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[JoshuaFH]

Well, as you all very may well know, I occasionally have fantasies which can be mentioned in public. I've been dreaming of a fantasy world in which a fantasy videogame of mine would take place.

I've been speculating writing the adventure of the characters in my fantasy world, but the problem is that since this was that my original game idea would be that it would be a "branching storyline" type game with the outcome depending on the player's actions, and I don't know how to write something like that without making it grossly incoherent, confusing, or just plain ugly to the eyes. So I thought I'd just tell you guys the basic backstory of my fantasy world, starting with the magic system that the game would have depended on.

Firstly, I should tell you that my magic system is influenced by Fire Emblem 4: Seisen No Keifu (Genealogy of the Holy War), if you're familiar with that game at all then you might know where I'm coming from.

Now, the magic system would follow the cliche 'elements' system, with their being several domains, as listed:

Fire
Water
Electricity
Earth
Wind
Healing/Life
Sun
Moon
Time

There is no inherent 'goodness' or 'evilness' tied to any of the magics, as they can all be wielded and used in any fashion the caster pleases.

Now, the way magic works is that you simply CAN'T learn magic. No amount of study or dedication will ever grant anybody the ability to use magic, period. Instead, magic follows a 'sacred/godly/chosen mark' system, where ONLY the person with the mark of a specific domain can use that field of magic. The Mark in question would appear on that person's body and it would be all shiny and ancient and fancy looking, and it would be their to show that they can use magic, and it will stay on that person until they die. However, you can't simply go out and get a mark, the appropriate god has to GIVE it to you, or force it on you, depending on your perspective. However, the only people eligible to actually receive a mark are people that are already related to someone that has the mark. So if someone has the Magic Mark, then their son/daughter/brother/sister/etc will also be able to use magic. HOWEVER, there can only be ONE mark of any given magical domain at any given time. This means, in all, there can only be NINE people that can use magic in the entire world at any given time. Once that person dies, then the mark passes to their closest relative and then they can use magic as well. There is no real ceremony or fanciness tied to receiving the mark, the person dies, then the other person gets it magically.

Now, the ability to use magic isn't the only thing you get with the mark, as (which I'll explain later) the gods consider it a CURSE, and thus upon receiving the mark, you also are given a few other things. Firstly, you receive the memories of every single person that has ever had that particular mark ever, in their complete entirety, from the first person to ever use it to the person just before you. Now, this is 'magical memory' that isn't actually stored in the person's brain, but inside the mark, and can easily be accessed without harm to the person; this is so the recipient's mind isn't snapped in half completely from the huge amount of information that is jammed into their skull. In fact, the person can choose to not even look at any of the memories they're given, but there is one thing they're FORCED to acknowledge when being given the mark, and that's the instructions on how to use magic, what their 'magic item' is (explained later), the implications of their curse, and the REPERCUSSIONS of using magic.

Secondly, the person with the mark gains two more senses: One which simply tells them how much 'life force' they have left. The importance of this will be detailed later. The other let's them feel the location of their 'magic item'. The importance of that will also be explained later.

Thirdly, the repercussions of using magic are simple: normally, when a person in my fantasy-verse dies, if they were a 'good person' by the god's standards (which are kind of warped, in an old greek/roman god way), then they receive the choice to be reincarnated on Earth as whatever they like, or live forever in the afterlife. If they were a neutral person, then they're forcefully reincarnated and given another chance to prove themselves. If they were an especially 'bad' person, then their souls are eaten and digested by the gods for a thousand years, and then forcefully reincarnated to prove themselves again. Very VERY good people are given the above reincarnation/afterlife decision, but with the added benefit that their personal afterlife will be however they want it, a complete heaven made just for them. You don't need to appeal to all the gods, just whichever ones you actually worship, so there's some leeway in that sense.
(For those wondering, the gods are always making new souls, so the world will never be short on needing new souls in order to grow in population.)

Now, magic users, regardless of how good or bad they've been in life, don't get ANY of these choices. Instead, their souls are permanently and irrevocably intertwined with their magic mark, along with the souls of everyone else that has ever had it, to be carried along to the next user and then to the next until the end of all humanity; This is how the 'magic memory' system works. A person with the mark can avoid this fate by simply refusing to use any spell whatsoever, as it's only with their first spell that they're forcibly joined with the mark.

Now, the next repercussion of using magic is that it's not free, it comes at a great cost. Essentially, all magic uses your personal life force in order to work. Life force cannot be replenished, regenerated, or restored in any way; but the thing is, a normal person has so much life force that if they simply stick to casting weak to moderate spells their entire life, they could live out their natural life span without using up all their life force. However, if the magic user is ambitious, and insists on using the more powerful spells, they may end up using all of their life force, and if they do, they die. They don't receive any special or flashy death, they just keel over. It should be noted, however, that merely living uses up a little bit of life force, so even if you don't use up all of it, you're still shortening your life span drastically if you get to dangerously low amounts. Having the extra sense described above helps with this though.

