Welcome to what will hopefully become a new blog series, Voyage into Fantasy, where we look at fantasy series and worlds, figure out how they work, and what we love about them. In the first few posts, we’ll be looking at magic systems, specifically what makes a hard or soft magic system, and taking a look at some examples. Let’s start with a brief explanation of magic systems, and then go into soft magic systems.
Simply put, a magic system is the way characters use magic to interact with the world around them, usually with at least some internal structure for what magic can and cannot do and how it works. And the important distinction here is that usually there is some internal structure that an author follows as they are writing, but whether or not that structure is explicitly shown or explained depends on the author and what the story requires. Not every fantasy book or series uses magic at all, and for those that do, it might be a very minor piece of a larger world, or only side characters use magic, so it’s not explored in depth.
Soft magic systems especially tend to leave that structure vague — what is the source of the magic, how does it work, why can some people do magic and others can’t? Sometimes magic is a natural force, and nature is not something that can be simply explained. Other times, magic is more of a plot device, either kickstarting or continuing the story, but the mechanics aren’t the main focus. Occasionally, magic just is, it happens because the author said this was the story and this is what happens, and so it does. Importantly, this is not the same as authorial carte blanche — characters’ motivations and morals still matter, the plot still needs to hang together in some meaningful way. Let’s take a look at some examples to get a better idea of how this works in practice.
“A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin and the Earthsea Cycle are a major inspiration for a lot of modern fantasy; the hero’s journey that Ged/Sparrowhawk must undertake, the idea of true names for people and animals, as well as elements of the world. It’s those true names and the magic associated with them that makes up the magic system of Earthsea. Magic is used by speaking words of the Old Speech, the language of dragons. Although most people are limited to whatever magic they were born with, some can attend the School of Magic on Roke Island to learn more types of magic and become wizards.
Wizards know the true names of objects and elements, and can thus control them, but what it means to control something with its true name isn’t given much detail. The mechanics of magic are not the focus, which makes sense given that the stories of Earthsea are not action-focused. Le Guin was a pacifist, if not in name, certainly in her writing and her legacy. Hard magic systems may be more closely aligned with action and adventure, but they are not mutually exclusive. We’ll save a deeper dive for the post on hard magic, but it is especially interesting comparing Le Guin’s soft word magic of Earthsea to the hard word magic of Alagaësia, the setting of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle, which was directly inspired by Le Guin. The history of magic gets uncovered throughout the series, and the idea of who is able to use magic changes as well, but the inherent structure of what magic is and how it is used remains vague and loose.
“Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones
We’re looking at “Howl’s Moving Castle” as representative of Diana Wynne Jones’ body of work, mostly because it is probably the best known title in her bibliography (although expect another post all about this book and its film adaptation sometime in the next few months). In many of the worlds Jones creates, magic is a natural force, although using it often requires some amount of learning and specific application, as opposed to inherent instinctual use. Parallel and alternate worlds show up frequently, often with varying levels and types of magic, even within the same book or series.
Many of Jones’ titles are loosely connected, and are not usually advertised as such, which is why most people might not know that “Howl’s” has two related sequels, and “The Merlin Conspiracy” is a sort of sequel, and “The Dark Lord of Derkholm” came about after writing a satirical tourist guide book to fantasy tropes. All of which is to say, Jones had a lot of interesting ideas for magic that came through in her stories, but it feels like we as readers only got a hint of much deeper concepts that didn’t fully translate to page. There are unseen structures to the magic, so it comes across as grander than the characters can comprehend.
“Equal Rites” by Terry Pratchett
Now we move to the Discworld, where the world is flat and held up by four elephants, who in turn ride on the back of a turtle swimming through space. If that sounds absurd, welcome, we hope you enjoy your time on the Disc! Discworld is a series of 41 books, with a number of smaller sub-series throughout, including books that follow the Witches and the Wizards. The Wizards books follow the faculty at Unseen University, usually as they try to prevent eldritch horrors coming in from the Dungeon Dimensions, and often make things significantly worse. Typically those books up centering on Rincewind, the absolute worst “wizzard” (says so right on his hat) the University has ever seen. The Wizards magic is stuffy and academic, almost always male, and very resistant to change or progress. While the Wizards magic may have some internal structure, it doesn’t fit the satirical world Pratchett created to delve too deeply into the mechanics. One of the only named spells is the Rite of AshkEnte, used to summon and bind Death, which usually just serves to annoy him at inopportune moments.
On the other side of the magical spectrum on the Discworld, we have the Witches. There are a number of Witches, although the main focus is on the Witches of the Ramtop Mountains, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. Their magic is more natural and personal, usually serving as midwives, caring for the elderly and ill, and generally looking after their communities. It is very rare for the Witches to actually use their magic however, as Granny Weatherwax is a master practitioner of Headology, a form of psychology that leans heavily on the placebo effect. Instead of casting spells for the sake of feeling powerful, the true magic of the Witches is using their head, listening to what people are (and aren’t) saying, and helping the people who need it most. In Granny’s case, this is in part because she is incredibly powerful, and knows she could fall into darker magics all too easily if she doesn’t stay vigilant. #justwitchythings
These are just the major examples of magic in Discworld, which doesn’t touch on the History Monks who help keep time flowing, the wide pantheon of gods, both large and small, and the many, many things going on with Death.
If you want to check out some other titles with unique magic systems, check out this list, and keep an eye out for future posts in this series! What are some of your favorite magic systems, and what components of fantasy books would you like to see explored?
