Hey /tg/, I remembered an old idea I saw posted on here years ago and wanted to chat about it. Not sure if it's been used in anything or was just one guys homebrew concept, but it seemed neat.
Magic as a form of life. Not alive in the same way plants or animals are, but a parallel path, like Virii. The very first primal spells developed alongside living creatures, and through convergent evolution have been developing alongside life as we know it throughout history.
A spell is a set of actions or ideas which creates an effect, a memetic entity which exists only when it is being 'cast'. But this is also how they reproduce- A useful and valuable spell will be used and remembered and spread to others. From this fundamental principle, magic has evolved into a variety of forms.
One of the earliest successful branches of Spells were those that entered a symbiotic relationship with living creatures. Dragons, Elves and other entities with natural magical abilities are all examples of this symbiotic relationship, where a living creature acts as host to a spell, passing it on to its young in return for the survival benefits of the natural magic. Symbiotic spells are generally simple and unrefined, with few having advanced from the most basic of magical effects.
A subcategory of these spells are parasitic strains. Instead of developing a relationship with a species and being passed on, they actively seek out a host, demanding that they be spread and overwhelming them with power. Vampirism, lycanthropy and some natural forms of curses are examples of this, and while they might come with survival advantages it comes at the cost associated with that particular parasite.
Natural spells are those which never unified with a species and remained free magical patterns. From local rituals to hedge magic, natural spells are very common, but only a few among them are truly notable. For every million lesser charms of healing or fertility, there is one mountain where a great natural spell lies dormant, ready to create a mighty earthquake when it is roused. Lesser natural spells are widespread and commonplace, but the greater sort are rare and powerful, often extremely hard to reproduce outside of a specific set of conditions.
Shaped spells are the result of active cultivation by sentient species, blending any local natural magic with symbiotes of their species or nearby animals to create uniquely flexible forms of magic. Shaped spells often lack the raw power of natural magic in some regard, but are much more responsive to fine tuning and finesse.
A common practice with Shaped Spells is a form of 'sterilisation'. Given Magic's desire to spread, a newly developed spell can be like a wildfire, blazing across the world and being learned by everyone capable of it in the blink of an eye. To counteract this and to ensure that magical guilds and colleges can still maintain their power and authority, many have certain rituals, rites or locations within which their magic must exist to be successfully passed on. Outside of these, their spells can still be used, but they lack a certain essence that would allow them to be reproduced by those who witness the spell or its effects.
Almost all sentient creatures, many animals and even some plants have access to magic, whether from symbiotic spells or the basic natural magics they learn in the course of life. True mages, however, generally practice one or more schools of Shaped Spells. New spells can be produced through selective combination of existing spells, and by seeking out new natural spells. The act of trying to replicate a great natural spell can be very dangerous, and Wild Mages who try to do so have a fraught and dangerous reputation.
There are also unique cases of individuals who gain a relationship with a spell akin to a racial Symbiosis, but gained in the course of a life. The Priestess of a Volcano may channel the natural spell of eruption, calling upon the power of lava to destroy the wicked, while hand picked children of a mountain village might recieve a natural spell of flight, becoming messengers and couriers of their widespread community. The ways these spells spread and choose their hosts is as varied as life is, with magic finding many niches within which to exist.
What do you think of this concept /tg/? I like the idea of it, but my one worry is that it'd just be a ~quirky~ setting detail rather than something with an actual interesting impact on the world. Any expansions on the idea or weird and wonderful permutations would be fun to hear discuss.
Runes and other physical symbols of magic could be another path of evolution, magic finding an anchor in objects that makes the spells easy to renew and recast. I guess the limitation could be that they're even more inflexible than symbiotic spells? A spell imprinted on an object can only do a single specific thing.
>>43737315
You just know some new guild mage fucked up and accidentally taught an entire city Chain Lightning or something.
>>43737319
Regarding the quirky aspect, the only part I could see being a problem is how powerful the commonly available spells are. If every office worker can fling fireballs then it's hard to believe society is still intact. But if you go too far in the other direction with spell strengrh it becomes a question of why bother?
