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u/Numerous-Drink3797

r/Powersystems r/magicbuilding r/worldbuilding
▲ 3 r/Powersystems

Thoughts on my Formless Power System?

General thought

There are a few things that bothers me western power systems, predominantly stuff like the M-Count from Star Wars. This idea, to me, falls into the category of the “genetic lottery is everything/truth” troupe. Maybe it's because I've buried my head in Chinese literature since I discovered the Wuxia and Xianxia genres, but there's something nice about a power that's available through effort.

Anyways, that led me to create the Formless. This magic system came from my fascination with and the idea of a hard structure for the Force, then I kept adding other unique Esper type powers like The Voice from Dune.

It all starts with the Great Consciousness. The best way to explain it is this; Think of the universe as a simulation, then the Great Consciousness will be the CPU for the Matrix. Or if the universe was all a product of the Dreamer, then the Great Consciousness is self explained. It is essentially the foundation upon which Reality is perceived.

Everyone and everything has a connection with It and the Formless abilities are accessed the closer your connection.

Level 1 is Instinct. Where most animal are categorized.

Level 2 is Thoughts. Where most intelligent life is categorized.

From Level 3 to maybe Level 9 is where one gains Formless abilities equivalent to Esper abilities;

  1. Vector= Force push and pull.
  2. Formless Hand= Force choke and other inanimate objects control.
  3. Formless to Form. A powerful ability accepted as taboo for its track record in corrupting its users, like the Dark side of the Force represented by Force lightning.
  4. Controlling existing elements. One can also make ice by stripping water of heat and so on.
  5. Perception manipulation
  6. The Command Voice like in Dune
  7. Formless Enhancement
  8. Future sight
  9. The highest connection gives one control of all things, making one a god but comes with the possibility of losing oneself and becoming one with the System/Dream.
  10. Magic is possible if one takes the risk of being a god's steward. I'm imagining psychers from WarHammer.

Basically, the closer you are to the Great Consciousness, the more access you have to the System/Dreamscape. Also the abilities available to you depends on your level, I'm just have a hard time structuring it well to provide smooth power progression.

      Conditions For Advancements.

Overcome the Trials and the Form.

Struggles of the Mind and Body.

All who sleep and wake,

Convictions your lamp, Path's clear. (I've always had this cool mantra in mind but the specifics of it elude me)

Basically It is very difficult to reach Level 3 and above without any form of Struggle. There will be those born with an above level 2 connection but they will not be the focus of my stories.

There will be very rare natural materials such as the Void Grass Herb and Undine Liquid, that are meant to make the Trials relatively smooth. I thought of this to introduce class conflicts and elitism.

The possibilities are endless here, so the plan is to create multiple stories under this system like a shared universe. There's a lot I feel like I missed to write here because of my ADHD brain, so any questions are welcome.

Aépio

reddit.com
u/Numerous-Drink3797 — 4 days ago
▲ 28 r/Powersystems+2 crossposts

My Elemental Power System.

In this world I've imagined, Elemental energies are dense and volatile causing natural disasters and creating elemental beasts.

To remedy this, a Crowned Wissen built temples in specific elemental dense zones which is meant to absorb and refine these energies into crystals for domestic purposes. For example, Fire crystals for cooking or blacksmithing, and Earth crystals to strengthen cities from quacks. Of course humans being as we are used them to fuel war efforts.

A few centuries later, a world wide revolution started by a Scholar over the fact that being a Wissen isn't a bloodline thing, was not going well as planned, he then strived and achieved Crowned status. He repurposed the temples to then inject the refined energies into the commoners of his revolution, allowing them to control the elements.

The Nobles then locked in and produced more Wissen than ever before and won the war. They kept the temples because the Elementalist couldn't threaten them, they also discovered hundreds of humans absorbing from the temples worked better to reduce elemental density, and also letting powered commoners battle elemental beasts worked better than them doing it.

