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Author Topic: Magic being affected by age.  (Read 1017 times)

Lettuce

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Magic being affected by age.
« on: March 05, 2021, 11:14:47 pm »

I think it could be really interesting if human magic user’s either magic power and magic reserves were strongly affected by the casters age. There could be some cool interactions like spells decreasing your age so maybe a decrepit old wizard could cast some spells and maybe buff up and then reduce their age temporarily with a spell so that they could be more effective in melee combat at the cost of not being effective at casting spells. There could also maybe be magic artifacts that could increase someone’s natural lifespan so that they could increase there baseline natural casting ability. This should maybe only apply to humans or some other race that doesn’t have unnaturally long lifespans or maybe it could work in increments of having a larger affect the more physically disable a character us from their age. I think this would be a very fun addition and it would be cool for someone to accidentally raise their age somehow too high and then die from old age or exertion and then not be able to be revived unless they get lucky and don’t die until the spell almost runs out, or another wizard dispels their enchantment and then someone performs medical care. Since we do not know how the magic system will actually work yet either I think this could be a part of a very cool magic system
where casting magic could be inherently destructive and somehow take life force from the caster or environment and be a string but not a “free” source of power. A magic system like stated above would fit I think very very well within the dwarf fortress universe. Maybe for other races magic could have other drawbacks? Like for elves maybe it could reduce their learned skills? And dwarfs it could trend to consume items or destroy their environment? Goblins I think would fit a corrupting type of magic mutatin them or their environment and having chances to summon demons or turn allys into mindless demon spawns. Whichever system ultimately is made I think going along a give and take system would be very fitting and I think having different races have different trends to what makes them stronger magically and maybe different schools of magic required different “sacrifices” so to speak or at least benefitting more from certain one’s would be flavorful and awesome.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2021, 11:21:04 pm by Lettuce »
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IndigoFenix

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2021, 01:16:08 pm »

Fun fact: In its current state, Dwarf Fortress does not store the age of a creature anywhere.  Every creature has a specific birthday and, if mortal, the day that it is destined to die of old age.  Age is evaluated when the creature is viewed by subtracting the birthday from the current date.  Using DFHack to modify these numbers will change the creature's age or cause it to die of old age sooner.

This may be changed in the future.

Bumber

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2021, 01:21:28 pm »

Fun fact: In its current state, Dwarf Fortress does not store the age of a creature anywhere.  Every creature has a specific birthday and, if mortal, the day that it is destined to die of old age.  Age is evaluated when the creature is viewed by subtracting the birthday from the current date.  Using DFHack to modify these numbers will change the creature's age or cause it to die of old age sooner.

This may be changed in the future.

What about those who have "the appearance of" X years old? (I.e, no longer age.)
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NW_Kohaku

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2021, 01:43:44 pm »

What about those who have "the appearance of" X years old? (I.e, no longer age.)

"The appearance of" is used when a character was "born before the world was created".  I.E. they need to populate the world with characters that aren't all newborns at the start of the world, so they have people "born" with a "birthday" of the year -12, so that they were 12 at year 0 when the world was created.  Therefore, if you stop worldgen at, say, 50 years, you can still have people with a -12 birthday still alive and they will have a description saying "the appearance of someone 62 years old".  If they're destined to die at 100 years of age, they still die at the year 88, because they were for all practical game purposes "12 years old" at world creation, even though they sprang ex nihilo into existence at the start of year 0.
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NW_Kohaku

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2021, 02:01:34 pm »

With regards to the OP itself, I think it might be fine for a couple of types of magic to be tied to age, but it would be more interesting if it were sphere-based, and there were other spheres that increased in power with age (but not available to necromancers or other undead, yet would be available to elves and goblins).  Having elves that lose power in some magic sphere as they age because their animus isn't pure any longer or some such might be interesting.

This would make the most sense, however, when tied to specific spheres, like say, Children, Fertility, and Youth for the blazingly obvious ones, and maybe the likes of Dawn or Strength for more metaphoric ones, while Longevity, Wisdom, and Dusk increase in power with age.

Researching Longevity magic might lead to life extensions that don't involve necromancy, for example, but require advancing into old age, first, so that it's a constant race against time to extend one's own life to have time to research the next step until one can advance the time of death past meaningful relevance or into immortality.  (And it would be cool if Longevity magic might even push back the middle age brackets and such as you go, so that an old man might become apparently younger as they grow more powerful in Longevity magic.)
« Last Edit: March 06, 2021, 02:04:26 pm by NW_Kohaku »
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Azerty

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2021, 05:43:15 pm »

I think it should depend from the universe and, as told by other, the spheres (someone old would be less inducated for youth-related magic); in other cases, being old should make the spell-caster more powerful.

Maybe that, in some universes, magic would be a fixed amount each sentient being would have, meaning that those who use the most magic would become Muggles at a young age. Maube such amounts might be vastly different, to simulate the existence of major magicians.
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Shonai_Dweller

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Re: Magic being affected by age.
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2021, 05:45:28 pm »

I think it should depend from the universe and, as told by other, the spheres (someone old would be less inducated for youth-related magic); in other cases, being old should make the spell-caster more powerful.

Maybe that, in some universes, magic would be a fixed amount each sentient being would have, meaning that those who use the most magic would become Muggles at a young age. Maube such amounts might be vastly different, to simulate the existence of major magicians.
Well, yes, it's a given that any magic suggestions are part of the many options available when Mythgen generates magic.
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