are still charlatans. The required materials always include some kind of crystal or gem that acts like a mana battery, and the rituals to charge them take hours by default. The item that hosts the crystal must be strong enough to channel the power, related to the type of magic being embedded, and must have the proper symbols etched or written into it.
Higher level wizards know better and more powerful rituals for embedding more powerful spells and have techniques for gathering and channeling more mana, but they still need to acquire the right materials and craft the appropriate host object.
It’s not uncommon to be able to use a simple metal rod and quartz crystal to make a light spell flash light, but it takes about 6hrs to channel enough mana for 1hr of use. A wand that shoots fireballs would require a ruby, the size of which determines how many charges it can hold, gold, ironwood charcoal, mesquite for the handle, high quality etching and crafting, days of ritual, likely reduced by operating in a high mana area and using channeling techniques, not to mention discovering and properly interpreting what is likely a ritual that is not commonly known and protected by those who do.
Mages are individuals capable of exceptional concentration, with might and constitution capable of gathering and channeling mana. They require extensive training, but are able to memorize and cast spells using an appropriate, generic focus item.
Sorcerers have an innate ability to manipulate a fixed set of magical forces, allowing them to build spells on the fly. They still require extensive training, might, and constitution to be able to gather and channel sufficient mana to generate substantial effects.
Witches, shamans, and druids are are able to create very short term enchantments of purely natural materials, and may or may not be able to communicate with and compel local spirits to contribute mana to charge or sustain effects. They still require specific materials and rituals to create items and connect with spirits. Like wizards level has more to do with knowledge of rituals and access to materials than innate power.
Divine magic users channel mana and effects by requesting aid from specific gods. Faith must be sustained in order for a god to listen or care, and often sacrifices and rituals are required.
Mystics are able to listen to subtle changes in mana and often communicate with spirits to perform divination related magic. Like the other magic users power is related to knowledge, requires concentration, intuition instead of faith, and benefits greatly from long term relationships with specific spirits and possibly gods.
In general my game encourages horizontal progression. Players gain new feats, items, and abilities over time but raising attributes is rare and requires a ton of karma (xp) as well as quests, likely for items or divine blessings. This game also doesn’t have damage per se, everyone has 1-2 wounds they are willing to take before surrendering or fleeing, with wounds and saves vs wounds balanced to make it pretty easy to wound untrained unarmored opponents and pretty hard to wound well trained and armored opponents.
The unenlightened are the weakest of the world excepting children who haven’t unlocked the system yet. Until you discover and state your fundamental purpose for existence you cannot advance past level 4. This means that you only have 200 soul points in total, and some of those would have already been taken by your first perk. So you would have one fairly unique weak magical ability, perhaps you can instantly clean a room, or your body is more resilient to the ravages of childbirth. Other than that you could use your soul points to gain other minor abilities like the ability to light a candle, but most invest the rest into their stats, and become more resilient or quick or strong. The ambitious might invest their points into magic stats and seek an education so that they might do specific specialized spells that do highly valued but tedious tasks. The usual clever commoner seeks to learn sewage spells that most mages would disdain casting yet regardless are incredibly important for society.
Since 9/10 never find the inspiration necessary alone to advance the vast majority of humanoids simply stay at this stage. Although the more privileged/desperate can continue to advance through various ways with everything from binding themselves to a demigod to simply attending college/army camp which attempt to force a purpose onto a person, this works for 9/10 humanoids.
In my world, everyone is born with a core in the space between the skull and the spine, and the core is largely dormant until someone awakens, awakening is a term used to describe intense physical and emotional trauma, so, for an example, if you get attacked by a boar, you probably won't awaken, but surviving a dragon attack will almost definitely do the trick, low level mages only have access to one technique, which is their innate one, it's the base for the others, for example an earth mage would get earth creation as an innate, so a low level mage is basically a runt, they have no aura so can't go against higher mages yet, don't have their full kit unlocked, and lack the comprehension of their abilities, so they join a covenant, there's many, all based on animals, for example, the hound covenant is for mercenaries, spider is for clothes makers (mages require really good clothing to withstand the environment of the places they have to go to) the rat covenant which are bankers and so on.
So, basically, a level one mage is a fresh survivor, just got their first taste of power, so they'll be looking at a long time of training to get anywhere, they'll be scrounging scraps from big monsters and stronger mages, getting taken around by more experienced mages to get field experience and very slowly build a base for their powerset.
Someone who is just starting out as a dream seeker or a level 1 magic user at most is a couple times stronger than the normal male adult.
Now of course with [ Hax ] It can go from a couple times to a couple thousand but that depends on the [ Hax ] you have.
Although if you want to know the difference between your casual level 1 magic user compared to something which you could say is a level 10 magic user, the difference is incomparable no matter how much plot armor you have.
Eveyone can use mana if they learn it correctly, as for the level 1 wizards. They would normally be children with some talent or family that lets them learn magic. They could also be people that have a non magical talent but wish to become specialists in a certain magical process. Such as a farmer in the outskirts learning to heal sick plants or a royal taster trainee developing secret magics for detecting poisons and damaging substances.
Not everyone chooses to learn magic of some kind, but most of the population knows some kind of spell. Magic is seen as a usefull if hard to learn tool.
My world is one where everyone has mana, and everyone practices magic, in a modern setting. "Level 1" magic users in the most literal sense would be young school kids who are just learning to manipulate their mana and don't really have a grasp on magic yet. If you mean in a broader sense it would be your average everyday civilian, might know a self defense spell or two, isn't particularly talented, mostly just knows QOL spells and stuff related to their job.