Next, all the magical domains have a special unbreakable artifact tied with their magic power. All the artifacts are special in that they are made of materal which is indestructable, are sentient, and grant the magic user of their domain with extra abilities. All magic users can use the extra sense they're given in order to find their artifact. The artifacts themselves are sentient and will avoid being held, wielded, worn, or otherwise used by anyone except their magic user; They do this by simply vibrating violently until they fall out of the persons hands, getting unbearable hot/cold, becoming purposefully unusable for whatever the unsuitable person is trying to use them for, or, in extreme cases, calling for their specifically aligned god to enact holy retribution upon the offending person. Since they are sentient however, they can be talked to, and while they cannot talk back, it is possible to convince an artifact to let you use it. They are very obstinate though, so this is a bad idea most of the time. Since the artifacts themselves are magical, when the magic mark users are using them, they'll change themselves in order to become easier for that person to use. For example, one of the artifacts is a magic cloak. The cloak, in the hands of it's aligned user, would magically change size and shape in order to be more comfortable for it's wearer.

The magic items also grant their specifically domained magic users with special abilities/attributes. While they vary from artifact to artifact, they all share one thing in common: they all give their magic users the ability to cast the highest echelons of magic available to them. You see, normally, magic users can cast some pretty powerful magic, but the most powerful magic, the type of power that can crush armies, only becomes possible to use when the magic user has their artifact in their possession. Fair warning though, the strongest magic is significantly more costly than any of the others in terms of raw amount of life force that needs to be used to pull it off.

Now, before I forget, I should elaborate more on the genealogy bit of the magic mark. As I said, when someone with the mark dies, that mark goes to their nearest relative. Some of the gods are more sentimental than others, and will accept adopted children as being 'related' since they're CONSIDERED family, despite not actually being blood related. Now, what's important, VERY IMPORTANT to remember is that the gods are keeping count of who has the mark. This is important because as a family line has the mark, it becomes more and more deeply rooted into that family line, and the exchange between life force and magic becomes more efficient. What this means is that while a powerful father would be passing the mark to his son, the son will always be more powerful than his dad was if only because he can cast more magic using less life force than his dad. In this way, it's worthwhile to note that each magic user will often have "X^th generation 'mark name' user" attached to their title, to denote exactly how strong a bond they have with their mark. Very importantly, it should be noted that the bond between the mark and it's holder grows exponentially with each generation, so while their won't be that large of a power gap between the first and fifth generation, there'd be a HUGE GIGANTIC leap of power between the nineteenth and Twentieth. Finally, if for any reason EVERY SINGLE member of any given family is killed, and the mark can't pass to a relative (as there's noone to give it to), then the mark is given to a random child in the world, just as it's being born, in order to continue the magic mark curse on the world. The mark's generation though, in this case, is reset to 1st generation. This happens because the gods really insist on the mark plaguing humanity until the end of days.

Finally, the last thing the mark bestows on it's user is a curse. Whomever has the mark, whether or not they have actually cast any spells to entwine themselves with the mark, will have their destinies irreversibly warped and bent in order to make sure that, no matter how hard they try, they will never escape a horrible and tragic life. The users are told this upon receiving the mark, along with why this is so, from their magic memory. Just like the bond with the mark described above, the power of this curse also grows exponentially with each generation until the family line is completely dead, where it starts over.

Man that was a mess of text, and I hope everyone understands it, because I really like it and I've been able to make a pretty epic storyline in my head that uses it.

[SHAD0Wdump]

...

Pretty damn epic...

[Willfor]

...

Pretty damn epic...

Judgral (Fire Emblem 4 & 5) is a pretty epic setting to rip from. I've done freeform roleplaying in a modified Judgral setting and it ranks up there with one of the better times I've had. Especially when the players make different families shuffled around versions of the old ones. (I made the family that was the protagonist family in the game into a much greyer version)

These games aren't available in english though... officially.

[ein]

That's pretty awesome.

Spoiler: warning! huge wall of text (click to show/hide)

Mine is similar, with marks and such, but the marks are non-elemental, not related to gods or anything, and given to the wielder in varying manners. There's also lesser magic, which isn't as powerful as the marks (greater magic), but learnable by anyone.

An example of lesser magic would be fireball or magic missile, generic, common, and not very powerful.

