I haven't worked on Hellfire Catharsis in forever.

Chagen

This idea was come up with literally about 5 hours ago, remember.

There is an explanation as why this Earth exists, who used to live in it, and why we were shafted when it came to magic.

Humanity gained the power to use magic through a genetic mutation--it facilitated the use of a "Magic Core", which forms the essence of magic usage. Humans take magical energy and then shape it to fit their element through the use of the core. it is a "link" of sorts: The magic flows from nearby sources, is shaped, and is shot out. This means that magical power can only be as strong as nearby sources of energy, and as such, the magic-starved Earth cannot support combat-level spells and the like.

There was this group of humans who, soon after humanity could use magic, found this other Earth and decided to take over it. The problem was, they took too much magic and ended up shafting everyone else. They used it to build these massive glorious settlements you see on the other Earth, but they seemed to be all dead now...perhaps a war, but given that they used completely different language, it's a massive hell to uncover their history.

We progressed much more slowly because we couldn't just wave our hand and give the law of physics the bird, so we simply built technology to compensate. The people of the other Earth viewed us as simplistic, and were kinda bewildered as to how we possibly could become the dominant species. To them, their views on us ranged from us being a separate and very ingenious species, all the way to flat-out saying we were sub-humans or utterly inferior and non-related species. None the less, they didn't see fit to bug us, and we didn't see fit to bug them.

That's the basic outline. I'm looking to streamline this and edit it as I go along.

IanExMachina

Fair enough. As I say it's your work.

I just don't like the idea myself, I kinda have an image of how I'd go about explaining magic in a world of technology. If you'd want to hear it? 

Chagen

Magitek?

Sure, explain it. I'm always ready for new ideas.

IanExMachina

Nah not magitek.

I'd have gone for magic being based upon timeline/multiverse stuff. So for someone to 'cast' a fireball (or whatever magic) they'd be able to consciously manipulate the probability that the 'timeline' they are in has the atoms super heat enough to combust in the way desire.

Everyone has the ability to do it on a small scale, however it would require input from a large group to force the probability of being in a timeline with drastic changes (like millions to make nazi dinosaurs rule earth etc) less drastic less people.

Failed examples of those unaware or lacking knowledge of how to correctly influence the probability result in bizarre/unlucky deaths (spontaneous combustion, lightning strikes, 1 in x probability of death.)

In regards to technology, it works as in this timeline it works, it would take a lot to change it. Also computers run using probability however they lack the ability of humans to put external pressure upon it to affect it. (Unless you count a prototype AI that is 'human' that could probably be more powerful than a human due to computing allowing a structured knowledge of probability.) Etc.

Needs more work but not bad for about 20mins thoughts when drinking

Chagen

Hm. Interesting.

I already explained magic in Hellfire Catharsis. There's a large amount of elements (yes, these are based off of Pokemon's elements with some additions and subtractions, I know):

Fire, Wind, Water, Electric, Ice, Ground, Dark, Psychic, Poison, Light, Time, Space, Gravity, Chaos/Destruction, Order/Equalibirum, ???

Everyone is one of these types. Magical energy is taken in by their body, converted to whatever their type is, and then shaped and launched. Pretty simple.

Do not that taking out someone's Magic Core can heavily harm them. Or kill them. It's the very essence of their soul, and no human can go long without it.

On another note, I looked over this old document with song titles (I want to compose a Leitmotif for each character) for the characters. Wow, the nostalgia from writing that over two years ago....

IanExMachina

I do like elements somewhat in magic although I prefer concepts as a form of elements, however I'm not intending to write a book

A quick question regarding magic, how does magical energy relate to the person in terms of capacity.

Do fat people who have a lot of energy stored in fat have more magic, or do those with more spiritual capacity  have it right off the bat?

Chagen

It depends on training. It's not the size of your body, it's how you train it. Everyone is open to massive power, it just takes massive amounts of work and study to be powerful. 

It also requires training the body physically--everyone in Hellfire Catharsis is a Magic Knight. No Squishy Wizards here.

IanExMachina

So there is a bodily link for your magic? 

Can the magic use directly impact on the person's body?

Chagen

Not really. The Magic core simply becomes more efficient. People don't store magic--their magic core simply becomes better at managing the same amount.

Magic is not done through any kinds of staffs, too. Things called Novæ (singular: Novus) are used instead. Novæ are different for each person, but all transform into a weapon: the main character, Enselm, has his as a small bracelet that becomes a European Short Sword, while the main female character, Abcde (yes, that is her real name--pronounced "AB-see-dee" or "Ab-SUH-dee") has a necklace which becomes a massive Broadsword.

Novæ can be almost anything. From the main characters alone, there's everything from whips (Johnazhan), gauntlets(Niko), maces(Emilia), guns, spears(Enzo), warhammers(Chrona), Chains(Artturi), throwing knive(Kaoru), ball-and-chains (Beatrycze)....

IanExMachina

So you could have a 'Novus' that was a staff though

Does that mean the magic has to be tied to the item? Or could you just cast 'fireball' whilst holding your magic sword, or would you have to hit them with the sword to do fire attack?

Chagen

You can cast magic through the novus, not the weapon.

Enselm is a Wind-type: he simply has to raise his hand while holding his weapon and he can cast everything from a blast of wind to a 30-story tall tornado...

IanExMachina

So why have it as a weapon at all? 

Or do physical attacks do anything special/penetrate something?

Chagen

Because physical attacks look cool.

And they can be charged with magic too. There's nothing preventing Enselm from jumping into the Tornado and using it to propel hinself straight into his enemy at extremely high speed.

IanExMachina

Ah so more storytelling/rule of cool rather than necessarily practical.

Chagen

Yeah. Hellfire Catharsis is focused on being cool and awesome than pratical.

IanExMachina

I personally prefer both in one with an edge on practicality rather than just for show.

Chagen

Man, I'm really thinkin of changing the plotline to this series.

The original idea was cool, but hard to pull off right. And may have been too implausible to work correctly.

Man, I had this cool plot that subverted The Dumbledore....

Chagen

On more positive notes, I started writing the first book. It's quite hard starting it--I only got about 1.5 pages written--but I'm keep going on.