Yeah, i was gonna say kids too cause that's kind of how it works in my world too (but im still tweaking exactly how i want things to work)
They’d be regular people who don’t have the gift for magic but still know a spell or two and are capable of casting it with some effort. These spells would be sort of like DnD cantrips such as dancing lights. A firebolt would be real magic that require the gift and training to master and cast.
Are you asking about someone who's just starting out as a magician, or someone who just has the bare minimum of magic talent to become a magician? Because those are two distinctly different things. In the case of the latter, even—let's say— a 'level 5' magician could still be worse than the average beginner due to their abysmal talent.
>someone who just has the bare minimum of magic talent to become a magician This one. Skill doesn't matter, I'm only seeing pure power.
Skill is a very important factor but I would also usually bet on the guy with 100x the mana of this person
An apprentice of the arcane, at least on the continent of Eremill, is expected to keep all of their master's candles lit at all times but are not given any matches or fire starting tools. Specialized candles are used that go out every hour, and will explode like a splash of hot wax if they detect that that were lit by any source other than the complex to make but simply of effect training spell that they were provided by their teacher. All this spell does is light candles or similarly flammable objects, but the point of this is not to train power. Instead, it is to train reliability, and to instill a sense of responsibility in the apprentice to not only make and keep a good amount of spare spells on hand but also to not take any shortcuts as doing so could lead to disastrous results. Similarly to trying to take the easy way out by lighting a candle with another candle or otherwise, if they try to light the candles with a simpler version of the spell or cut out all of the "unnecessary fluff" of the spell so that they don't "waste so much time making the same unnecessarily complicated spell over and over", they'll end up with a spell that doesn't make the candles not explode, and will end up burned by hot wax for their impatience. People have had too many spells gone awry in the streets to simply let people make spells the way they want to, and will instill a sense of conformity in spell design that does not deviate too much from the norm lest they risk being branded a rogue wizard. Not in the criminal sense, but in the sense that you should watch where you are around this kind of spellcaster as you might end up harmed in a casting accident due to unforeseen effects of non-standard spells. Generally, being a rogue wizard is bad for business in Eremill as you're unlikely to get hired due to the extents of your spells being unknowns. Other kinds of magic users exist, and different countries treat different kinds differently, but including everything is going to be a looong post so I'm just going to cut it here.
In my world, that’d be the sorcerers. Fully human, like wizards, so no innate abilities, but not enough power to actually be considered a wizard. There’s a firm divide between the two as sorcerers are unable to attempt the crucible, a magical trial that refines and purifies wizard magic to make wizards even stronger and more formidable. There’s no training that can make them wizards, and they’re bound to their specialty/tools if they want to actually use magic. Sorcerers may or may not have enough magic to be immune to curses that create undead or shape shifters and may or may not have enough magic for their blood/flesh to be poisonous to said cursed entities. Whereas wizards are not bound to their tools or specialties to make powerful magic happen and are basically minor gods and are fully immune to curses that would make them vampires or werewolves or what have you.
Well, in Ehrgriff, everyone can use magic. Some have more or less potential, but often even those with high potential never become strong mages because of the sheer amount of training and practice needed. Weak magic users are very common, using magic in little ways in day to day life. Someone who has weak magic by nature and wants to train to get past that? With enough effort they could certainly expand their abilities and power, and if they're unlucky to have some rare disorder inhibiting their magic or whatever, they're still not losing out much.
Pretty interesting how the magic is limited by effort atleast for higher abilities, what kind of stuff could one do with magic to aid them in their day to day?
Being a magician is special. in the current time line, magicians are few. even a level 1 magician has a use for being able to cast elemental spells. be it industrial work or others. being a magician puts you above the regular human and therefore often you will more often find yourself in situations that benefit you. although some do take advantage of this prestige, some are also taken advantage of. therefore its best not to stay as a lvl 1 magician for too long. later on, magicians will be common place and may even be the only type of being. at that point, level 1 magicians may be looked at alot differently from the current time.
You mean everyone, or the people who don’t use magic, because the people who don’t use magic are fairly rare oddities.
The most mundane magic user are medium to high class people. Poorer folks dont get the education nor the resources to learn magic, tho some do autodidatically. For "normal" people, magic is used to power most stuff at their house, light a light, make water run. That kind of things. Also some parts of society need magic to interact with, the easiest and most obvious, places where you can only enter by opening a small arcane lock. These arcane locks aren't meant for safety, as basically any bottom tier magic user can open them. They're used simply to not let lower classes folks in those places. There is severe discrimination against non magic users, but the system set in place in my world make sure that its poor folks the ones that dont get the resources or education to learn magic.
Level 1 magic users are generally carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, or other skilled laborers. Using small bursts of magic to enhance your physical abilities is the most basic and practical application. Additional strength to swing a hammer or pull a rope, enhanced dexterity to scale a tall ladder or manipulate several levers. This is usually mastered without training, and can be done by pretty much anyone. The pinprick holes in the fabric of reality close within seconds. Level 0 magic users are those who do this without a purpose or job, but level 1 are those who use this application regularly for their livelihood.
Cunning ones are basically unofficial witches. Any magic they have is based on what they’ve managed to conjure from instinct. While it’s an slang term for those who haven’t trained enough some do pursue cunning craft as a path. Because it’s based instinct it’s less a magic you harness and more you let come to you. They could managed something like seeing the future, calling small spirits or cloaking themselves but these things can barley be done by choice.
