Howdy folks,

Asking for your opinion on a system I'm using in my story. (spoiler, duh)

The premises: inspired by orks.
I don't know if many of you are familiar with orks, but they have this thing where if they believe something to be possible or true (within limits), then it'll become possible if enough of them believe it.

That's the premise I used for my system. 'Faith magic', or more generally belief magic. It's intended to be flexible in such a manner that it can tie in with nearly every religion or culture around the world.

How it then works:
With that system, when a group of human have shared beliefs or think something is true, then that same thing will become real given enough time and a sufficient population.

Exemple:
*Tribal people believe nature spirits rule the forest under the guidance of a magic white stag → white stag and will o' wisps appear in the middle of the woods.
*Celts believe their druids have magic power and can make potions with special powers → the random broth concocted by the local hippie suddenly makes post-menopausal women fertile again.

The reasoning behind the effect is that humans naturally generate magic with their everyday brain activity. All their excess magic then pools together at a local scale to permit all these feats, as long as they share the common belief that it's possible. Meaning that with that system used, you can justify pretty much anything in-story as long as it matches the local culture.

Want mages? If the locals think that waving a stick can lift rocks, then it will, and they will be the ones to 'set the rules'.

Want gods? All the pooled magic with the belief there really is a god will basically create an 'AI' that monitors the local pool of faith magic and can accomplish 'miracles'.

Are monsters real? Well, local legend says there is a lake demon down the river, so there is.

The good thing is that since it works on a local scale, that magic mechanic allows for multiple pantheons of divinities to exist at once without contradicting the others. It also allows magic to work in tons of completely different manners at the same time around the world. You could have ye' ol' wizard on one continent, druids and shamans on another, and element benders on the last if your world-building justifies it.

Another effect I added is that the system also creates ley lines by itself. Most other systems have a ambient magic field that's already present from the start, so it's up to people to put their holy sites at the convergence point of ley lines that were there before them.

In this case though, if they build a holy site anywhere they want to, then their pooled magic will focus there and thus create a convergence point and link itself to the ley line network.

The caveat to the system is... it suffers from catastrophic failure and negative feedback when a culture rises up that believes magic is NOT real.

I'll conclude with the fact that it's a magic mechanic that's intended to be flexible and provide a base for varied and exotic world-building. It's a one-size-fits-all made to fit all of human civilizations at once.

what i know of orks on the matter is if that think they can do somthin they do it

7015976
It's a nice idea, but i think you are going the wrong way with it. With the exception of Gork and Mork, the Orks don't really bring other creature and the like to life by thinking they are real. Instead, their power is used more to make tools that under normal circumstances shouldn't work. Example, a bucket of bolts with wings and a propeller, held together with duck tape and hope, will fly like the best fighter because they think it should. Or things that are red move faster.

It's less about creating things and more about the Orks imposing their view of reality on the reality itself, if that makes scene.

7016906
even so, a machine to do the effects could work in the concept of orks

7018244
Ok, I'm not really sure how a machine that could do the same as this magic relates to the topic. Could you explain?

7018253
I was basically trying and failing to say that even if the magic only makes machines work even if they should not, then a wish machine could be made to bypass its restrictions. I was also pointing out that you even if right were not thinking about the true possibility of a faith-based ability like this. on a tier list with the Omni powers at S-rank, faith=working machine is A-rank and if a single person was the only person required it would rise to S-rank.

7018253
Maybe it's about constructs and golems instead of actual genuine creatures appearing out of nowhere? Stories like the Golem of Prague could be viable following that logic.

Either way the system's is designed to be similar to orks, not identical. Power-wise it's probably above the Waaagh, but the main intent remains to create a system that makes it possible for all human mythologies to exist at once even if they have conflicting notions about magic. The logic behind having them create creatures if they believe hard enough has exactly the same intent.

7018381

for all human mythologies to exist at once even if they have conflicting notions about magic.

Why not just have them be real from the start, unless there is a specific reason, I don't see why human need to 'wish' that into existence.

7018387
Actually that's the other way around. All that magic and creatures go from 'existing' in the past, to 'not existing' in the present.

At first with that system you have multiple relatively isolated civilizations, each with their own pantheons, mythos and monsters made real by the system. Stuff like Arthurian Legends, a Matter of France, Native American beliefs and all else are a thing, at a local scale.

Then as time goes on and civilization develops, the Renaissance happens, new religions pops up that discard the existence of magic, the the Disenchantment (litterally in this case)... and because they don't believe anymore, all that magic stuff fades away and ceases to exist.

Up until the system is jump started again with a solid dose of Equestrian magic, but that only concerns my own story.