Random Idea #63: Magical Hierachies of Equestria (and others) · 4:20pm Jul 30th, 2018
Idle musing
Earth Pony (Terrasire/Terrasi?)
Default state is more passive and heavily internally focused. Physical exercise results in greater and faster results than others. Dexterity and resilience, too. When exerted outwards as Active magic, range is limited to skin contact and local area around the pony. Magic is slightly more focused on hooves, but is rather evenly spread across the entire body otherwise. This includes mane, eyes, senses, general health. In short, a Terrasire is lowkey superhuman tier.
Actively:
With effort, resilience can be expanded to better mana reserve growth.
Can learn bits of unicorn/pegasus magic, but severely range limited. Range can be somewhat mitigated by punching it out.
Training with sensing can result in blind identification via touch, helps with chemical mixing.
The blending of muscle and magic is what is affected when a Terrasire(maybe?)(Terrasi)(I wanted to name them something less bland) is drained. (something something Chakra)
Tend to be Earth, Life (commonly plant life, but can be animal life like doctors), slight Water natured
Pegasus
Default passive state is skintight. Aids in body sense, resilience at speed, aerodynamics, lowering weight for flight, eyesight specifically, cloud contact. Requires more effort than Terrasi to gain muscle in not wing muscles, which are heavily boosted by magic. A powerful pegasus can create a thicker magic field, which results in better control and sensing of their local area, and permits more intensive manipulation of local area.
This field can be reshaped to provide a better lifting surface (compensating for tiny wings, albeit with a heavier mana cost), reduce weights (drag carts behind them), and aid in speedy flight (pones not aerodynamic naturally). It is more ephermial than a Terrasi’s, more suited for gross movement and blending of air than close range needle point. Is often instinctual for basic flight. Wonderbolts tier requires knowledge of advanced air current manipulation/fluid dynamics.
Actively:
A sizable magic field can be “thrown” to cause mid-range affects. Heavily associated with lightning due to easy generation of static. Precision spells are difficult for them, unless they can compress their field into one spot.
Can weakly pull things in from next to them, stronger if they ionize the object.
Has a near 360 deg view of area around them, though its not very clear on what stuff is, besides rough direction and size. Magical close range fuzzy sonar.
Needs to be actively strengthened in order to up personal resilience, unlike automatic state for a Terrasire. Flight magic achieves this state as a side effect, otherwise they fly more like a brick.
Tend to be Air, Lightning natured, Heat/Cold Resistant
Unicorn
Magic only weakly infuses a unicorn’s body, only really apparent in the vividness of their coat and mane, shared with the other sub-species. This is why they dull when extremely burnt out or drained of magic. Vaguely helps in hiding. Physically the frailest of the three, unable to move heavy objects via muscle alone. Are generally somewhat clumsier, though how much of this is due to reliance on magic is uncertain.
Actively:
Almost all magic expression is through a unicorn's head and horn. A portion of their brain is focused solely processing and controlling the powerful surges of energy right next to their head. This also allows them greater flexibility in learning spells, though few are willing, nor have the magic capacity to do very much. Anything a Terrasire or Pegasus can do instinctively, naturally, they have to learn manually.
Can only throw their magic with ease, but often limited to pinpoint effects until the spell matrix collapses and releases its payload. Body effecting spells difficult.
Magic is, at minimum, medium difficulty for any spell, due to the horn being so jack-of-trades at any magic, unless boosted by cutie mark. Foals can sometimes cast magic due to harn not fully hardening.
Tend to be Fire natured, but with effort can spec out into others.
In short, Terrasi and Pegasi have spells they pick up easier, some they struggle without, some beyond them. Cutie mark can help boost. More flexible when younger due to developing body. Also naturally powerful physically, Terrasi in general and Pegasi in their wings. Can pick up some tricks if they work for it, some general spells. Terrasi lean more towards solids and liquids, with Pegasi preferring liquids and gases.
Unicorns sacrifice almost all passive magic for jack of trades generalist active magic, outside of cutie mark spells and very simple tricks, like levitation. Only those who go to study magic will have the time and resources to improve their range.
Some hardcore workout could include purposely draining/storing externally one’s magic in order to get no “cheating” from magical strength.