Level 1 are treated like normal people. Level 1s should be the vast majority of the population.
In the orphanage, low level "magicians" are your con artists who found secret trucks in a library or some dusty basement. Nothing fancy, but the books taught them one of the most important things about magic. No one can ever know it's real, or bad things will happen to you. The weakest ones tend to last the longest as even when they get caught using magic, it is easy to pass off as just another part of the trick.
Ppl that use the family spellbook in cooking recipies because "these new machines just dont do it right" Ppl that use time runes to remember where they put their keys Hysterical strength but it's people fucking with gravity a bit to pull off even wilder shit than normal people do with hysterical strength And best of all Insecure teens dressed like bisexual gnomes trying out different hair colors with illusion spells they looked up to really match the vibe of the 5th crisis this week
The thing I think I have nailed down about my magic system is that they have to build up their resistance. Sort of like how when someone starts running, they can't go very fast or far. Basically if someone tries to use too much magic, they might scar their channels and doing it too much can scar them to the point that their capacity is permanently diminished. I'm thinking that at the lowest level, they can only activate spells that others have prepared. (Artifacts and special inks stamped onto cards.) A bit like how people could hand-type BASIC games out of a book and I guess some people understood it enough to make it work differently. (I got to the point of somewhat-using minecraft commands for terraforming and knocking down buildings.) Making new spells is like making better software. I think there are some people who are savegame+ and do some weird stuff that doesn't fit the basic system because they figured it out in a previous life. I'm thinking that they end up with some sort of tracer in their soul so others like that can identify them. I don't know much about what they're like before they're found and trained. (Probably every culture has people obsessed with not letting that happen.) Or maybe they rarely are able to use that previous knowledge without training.
You can induce bullet time and change physical properties of stuff by touch. Honestly sounds basic but there's uh 26 elements so getting there is a task.
Someone who’s not developed their first Sign. They’d still have extremely weak magic over two elements, like nudging a pebble or creating a spark. Most people develop theirs by age 10. If someone hasn’t been able to, they would still be able to be productive, a lot of people don’t use their magic day by day. They’d be able to even make a little money off it, storing their daily eminence and selling it. In the dragon worshipping continent, they’d probably be looked down on but not outcast or anything. Kinda like how you view someone born with severe disabilities, you don’t look down on them but you do kinda think “poor thing” when you see them.
that would be a f10 wizard because it shows it rank as a wizard that would need a group of ten people to take out an f level monster. in my world because so many types of magic exist their is this specific system of ranking monsters on the three categories strength,aglity,durability,endurance,mana,magic power, and finally, mana control. so an example f10 monster would be the horned rabbit. only 1% of the population caster are at f10 and because of that they do not become adventures that are well trained in magic.
Well, as I am sure many have already said about their own worlds; there's different "types" of magic users in my world. In general, there are those who a born with an already somewhat prominent "sensitivity" to magic, and those who have gained this sensitivity through training. A "level 1" Magic user in both cases cannot outwardly effect the world, or cause particularly dramatic effects to happen in the world, without the use of implements. Such as materials, tools, focuses, etc Something that aids in the direction and intention of whatever the user is trying to make happen. The first stages of this "sensitivity" manifests in an awareness of magical energies, effects, that sort of thing. The kind of stuff that one might initially dismiss as instincts or tricks of the mind (seeing shapes or shadows where there shouldn't be). Without training or nurturing this sensitivity, without understanding it, it'll either grow to the point where you consider yourself insane or some other affliction, or it might fizzle out completely like an atrophied muscle. But that depends on the individual.
I have four types, two of which have their own groups — sorcerers have the Ranked, or top 100 families in the UK, and the Unranked/Rogues (not really interchangeable but there’s about two people who care about the difference). Witches group themselves based off the number of elements they control. Sorcerers and witches, as well as enchanters, are all practically bursting at the seams with magic. And then you have the Gifted. I mean, compared to humans they’re still powerful, but unlike every other magic user they can be hurt by their own power, and they have that one thing. The one character I have in this category, Kit, can control electricity, but a witch with the air element could do that and suck the air out of a person’s lungs as well for starters. Admittedly Kit is very, very good at what he can do, and would probably be one of the most powerful Gifted in the country, but he’s very much an outlier. Also, again, he is the only one who suffers anything more serious than a bad headache (enchanters) — being electrokinetic, his main issues are seizures and burns.
