Fanon input for Glim · 8:16am Sep 24th, 2012
Oh hey dere, ho dere,
I have two quick questions for you for the upcoming chapters of Glim that I'd love some feedback on!
1. How do spells work?
My headfanon tells me that they're shape-based (I mention this in Chapter 13 of Glim) - in other words, a spell consists of one or more geometric shapes that a unicorn has to trace precisely with their mind's eye, their magical sight. Once traced, said unicorn can then cast that shape into a spell.
Some spells are very easy - let's use levitation as an example. Only a simple equilateral triangle at the correct size and angle (pointing straight up in this case - traced from 12 o'clock to 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock and back up to 12 to finish) lets the unicorn in question then cast that shape as a spell on a physical object's aura and thence move it. (Wow. I used 'thence.' So wrong, so wrong...)
To levitate many objects at once, many equilateral triangles with the precisely-correct shape and orientation need to be mentally 'drawn' and then each spell cast on an individual object. To move very massive objects, a greater amount of individual magical power is required.
Let's take a spell at the far end of the range - the ability to affect your appearance. The spell in question might involve a geometrically-precise mental tracing of the precise 'shape' the unicorn wishes to assume, followed by the magical interpretation of changes in hue and mass, which may be thirty-pointed figures of differing size and shape, plus the metamorphosis spell itself, which may be a ninety-three-pointed star contained inside a precision Lissajous curve drawn at exactly the right angle and scale.
And finally, let's take a spell that doesn't fit into either 'easy' or 'hard' based solely on the complexity of its spell geometry. Maybe what I like to call 'translocation,' Twilight's rare ability to teleport. I imagine this spell as both very easy, and very hard. Very easy, because the shape required may be something as simple as a plain circle drawn clockwise from 12 o'clock. And very hard, because the spell itself requires massive magical power and force-of-will behind it to ensure the unicorn in question appears in the right place. These are the kinds of spells that Twilight excels in - spells that require both precise study, and the belief, for want of a better term, that they'll actually work correctly.
I hope that made some sort of sense. So yeah, that's my headfanon. What's yours?
And now, the really sticky one:
2. Who did Fluttershy marry and have three pretty little foals with?
Popular fan opinion is Mac. Your thoughts?
Your feedback is massively appreciated on these sticking points. Cheers as always!
-Ayden
1: I always thought of it like an energy that unicorns are able to twist and form, kind of like mixing different colors of paint to make a desired color.
2: A Royal Guard she met at Shining Armor's wedding. Mac is a bit played out to me.
3. This story kicks ass.
1. So far magic is a energy (mana) in a pony, that unicorns can tap in to on command.
2. Mac is the most used choice, a Royal Gard that quit his job and came to live in Ponyville, or a OC can work well.
In my headspace magic works through manipulating an etheric field. Everything has a "shape" and "frequency" associated with it, and this can be manipulated using a unicorns horn similar to a radio.
Similar to your thoughts on shapes, but at he same time simpler and more complex. For example, a simple levatition spell would be accomplished by applying power to a single point matching the object's frequency. (This frequency would be apparent to the unicorn directly, similarly to recognizing color for a human). Multiple levatitions would require multiple distinct frequencies being held in the unicorns horn at the same time, and complex spells would require geometric (or organic as required by the spell) patterns. For procedural spells the patterns would need to be changed over the casting of the spell.
And for question #2, why not mix things up and make the father Fancy Pants?
i've seen mathmatical formulea used to depict how magic works.
then there is my personal favorite. The Will and the Word. ones will is shaped by a single word and intent.
as for who fluttershy settled down with to make a family with. an Ex-Royal guard sounds good to me. Big Mac is just so played out it's best not to go there.
My idea for magic is a synthesis of two stories magic systems.