But the number of repurposed temples were made lesser in number than the temples making elemental crystals.

        A Piece of Worldbuilding.

The world has the classic, fire, water, earth, and wind, with the addition of Aether. At the beginning of civilization, those who invented written language, agriculture and governance became Royalty with their helpers becoming Noblemen. They were able to do amazing things because for some reason their Knowledge and practiced wisdom gave them access to Aether which made them Wissen(Noble mages) giving them protector status, further legitimizing their rule.

Later generations of rulers chose to indulge rather than apply themselves, decreasing Wissen numbers.

Before the Great Revolution, public libraries were a thing though rare, built by Wissen philosophers which created Scholars(Commoner mages), who lessened administration burden on Nobles. These structures were destroyed after the War.

The locations of the Wind temples were lost/hidden after the War. Only Wind crystals are occasionally found to make weapons and Flying Ships.

Binding Vow magic was created to still make use of commoners who were willing to sell their lives to visit a nobles' private library, and carry Noblemen burden. The class of Scribes was created, carrying the Nobles' disdain and a shame on what Scholars used to be.

......

Rangers are a militant force created after the war by The Executives(a Wissen council of sorts) to be a borderless peace-keeping and judiciary force in the continent. Think of them as the Marines in One Piece.

The Nobles didn't know a concrete way to reach Crowned status. Those who reached it all said they found themselves emotionally and mentally.

It was later discovered that one has to unlock all their Chakra paths to achieve Cosmic awareness at the Crown Chakra point.

A Crowned Wissen can do anything an overpowered magic user does in fiction.

       The Magic Part.

Elements. | Subjectives.

Fire- Flames,heat,lightning,Smoke

Wind- Any airborne

Water- Ice, Steam, Fog, Rain,

Earth- Metal, Wood(Healing/medicinal essence and Poison), Minerals

Wissen arts are basically magic. They use poems, written language like hieroglyphics, gestures and movements, large or small for different spells and effects.

If a Commoner wants to be an Elementalist, he/she by 15yrs old has to travel to a temple. Everything else is determined by Chakra paths one opened before or during Altering( a play on the words, to alter and a temple's Alter).

From;

The way one releases his element.

The unique way one uses it.(Throat Chakra)

The Strength and Stability of your element(Root Chakra). Whether an Earth wall can withstand an attack without crumbling.

The Output/Feats(Solar Plexus Chakra). Creating and destroying large landmasses

The Sub elements one unlocks(Heart Chakra).

The limitations/quirks. Whether one can condense water attacks or has to have an existing source.

Also Quirks like Earth dive, personal zones, small electromagnetism, quacks, or sound.

.......

The Altering process encases the participants in crystal where they undergo elemental resistance and gain enhanced physique.

Also if one hasn't opened any Chakra paths before or during Altering,he/she gets dissolved and absorbed by the temple.

Brutes are people who refuse Altering for various reasons but have enhanced stats. They use elemental beast's blood,heart, marrow, and spinal fluids to body build beyond peak human levels.

The Commoners had no knowledge of Chakra paths or how it affects their powers until the current timeline where a series of events brings it to the open.

Three levels became achievable.

  1. Burst- opening three or more paths. Being on par with Scribes/Scholars.

  2. Integrity- opening AJNA Chakra. Becoming a threat to Wissens.

  3. Crowned- opening the Crown Chakra. Obtaining Conceptual level abilities related to an element equivalent to an Adolla Link.

And questions and feedback are welcomed.

u/Numerous-Drink3797 — 4 days ago
▲ 13 r/magicbuilding

The Formless Magic System.

General thought

There are a few things that bothers me western power systems, predominantly stuff like the M-Count from Star Wars. This idea, to me, falls into the category of the “genetic lottery is everything/truth” troupe. Maybe it's because I've buried my head in Chinese literature since I discovered the Wuxia and Xianxia genres, but there's something nice about a power that's available through effort.