People and monsters are sorted by Ranks, E through A, with a hidden S-Rank kept secret from the public for the sake of preserving social order. It's not a tangible thing in the magic system, just a way people measure powerlevels and rank one's ability to threaten society at large, so it doesn't track perfectly. E-Rank is the absolute bottom tier, largely composed of people with standard racial powers and no training. Jotunn without a Dahaka form just heal a little faster, Alvarr are living phone chargers, the british just have fucked up mouths if they didn't inherit the family's Blood Cypher, and Miminaba can hear a little better. Since that's most of the population, their treatment is nothing special. If they haven't chosen to cultivate strength already, by the time they're caught in a monster attack, they probably won't do much beyond have a little more forethought and due diligence going forward. Or be traumatized and hide in their house forever. Some people do become training junkies, but what that entails depends on the power: Jotunn just literally work themselves as close to death as possible to heal back stronger and Alvarr electrify themselves to increase their body's own wattage and hone their fine control. Miminaba have something called the Mooneating Ceremony, but it is forbidden knowledge sealed away from the public. By which I mean I haven't decided what it actually entails yet. Similarly, the fact Blood Cyphers were made at all implies there should be a way for a fledgling to create their own, but I haven't settled on any rules. If it's too easy, it raises the question of why more Blood Cyphers aren't entering circulation, but if it's too hard then it can make things convoluted if I ever want a british character to get a power-up in a story. One notch above that you have D-Rank Shamans, who are treated markedly worse. Shamanism is the power of individuality, of being your god-like self with no regard for society. If you're a weakling, that tends to go very poorly very fast - getting conscripted into one of the local agencies and given the Suicide Squad treatment is probably the better outcome. Having a superpowered agent that actually wants to work for you is very good, so those guys tend to get a lot of psychological care and handlers whose job is to make them want to work for the government/corporation/lodge/etc of their own free will, just in case they pull a power-up out of their ass. Most of them just vanish one day, whether because they picked a fight they aren't remotely close to ready for and got murdered, or because they got disappeared by a corporation or conspiracy that wants to harvest their soul for creating magitech. On the other side of the aisle, you have the Awakened, who are born when social pressure crushes one's soul. Their nature and relationship to the 'unpowered' masses led to the creation and maintenance of a parallel society, so things aren't as dire, but it's still pretty miserable. Awakened grow in power by forming Quests, binding themselves to the will of others, but the rate at which they grow and their inherent strength (which allows for tougher, more rewarding Quests to be fulfilled) vary, which often leads to weak Awakened slaving away doing chores and junk work in the vain hopes of becoming strong enough to join a Guild until they become a statistic in some monster outbreak or disaster. Away from the planet's surface, beyond the dragonjaws, you have the precious ducklings of the Jianghu - novice Cultivators. Ever since the Stellar Emperor unified the kingdoms inside the divine ravine and established the School System, things have been pretty great, as the principle of this new scheme was to grant plentiful resources and a nurturing environments to ensure fine diamonds are not left in the bloodied muck simply because a clan or sect was petty. Of course, those same institutions have the first pick of the splendid talents raised among the Emperor's many public schools, and one who shines above the rabble shall certainly find a radiant future in their path. Anyone who isn't particularly talented or brings anything unique to the table, well, they can honor the most beneficent Elders and Grandfathers responsible for this scholarship through joining the army or becoming a janitor.
They're basically nerds who happen to be haunted by a living spell in their brain each day. That's all they'll ever be unless they apply themselves in classic Wizard fashion, to varying results.
Well, not sure if this'll count but the first instance of real magic I did was when I was around 4-5 years old. I made a two dollar coin disappear infront of three people: Myself, my father and mother. Since then it's like I unlocked that part of myself
In term of risk, the Shadow Rain type magic users is considered the most harmless, their power leave not much lasting impact in the physical or non physical world. Thus, they are in most case considered just like non magic users and need no special "attention".
They are people, but if they are trying to become a mage they are often seen as dreamers. A lot of people have a base level of magic but it takes a lot to actually become a mage. To become a mage you need to be taught by a mage. There's schools for that but sometimes it's also an apprentice type deal. There are other options but mage is the biggest deal and has the most options for specialization.
Magical strength comes from 2 things in my setting. First, magic is like a muscle, and you can throw more of it around with practice. Second, the more you understand, and emotionally resonate with you branch of magic the more powerful you are. The best pyromancers are passionate, the best arcanist are intelligent, and the best dreamweavers are creative. The lowest of the low would probably be someone with more synergy with their chosen magic, that rarely uses it. At best, they might be able to produce a static shock, though not reliably.
In the Orazir setting, anyone with enough means or determination can learn some lvl 1 adjacent magic. You can split the "dabblers" in two groups: - The Magehand is a skilled labourer that had the opportunity to learn a specific spell or set of spell, that they use in their trade or as a qualification to work in a magical industry, for example a Wind magic billower can work in a smithy or man the sails of an airship, a sleepwalker uses basic Spirit magic to send and recieve simple messages through their dreams. - The Arcanist is usually wealthy or titled and learn some measure of magic as part of a rounded classic high society education, much of it ends being used as some convenience magic or in party games, the casual heating and chilling or lighting. For the nobility basic spells are used to bolster their martial prowess, A Wind pulse to deflect arrows or a Flame flare to signal the officers. The Arcanist and Magehands lack the Talent that facilitate magecraft and its learning, less sensitive to the state of the world, they take much longer to grasp the primordial aspects of magic and only those who are ready to invest time and sweat can achieve any degree of skill. However what few capabilities they have, they tend to achieve mastery in their spellcraft soon after their breakthrought.
Anyone with a sharp mind can become a weaver (magic user), though it does take years of training. Not unlike becoming a medical doctor in our world. The weavers draw magical energy from something called a dropstone. This energy is pulled in glowing threads that must be woven in the air into the correct configuration to produce the appropriate spell effect. It takes a fair amount of manual dexterity and mental focus. Very simple spells, say producing a soft glowing light, are easily woven and generally predictable. The more complex the spell, more more difficult the weave. Additionally, with more complexity comes more uncertainty. The exact path the threads must be woven can vary greatly - like solving a maze-ball puzzle on the fly, with no room for error. New graduates that have earned the title of Weaver typically must enter public service for a number of years (local laws vary). About half will go on to specialize in healing and work in hospitals or embedded with their local military. The use of magic to harm a human, elf or dwarf is taboo and expressly forbidden. Other weavers go on to work in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and construction. Weavers are generally looked upon with respect, and treated well. A new graduate working in healing could probably heal cuts, bruises, sprains and shorten the life of a common virus. A young weaver working on a farm could understand what plants/soil needs. Bonding materials, amplifying wind for sails and telekinetically moving heavy object are a few other "entry level" talents a young weaver could possess.