>>43738357
I was thinking the natural spells would mostly come in the form of low level utility stuff. A farmer might know how to bless his fields, a baker might have a spell to control the flames of his oven, children might learn to summon a basic light source to find their way home in the dark, things like that. Stuff that would be Cantrips by D&D reckoning. Not huge or lifechanging, but useful enough to keep being passed on.
>>43738381
Gotcha. It seems neat, but I also feel like it has potential as a central focus of the setting rather than just an addition. I just have no idea how one would go about writing a campaign which centers on this concept.
>>43737310
It seems pretty interesting as a means of manipulation or system, but it doesn't change the actual mechanism. How do the spell lifeforms actually affect the world? Do they actually go and do the energetic work necessary to set that area on fire? That, rather than the way people interact with the effects, is the magic. How do spell lifeforms do it, that the dragons, elves, humans, etc. can't do on their own?
It might be that this comes about as a change to the laws of physics — the world coincidentally works similar to our own, but not on a set of base laws identical to ours. "Natural" spells might be expressions of magic/physics that coincide with physical phenomena IRL?
Mmmm bump.
>>43738498
A spell has turned viral / parasitic / cancerous maybe? Spells being alive can pick up bits of other magic and change themselves slightly, so a single spell can evolve over time, and one evolution has lead to a living spell turning magilant
MIDICHLORIANS
>>43741964
God fucking damnit
>>43741964
god fucking damn it
>>43738498
Somebody has constructed, and released (intentionally or accidentally) a magical quine - a spell which can cast itself. It is spreading like a virus, seeking out humans which it can use as an energy source and using their energy to cast the spell over and over again and infect still new hosts. Think something like a magical Snow Crash, or perhaps a magical Cordyceps.
As it replicates, it mutates and evolves, and is rapidly gaining a sort of strange intelligence. You must stop it before it devours the world from the inside - or worse, it develops the intelligence and restraint to start farming us.
There is some evidence that this is not the first time this has happened.
>>43741791
>>43743937
That'll work. Thank you, kind creative anons of /tg/.
Bump. Curious if any other anons have anything else to add.
>>43743937
>cordyceps
NOPENOPENOPENOPE
NO MAGICAL FUNGI THANK YOU VERY MUCH
I'LL BE IN MY BUNKER WITH MY FLAMETHROWER NOW
>>43745877
It's a metaphorical Cordyceps. No actual growths; it's invisible and abstract, more like a computer virus. It just does Cordyceps-y things, like driving the host towards behaviors that help it reproduce.
>>43745783
It sounds like a very useful background detail. You set your political intrigue or thematic meaning on TOP of living magic, and see how the magic represents those topics.
If I had anything to suggest, it would be Destiny: Prophesies do not predict the future, but instead cause them. A prophesy is the biggest story in the world, cast and shaped by all the players that act it out. It moves subtly, but will not be denied. At it's most direct, it manipulates coincidence and chance into the outcome that people "expect" and "believe" to happen, that which would only occur in story. It builds up power, leading the world to great climaxes: at the very precipice of genocide, massive terrors, world-ending disasters....and then it stops. And watches as men and beast take the final step of their own volition. Such potential for destruction is why most who are aware of it pull their own strings to fight the tide of fate.
>>43746021
destiny: also known as the greatest spell of all time
>>43745926
Why not magic-y kinds of growths? Like small plumes or tumors of softly glowing energy.
>>43746165
Because if they're clearly visible, you just have zombies. Boring, unsubtle, obviously monstrous. You never have zombies in high office inexplicably favoring the pro-brain-consumption lobby, you never worry if your rotting neighbor might possibly be a zombie, and you never find out that the friendly NPC with the stench and strange shambling gait who communicates only through moans was, to your shock, a zombie all along.
>>43746279
Fair enough. Eh, just rule 0 the Cordyceps School of Magic as fits the flavor of whatever campaign it's in.
>>43737310
Kind of reminds me of Mushishi. I strongly recommend looking into it.
>>43749139
Good show if only for storytelling technique, but ultimately just a good show period.