An example of greater magic, and one that appears often (in my fantasies/writings), is the Demon Eye. It has multiple power levels that are passive for the first few levels. Later levels have less passive effects. At the fifth level, most people go completely insane and start brutally slaughtering everybody and everything until they die or pass out. It goes something like this:
 • Level 1: normal level, no visible effects, 2x natural power.
 • Level 2: irises turn red, 4x np.
 • Level 3: hair turns red, teeth become fangs, 8x np.
 • Level 4: red, firey aura, nails harden and lengthen into claws, psychosis, 16x np.
 • Level 5: black aura, berserker rage, larger claws and fangs, 32x np.
 • Level 6: incredibly rare, mind returns to level 4's mild psychosis, 64x np.
 • Level 7a: priestess form, body appears normal, but covered in glowing silver tattoos, non-destructive magic twice as powerful, destructive half so, 128x np.
 • Level 7b: devil form, body covered in black "tiger" stripes, giant claws, destructive magic 2x powerful, non-destructive half, 128x np.
 • Level 8: ultimate form, appearance varies based on attitude of user, but usually has aspects of other forms, 256x np.

There are other greater magic powers gained with the Demon Eye, but they are few and far between, with the mark being physical in nature. The Eye is transferred between users by means of an eye-shaped apparition zapping the next user, immediately putting them into fifth form. Most people don't make it past that part of the deal. The apparition hides in a box in some hidden location, such as a dungeon, waiting for someone to open it.

Another thing is that every magic user has a "signature." This is a special ability that everybody has, even people without a natural affinity towards magic. However, training must begin before or during puberty or the person will become unable to harness its ability. Typically, the signature is just an energy blast, beam, or ball that is the same colour as the person's aura. So if somebody with a naturally blue aura were to use it, it would be blue, but if they used in the Demon Eye's fourth form, it would be red. Unlike other magics, the signature gets stronger as it's used, but uses physical energy rather than spiritual like most powers. This means that you can potentially kill yourself if you overload the ability.

This brings me to energy types. There are four types of energy. Physical, spiritual, divine, and mental. These can be described easily by comparing them to dnd (or just traditional fantasy game) classes of fighter, mage, cleric, and psion.
 • Physical power is not magical in any way. It is just your stamina. A person with high physical power can run for a long time, whereas somebody with low physical power would not.
 • Spiritual power is your connection with the spirit plane. If you have high spiritual power, you don't actually have high power, you can simply access more of it from the spirit plane at one time. Spiritual power is used for traditional magics. If someone with high spiritual power cast a fireball, it would be stronger than somebody with low spiritual power.
 • Divine power is your favour with the gods. Divine power is not as easily measured as the other energy types. If you double in power, you'll be stronger in every way, but that doesn't mean the gods will like you more. Also, because the gods don't usually get along well with each other, divine power varies based on which god is being asked for help. A brutal warrior will more easily be granted godly strength from a war god than a quick heal for a mortal wound by a god of life.
 • Mental power determines things like perception and knowledge retention. There are very few magical effects caused by an increase in mental power. However, certain greater magics use mental power.

Artefacts are similar to artefacts in most settings. They are sentient and will choose their user. However, there is no set limit on the number of artefacts. Also, some of them can talk back by established a telepathic link with the wielder or anyone nearby. Once attuned to an artefact, the wielder will gain whatever powers are held by it. Artefacts can gain certain powers of previous wielders, so older ones are usually more powerful. Artefacts can be destroyed, but cannot be attuned to another user unless the user dies or abandons the artefact.

Anybody, feel free to use this and modify upon it.

[Aqizzar]

I've mostly skimmed over the very large post, I believe I've got the gist of it.  It all sounds good to me in terms of creating a story impetus, with the godly influences and so forth, but there's two things I'm not seeing.

One is, what does this magic mark actually entail?  If there's only nine people in the world who can use magic, I'm assuming they're not just parlor tricks or plain old fireballs.  It has to be worth it after all.

Second and bigger, especially if magic is world-shakingly powerful, is the human aspect of the magic mark.  Sure, the gods consider their mark a curse, but to everybody on earth, you're one of the nine most powerful people in existence.  Especially since they are walking talking proof of the existence of powerful and capricious gods, it's hard not to imagine the Nine Marked becoming divine emperors and such, either by forcing everyone to obey them or just from worshipers flocking to them.

By the same token, the fact that a Mark can only be passed from one relative to another, it's downright guaranteed to generate intra-family power feuds to rival the Hundred Years War.  Children could squabble like mad, trying to kill each other and the Marked to claim it's power for themselves.  Heck, does it go to children first, or siblings?  And what if someone dies without a relative?  Does it go back up and down a far enough branch of the family tree that if a particularly isolated Marked is killed, just about anyone could receive it next?

These are the kind of hard questions you'll need to answer.  And they double as great plot material.

[FluffyToast J]

Despite not liking high-fantasy stuff like this in general, I found this rather cool. Aqizzar does bring up some interesting points, too.

The healing/life 'element' could also be used as a sort of 'undeath' one, too, couldnt it? I mean, a fantasy world without zombies? What is this?

[Dae]

That's quite an interesting system, but here I have a question you probably already asked yourself. It can be such a good start for a story that it cannot be ignored : what happens if two Marked have a child together ?