The caster must be able to completely understand the part of the universe they wish to do (why they can only do magic based in their cutey mark and levitation(gravity is relativity simple)). This is the reason that Twi is not often seen studying magic (Boast Busters was ONE time) but studying other things like science. The spells that she makes on the fly like the shield bubble thing and the laser beam gating gun are way better than any spell she learns. The caster must also be able to hold in their head a completely different set of physical laws for the object that they want to effect (Einstein would have been a spectacular wizard). As for where the magic comes from I'll go with your description of ambient magic blanketing the planet that is tapped for use, only Twilight can tap ALL of the world's magic at once.
I've always been a fan of currents and theoretical mechanics myself. Imagine you're shown a picture of a pile of gears, or a rube goldberg machine. Mentally, most people can animate these, they can see how turning one gear would interact with the others, how tweaking one component would cause everything else to fall into predictable motion. Take this and apply it to an something akin to currents or leylines, something invisible but concrete. Think, airflow or water currents, on a metaphysical level. I imagine spells to be a study of how to use your own current to set these others into motion, to fabricate force, gears and linkages to allow everything to work in concert to an end goal. The ability to fully understand the machinery of the spell is the key to fully realizing its potential.
I'd imagine levitation to be something as simple as constructing a makeshift pulley or lever with your currents. Something like a glamour would require substantially more finesse though. Say, to hide a ponies wings, you would have to first use your own current to isolate the parts of the ponies current that affect light refraction, and then nudge them with your currents like clay until they appear like a bare side. You would then have to use still more power to bind these currents in place so the spell would hold. It would require far more finesse and knowledge of how to affect only parts of the ponies overall aura instead of just blindly shoving at the whole thing. I'm giving everything a magical genome if you will, and saying you have to be pretty advanced in order to get down to affecting exactly the base pairs you want.
As far as Fluttershy's mate goes, I'm a Fluttermac fan. I've also seen some interesting stuff with Soarin, but I say swing for real orginality. Go with Blues. I've never seen it done, but I can see Fluttershy meeting up with him after some point of supreme unluckiness befalls him.
1:
Shapes work pretty well, but for complex things like teleport spells, add in a third dimension to the glyph. A perfect circle, and a couple curves that extend out and would only touch at the correct destination. Line of sight isn't that hard, since the glyph can be drawn touching right away. Further teleports require understanding space well enough to get it just right.
2:
I only care about Princess Twilight, so I don't really care too much Fluttershy had fun with.
My favourite version of magic/wizardry would be the one portrayed in Diane Duane's Young Wizards and Feline Wizards books... I'm not sure how well MLP magic and YW/FW wizardry can fit together, however.
The "wizardry" described in Diane Duane's books is, more than anything else, the art of convincing the Universe to do what you want it to. "The Great Speech" (a.k.a. "Hauhai") is a LanguageOfTruth which everything (from electrons to molecules, from ants to aliens, from stars to galaxies...) in the Universe understands on one level or another, because every language is inherently a subset of the Speech. Select individuals with particular character traits are offered the Wizards' Oath, and if they accept, they are granted the ability to use the Speech as more than a language of communication; when they speak, the Universe itself leans in to listen, and their words become true, given sufficient power (which makes The Speech a LanguageOfMagic as well).
I think that this can be tied in with what little we know of MLP:FiM magic. Unicorns' horns are a medium of more-or-less direct communication with the Universe itself - they are the prerequisite for magic, as "enacture" (an attribute/property granted to all practicing wizards - the reason that someone who happens to know a few words in the Speech cannot cause untold havoc) is in DD's books. This ties in quite neatly with Starburst and Twilight's "telepathic" communication, however nearly any unicorn would be able to do this (privacy would still be possible and easy, however it wouldn't be restricted to alicorns and powerful unicorns). There is also the problem of the "level of integration" of magic into the world. In DD's world, only the equivalent of Discord (the Lone Power) can and does take away magic from an area (and it takes a significant fraction of it's power to maintain the block, I might add), while most headcanons allow for inhibitor rings and suchlike.
Most importantly, it's an excuse to use some BadassQuotes...
"Fairest and Fallen; greeting and defiance!"
If you feel like discussing this in more detail, contact me on IRC.
379660 and 379593 Are we talking about the same thing?