[misc]Ideas on magic

Magic, magic, what exactly are you?

Another name for miracle? Impossibly advanced science? What's the requirement to casting magic, where does its upper limit lies? What can magic do? Move a cup of tea? Toss someone into the sun? Time travel? Fix the world?

What about cost of magic? Many games have something called 'MP' that's used when casting magic. Of course, games simplify things to make it fun. What would 'mp' be to a magical creature. For one that use magic on a daily base, would this 'mp' be like blood? And how does one gain 'mp'?

Personally, I think this 'mp' is a type of energy (let's call them mana), generated by the body cell (with the cell gaining energy from food). For magical creature, natural energy channel form in their body, like blood vessel. The core properties of this energy is intangible and reacting to thought.

Intangible: It does not directly interact with the world in its dormant state. When mana is within the body, it's in dormant state. Only when being used, would certain amount of mana being active. This way, it is possible to magic to occupy the space within a creature without issues. For example, when a unicorn cast a spell, some mana move towards the horn, becoming active and weave into spell in the horn.

Reacting to thought: This 'mana' reacts to the mind. How else would spell casting be possible?

Magic (verb) actually happens in 3 parts: the energy (mana), the blueprint (spell), and the glue (mind).
The spell provides the blueprint, much like a electrical circuit, but more complex (or much simpler). Spell from different school may be vastly different, some of them have large pattern visible (such as runes, magic circles), while others are small, looking just like a node of light.

The mind is what drives mana into blueprint. Therefore just having a large mana pool wouldn't mean instant powerful spell, one would still need to learn and control it.

Certain magic have little blueprint complexity, for example, bursting into flame due to anger. It is merely a case of rage over saturating into the body's mana (turning from dormant to active) and causing the mana to leak through in the form of flame.

What about natural/inherent magic then? Some creature that seems born with them, using them doesn't need any thought. It is because the spell pattern (blueprint) is inherent to the body. As mana move through your mana channels, they automatically flows into those inherent pattern and become active to form their effects. Unlike, spells, those inherent magic works all the time, much like how a human's heart beat without needing to be controlled, however those inherent magic still needs enough mana. So it's possible to be rendered incapable of using inherent magic when facing magical exhaustion.

What are your ideas on this 'mana' system? Share them with me please, I would love to discuss them with someone.