The Magic of Magicbuilding: Dimensions of Magic

Welcome to the Magic of Magicbuilding, our little spinoff feature that focuses specifically on building a magical system for a fantasy setting.  This week, we're compiling a list of magical dimensions that we can use to determine what, exactly, our magical system can do.  

Of course, we'll be doing this backwards.

Circular Logic = No Loose Ends

Why backwards?  Because, for the most part, our magical system is purpose-driven.  When we started, we had goals we wanted to achieve using this system.  By far the easiest way to ensure those goals are met is to build the framework with those goals in mind.

For example, let's say we want to run a car with our magic.  Why a car?  No reason.

From previous discussions, we've established that we'll need two dimensions to run a car: the Dimension of Fire and the Dimension of Water.  We've also mentioned the Chthonic Realms, the Dimension of Earth, and the First World.  Assuming we want to keep all of these dimensions, we should have two objectives this week:  identify additional dimensions we think are necessary to meet our stated goal of a setting where technology and magic are synonymous, and identify common features across dimensions that allow us to extrapolate.  One objective ensures that the dimensions we come up with are actually useful, while the other allows us to be comprehensive in our development. 

Starting with the first objective, what forms of magic do we need to cover aspects of modern technology?  Electricity is a given, and since we already have the dimensions of fire, water, and earth, it makes sense to add one more dimension to cover air.  It also makes sense that this one would work differently from the other three, since so far, each elemental dimension has worked differently from the others.  Given our goal, perhaps the Dimension of Air dictates charge imbalances, leading to atmospheric effects like lightning or ionic wind.

Looking at our list of dimensions, we have elemental effects, healing effects, and illusions and enchantments (mental effects).  We do not have any effects that could directly tamper with a physical body, affect the senses (such as extrasensory perception), alter space or time, or be purely magical.  Do we need these?

Squamous and Rugose

Bear with us here, but when we look at our list, the Chthonic Realms and the First World are the only dimensions that tamper with people.  They are also casually mentioned as the source of possibly magical creatures.  While we haven't yet discussed whether magical creatures are a thing, let's say for the moment that they are; following this tenuous logic, the third dimension that affects people, the one that alters the body, should also be a source of magical creatures.  Further, the other two creatures mentioned were the fae (full of life but utterly dangerous) and the undead (by definition, the opposite of alive).  Our third dimension should be a realm of extreme danger that is filled with neither life nor its opposite, but some third thing beyond our ken...

  The Many Voids go by any number of names, but they all share something in common- they are the source of things which should not be.  As far as mages can tell, they're all the same dimension, or at least they're all accessed the same way, and the energies that can be drawn from them all tend to warp or reshape the body.  Magic that draws upon the Many Voids is used extremely sparingly, mostly to make more conventional alterations easier to perform... meaning that your typical star-worshipping cultist works as a plastic surgeon.

Lensing, Gravitational and Otherwise

You'll notice that, as we work out which dimensions we use and how they should work, we try to keep them grounded in some fashion.  A given dimension does one type of thing, and the wide variety of magic comes from finding different ways to use it, not coming up with a large number of dimensions to draw upon.  So it is that we think that we can cover space, time, and extrasensory perception all with the same dimension, thanks to the idea of gravitational lensing.

Our setting is not 100% grounded in physics, as noted by the fact that magic exists at all, but it is close enough that you can assume that physics is in charge until informed otherwise.  This means that, if a gravitational force were available and that force were great enough, it could distort space and time.  In extreme cases, the force is great enough to distort light as well.  We've only recently been able to find black holes, but as it turns out, one of the ways we can identify them is if light is bent around them so hard that you can look at the front of the black hole and see the back.  This phenomenon is known as gravitational lensing.

Say that we apply this aspect of gravitational force through magic.  If the gravitational force were anywhere on the same planet as us, it would probably wipe out life as we know it... but we're dealing with magic here.  Also, we don't want to worry about people developing gravity bombs.  So:  the dimension we're hashing out allows a mage to warp space, time, and light as though a massive gravitational source was present, but that's all.  The gravitational source remains on the other side of the dimensional portal, and only a specific consequence of the gravitation occurs.  A mage can cross a known distance with a single step, but doesn't get crushed into a singularity first.  They can see around corners or seemingly magnify the appearance of something from far away.  They can even seemingly slow or speed the passage of time, though time travel itself remains strictly theoretical.  All these magical feats are possible due to tapping the Singularity.  They are also extraordinarily dangerous, since making even a minor mathematical error means that the mage is crushed into a space smaller than an atom.

Magical Purity

This leaves one possible aspect of magic that we haven't really covered:  "pure" magic.  Given the grounding of the other effects, we're not going to, either.  While many conventional magical systems hold that pure magic is the easiest to tap into, with our system, the opposite is true.  As it stands, there is only one part of magic that doesn't involve accessing another dimension's energy, and that is the activation of the magical sigils used in "casting a spell."  At this point, doing anything besides activating sigils with that "pure magic" would fundamentally alter our magical framework.  We won't be saying that nothing else is possible; it would be silly to close off that avenue.  We will, however, say that it is outside the scope of our current project.