[Outcast Orange]

My phantasy-verse has probably the complete opposite magic system.

There are all these beings referred to as "Powers" generically, but more commonly called by their race.
For instance, a power who has the form of a human is called an "Elder", because there was an actual human-like race called that eons ago, and that is what their form is based on.
(Let me bring up some text I've been dabbling)
Skeletals: Basically humanoid skeletons, but often with the skulls of other mammals, or strange ratio/limb counts.
Alien: Similar to Elders, but with some form of visible difference, such as skin color, or bone shape.
Ancient: Rare! They are very hard to explain, but they are made of stone and plantmatter, and have some bizarre personal living conditions.
Idols: Their form is some sort of object, basically, an inanimate floating symbol that goes around being stoic.

Powers are pretty damn old. They mostly range in ages below 3000.
The exceptional ones last longer though.

It is taboo to discuss creation, but at some point they were all regular mortal beings, before finding a way to preserve their body/soul eternally.
Around a certain age, somewhere in the 300-500's a certain internal ritual is performed.
Now you body can begin the magic aging process (no real aging involved) but your default form is permanent.
So if somehow you are returned to it, or maybe even resurrected, you will always return to your one form.
Magic potential increases with age.
You can't produce your own magic until your around 5000ish, and even then it isn't nearly as strong.
Instead, you can use the power of another being, referred to as a "Tap".
Taps are very old beings, that have become bored with existence, but would prefer not to keel over and give up all their ages of hard work and training, to be dissolved back into the life-stream.
Instead, they usually hole-up in some ridiculously difficult to find place, and sleep.

Lesser beings can make contracts with Taps to use their power. This is how everyone does it.
Also, by this age, they have done the fashionable thing and figured out how to change their permanent form into something more hardcore.
So most of them are idol form at this point, with no permanent physical body.
The cool ones (in my opinion) resort to being a huge collection of bones, banners, and floating oriental lanterns.

You have to bargain with them for a percentage of their power, in an attempt to fill your own potential power level. Most of them are malevolent or viciously unkind, because so many want their power, and they would prefer to recluse.

Magic itself is fairly complicated.
There are over 40 different inherent "aspects" of magic that you somewhat randomly are assigned when you finalize your form. 20 are common, 10 are uncommon, and 10 are super rare.
Your aspect effects the appearance of your spells, the effects, and other stuffs.
So if Black's personally tailored spell called "Black-Hands", in which a bunch of metal geometric spines come up out of the ground, usually to encircle and localize a battle field, is really just a form of the Vine spell, which she is able to perform because of her rarer aspect.
Magic is not just a show of force, but a show of expertise and technique. The spells are often as elaborate and intricate as the caster is capable of, to show their talent and power. There are all of these magic related variables which a spell can target, giving a much greater variety of spells. Also, the style of casting and the tools used will effect them. So the variety is ridiculous. Identifying the base type of a spell is often difficult, and tricky, since there are usually combined, modified, and distorted.
Beings have an actual invisible connection to the atmosphere around them, which can be used to route magic to them from their tap. Most taps will route magic through a portal, to a desired location of the caster.
Black has this great big tower out in the middle of the dark-plains where her tap rests. From there, she pulls it through the atmosphere to her current location.
It enters into the center of a power, usually mid-chest, and can be pulled through the limbs.
Most casters aren't even aware of this until they are skilled enough to manipulate the flow later on.
It is usually easiest to move it through an arm, and into an amplifier.
Amplifiers are usually staffs.
A crystal made of a magic material, can age with use, to  become more and more powerful.
Without the amplifier, magic is severely weakened.
It is unheard of to be able to cast without it actually.
This is often a ploy very powerful people use to appear disarmed. Only to cast from their hands a moment later.
I'm not sure what else to add, but I'll answer questions. This thing gets pretty complicated.

[JoshuaFH]

I've mostly skimmed over the very large post, I believe I've got the gist of it.  It all sounds good to me in terms of creating a story impetus, with the godly influences and so forth, but there's two things I'm not seeing.

1)One is, what does this magic mark actually entail?  If there's only nine people in the world who can use magic, I'm assuming they're not just parlor tricks or plain old fireballs.  It has to be worth it after all.

2)Second and bigger, especially if magic is world-shakingly powerful, is the human aspect of the magic mark.  Sure, the gods consider their mark a curse, but to everybody on earth, you're one of the nine most powerful people in existence.  Especially since they are walking talking proof of the existence of powerful and capricious gods, it's hard not to imagine the Nine Marked becoming divine emperors and such, either by forcing everyone to obey them or just from worshipers flocking to them.

