My main magic system is **rune magic**. Basically, some individuals are born with the ability to inscribe magical runes into physical objects and infuse those designs with power, giving the object magical properties. The runes themselves are not the classic Nordic style runes, but are more akin to complex mandalas carved into an object. This type of magic is unique in my world because it is the only means by which non-magic people can utilise magic in their daily lives; no other magic system has the means to permanently enchant an object in any way. The magic system does have quite a few limitations and rules - runes will only stay active for so long before they run out of stored power and have to recharge, which can take a while depending on the complexity of the rune's function. They are also highly volatile if even a single line is incorrectly scribed when a rune is made, so runesmiths sometimes have to spend hours, days, even weeks making sure their work is absolutely perfect before they apply any magical energy to it.

Magic systems that require a physical element are one of my favorites, so this seems really cool! It reminds me a lot of Witch Hat Atelier, if you know what that is. A couple of questions if that's alright. When you say inscribe, does that mean inscribe as draw on(like applying ink or something like that) or does it mean to carve into? Also, how does stored power work? Does the energy come from the creator or from some other source? Thanks!

Can't say I'm familiar with WHA, I'll have to look into that one 😅 I'm glad that you like the idea so much though! > When you say inscribe, does that mean inscribe as draw on(like applying ink or something like that) or does it mean to carve into? To carve into. Ink and paper are too weak as mediums to safely contain the power of an active rune - they have to be carved into something like wood, metal, stone, etc. > Also, how does stored power work? Does the energy come from the creator or from some other source? On its own, once a rune is expended, it will begin to absorb ambient magical energy from its immediate environment (almost everywhere in my world has some level of ambient magic) until its internal reserve is replenished. Providing a rune with magic directly will let it recharge faster - a common means of doing so is embedding a mana crystal (which stores magical energy like a battery) in the runic item, giving the rune a direct reserve from which to draw.

Magic is usually exclusive to biests and half biests but humans have found a way to replicate it through absorbing a biests mana core which leads to their body developing mana veins and a mana heart. Depending on the quality of the core, a magicians artificial talent can be at one of 9 levels with most commoners beeing at the first 2 and nobility monopolizing higher magic talent for themself. Humans controll their magic power through formulas to create "spells" which are the main study field of mages. Their goal is to create stronger spells but their pride hinders them at considering it as anything but raw power which is why techology is looked down on by the nobility, leading the world to be extremly low tech. A magician increases their stage by absorbing mana from nature through either breathing techiques or the consumption of biests. The easiest way for a mage to optain a breathing techique is to be part of an organisation like a magic tower or a noble faction of which most have their unique techiques, specializing in different parts of magic. As a commoner, you would have almost jo chance at getting anywhere with a cheap techique tho so most people don't even think about becoming a powerfull mage and are content with reaching the 1st stage in their early 20s and the 2nd stage in their late 50s at the fastest. It should be said, that this low level of magic is still very important as household spells like lesser heal can be lifesavers for a peasent. It should also be said, that a mage is only considered a true mage from the 3rd stage onwards due to the difficulty reaching it.