Known Dimensions

For now, at least, we seem to have settled on the following well-known dimensions for tapping into and creating magical effects.  Others are possible, but (like pure magic) won't be worried about just yet.

1.  Elemental Dimensions

The elemental dimensions all manipulate normal, physics-based energy and matter.  Technically, there are dimensions for each phase of energy and each phase of matter, but thanks to classical thinking, the four dimensions most used are those that correspond most clearly with the basic elements:

  The Dimension of Fire.  Thermo-kinetic energy can be pulled from this dimension.  Translation:  you can heat things, and also move things, but mostly you can do both at the same time.  It's easier to hurl a fireball than it is to create and hold one in place.

  The Dimension of Water.  Liquid can be pulled from this dimension.  It's possible, though extraordinarily difficult, to pull anything besides water, and it turns out that the speed with which a liquid can be pulled depends on its rarity.  Summoning a torrent of fresh water equivalent to a firehose is straightforward, but the same effort would only summon a cup of ethanol or a teaspoon of mercury.  The Dimension of Water doesn't generate any impurities in its liquids, so summoning salt water wouldn't work.

  The Dimension of Air.  Pedantics will say there are two different dimensions of Air; the dimension that generates gases, and the dimension that generates ionic charges.  For most, the Dimension of Air is the latter, and those charges are used to generate electricity or manufacture wind.  While lightning can be summoned from the Dimension of Air, it's recommended that you also employ the Dimension of Fire to generate a plasma channel through which the electricity can flow.  Without that extra step, there's a chance you could fry yourself.

  The Dimension of Earth.  Those not in the know assume that the Dimension of Earth is one from which you pull solids.  In point of fact, there is such a dimension, but nobody has managed to pull anything except spoon-sized ingots of iron-nickel alloy from it.  Instead, the Dimension of Earth is the dimension of geophysical energy.  Vibrations, tremors, and quakes can all be generated easily.  Focused efforts can cause spontaneous effects like the sudden formation of small hills or even cliffs.  True masters are said to be able to create rigidly defined surfaces, such as walls.

2.  Occupied Dimensions

For whatever reason, the dimensions with energy that most easily affect a living creature directly also happen to be dimensions that have known, "living" creatures residing in them.  You'll see why "living" is in quotation marks shortly.

  The First World.  Drawing from the First World generates an energy that can alter a person's mental state.  Memories can be drawn forth, altered, or erased; emotions can be manipulated, magnified, or muted; perceptions can be twisted such that the person affected can sense (or not sense) whatever one wishes.  Care must be taken, however, because drawing from the First World will likely draw the notice of the fae.

  The Chthonic Realms.  Also referred to as the Other World or the Underworld, the Chthonic Realms provide energy that alters a body's bio-energy.  Until recently, experimenting with this bio-energy was considered wildly taboo, so only three main uses have been found: energizing a body, allowing for rapid healing and recovery; draining a body, causing fatigue and ultimately necrosis; and animating a body, which only seems to work if the body is dead first.  This last use is fairly tricky for all but the denizens of the Chthonic Realms themselves, who use such magic naturally.

  The Many Voids.  As mentioned above, the energy pulled from this dimension allows one to alter, either temporarily or permanently, a creature's body.  Benign uses are limited mostly to various kinds of surgery.  For example, using Chthonic and Void energy would allow a surgeon to regenerate a lost limb.  The problem with drawing from the Many Voids is that the energy has an inherent element of chaos to it, meaning that even a perfect sigil calling upon the Void has a non-zero chance of giving someone an unwanted tentacle.

3.  "Dimensional" Dimensions

Scientists are just wrapping their heads mathematically around five dimensions.  While they theoretically understand that there are nigh-infinitely more, the number that are naturally present in our universe is unknown, beyond "more than four."  As it stands, they've really only grasped the one dimension that can alter the known dimensions of time and space.

  The Singularity.  This is an odd dimension to work with.  What is drawn from it is not energy, per se, but rather the effect of the dimension's energy on our own dimension.  Thankfully, the effect is incredibly localized, but it has also proven quite useful.  In practice, this looks like the caster altering how a set area of reality works, both in spatial and temporal dimensions, as though they had access to a small black hole... without the matching side effects of standing next to said black hole.  The "safe" effects include altering the distance between two points, altering the apparent distance or direction between two points, and altering the perception of time.

Conclusion

This may well be the most direct discussion we've had about what, exactly, our magic system can do.  There are a few spots left intentionally blank, and a few intriguing difficulties that arise from the set of dimensions we have now.

However, next week we'll be focusing on something else- a casual mention this week that creatures from another dimension can use a certain kind of magic "naturally."  What does this mean, and what consequences might arise from it?