3)By the same token, the fact that a Mark can only be passed from one relative to another, it's downright guaranteed to generate intra-family power feuds to rival the Hundred Years War.  Children could squabble like mad, trying to kill each other and the Marked to claim it's power for themselves.  Heck, does it go to children first, or siblings?  And what if someone dies without a relative?  Does it go back up and down a far enough branch of the family tree that if a particularly isolated Marked is killed, just about anyone could receive it next?

These are the kind of hard questions you'll need to answer.  And they double as great plot material.

In order:

Yes, the magic is very useful. Those with the mark would have control of their specific domain, with their power and dominance growing with each generation. While, as far as the game is concerned, this translates into having a big list of spells, but as far as the story is concerned, the characters have complete control over their element, with that control growing with each generation. For example, a 1st generation Mark User is pretty intimidating, a 20th generation Mark User can legitimately call themselves a living god. Another example, in my story, there's an 8th generation Water Mark User that can control the tides, create tidal waves, Turn any water into mist, breath underwater, freeze people subzero-style in the blink of an eye (since people are MADE of water), part seas Moses-style, or manipulate it in fancy ways like holding it as a makeshift ice shield. There's also a facet of the Mark system where Mark Users can create magical items, and the magical items can do things, even when held by non-mark users. They're not as great as artifacts though.

While this is more of the society of my fantasy-verse, it's worth explaining. Yes, the fantasy-verse's people have no doubt over the existence of gods, and they have temples and stuff in the name of each one. Marked people, since they are powerful enough to decide the fate of nations, are held in VERY high esteem in the social system, and are treated like royalty. Since they are held in such high esteem, it's not unusual for Marked families to BECOME royalty, if only because of how much influence they gain.

Finally, I already explained that if a family completely dies out, then the mark is given to a random newborn child somewhere in the world. The mark CAN jump up the family tree, so it can go from father to son, then back up to the mother. As far as feuding and wars for the mark, yes, that would be an important aspect of my fantasy-verse society. As far as WHO gets the mark if their's several eligible recipients, then it'll either go to whomever that person loved the most (as it's meant to be a bad thing), or to a random member of the family if that fails. It should be noted, however, that since the mark can pass to people that aren't related, but considered family, that the reverse is also true, where the mark CAN'T pass to a blood relative if they aren't considered family. For example, a marked father disowns his child for whatever reason, then the mark wouldn't pass to that child, but it would pass to his cousin/sister/whomever else is left. From the god's perspective, the blood connection isn't really that important, it's more of the sincere emotional connection that usually follows that allows the mark to jump from person to person.

Also:

That's quite an interesting system, but here I have a question you probably already asked yourself. It can be such a good start for a story that it cannot be ignored : what happens if two Marked have a child together ?

There's nothing that says that a person can't have TWO marks, now is there? Though, in that circumstance, while their power wouldn't be compounding, as they'd still be the "Xth" generation of each individual mark, the power of the curse WOULD compound. The person can entwine their souls with each mark, and the memories along with it without any real problem. Why? Magic.

Also, even though the person has two marks, there's nothing stopping the marks from separating once the person dies, and just going to two different relatives. It's the gods that ultimately control the marks, and they can just screw around with the rules if they feel the humans are finding ways around them.


Also, Outcast Orange, I'll have to read over your system again to ask questions, but it would seem to me to be slightly reminiscent of the "Aeon" system from Final Fantasy X.

[JoshuaFH]

That's pretty awesome.

Spoiler: warning! huge wall of text (click to show/hide)

Mine is similar, with marks and such, but the marks are non-elemental, not related to gods or anything, and given to the wielder in varying manners. There's also lesser magic, which isn't as powerful as the marks (greater magic), but learnable by anyone.

An example of lesser magic would be fireball or magic missile, generic, common, and not very powerful.

An example of greater magic, and one that appears often (in my fantasies/writings), is the Demon Eye. It has multiple power levels that are passive for the first few levels. Later levels have less passive effects. At the fifth level, most people go completely insane and start brutally slaughtering everybody and everything until they die or pass out. It goes something like this:
 • Level 1: normal level, no visible effects, 2x natural power.
 • Level 2: irises turn red, 4x np.
 • Level 3: hair turns red, teeth become fangs, 8x np.
 • Level 4: red, firey aura, nails harden and lengthen into claws, psychosis, 16x np.
 • Level 5: black aura, berserker rage, larger claws and fangs, 32x np.
 • Level 6: incredibly rare, mind returns to level 4's mild psychosis, 64x np.
 • Level 7a: priestess form, body appears normal, but covered in glowing silver tattoos, non-destructive magic twice as powerful, destructive half so, 128x np.
 • Level 7b: devil form, body covered in black "tiger" stripes, giant claws, destructive magic 2x powerful, non-destructive half, 128x np.
 • Level 8: ultimate form, appearance varies based on attitude of user, but usually has aspects of other forms, 256x np.