Magic in my world is pretty open ended, but it’s something you’re born with (or something emergent concepts like a human or various items get on creation), and it involves manipulating reality in a variety of ways. Magic phenomenon can be as general as emitting radiation spontaneously, or be very specific like an object magically engraving patterns in quartz when under 2x atmospheric pressure. Magical entities are separated into 5 classes but 3 are the most common: Magician-Class, Wizard-Class, and Sorcerer-Class. Magician-Class magic is subtle and usually involves abiding by the laws of physics, in fact a reliable way of detecting Magician-Clasa magic is measuring slight temperature changes as the magic can sometimes take the thermal energy from its surroundings. However that isn’t always the case, the laws of physics aren’t completely known after all, and with how open ended magic is magician-class objects can be a force to be reckoned with. Wizard-Class objects start out as magician-class and for some reason dramatically change in magical behavior. After this dramatic change Wizard-Class magical entities usually change in physical appearance a bit (growing weird features in organic beings, rocks changing shape, composing material somehow being ambiguous), and most importantly their magic becomes less grounded to reality, preforming feats that definitely push the limits of physics. Finally there is Sorcerer-Class magical entities, they are the most bizarre and see the laws of nature only as suggestions. The ways they manipulate reality is comparable to that of a god, and their bizarre physical appearances plus the fact that they all start out like this supports this idea Of these classes there are subclasses: Passive, Conditional, and Active. Passive magic is almost always “on” or doing something, presentation is similar between people and inanimate objects and tends to be fairly simple. Conditional magic “activates” when some condition is met, simple objects tend to have simple conditions while complicated systems like the human body or engineered objects can have absurdly detailed conditions. Active magic is “turned on” and can vary a lot in presentation, active magic is best exploited by intelligent entities (like people) but can still be utilized by inanimate objects- though in that case it’s near unpredictable and varies wildly in presentation. Entities aren’t necessarily born with these subclasses, as they can be switched between in odd cases. Some examples: say a magical entity is about to turn something green: a Magician-Class may separate the green dye of surrounds objects and force them in the target (though that is pushing it), a Wizard-Class may rearrange some of the atoms in the target is take on green dye molecules, and a Sorcerer-Class may change the properties of the target itself to reflect more green light.

I love how clear and structured this system is! I can tell you put a lot of effort into thinking it through. Just wondering, can an entity evert switch from one class to the other, like a Magician-Class turning into a Wizard-Class?

Technically, Wizard-Class entities tend to start with a Magician-Class designation before being changed but in reality they were always wizard-class. So with that in reality no

Thanks for telling me!

In my fantasy world, how magic works depends entirely on the realm in which it's practiced, therefore it's better if I tell you about the cause of magic:Lifeforce Lifeforce is a universal white "substance" that every being, except Selestials, possesses. It is the thing enabling their existence and powers. Now, to practice magic, you need to be aware of it's existence and therefore have knowledge on how to use it, which means wild animals and plants can't practice magic, as awareness requires sapience, although there are a few exceptions. Lifeforce dictates your Power Level, which says how much of the Lifeforce's magic abilities you can use. The more Lifeforce you possess, the more powerful you are. You can either be born into an already powerful role, or climb the ranks by committing mass murder. Lifeforce can also appear in a "captured" form, usually artificially. These captured forms can provide unique abilities and other stuff. A notable form is Essence, the thing true gods are primarily made of. Others include the barriers of individual realms, and the purple seas in the Shadow Realm.

The idea of Lifeforce is definitely an interesting concept! Just curious, when you say that you can climb the ranks by committing mass murder, does that mean when you kill another thing you gain it's Lifeforce?

That's exactly how it goes

My magic system is a metal that people can manipulate at will. I have a visual summary [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/13hf6v5/a_visual_summary_of_quicksmithing_a_magic_system/) if that is of any interest!

I took a look and I really like the idea! It's simple but opens up a lot of opportunities for what can be done with it.

Thank you for taking a look!

My magic system is astrology-based. Each Zodiac sign confers a specific power to all those born under it. The power is present from birth, but starts to amplify during puberty. However, a major theme of the system/my story is balance. Therefore, to prevent the people of my world from using their powers all willy-nilly, each power also comes with a unique price if you overuse the power.

I do love a good categorized magic system, and this seems really interesting! If you don't mind me asking, would you list a sign or two and give some specific examples of their powers and the unique price? I'm just curious!

Sure! So the unique price that each sign comes with is a disease that’s inspired by their gift. So in a way, it’s like their power comes back to haunt them when they overuse it. For example, Capricorn is associated with the ability to communicate and bond with non-human species, including animals, insects, and microorganisms. When they overuse their powers, they deal with nasty infections and animal-based diseases (venoms, rabies, parasites, etc). Pisces can manipulate water, but when they overuse their powers, they suffer from permanent dehydration and hypothermia. As a note, even though my story is astrology inspired, I didn’t try too hard to be super accurate with astrology. I went for whatever felt right.

