A Magic System with Rules
When I started writing Amplified, the first book in the Knox Agency Chronicles, I wanted a magic system that had a lot of power under the hood, but with caveats. After all, unlimited magic that has no cost takes most of the meat off the bone for both reader and author, and frankly makes the whole thing a little boring.
What Magic Can—and Can’t—Do
Magic in Charlotte Knox’s world can do almost anything. It can affect matter (transforming objects or living beings), bend life and death (bringing back the dead—briefly), manipulate space (travel between dimensions), and reveal hidden truths (determining the nature and power of objects, magical or not), among many other things. Each spell or working requires different techniques or materials, and not all practitioners can do all spells. (More on that later.) But magic, or as Char spells it, magick, has a broad range of applications.
There are limitations, of course. Magic can’t be used to “unmake” something. Why not, you ask? It’s a nod to a familiar rule from the land of physics; matter and energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed. So, you can break a cup with magic, but you can’t unmake the cup. It’s not that magic can’t break things—it’s that it can’t erase them from existence.
The Source of Power
Then there’s the cost of magic. The power to transform or otherwise impact something has to come from somewhere. In Char’s world, the original source for magic is usually the Earth. There are also beings, usually deities, who derive power from emotional resonance, like worship or praise.
Some creatures get their power from the stars. Each of them has only one source, though. If they are cut off from that source, they can’t do magic, which as you might imagine, causes problems. Practitioners who are magic can’t exist apart from their source.
Ley Lines and Burnout
Ley lines, rivers and streams of Earth-based power, criss-cross the globe in a known pattern. Some are wide and deep, others barely a trickle. Either way, geography matters. The closer a practitioner is to a line, the more energy they can pull in. The limitation resides in how much power the wielder can handle, and how deep the line is.
Practitioners can draw on ley line energy to create magical results—as long as they can pay the freight. Non-deities were not built to harness more than a fraction of the available ley line energy at a time. Channel too much and you burn out either mentally or physically. Sometimes both, in which case, it is usually permanent.
Even if they don’t burn out, using magic on a large scale can exhaust, or even sicken a practitioner. This is true for all witches and most magical entities. There are ways around this, but those carry their own price tag.
Who Uses Magic—and Who Is Magic
You may have noticed that I haven’t limited the discussion to witches, or any other magic making entity. In Char’s world, a person either is magic or practices magic, rarely if ever both.
So, witches practice magic. They are parahuman – a species that developed naturally alongside human beings. Similar, but not the same. Fairies, pixies, elementals, and the like ARE magic. They have specific talents and weaknesses related to what they are, but the power to practice their ability still comes from the Earth.
For instance, Brand started life as a human, but when a demon turned him into a vampire, he became a magical creature, losing the capacity to channel ley line energy. On the plus side, his new abilities included cloaking himself in glamor, superhuman speed and strength, and an extended lifespan. However, he is also allergic to the sun.
Individual Limits and Aptitudes
Each person carries their own magical limitations as well. Char is a crystal witch. She identifies most with stones from the earth and uses them in her practice. Plant magic and soul magic aren’t her forte. This doesn’t mean she can’t perform green magic, but she’s never going to get famous for it.
Her sister, Lena, on the other hand, is a green witch. Most of her magic is implemented through green and growing things. She can use crystals, or pull power directly from the ley lines, but she isn’t as good with these options as Char is.
Magical Artifacts: Modifiers and Implements
Then there are the objects. Magical artifacts in Char’s world come in two types. One is called a modifier artifact. Amplification stones, like Doirsain, are modifier talismans. (How such things came into existence is another article entirely.) They cannot, by themselves, create or transform anything. Doirsain simply amplifies whatever power is available while protecting the bearer, in this case Char, from magical burnout.
Another example is protection amulets. Made by a practitioner of herbs, crystals, bone or other materials, they provide defense of some kind. Sometimes the protection is general, other times against a specific type of danger, depending on the intention of the maker. All modifier artifacts change how magic works, not what it does.
The other type of artifact is the implementation artifact. Each of these has a specific power that it grants to the bearer. Some examples are earrings that let you listen to distant conversations, a ring that grants you invisibility, a box that can hold anything, regardless of size or volatility, etc. The power of an implementation artifact almost always has a connection to the structure of the object. Earrings/hearing, box/containing, etc.
The Price of Power
All magic comes at a cost. For direct use of ley line power, the risk is that using too much can kill you. Some spells take a piece of your soul in execution – the bigger the desired result, the bigger the piece. Others require life force. Practitioners literally shorten their lifespan with such workings — whether they know it or not.
For creatures who are magic, the cost is much less severe and usually takes the form of depletion. Massive or prolonged use can exhaust and even kill a magical creature, but regular, reasonable use is similar to exercise for humans; exhausting in the moment, beneficial in the long run—assuming you don’t overdo it.
Magic may be powerful in the Knox Agency world, but it’s never free—and it’s rarely convenient. Which, as it turns out, makes it a lot more interesting.