There are other greater magic powers gained with the Demon Eye, but they are few and far between, with the mark being physical in nature. The Eye is transferred between users by means of an eye-shaped apparition zapping the next user, immediately putting them into fifth form. Most people don't make it past that part of the deal. The apparition hides in a box in some hidden location, such as a dungeon, waiting for someone to open it.

Another thing is that every magic user has a "signature." This is a special ability that everybody has, even people without a natural affinity towards magic. However, training must begin before or during puberty or the person will become unable to harness its ability. Typically, the signature is just an energy blast, beam, or ball that is the same colour as the person's aura. So if somebody with a naturally blue aura were to use it, it would be blue, but if they used in the Demon Eye's fourth form, it would be red. Unlike other magics, the signature gets stronger as it's used, but uses physical energy rather than spiritual like most powers. This means that you can potentially kill yourself if you overload the ability.

This brings me to energy types. There are four types of energy. Physical, spiritual, divine, and mental. These can be described easily by comparing them to dnd (or just traditional fantasy game) classes of fighter, mage, cleric, and psion.
 • Physical power is not magical in any way. It is just your stamina. A person with high physical power can run for a long time, whereas somebody with low physical power would not.
 • Spiritual power is your connection with the spirit plane. If you have high spiritual power, you don't actually have high power, you can simply access more of it from the spirit plane at one time. Spiritual power is used for traditional magics. If someone with high spiritual power cast a fireball, it would be stronger than somebody with low spiritual power.
 • Divine power is your favour with the gods. Divine power is not as easily measured as the other energy types. If you double in power, you'll be stronger in every way, but that doesn't mean the gods will like you more. Also, because the gods don't usually get along well with each other, divine power varies based on which god is being asked for help. A brutal warrior will more easily be granted godly strength from a war god than a quick heal for a mortal wound by a god of life.
 • Mental power determines things like perception and knowledge retention. There are very few magical effects caused by an increase in mental power. However, certain greater magics use mental power.

Artefacts are similar to artefacts in most settings. They are sentient and will choose their user. However, there is no set limit on the number of artefacts. Also, some of them can talk back by established a telepathic link with the wielder or anyone nearby. Once attuned to an artefact, the wielder will gain whatever powers are held by it. Artefacts can gain certain powers of previous wielders, so older ones are usually more powerful. Artefacts can be destroyed, but cannot be attuned to another user unless the user dies or abandons the artefact.

Anybody, feel free to use this and modify upon it.

It seems pretty neat. Was the "demon eye" perhaps inspired by the Sharingan from Naruto? Also, what is 'natural power'?

[Bricks]

OP's system reminds me a little of (don't kill me) the system in Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Especially in the way the souls are tied to the power.  Sounds like a lot of potential for a story there - cultures could either worship the cursed as demigods, an inherited monarchy of devastating magical power; or as horrors and outcasts.  I'm not sure how this would work in a videogame, though.  Apart from the issues with developing multiple story lines, it's difficult to represent the curse as being life-threatening if it's also a major gameplay element.  It would either have to be a last-ditch ability, something used only during scripted events, or take an exorbitant amount of time to charge.  If you intend the artifacts to be a major element of gameplay, it could act as a means to channel that energy.  All of the abilities could be available at first, but collecting the appropriate artifact would make the magic far less harmful to yourself.  I'm not sure how you intend the artifacts to work.  It would be easier for an adventure-style game if there were multiple artifacts to collect instead of just one, as they could each be associated with different powers.  Otherwise, there could be a notion of powering up or reconstructing an artifact, which would in turn increase your control over the magic.  Those ideas might be a slap in the face to your intended world.

[JoshuaFH]

Well, I haven't even elaborated on how the game would work, so don't feel bad about suggesting things.

For one, it'd be an RPG with Loads and Loads of characters. It'd have Anyone Can Die, much like Fire Emblem, where once a character dies, they're DEAD and written out of the story. I already said it'd have a branching storyline to accommodate this. The magic system I describe would work much like the MP system, but instead of having a small MP bar that can be refilled over and over, the characters that can use magic have an incredibly large life force meter that can never be refilled, and is used up with magic. If it's used up entirely, the character dies.

[Frelock]

Since this seems to have become a thread for imagined magic systems, I might as well post mine:

Spoiler: SSSS (click to show/hide)

The Science with Spirit Sealing System (I needed a catchy name)
The idea bases itself upon a fusion of modern science with a classical magical system.  Similar to a classical magic system, there are "elements" which are taken into account.  These are basically the classical greek elements, but with a slight twist: they correspond to different phases of stuff more so than building blocks of the universe.  Also, each element corresponds to a particular finger.

Earth: Stands for anything in a solid state.  Corresponds to the thumb.
Water: Stands for anything in a liquid state.  Corresponds to the ring finger.
Air: Stands for anything in a gaseous state.  Corresponds to the little finger.
Fire: Stands for energy. Corresponds to the index finger.
Aether, or Spirit: Another form of energy.  Corresponds to the middle finger.