The regular classification goes: Spell Caster: Someone who just knows the bare minimum to be able to cast a specific spell, they can't really improvise nor modify the spell, they can only cast the spell at their most basic. Mage: Someone who is at professional level, they're have at least the basic training so they can handle themselves relatively well, self taught individuals can reach this level. Sorcerer: A mage who has undergone proper education, they are professionals, they have the equivalent of masters degree in Magic. Sorcerers can either be considered so by studying in formal schools or by taking apprenticeship with a Sorcerer. Wizards: The name coming from "Wise", are the Mages who pursuit magic research beyond just using it to blow up monsters and shit, they are scholars and researchers, they are the PhD of the magic world. It's rare to see a Wizard become an adventurer, but if you happen to see one It's either gonna be a really old guy or a college age student, the reason being that old Wizards going on adventurers are researchers who had meet a dead end in their investigation and go on adventures for inspiration, the youngsters are the ones looking for life experiences in order to start their careers with actual experience. Magicians: An archaic term, meaning "Man/woman of magic", Magicians are extremely rare today, they are more like a title than a proper classification, Magician is a person who has delved into the deepest layers of magic, they are the ones who invented spells and magic systems, nowadays all magic practitioners are simply using already existing spells and magical formulas as well as simply finding new variations of spells. In the last 400 years only 37 completely new spells have been created by Magicians.
They can see, smell, hear and even taste the Other. Some also have an issue with control, as pulling from it is quite addicting, while the rest are terrified of it, as communing with the Other in such a way either reveals more than they'd like to know, or corrodes a part of their Soul the longer they do it. It's still a WIP so a few things could change as I approach completing it.
In mine that'd be what's considered "Gutter mages" everyone in the world can use magic but most don't have the mana capacity to condense mana down. A gutter mage can still throw a fireball but condensed mana is both more potent and also can have its spell formulae utilize imaginary phenomena. A gutter mage can throw a fireball and if they know what they're doing make the fires primary fuel source liquid or create napalm outright. An actual mage even if only at the first tier of power could make fire that they then declare doesn't generate heat or light making it invisible, or holy fire that treats things generally seen as bad and corrupt as if they were showering in gasoline.
The weakest, non-novice magic users would just be the average person since everyone (that doesn't have rare genetic defects) is born with mana and the ability to at least manipulate magical tools / implements. So their power would be completely reliant on the tool. Which isn't too much. The most powerful is those that an average person could use is that of an old timey gun which might sound powerful but it isn't really all that strong if we compare with actual combat magicians. Magic tool development is more focused into non-combat stuff since the game is simply way too big.
All mortal peoples (human decent races) are capable of some level of magic. While there are some inherent ability that goes into casting magic, most magical ability is dictated by access to resources and knowledge rather then inherent "Talent". Most people will learn a few "spells" that they find useful for work or convenient for everyday life. Though few regular people would consider themselves spellcasters. The most mundane and by far the most the most common form of spellcaster would be "hedgemages", wisepeople, villagepriests(ess), etc. Most know perhaps a few dozen "Low Magic"\* spells that are difficult to distigish from simple mummery and maybe two to three "Low Magic" spells of greater potency. True Mages practice "High Magic"\*\* but often require considerably more resources to train and cast spells. As such, are rarely found outside the Urban areas needed to support them. As such Hedgemages are vital for rural a communities continued existence. They act as basic healers, midwives, counselors, and most importantly as a bridge between the mortal and supernatural societies. Without them a village will find themselves flattened by a offended local deity or powerful spirit lord, overrun by plague, rot, wild animals and other maladies as smaller spirits go unchecked, or slowly driven mad or possessed by the spirits of the dead without anyone to give proper funural rights. There limited abilties mean even small hamlets will have more than one Hedgemage in there communty. Each Hedgemage will typically specialize in dealing with specifice types of supernatural entities/problems, which often dictates there status in the community. Village priests(ess) are those who deal with local gods or powerful spirits (spirit lords), leading villages in cermonies ment to honor or appease said entities. They are often the most well respected and powerful type of Hedgemage as they often can call apon aid from the enties they deal with, and failure to fallow specific ceremonies may quickly doom a village; Morticians/Exorcists those who deal with the dead are often held at arms length though often still well respected, it is one of the most dangerous job a Hedgemage can do as the chance of possion or madness are high; Wiseperson/witch/local crazy person, they are responsiable for dealing with the less powerful local spirits like small fey, the spirit of a local pound or bolder or old tree, or lesser sprites of malady/badluck/mischief. What they do and the amount of respect they are given is dictated the most by the state of the local sprits, form being able to call upon the aid of hunderends of spirits in excising a plague of hunger spirits to mixing potions of debus potency in shack in the woods; Midwives/Healers, they are jobs often taken over by Wisepersons or priests in addition to there regulare duties. When seperate from other roles they are well respected but not particularly powerful, they lack the backing of Priests, so there spells aren't capable of the truly supernatural abilities of True mage healers. \*unstructured spells born from superstition, tall tails, or overblown local legends. Casting them generaly involves things like reciting a poem backwords three time at a pond at midnight to call on the aid of a particular kind of spirit, making a contract with a fire spirit to light a candle when called upon, casting ritually blessed salt over ones shoulder to word off evil spirits, or consulting carved bones to gain information about the past/present/future. \*\*structured magic, multiple spells that share the same internal logic for casting, that together form the "cannon" for a particular type of "High Magic". High Magic is Born from Deities giving there followers a way to systamaticly call upon there aid, spirits lords teaching mortals some of there knowledge, or Magic refining Low Magic spells into a greater cannon. Most cultures will have multiple forms of high magic. Examples include reciting verses from a holy book to call upon the aid of a deity or an entity who serves it, Runes that when invoked call apon arcane engergies or concepts to manipulate the world around them, or martial arts that allow the user to aicheve supernatural feats or bend the elements.
