Worldbuilding Entry 1.5: the magic of species (Introduction)

In the last post I talked a little about the magic used by a particular species, hounds, in my world building. In retrospect that may of been a bit premature, so I think I should backtrack a bit and give a brief overview of the types of magic available before discussing how the different species use then or don’t in some cases. I hope this isn’t too incoherent and rambly.

So let’s start off by going over some observations I made from my own viewing of the episodes and take things from there.
Magic is a very flexible property within this universe, its boundaries are ill defined and in flux, and as such It is seen as either a near insurmountable boon or a great harbinger of despair, but in all, its tendency for good or ill is almost entirely dependent on the user of this mystic art.

The broadest identifiers to types of magic seen I’ve attempted to list below, but it’s going to require a more thorough examination of the source material later on:

• Magic powered by or harnessed from emotion, both positive and negative.
• Magic as a learnt skill or talent, an active application of a users will on the world, so in contrast to emotion based magic it is powered by willpower, concentration and effort of the mind. Example is Unicorn spell works which use a combination of will and the natural catalyst of a unicorn horn, to create a spell.
• Magic as a latent or innate skill or power, a hereditary gift due to species, a racial talent if you will. Examples would be Pegasi cloud walking or weather manipulation and Earth Equine latent nature magic for plant growth.
• Magic from a divine being or source. An example in canon is Princess Luna dream walking powers, her ability to project her consciousness into the dream of an individual and interact with their dreamscape and avatar. Other unique powers that are unique to divine entities could follow a thematic trend as well. This is assumed of course, it could be that she is practicing an old spell that fell out of use as a result of the schism the thousand years before.
• Enchanted Items exist in the setting, such as the Alicorn amulet or the Crystal Heart. This indicates that magic can be linked to an item so magic exists outside of living creatures too.
• Magical locations also exist, such as the mirror pool or even the Everfree forest with its unique flora and fauna.
• Magical energy can be willingly transferred between beings. It can also be siphoned from one entity to another in a sort of vampiric act.

So far I can recognise these distinct sets of magic that are utilised by equines and others, as well as being naturally occurring mystical phenomena. It should be noted that these classes do not seem to be mutually exclusive, indeed some instances arise where a practitioner has wielded all the above over the course of the source material, but it should be noted that said practitioner is a divine being(Alicorn) and as such is not the standard of the setting for most, the next example is an individual who is also exceptional and can wield three of the four types described and is also not the norm(Twilight, ironically now an Alicorn). It seems the general rule is that an individual is gifted in one area (ie cutie mark talent) and not others, unless special circumstances are in action. It also should be noted that while practicing multiple classes of magic is possible, it’s only limited as possible to Unicorns specifically. Pegasi and Earth ponies seem limited to only innate magic.

All this pertains to a single species though, and their sub races. The relevance of all these observations has little bearing on other intelligent species in the setting, in fact of all their appearances almost all do not display any magic practices outside possibly innate magic (i.e. Griffin cloud walking) or use of magical things/items (i.e. Zecora's potion making). While no outright declaration of their inability to directly wield magic is given, their very small number of appearances and infrequency does not provide much basis of evidence for or against the possibility of magic use. There is one detail, however, that when extrapolated from, could have a great impact on how to interpret the display of magic so far. Of the most magic prone species displayed so far, only has one of its sub races capable of the traditional display of flashy magic and this is the result of a specific physical attribute they are born with, in short unicorns can do magic because of their horn, the other races lack it and as such only posses access to their innate magic. I could assume that this rule holds true across to other species as well, as other magical beings bar one have also displayed magical horns, and as such trim the number of species that I can assume to have access to the more versatile spell type casting. It is possible that an artificial means of casting developed though and the other species have access to spells via this mechanical method, but so far no evidence suggests that. But baseless speculation is the most fun kind. As such I've taken to brain storming some ideas for alternative magic systems that other species could use.

With that in mind I tried writing up some Magic casting ideas to try out:

Magic invoked by use of a mystical language that has inherent power in the words thought, chanted, spoken, written or engraved. The Classic Words of Power theme. To speak directly to the frame work of reality and code for a desired effect. Essentially a life hack. Could use Norse Runes as an inspiration, but the concept of a magic language can easily translate to any semi mystical lingo franca. Very rigid system that has a very narrow access point for the magic, loss of knowledge of the Runes/Words is literally the loss of the magic. Could be a very broad mechanical magic system. Its also possible that it’s a cross-species magic system as the magic comes from knowledge and not a defined physical trait, but that needn’t be so. It could just as easily be restricted by similarly needing very specific physical requirement to practice this magic.

Magic via alchemy such as potions, transmutation, elemental isolation and distillation etc. Essentially the magic and study of the material plane. Would have offshoots in fauna, flora and elemental instances of magic and also trying to understand the magical expression of these mystical beings in the world. The indirect action of magical energies that are stabilised in their physical forms.