Now what magic users in this universe do is called "sealing."  Basically, they can take anything, and seal it away into a rune.  What type of rune corresponds to what you are sealing; there are 31 runes, corresponding to all the different possible combinations of elements (side note: did you know that you can count to 1023 on your fingers by simply counting in binary?).  For example, if you are sealing a cup of water, then you must use the rune which represents earth and water, in order to seal the cup(solid) and the water(liquid) respectively.  Active seals appear in shimmering light in front of the appropriate fingers.  How much can be sealed is limited mainly by the sealer's understanding of the object, and of his concentration.  Both also apply when attempting to seal only part of an object.

Now, once a seal has been made, the caster can change the object which has been sealed by both rearranging anything from the macro to the sub-atomic components of the object and by changing the object's phase.  Both can be an incredibly dangerous operation, as it takes great concentration to change a rune once it has been made, and all transformations require at least the addition of energy (except for a change in orientation of the object as a whole).  Rearranging of particles is the most difficult, as the energy required is exorbitant, and the sealer must know nearly exactly where everything goes (at least a general pattern to put all the particles in). 

By contrast, changing things between different states is more trivial.  To go between earth, water, and air, energy is simply added to, or removed from, the system.  This thermal energy (which the fire seal does not deal with) can be converted into any type of energy, so it's common to see skilled sealers take a batch of air, convert it into a solid, and change the thermal energy into kinetic energy to form a fast-moving projectile of solid atmosphere.  Of course, this requires the sealer to change a simple air rune into an earth-fire rune, which is extremely difficult.

Changing something's rune can prove to be a difficult process.  If it fails, then the seal will break, and the object will be expelled.  It will be expelled in the form of whatever elements were being used to seal it.  Due to Einstein's wonderful equation E=mc^2, we know that energy is matter(you can adjust the units so c=1), and thus anything can be converted into pure energy.  Therefore, if energy is being used at all, there is a chance that some of the object will be converted into raw energy, creating a very volatile explosion.  Having something come out as a compressed gas isn't good either.  Thus control is absolutely vital for any sealer.

Of course, it's possible to release a seal in a controlled manner (indeed, it would be completely useless to seal something away if you couldn't get it back).  Releasing a seal correctly is the second skill all sealers learn (the first being how to form a rune).  When a seal is released, whatever was sealed is returned to the form from which it was sealed (assuming no changes were made), in an orientation decided by the sealer.  The object will appear to come out of the rune, in a direction away from the caster.  While a sealer has an active seal on their fingertips, they are able to move and act normally.  Thus heavy lifting is nearly trivial for a sealer, as they can seal an object, move to the desired location, and set it down in the appropriate orientation.

Now the trick that takes a person from a "low sealer" to a "high sealer" is the ability to imbue seals.  This involves taking a normal seal, and converting it entirely into the fifth element, spirit.  This new seal can be imbued into the sealers own body, fusing with their own spirit.  Imbued spiritual energy can be kept in a distinctive form, however, and the imbued object can later be re-made by re-sealing the original spiritual energy, and converting it back into its original form.  Spiritual energy seems to be spatially tied to position on the body, so high sealers are often covered with tattoos to remind them of where different seals are kept.  Some people can do this process with almost no effort at all, and are able to easily incorporate spirit into any rune.  The reasons for this are unclear, and put down to natural talent.

When a seal is imbued, often the intermingling of the sealed spirit will mingle somewhat with the host spirit.  Thus, if a sealer imbues himself with too many seals or too much stuff is placed into one imbued seal, the sealer will begin to take on the aspects of whatever is sealed.  For example, if a sealer imbues too much earth, first their personality will change to become more stubborn and immovable.  Then their body might start to take on a grayish tone of color, and begin to get stiff.  Finally,the sealer will become completely made of stone.  This last stage would probably take imbuing a mountain or two depending on the strength of the sealer's spiritual energy.  If a sealer dies, the imbued seals will remain with the body for some time.  However, as the body decays, the seals begin to break.  Hence, a "death sealer" is often employed to safely release all the imbued seals of the deceased.  Either that, or the body is put on a remote mountaintop, or cast into the depths of the sea.

I might continue to edit this, just to refine my ideas.  It's defiantly not a system for any sort of game, but I'm thinking about writing a novel with this at its core.

[ein]

That's pretty awesome.

Spoiler: warning! huge wall of text (click to show/hide)

Mine is similar, with marks and such, but the marks are non-elemental, not related to gods or anything, and given to the wielder in varying manners. There's also lesser magic, which isn't as powerful as the marks (greater magic), but learnable by anyone.

An example of lesser magic would be fireball or magic missile, generic, common, and not very powerful.