Anyways, that led me to create the Formless. This magic system came from my fascination with and the idea of a hard structure for the Force, then I kept adding other unique Esper type powers like The Voice from Dune.

It all starts with the Great Consciousness. The best way to explain it is this; Think of the universe as a simulation, then the Great Consciousness will be the CPU for the Matrix. Or if the universe was all a product of the Dreamer, then the Great Consciousness is self explained. It is essentially the foundation upon which Reality is perceived.

Everyone and everything has a connection with It and the Formless abilities are accessed the closer your connection.

Level 1 is Instinct. Where most animal are categorized.

Level 2 is Thoughts. Where most intelligent life is categorized.

From Level 3 to maybe Level 9 is where one gains Formless abilities equivalent to Esper abilities;

  1. Vector= Force push and pull.
  2. Formless Hand= Force choke and other inanimate objects control.
  3. Formless to Form. A powerful ability accepted as taboo for its track record in corrupting its users, like the Dark side of the Force represented by Force lightning.
  4. Controlling existing elements. One can also make ice by stripping water of heat and so on.
  5. Perception manipulation
  6. The Command Voice like in Dune
  7. Formless Enhancement
  8. Future sight
  9. The highest connection gives one control of all things, making one a god but comes with the possibility of losing oneself and becoming one with the System/Dream.
  10. Magic is possible if one takes the risk of being a god's steward. I'm imagining psychers from WarHammer.

Basically, the closer you are to the Great Consciousness, the more access you have to the System/Dreamscape. Also the abilities available to you depends on your level, I'm just have a hard time structuring it well to provide smooth power progression.

      Conditions For Advancements.

Overcome the Trials and the Form. Struggles of the Mind and Body. All who sleeps and wake Convictions your lamp, Path's end. (I've always had this cool mantra in mind but the specifics of it elude me)

Basically It is very difficult to reach Level 3 and above without any form of Struggle. There will be those born with an above level 2 connection but they will not be the focus of my stories.

There will be very rare natural materials such as the Void Grass Herb and Undine Liquid, that are meant to make the Trials relatively smooth. I thought of this to introduce class conflicts and elitism.

The possibilities are endless here, so the plan is to create multiple stories under this system like a shared universe. There's a lot I feel like I missed to write here because of my ADHD brain, so any questions are welcome.

Aépio

reddit.com
u/Numerous-Drink3797 — 8 days ago
▲ 20 r/worldbuilding

A Truly Ghanaian Magic System.

A Truly Ghanaian Magic System.

To begin with, I'm Ghanaian and the creation and success of IYANU; the Nollywood (Nigerian) and Disney collaborated animated show had forced my gears turning to create something—true to my culture and with international appeal— to keep Ghana in the versus Nigeria discussions. I'm not a big story guy but I'm proud of the magic system I've come up with.

I started with Kweku Anansi, our mischievous spider god, and then made the connections from there. The story will start with the Ashanti and Akan peoples in a time before European contact but other ethnic groups will appear. There are gods, spirits and idols in the setting who will be the power sources of the various abilities.

In the local lore, the first person who created clothes through weaving threads did it by observing the spider weaving its web, and that's where it began.

Soon anyone who was enlightened by the spider and or helped and befriended one, was said to be given a thread of Anansi's silk which through the person's innate workings formed a technique of web based powers. For your information, most shoo spiders from their homes because it's seen as Anansi bringing his antics in a hardworking home, making knowledge of this power not known.

Possible Techniques. 1.Healing by sewing blood vessels, bone and any body part. 2.Teleportation by linking oneself to a place miles away with your thread, tug on the thread for activation. Can be used to short instantaneous movement in combat. 3.Linking your silk thread to your enemy and a doll to imitate voodoo. Basically for curses but also oaths. 4. Puppetry. 5.Weaving Soft armor, slash and burn resistance. 6.Detection by laying them around a perimeter. 7.Trapping or binding. 8. Increased Strength by weaving your threads into your muscles fibres. 9.Slashing and dicing.