Start a race that’s actually magic neutral
Again, this is just some idle thoughts on fleshing out Earth ponies (whose names are too boring, and I wanted to pull a Skirts and try coming up with a unique name like he did for Sarosians) and Pegasi and their magic. Because everyone salivating over unicorn magic got old.
There was one story i read a while ago where unicorns were stated to be much more long lived because of the magic they wielded... except a small angry voice inside muttered that everypony was supposed to have magic. So I decided to make up my own magic system for me to work with. (With the side effect of me slapping a bunch of nerfs to unicorns). Will probably be the basis for future fics, if I ever go into them that deeply. In any case, these ideas will probably be sitting around somewhere in the back of my head.
Regarding Twilight getting brained with a piano, eh, ponies are probably a lot more durable in general. Having less physical boosts than a Terrasire doesn’t mean fragile.
On a side note, in my mind, griffons are larger, more heavy pegasi with less magic on average, relying more on muscle strength (unless using enchantments, artifacts, etc)
Zebras are slightly more external than internal, which aids in potion making, balance, flexibility, crafting. enchanting. Gymnasts (Z) vs Strongmares (T)
There are exceptions, of course. Twilight OP Sparkle gets a boost on all magic, along with extreme bookishness. Fluttershy prefers the land, and Pinkie Pie dances on air, etc.
Hippogriff... fish pegasus? I haven't figured out how much is artifact and how much is hereditary.
Changelings are ponies with a flexible repertoire, but a mana bar that can't self generate without leaching from outside sources. Also natural physical armor, though it does peel away when starved (holes).
Hivemind is a variation of dream magic, with waking dreams locked to a local cluster.
Bovines: how the fuck should I know?
Dragons: Their fire is their blood. Very emotional based magic. Controlling themselves is important to prevent their logic falling off a cliff.
That was too long of a sidenote.
Interesting ideas.
Here's an additional thought, would the magic enhance perception as well?
It would kinda have to, at least with pegasi. Flying at high speeds, it's more than just great eyesight. They have to go through the whole process of: seeing, recognizing, understanding, reacting, for everything in their path. It would be useless when not flying, or when flying slowly and casually. So when the magic flares up during high speed flight, perception would have to be effected.
Then there's unicorns who might, depending on your headcanon, have like a sixth sense for magic. Lowlevel spells like telekinesis would be virtually undetectable unless you're lifting something the size of, say, and ursa.
The same case could be made for earth ponies, or Terrasire/Terasi/Terran as you calls them (which sounds great btw). Their perception could be expanded to include the plant-life or wildlife around them. Knowing when fruit on a tree is ready to be harvested, sensing when a section of the garden needs more water or fertilizer, feeling the ground for good spots to plant. Of course jt wouldn't be happening all the time, thy wouldn't be sitting having lunch at an outdoor cafe and thinking, "This is a good place to plant a tree." It would be more apparent as they go about their work, while they are in the mindset.
Magically enhanced perception.
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Off the top of my head with no thought put into it, probably most apparent only for those who put effort into high speed flight. Someone like Fluttershy would probably never develop a sense for that, but if you don't have it, you're likely never going to be able to join the Wonderbolts no matter how fast you can fly (something something runners have more fast twitch muscles). The stuff I wrote here is more my thoughts on the base level stats everyone gets, high speed reflexes would be specializations, cutie mark boosting, etc.
For Terrasi, sure, they can do that. To me, their main limitation is range, and they have to be relatively close to the object to sense it. Accounting for whatever they end up training for or specializing for.
Unicorns .... for me, what I see unicorns as is that they have to mostly learn everything, but they can learn everything (outside of maybe telekinesis). For most unicorns they don't need to learn a hundred spells, so they don't have much besides telekinesis, their personal hobbies + talents, and maybe a couple of tricks unless you got to a magic school. If you actually are an extreme book nerd though, you can end up like Twilight and maybe Starlight.
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/834434/magic
Very interesting! And yeah, I hate the unicorns getting all the magical schools. I imagine though that Earth pony magic schools might be more akin to martial arts or dance academies. Given the focus on the physical.
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Now I'm imagining a Might Guy pony kicking down the wall to his classroom
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"BEHOLD! THE POWER OF YOUTH!"