Prophecy and Divination, linked to Astrology/Geomancy as a medium of interpreting fate/destiny concepts. Perhaps observations of the heavens and its cosmic intricacies can help individuals appreciate the vast cycles the universe moves to, and hint maybe at the probabilities and circumstances people are caught up in, without being chained to fate, rather more influenced by it. Alternatively the very mathematically based Geomancy could be a kind of pseudo-magic science of probability, extrapolation and observation of the world around persons. Math-magicians essentially. Also holds the possibility of being a multi-species magic system.

Crystal mysticism and sympathetic crystals, linking empathy, magic and gems. That is to say that gems themselves are infused with latent trace magic’s, perhaps a school of magic can focus on cultivating that magic into growth and also in its active or passive use. Focus possibly on the exchange of energies, of cleansing and detoxifying elements as opposed to direct effect magic’s like magic missile and such. This would play into idea that the Crystal Heart brought up, with its country sized buff effects on the mentality and morale of Crystal Ponies. Expanding this idea into it's own branch of magic could be interesting, imagine crystals crafted to calm minds, refresh bodies, or help couples understand each other's feelings better. Thus the idea of empathic magic. But perhaps a more direct and physical off shoot can crop up as a reflection of the hardiness of the crystal itself. May be accessible to more than one species but I see it as a fairly unique craft.

Spirit invocation, ancestor calling and worship. Would need to be differentiated from summoning magic, perhaps limit to only those who have a direct physical link to an ancestor, or such. Maybe mediums and spiritualists as a concept can be used, the school of magic that deals with communing with the past. Not to be confused with returning the dead to life though, merely that they open communication channels to those willing to converse, both parties being capable of refusing.

Summoning, binding, and contracting otherworldly beings to ones will. Thus magic by proxy system, were inherently magical creatures from possibly another plane of existence are called upon for desired effects to occur, to be present so that they can perform magic for the summoner. In theory it should be usable by all, and maybe most magic using societies have some capability of invoking the supernatural, but it would need concrete circumstances to be a majority holding magic art. The act of summoning also needs to figured out. I like to reference the summoning system in the Bartemaus trilogy were the D’jinn are summoned by a summoning circle and specific magical reagents as well as the summoner invoking the spirits true name, while keeping their own secret so they can have power over the D’jinn. Perhaps the limitation I can have is that only certain species have access to summoning certain spirits, so each species has its own category of summons. A society that focused exclusively on summoning may have the advantage of a more extensive summoning collection due to dedication or a mythology designed to give them this edge.

The collection and then alteration of background magic by an individual. I like to use a short hand of Leyline magic, but there could be better terms. But I would have to differ this somewhat from simple spell casting from an individual’s own reserves. Perhaps this kind of magic more directly ties with the surrounding; it needs specific location with enough background magic for a user to draw upon for effective spell work. The main trade offs are possibly much larger stores of magic available to an individual than what would normally be possible but this comes with the price of being somewhat limited to ones location and surrounds, the caster would only be as powerful as the amount of magic they’d have access to. Inherently magical locations do exist so being able to directly draw upon or utilise them would be an interesting possibility.

In contrast to leyline magic, and the one most readily extrapolated from viewing the show, is using magic from an individual’s own reservoir of power. The concept is very broad and we can note it in hundreds of cultures and concepts, such as mana, life-force, Chi and so on. This all comes down to an individual supplying the power for a spell on an active level as well as controlling and defining what a spells effect will or can be. Its most readily contrasted with leyline magic as it requires only that an individual deliver the required energy for a spell, and since the individual is their own power source they could be likened as a portable leyline. The trade-off is being able to cast under near any conditions or places but the power source may have very hard limits on the available power to be drawn on depending heavily on an individual. The average leyline caster may be able to draw on more raw magic than a ‘mana mage’. It could be theorised that this is a cross-species magic but it’s already been established that use of this magic requires special physical traits being present.

Now about Necromancy. A most traditional school but the question is how does it present itself in this universe? Do we recognise it as a distinctly different class of magic or a subset that deals with the animation of dead organisms via another system of magic? I did have one idea that a large umbrella system could stem from necromancy, and it focused on the mimicking of other species unique magic systems via symbolic use of the species remains. An example would be a practitioner of necromancy would be able to weave unicorn spell works if they had a deceased unicorn’s horn. I think this idea has potential but to be really exploitive it kind of demands that cross-species magic be very rare, and magically inclined species have distinct advantages. This would offset the inherent taboo nature of using the dead in magical crafting as it offers very tangible benefits, so a non-magically inclined species might practice this as they would otherwise have no access to magic, while magically apt species abhor the practice as they have an alternative. But still the main issue is the overall definition of necromancy needs to be decided. (Maybe that idea of use of magical reagents from intelligent species could be a dark offshoot of alchemy?)

These are some rough ideas I’ve been thinking about but as stated before this is all open to change and improvement. But it gives me a lot of room to work with. I still have a lot of thing to figure out though.