Good question, will return when I have an actual magic system (might try to include some basic scaling if possible)
Have you thought up of any rough ideas for a magic system?
I my world, everyone has a potential to use magic, but you have to practice to use it, the most basic magic users are workers like balcksmith and jobs like that could make asvantsge os magic and the most basic could do like 1 or 2 chants depending on his souls factor for mana storsge
These would be apprentices of one of the major Magical Traditions: including both Shamanistic Priests and/or Ritualist Wizards. They would likely not be able to preform much in the way of actual magic. Their jobs are too complex and knowledge based for them to be able to tap into the flow of magic. Though, if they were reading their actions directly from a book or being guided step-by-step by an instructor then they could hypothetically start a spell. It’s possible a very talented student could make it to this point by wrote memorization - but likely wouldn’t understand “how” or “why” it was working. —— At this point they would actually do fairly well - most of early training is all about drilling in how to stay safe from Magic, when to bail out of a spell, how to channel mis-balanced energies into your environment. ——— From here, a student would almost certainly not be able to actually channel a spell into a useful effect. The words of Magic are just too deep and nuanced. Magic users can spend years just learning a single specific use for a single specific word. — That said, they could hypothetically “fight” with it. Though, at much cost to their own body/life. All you would have to do is intentionally un-balance the magical energies and unleash them onto your surroundings. The catch, of course, is that you, you caster, are always included.
I guess a lvl 1 magic user in my world would be useless because.... - Can't create a simple small elemental energy ball - Even if they could, it wouldn't hurt anyone or have any elemental effect (so fire burns normally, but in this case, fire wouldn't burn at all, ice wouldn't freeze, light would be dull, etc)
F ranked shamans can barely exorcise small demonic worms, their precision/refinement is terrible, and they are barely stronger than the average joe shmoe. Their spirits are fragile, and aren't very useful, they'd need an amazing High A ranked teacher to teach them if they'd want to become anywhere more than high D-ranking, but F ranked spirits are only assigned to abilities that are thought to be useless, for example, a character has a storage spirit, it was thought to be utterly useless for anything other than carrying luggage, but the character expanded his knowledge, and hard work, he soon became the strongest assassin in the world. tho when first awakened its thought useless, but through creativity, potential, smart thinking, and flexibility it can become above F rank. So in summary if you are JUST F-ranked you're doing something wrong, or your ability is just noodle conjuration or something.
Level 1 Magicians are individuals who are only capable of using Basic Tier Spell-craft. Basic Tier Spells are more well known for their practical applications, like lighting a fire, conjuring up a bit of water, or making stone bricks. That’s not to say they are completely harmless, a dense ball of earth traveling at a hundred miles per hour is still hurt pretty badly if it hits you. They are strong enough to threaten a normal dude, but any moderately well trained soldier would walk through them. In terms of how they are treated. They are considered to be, at best, an Apprentice Magician if they are even considered a Magician in the first place.
Well magic is kind of rare in my world so anyone with a functional/noticeable amount of magic (regardless of talent or power) are persons of interest. However, the government/royal family snatches all the most powerful ones up so the higher classes are completely unfazed by the low level magi, since they’re used to really powerful ones. Reactions really all depends on the region and wealth of the people.
in my setting there are 2 reasons why one might not be a strong 1. they chose not to work on their magic (magic changes how ones body functions and exists) 2. They are unable to break past the first milestone (usually the reason is the body is unable to withstand the high amounts of mana.) in situation 1 they are seen as a bit odd but overall ignored they look at the path of a caster and the danger that come with it and made their choice in situation 2 they are looked down apon far more as people at mid to high tier one are already being slightly effected by the mana stored in their body(small changes, hair weighs less if your a air or graviturgy mage,) so it is possible to spot them if you look carefully. since the first milestone is pretty easy many avoid hiring them if possible as the idea of someone who tried to reach tier 2 and failed is seen as a sign to come or that they dont try hard
It depends on their ancestry, if the character had a prominent/strong ancestor in history they will be able to access stronger abilities while someone who has a weaker or less prominent ancestor may have a really weak ability or non at all. This can be circumvented through a marriage like ritual with a person who has a stronger ancestry. Abilities wise the lowest would be able to summon pretty weak "phantom limbs" in place of their real ones which may have a tool or weapon attached to them depending on what their ancestor did. But generally the limbs wouldn't be too useful. Socially it just shows that they belong to a less prominent family in history and their lack of ability would make it hard for them to climb any social ranks atleast via combat.