There are many more the threads can do but it comes from the epiphany that Anansi is not some mischievous spider spirit but the Order and Chaos god the Links all things, which as you can imagine will led to some telekinetic abilities. And also inorder to output more power with the threads, you have to be like him or act like him(yes, like the Acting Method from Lord of the Mysteries). This is also the reason for the limited users of the Threads because such behavior is seen as unproductive and distracting in Akan society

Other powers to be introduced.

1.Limited Water bending via river spirits. 2.Sacrifice an animal to an idol to get the animal's subservient soul as a kind of spirit beast. The more dangerous it was alive the stronger it's initial form. Feed it other spirit beasts to grow stronger. You can have a water python turn into a gaint spirit beast blasting people with heavy water. 3.In Ghana, there's Fugu( a type of oversized tops from our northern parts) with mirrors sown on it. It's worn by Chiefs and priests to ward or bounce off unseen malicious attacks, offer spiritual protection and blind all manner of enemies. 4. The importance of gold to the people's beliefs. There's more to speak on but this enough as a rough draft for anyone interested on indepth discussion.

reddit.com
u/Numerous-Drink3797 — 29 days ago
▲ 49 r/Powersystems+1 crossposts

A Truly Ghanaian Magic System.

To begin with, I'm Ghanaian and the creation and success of IYANU; the Nollywood (Nigerian) and Disney collaborated animated show had forced my gears turning to create something—true to my culture and with international appeal— to keep Ghana in the versus Nigeria discussions. I'm not a big story guy but I'm proud of the magic system I've come up with.

I started with Kweku Anansi, our mischievous spider god, and then made the connections from there. The story will start with the Ashanti and Akan peoples in a time before European contact but other ethnic groups will appear. There are gods, spirits and idols in the setting who will be the power sources of the various abilities.

In the local lore, the first person who created clothes through weaving threads did it by observing the spider weaving its web, and that's where it began.

Soon anyone who was enlightened by the spider and or helped and befriended one, was said to be given a thread of Anansi's silk which through the person's innate workings formed a technique of web based powers. For your information, most shoo spiders from their homes because it's seen as Anansi bringing his antics in a hardworking home, making knowledge of this power not known.

Possible Techniques. 1.Healing by sewing blood vessels, bone and any body part. 2.Teleportation by linking oneself to a place miles away with your thread, tug on the thread for activation. Can be used to short instantaneous movement in combat. 3.Linking your silk thread to your enemy and a doll to imitate voodoo. Basically for curses but also oaths. 4. Puppetry. 5.Weaving Soft armor, slash and burn resistance. 6.Detection by laying them around a perimeter. 7.Trapping or binding. 8. Increased Strength by weaving your threads into your muscles fibres. 9.Slashing and dicing.

There are many more the threads can do but it comes from the epiphany that Anansi is not some mischievous spider spirit but the Order and Chaos god the Links all things, which as you can imagine will led to some telekinetic abilities. And also inorder to output more power with the threads, you have to be like him or act like him(yes, like the Acting Method from Lord of the Mysteries). This is also the reason for the limited users of the Threads because such behavior is seen as unproductive and distracting in Akan society

Other powers to be introduced.

1.Limited Water bending via river spirits. 2.Sacrifice an animal to an idol to get the animal's subservient soul as a kind of spirit beast. The more dangerous it was alive the stronger it's initial form. Feed it other spirit beasts to grow stronger. You can have a water python turn into a gaint spirit beast blasting people with heavy water. 3.In Ghana, there's Fugu( a type of oversized tops from our northern parts) with mirrors sown on it. It's worn by Chiefs and priests to ward or bounce off unseen malicious attacks, offer spiritual protection and blind all manner of enemies. 4. The importance of gold to the people's beliefs. There's more to speak on but this enough as a rough draft for anyone interested on indepth discussion.

reddit.com
u/Numerous-Drink3797 — 4 days ago