Something that would fit nicely into a magic update (whether it be the first pass or a later one) would be magically animating statues, figurines, and also 2d images such as engravings, art, or even reflections and shadows (at some point if those are added). This would be distinct from the already planned automatons or golems noted in the devlog; these are just normal statues/figurines, the sort you can make in the game right now, but given life by magic, which can happen in various ways.
Obviously, all of the below ideas have plenty of potential for interaction with other magical mechanics as well:
Statues/Figurines
Statues and craftable figurines would be animate-able; a magic user with such an ability could for example choose an arbitrary statue or figurine, and convert it from an item/placed building, into a bronze-colossus-like creature made of "whatever the statue/figurine was made of", with the anatomy/body shape of the thing the statue is depicting, at the appropriate size of the statue/figurines representation of that thing.
So an animated figurine of an adult dragon will be made of wood, and tiny like a figurine, not large like a real dragon, and frankly it may possibly be the same size as or even be smaller than other figurines of smaller creatures like dwarves (nobody said all figurines had to be to scale!), though perhaps some figurines may be made larger than others at times (not sure if this is in the game yet).
If a statue has multiple subjects in it (instead of being a statue of just one creature), each can be animated individually/separately to the others (in which case it will leave the statue and no longer be depicted in it), resulting in multiple creatures, some of which may even be animated by different people or forces!
Statue subjects of things other than creatures, such as the moon, or waves, will be trickier to figure out since there would be no raws to pull the body plan from, and more or less the only solution there is to either forbid animating things like this, or for some depictions there could be a few basic raws representing the necessary abstract shapes; for example, maybe all planetary bodies could share a basic "sphere/ball" raw file for example.
Animated statues most likely would not have any special powers based on their subject; dragons for example would neither breathe fire nor be resistant to it (any more than their body material suggests anyway), nor would an image of a necromancer (or a species that can practice necromancy naturally) be able to use any magic, and they probably would not heal from damage, or have specific nerves that can be damaged or stuff like that; they're all the same statues, just with different appearances/body shapes.
Depictions of things that can fly (like bird statues) should totally be able to fly though for sure.
As for clothing/armor and items, some statues/figurines, depending on the depiction, may or may not be wearing them; these things would of course be made of the same material as they are in the statue, but if at all possible/practical to implement, the armor/clothing most likely should be treated as part of their body/unremovable by any means (though of course damageable, as if it were an extra layer of solid rock/whatever material on top of the rest of the body).
Of course, one other distinct kind of "animation" would be, rather than creating a magically empowered statue, turning them into a living copy of what is depicted; turn a kangaroo statue into an actual kangaroo! They may or may not turn back into a statue or have parts of them turned back when separated when killed (could vary from magic system to magic system), and you would end up with a miniature (or oversized) version of the normal creature depending on the size of the statue/figurine.
Engravings/Art
2d depictions of creatures could also be animate-able; this would come one way in the basic form of "letting them move around on the surface of what they're engraved/painted/reflected on", like a talking engraving for example.
Of course, it would also be possible to make them actually come to life, as in walk off the wall or out of the painting (leaving the surface/wall bare), and become a full 3d being. This is harder to decide upon what to do than with the statues/figurines, because "hole in a wall" or "reflected light on water/a mirror" isn't really an actual material, and I'd think it would probably not be fun to just have paint creatures come out of art (at least, if you're animating the depiction rather than the paint or canvas itself).
So in that way, perhaps it would make sense to use the direct materials of the actual creature (and also have their clothing separate to their bodies unlike the statues), but on the other hand, being able to clone creatures with powers like fiery breath and advanced magical powers using engravings or art would be a bit crazy.
Reflections/Shadows
If reflections in water, glass, or other reflective metals (even mirrors) are added as mechanics, it might make sense to be able to bring reflections to life, letting them move independently of their subject (on the wall), or of course being able to come to 3d life (maybe this could be a segue into a "mirror world" for some mythgen worlds), though maybe this 3d bit doesn't make quite as much sense for shadows.
The issues with engravings and the materials apply here, but here it could make sense for reflections to either be made of "illusion-stuff" (ie light, or shadow), or of the actual materials of the creature reflected.
If a reflection or shadow is brought to life, naturally the creature should no longer cast a reflection or shadow unless the living one is somehow returned to them (may require simple defeat, or maybe needs special magic).
Magic Interplay
Animated shadows/reflections in particular make clear the potential of some kinds of interplay between different types of magic, which aren't all necessarily hardcoded, but comes naturally out of the different magic systems intertwining with each other.
For example, "forcing you to match their movements" or "damage inflicted on your reflected counterpart will affect you too", or "a shadow can act on objects by messing with their shadow". "Evil reflection twins" are another obvious trope that could be explored (or just like reversed personality twins or something), or a magic user using statues of themselves to remotely communicate with other people. Could even go for unusual stuff like liches hiding their soul in a mirror image of themselves.
These things could plausibly all be procedural (no need to specify "souls can be hidden in mirrors" or whatever, though shadow-on-shadow action would probably have to be specified), just by letting other mechanics ("creatures can hide their souls elsewhere"), and stating a rule that "depictions of a specific creature are more likely to be usable for mythgenned magic that affects an individual creature".
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Topic: Magically animated depictions; statues, art, reflections, shadows etc (Read 499 times)