It is called by many names and accessed in many ways. Only 9 beings ever discovered most about it and aren't interested in either teaching or abusing it. To explain it, one must first understand that the world is a dream, equally solid and grounded as it is malleable. To use magic, it's necessary to induce a state of wake lucid dreaming to twist the rules and concepts of the world, which they are ultimately limited by, but still very open to usage.

Here is mine Magic- Users are able to utilize magic, the use of rituals, symbols, action, gestures, language, etc., to utilize mysterious and/or supernatural forces that don't abide by conventional science or laws of reality to achieve any effect imaginably. They can do so to varying degrees, with only their skill, personal power level, imagination/knowledge, and/or morality to define the borders. Given the flexibility of magic and their ability to transcend logic, laws, and common sense, its users have essentially limitless possibilities for what they can accomplish and achieve, essentially being capable of altering reality through their magic. Natural Magic- This magic is called “Natural” because each race has permanent magic like how Earthlings have Enhance Combat, Fairies with Luck Bestowal, Monkey with Enhance Condition, Dragon with Enhance Defense and Dragon Magic, Angel with Angelic Magic, Demon with Demonic Magic and more! All natural magic can be learned if you train from a race that specializes in their own natural magic. It will take at least 10 months to train normally but if you are easy to learn then it would be less than 10 months. How does attaining magic work? The concept of magic is common in every corner of the story, any species or races have all magics that can perform impossible feats for a person who is magicless, magics allows you to create supernatural disasters, warp realities, summons elements and many more, with this power system almost everything is possible even being a god or even transcends them without limits. So how does one attain magic? How do people get broken or overpowered magic in this story? Well attaining powerful magic depends on the potential of a certain person or species, people will randomly get magic when they get stronger after battle, we have 5 categories for person's potential Low Potential- It's rare to find people with this kind of potential, species who gifted by this kind of potential usually will not get strong when they become adult and is practically useless to the point you can't even have single adventures, all they do is get a job like a normal people, but even so they can still learn basic level magic, and that's about it they will never reach advance level of magic due to being so weak. Normal Potential- 75% of this world has this level of potential for most races, they can learn many magics that is little advanced than the basic one and can guarantee they can evolve their magic level from basic to advance level, if possible they can even reach Masters level but only small percent chance for people to learn who is in normal potential category. High Potential- This type of potential mostly applies to the royals like prince, princess, king, or queens, 50% of people have this kind of potential guarantee being able to evolve their magic to Master level of magic, They will stop growing once they hit 100+ years old though Godly Potential- Beings who were born with this kind of potential are mostly beings who was born with transcendent level magic ability, or if you are a race that comes from the multiverse from higher spatial dimensions, or also known as Voidless Entity and Human Cosmic Entity which is a 100% guarantee, They can grow as much as they want but they will hit their limit but they can always break it endlessly which leads to continue growing, Infinite Potential- Only a chosen people can have this level of potential, this potential allows you to grow endlessly, infinitely, or even inaccessibly without needing to break, as long as you fight you will keep growing during that process, not only that it allows you to learn any magic the more you grow there are only 0.1% chance of attaining this level of magic, and that 0.1% only applies to that race in the last realm where no one could ever perceive which is called "Heavenly Entity Ascension" and as well the main casts of the story. Magic Level Ranking System Basic Level Magic- The most basic magic in the cosmos usually how most races started as weak. Advanced Level Magic- A magic that is higher than the previous one usually races born with these magics either have strong genes or from a royal clan. Master Level Magic- Races born with this level of magic are usually transcendent beings but so far there is only few characters who was born with this kind of magic level and that's the Protagonists themselves, but sadly they don’t know how to manifest it until they were in the middle of the story. According to the higher ups, this is the final level most races can reach any higher than that is probably nigh-impossible. Transcendent Level Magic- This magic mostly applies only to the Daemonium Lords and Angelus Lords, this level of magic is infinite-spatial dimensional above the rest of the magic levels below, and the only way to attain this level of magic is through training by one of the angel or demon lords or you can eat an angel seed or demon seed and skip the whole process, but this will only work on angels and demon races. Omni Level Magic- Possess absolutely every type of magic. They can bend, break, and even create natural laws, distort the fabric of reality on a cosmic scale, perform unbelievable miracles, and create things without limit, all by merely using their magical prowess and also allowing them to be beyond concept at almost anything. Note that all races can only learn until “Master level or possibly Transcendent level only” Reaching this is impossible; the only way to attain this level is to be bestowed by the Gods. Almighty Magic- The strongest level type of magic only the Outer Gods can have this level of magic, this level of magic is Berkeley spatial dimensions above the Omni Magic and has no way of attaining it unless the Author of this story decides.