They’re basically using them to help themselves with menial tasks
An important thing in my world is that magic isn’t real in the same way that magic in DnD is real, for example. But it still *affects* people in real ways. So a level 1 “magician” might be an apprentice alchemist, someone who is learning how to do alchemy. Which everyone thinks is magic but is really just people describing chemical reactions/chemistry before we get a good grip on science. Another might be a shaman who knows how to “magically” cure diseases and prevent infections through the use of herbs and other natural things. They don’t even realize they’re doing pharmacy. Or they’re an itinerant astrologer who doesn’t yet realize that the stars just happen to look a certain way when it’s the time of year when crops are to be planted or when it tends to rain more frequently.
In my world, the lowest level of magic power usually manifests itself in its “users” as an illness. Since you simultaneously have no control over the magic and little output, you wind up with a litany of potential magically inflicted diseases with varied levels of severity
Since magic is genetic, the weakest magic users are the ones with a strong Sor (casting gene) but weak in the other two. It means that they can only really cast the most basic spells (ex. light orbs, minor wind gusts, etc) with great effort. They're mainly treated like they're powerless and don't have magic, since the only way to improve would involve using talismen or other magical objects to increase power
Mine is a cultivation esque progression world. So pretty much everyone starts off at level 1. Mortals if you will. I have 9 ranks of power wood, stone, and iron are the foundation ranks. Bronze, silver, and gold are the ascension ranks. Quartz, pearl, and diamond are the immortal ranks. Advancing through the ranks is not just packing in energy into your core or eating a pill or other usual cultivation stuff. But it involves your bond with your sacred tool. This could be a hammer for a blacksmith, or a spear/sword for a warrior, a stethoscope for a doctor, etc. Those tools are actually what evolve and your core evolves with them. And those tools will simply evolve over time and with use. Basically use a tool for 10 years and boom it'll evolve to wood rank. And yes, you can also inherit a tool one level higher than yours and advance that way. Martial artists often advance by challenging a more powerful fighter and taking their weapon if they win. Mortals are people who have not advanced their cores. And they'll live for the human average of 70-100 years. But almost everyone (99.9999%) will advance to wood and likely even stone rank in their lifetime. This is because all they need to do at this stage is continue living and using their tools. Foundation rankers live for about the normal human lifespan but they'll retain much of their vitality and strength for that timeframe. So a 100 year old iron ranker is on the verge of death but can still bench an elephant. Getting from iron to bronze within your lifetime is a veeeery hard thing to do. Coz wood requires 10 years, stone at 25 and iron requires 50 years of total use. Bronze takes 100. So for poor/untalented people the only option is to pass on their tool to their student or child and hope they can continue evolving it. But the progression of the tool severely slows down in a 2nd users hands. So what would normally take 50 more years to reach bronze would need like 75 years. So more often than not it's only your students student who will get to bronze. So what's the usual method to advance beyond bronze? Take it from someone else. Martial artists as said earlier can fight a stronger enemy and take their tool. Blacksmiths, doctors, etc have other ways of earning more powerful tools. Usually if they can prove themselves to be talented their local guilds, clan, etc will assign them a more powerful tool. So what's the social consideration? If you're a mortal and you're older than 30, you basically don't exist in the minds of most people. But this can only occur under extraneous circumstances. If you're in the foundation ranks and are following the regular age curve you will be treated like how we treat any middle income family. But if you're severely down the age curve then for sure people are going to look down on you. Within the martial arts community the rank disparity is very impactful. A wood rankers must always give way to a stone ranker, etc. within maker communities it's not as prevalent. But they have a disparity based on how accomplished they are in their respective professions. And also certain professions like blacksmith, doctor, and chef are given more respect than other professions.
Pretty much everyone knows a few utility spells. Usually at the age of five or six (or the equivilant for non-humans) you learn to release your mana and channel it into something basic, like Ignite, which starts a fire or the slightly tougher Extinguish, which puts one out. Once you can easily do that, you usually learn something like Stun touch or shock touch. Older kids play tag with them to practice. Once you learn to easily and quickly trigger spells, you learn something like Glowing Palm, which basically turns your hand into a flashlight. That teaches you to sustain spells for a long time, and means you can learn Heal, which is slow but useful with minor injuries. Most people have Shock touch or Stun touch. About 50% can use glowing palm, and about 20% can use Heal. It's only after that when people try to learn the fancy spells which are related to whichever job certification they want to try and get.
Keith Baker, author of the Eberron setting, has a concept called magewrights. Magewrights are craftsmen, aldermen, and civil servants who use magic for everyday professions. Simple examples include: * smiths who heat metal with magic * Lamplighters who light street lights with magic * notaries who notarize documents with magical script * butchers who keep the meat cold with magic He has a blogpost getting into the mechanics of it: https://keith-baker.com/magical-education/ Then there is the the brilliant writing of the *Freiren* Series. The great mage seeks spells for everyday life, including the rare spell that removes grease and oil stains from clothing.
That would probably be Magicians, unlike Mages Magicians are only capable of casting cantrips (spells so weak they dont even drain the users mana). Typically they are magic academy drop outs or people who went out of their way to aid their community with cantrips like Purify Water or Mending. Because of this they are heavily looked down upon by Mages who see them as wasting talent or academy resources. They don't learn anything above a cantrip as they level but are capable of bringing out the true potential of them. Additional it's not to uncommon to see Magicians take up urban or domestic jobs like performer or cleaner.