An example of greater magic, and one that appears often (in my fantasies/writings), is the Demon Eye. It has multiple power levels that are passive for the first few levels. Later levels have less passive effects. At the fifth level, most people go completely insane and start brutally slaughtering everybody and everything until they die or pass out. It goes something like this:
 • Level 1: normal level, no visible effects, 2x natural power.
 • Level 2: irises turn red, 4x np.
 • Level 3: hair turns red, teeth become fangs, 8x np.
 • Level 4: red, firey aura, nails harden and lengthen into claws, psychosis, 16x np.
 • Level 5: black aura, berserker rage, larger claws and fangs, 32x np.
 • Level 6: incredibly rare, mind returns to level 4's mild psychosis, 64x np.
 • Level 7a: priestess form, body appears normal, but covered in glowing silver tattoos, non-destructive magic twice as powerful, destructive half so, 128x np.
 • Level 7b: devil form, body covered in black "tiger" stripes, giant claws, destructive magic 2x powerful, non-destructive half, 128x np.
 • Level 8: ultimate form, appearance varies based on attitude of user, but usually has aspects of other forms, 256x np.

There are other greater magic powers gained with the Demon Eye, but they are few and far between, with the mark being physical in nature. The Eye is transferred between users by means of an eye-shaped apparition zapping the next user, immediately putting them into fifth form. Most people don't make it past that part of the deal. The apparition hides in a box in some hidden location, such as a dungeon, waiting for someone to open it.

Another thing is that every magic user has a "signature." This is a special ability that everybody has, even people without a natural affinity towards magic. However, training must begin before or during puberty or the person will become unable to harness its ability. Typically, the signature is just an energy blast, beam, or ball that is the same colour as the person's aura. So if somebody with a naturally blue aura were to use it, it would be blue, but if they used in the Demon Eye's fourth form, it would be red. Unlike other magics, the signature gets stronger as it's used, but uses physical energy rather than spiritual like most powers. This means that you can potentially kill yourself if you overload the ability.

This brings me to energy types. There are four types of energy. Physical, spiritual, divine, and mental. These can be described easily by comparing them to dnd (or just traditional fantasy game) classes of fighter, mage, cleric, and psion.
 • Physical power is not magical in any way. It is just your stamina. A person with high physical power can run for a long time, whereas somebody with low physical power would not.
 • Spiritual power is your connection with the spirit plane. If you have high spiritual power, you don't actually have high power, you can simply access more of it from the spirit plane at one time. Spiritual power is used for traditional magics. If someone with high spiritual power cast a fireball, it would be stronger than somebody with low spiritual power.
 • Divine power is your favour with the gods. Divine power is not as easily measured as the other energy types. If you double in power, you'll be stronger in every way, but that doesn't mean the gods will like you more. Also, because the gods don't usually get along well with each other, divine power varies based on which god is being asked for help. A brutal warrior will more easily be granted godly strength from a war god than a quick heal for a mortal wound by a god of life.
 • Mental power determines things like perception and knowledge retention. There are very few magical effects caused by an increase in mental power. However, certain greater magics use mental power.

Artefacts are similar to artefacts in most settings. They are sentient and will choose their user. However, there is no set limit on the number of artefacts. Also, some of them can talk back by established a telepathic link with the wielder or anyone nearby. Once attuned to an artefact, the wielder will gain whatever powers are held by it. Artefacts can gain certain powers of previous wielders, so older ones are usually more powerful. Artefacts can be destroyed, but cannot be attuned to another user unless the user dies or abandons the artefact.

Anybody, feel free to use this and modify upon it.

It seems pretty neat. Was the "demon eye" perhaps inspired by the Sharingan from Naruto? Also, what is 'natural power'?

It was more inspired by Vecna's eye. But now that you mention it, there is some similarity.

Natural power is just a person's innate power levels. As such, a person has separate natural power levels for the different energy types. There is no real system of measurement, but for the sake of explaining, I've assigned power level to numbers from 2 to 100. Normal range is 2 to 24. With training, you can get it up to 60. 61 to 100 is super-superhuman. Demigod level. It can be achieved through a number of ways, including fusing the soul of a high-power entity (demon, god, dragon, etcetera), being the child of a god and human (literal demigod), or having it granted to you by the gods. With something that boosts power, you can reach absurd power levels. For example, lets take a demigod who stole the soul of a demon and achieved a power level of 100. If they also have the Demon Eye, they can reach a power level of 25,600. Even an ordinary human with a power of, say, 25, who has the Eye, but not any of the rarer, stronger abilities, can reach a power level of 400.

[Aldaris]

OP: Nice system, have you thought about some enormous empire led by a completely tortued bearer of all 9 Marks? Or just a bearer of all 9 in general, possibly a many-generation one as well.

Frelock: Interesting system, but wouldn't those last few bits make kamikaze extremely easy? Seal a large amount of mass, run into a target area, release Seals, explosively if possible.