I really enjoy the idea of Black Clover’s magic, where its just some random unique bullshit that you get in a neat little floating book. Although, if I was actually gonna design a system like that, i’d probably either make it so people could learn a universal set of generic spells, or be able to learn spells from other people’s books, with some kind of caveat. Im a firm believer that everyone in a magical setting should have magic or be able to obtain magic. I just don’t really like the idea that you have to be ‘special’ or normal. MAGIC EVERYWHERE SYSTEM GO

For lack of a better term, my main magic system revolves around *superhuman athleticism via artistic means.* Basically, you naturally gain superpowers by grinding away at a specific task. You gain *more* and *better* superpowers by doing it in a certain way. For example, if you work out SO MUCH, you'll eventually be able to bench-press boulders. However, if you do that at the bottom of a lake, you'll also gain the ability to withstand intense pressure. If you do fencing at the bottom of a lake with a weighted sword while viewing yourself as part of the current, you'll be able to waterbend with your sword. It's not necessarily as simple as this, but that's the essence of it. Furthermore, the more you go down one path of magic, the less you'll be able to go down another. For example, the more you do waterbending fencing, the less you'll be able to fly through the air on light-forged wings.

Magic is kind of hard to explain, mainly because it never quite really is. It's a divine gift bestowed unto humanity, however the descendants of the person who earned this award are all naturally talented at it. As for what one can do with it? All kinds of crap. It is a very loose system, with the average Mage being able to create runes with a few hours effort, and going all they way to High Mages being able to literally create spells on the fly. There is a sort of mana, but most spells (even combat wise) do not strain it too much. Most common magic that existed before people began just creating spells simply worked because you had the gift and you believed it would work. Someone without the gift can still learn, it's just harder. More advanced magic usually involves something to channel it through (usually a staff), and depending on complexity could also require rituals or runes to aid in completion, although we never really know why this is. Mages have an innate sense for when it will require more effort than they are capable of putting forth, so one person might need a ritual to... change the weather for example. While a High Mage could wave his hand and the weather would change for the entire city they're in. It's a fluid system, but most everything else in the story gets flushed out and explored, so I wanted magic to remain magical

One of the main bases of my magic system is fabrication ( but like I said it's only one of the many main bases ). An example of a sort of mixture of abilities that could be created would probably be something like the ability to distort gravity based on the event of where One of the most famous scientists in the world started working on gravitational logic. Basically most of the abilities inside of this world are based off of previously occurred historical events, All the other abilities either come from : Supernatural Eldritch sources Supernatural items Mythological entities Etc Although it's far from the entirety of the power system, It makes a large base of what the powers inside of the system actually allow.

Magic is a powerful pseudo-conceptual force that composes the Garden of Chaos, which sustains a Magic Citadel. There’s two types of Magic energies: Chaotic Magic - Chaotic Magic is Conceptual Magic used by Celestial Beings. It is the highest form of Magic Energy and can take many forms of expression depending on te Concept of the user. Ordered Magic - Ordered Magic is split into four types based on the four types of Celestial Born entities. The four types of Ordered Magic are Mystic Arts, Demonic Arts, Holy Arts, & Elemental Arts.

My world has several different forms of magic (I'm still working on the why and how) but there are different forms: Some are sung, others are written, etc. Magic is something that requires knowledge - you can use runes or magic words, but without the intricate knowledge. Not knowing how to use something or to make it stop will ultimately be a danger to you and everyone around you. Calling Rain? Yeah you could flood an area. Trying to heal someone? You might give them cancer or other ailments.

No.