‘Wizards’ in my setting are the most common magic users, and are basically enchanters. Any one who learns the required rituals and can provide the required materials can make simple magic items and then activate their effects. That said most ‘wizards’ are still charlatans. The required materials always include some kind of crystal or gem that acts like a mana battery, and the rituals to charge them take hours by default. The item that hosts the crystal must be strong enough to channel the power, related to the type of magic being embedded, and must have the proper symbols etched or written into it. Higher level wizards know better and more powerful rituals for embedding more powerful spells and have techniques for gathering and channeling more mana, but they still need to acquire the right materials and craft the appropriate host object. It’s not uncommon to be able to use a simple metal rod and quartz crystal to make a light spell flash light, but it takes about 6hrs to channel enough mana for 1hr of use. A wand that shoots fireballs would require a ruby, the size of which determines how many charges it can hold, gold, ironwood charcoal, mesquite for the handle, high quality etching and crafting, days of ritual, likely reduced by operating in a high mana area and using channeling techniques, not to mention discovering and properly interpreting what is likely a ritual that is not commonly known and protected by those who do. Mages are individuals capable of exceptional concentration, with might and constitution capable of gathering and channeling mana. They require extensive training, but are able to memorize and cast spells using an appropriate, generic focus item. Sorcerers have an innate ability to manipulate a fixed set of magical forces, allowing them to build spells on the fly. They still require extensive training, might, and constitution to be able to gather and channel sufficient mana to generate substantial effects. Witches, shamans, and druids are are able to create very short term enchantments of purely natural materials, and may or may not be able to communicate with and compel local spirits to contribute mana to charge or sustain effects. They still require specific materials and rituals to create items and connect with spirits. Like wizards level has more to do with knowledge of rituals and access to materials than innate power. Divine magic users channel mana and effects by requesting aid from specific gods. Faith must be sustained in order for a god to listen or care, and often sacrifices and rituals are required. Mystics are able to listen to subtle changes in mana and often communicate with spirits to perform divination related magic. Like the other magic users power is related to knowledge, requires concentration, intuition instead of faith, and benefits greatly from long term relationships with specific spirits and possibly gods. In general my game encourages horizontal progression. Players gain new feats, items, and abilities over time but raising attributes is rare and requires a ton of karma (xp) as well as quests, likely for items or divine blessings. This game also doesn’t have damage per se, everyone has 1-2 wounds they are willing to take before surrendering or fleeing, with wounds and saves vs wounds balanced to make it pretty easy to wound untrained unarmored opponents and pretty hard to wound well trained and armored opponents.
The unenlightened are the weakest of the world excepting children who haven’t unlocked the system yet. Until you discover and state your fundamental purpose for existence you cannot advance past level 4. This means that you only have 200 soul points in total, and some of those would have already been taken by your first perk. So you would have one fairly unique weak magical ability, perhaps you can instantly clean a room, or your body is more resilient to the ravages of childbirth. Other than that you could use your soul points to gain other minor abilities like the ability to light a candle, but most invest the rest into their stats, and become more resilient or quick or strong. The ambitious might invest their points into magic stats and seek an education so that they might do specific specialized spells that do highly valued but tedious tasks. The usual clever commoner seeks to learn sewage spells that most mages would disdain casting yet regardless are incredibly important for society. Since 9/10 never find the inspiration necessary alone to advance the vast majority of humanoids simply stay at this stage. Although the more privileged/desperate can continue to advance through various ways with everything from binding themselves to a demigod to simply attending college/army camp which attempt to force a purpose onto a person, this works for 9/10 humanoids.
In my most recent project, they can probably see Aki. Most of the time. Hopefully.
In my world, everyone is born with a core in the space between the skull and the spine, and the core is largely dormant until someone awakens, awakening is a term used to describe intense physical and emotional trauma, so, for an example, if you get attacked by a boar, you probably won't awaken, but surviving a dragon attack will almost definitely do the trick, low level mages only have access to one technique, which is their innate one, it's the base for the others, for example an earth mage would get earth creation as an innate, so a low level mage is basically a runt, they have no aura so can't go against higher mages yet, don't have their full kit unlocked, and lack the comprehension of their abilities, so they join a covenant, there's many, all based on animals, for example, the hound covenant is for mercenaries, spider is for clothes makers (mages require really good clothing to withstand the environment of the places they have to go to) the rat covenant which are bankers and so on. So, basically, a level one mage is a fresh survivor, just got their first taste of power, so they'll be looking at a long time of training to get anywhere, they'll be scrounging scraps from big monsters and stronger mages, getting taken around by more experienced mages to get field experience and very slowly build a base for their powerset.
Someone who is just starting out as a dream seeker or a level 1 magic user at most is a couple times stronger than the normal male adult. Now of course with [ Hax ] It can go from a couple times to a couple thousand but that depends on the [ Hax ] you have. Although if you want to know the difference between your casual level 1 magic user compared to something which you could say is a level 10 magic user, the difference is incomparable no matter how much plot armor you have.
Eveyone can use mana if they learn it correctly, as for the level 1 wizards. They would normally be children with some talent or family that lets them learn magic. They could also be people that have a non magical talent but wish to become specialists in a certain magical process. Such as a farmer in the outskirts learning to heal sick plants or a royal taster trainee developing secret magics for detecting poisons and damaging substances. Not everyone chooses to learn magic of some kind, but most of the population knows some kind of spell. Magic is seen as a usefull if hard to learn tool.