Worldbuilding Entry 2: the Magic of Species (Hounds)

So I made a little head way with some ideas I had for magic used by the canide species that populate the setting I am trying to make. Here it is;

The potential magic of the Hound Species

Currently I am cultivating ideas on an instinctual magic available to the Hound races (Read this for a mythology Origin , Read this for a breif idea of the Species ), such as collectively known Rune Magic based around a magic language or ‘words of power’ motif. As far as I interpret the term ‘Magical Language’ it’s a form of communicating with reality itself and thus effecting change in said reality. The way I see it is the idea of language has three aspects, the words that are verbally spoken, the words that are physically written and the words that are abstractly linked with a mental concept. All linked together, via various rules of grammar, punctuation, linguistics etc. they form this ‘Runic’ language that can thus communicate distinct ideas and abstract concepts between users. The users being the Rune speaker and the encompassing reality. Basically its hacking reality by knowing its source code and changing it accordingly. Now the way this breaks down for the Hound Races is that each of the three distinct species is latently talented in a single aspect of this Runic language. Dogs are adept at writing out the words of Runes, Foxes can master the speaking of the words of Runes and Wolves are able to comprehend the ideas that the Runes themselves represent. But really these are just aspects of the Rune, they are a fraction of the power the Rune represent when used in perfect unity. But the use of true Runes is the province of the Hound Gods. So with time, Three distinct schools of magic formed around what aspects of the Rune the hound race concerned themselves with, and also a controversial forth school that sought the reunion of the three aspects.

So what would I call the respective magic that Diamond Dogs, Winter Wolves and Flare Foxes use? Well I wanted a thematic naming scheme that made the link between the aspects obvious, but it’s terribly Gimmicky. Basically: Dogs use the Myrk, Wolves use the Wyll and Foxes use the Hywl.

I am debating whether the collective apects should simply use Runes or even Rynes or use a new thing entirely, like ‘The Wyrd’ as its group name. I like the last option best, but I am convinced I have seen this word used in another story, somewhere, but I can’t recall where for the life of me. If someone knows please tell me!

But in any case I think a magic system that bases itself on language, is an idea that I might run with. I know its been done before, but I do like some clichés. And I really like the idea that acoustics in Fox spoken magic can have a drastic impact on a sounded spells effect or duration, like an echo chamber could act as amplifier to a fox’s spell work, or wolf wizards practicing a subtle quiet magic were they try to infect groups of people with a memetic idea that has a desired effect on that group, or Dog scholars and artisans that can write on a surface and cause it to rise or fall or any number of things and make increasingly complex spell effects by basically writing out what they want to happen. In short I think this area is ripe for exploring and I think its worthy of sharing. It’s too good an idea to keep to myself.

As an aside I also think this idea of a magical language is flexible enough that it can be a distinct species wide magic, but have very different cultural expressions, just like real world languages do. They can operate very differently, practicing different visualisation, conceptualisation and verbalisation from one another but they fundamentally fulfil the same goal; communication. For the examples I used above I am mostly speaking about a Norse themed civilisation, thus the use of the word Rune in the Nordic sense.