It probably won’t surprise y’all to know that I think about magic kind of a lot.
There’s a lot of reasons for this, obviously. First, it’s kinda my job. Worldbuilding.
But it’s also kinda my hobby: I’m a geek for fantasy.
It’s also a pleasantly large part of being a dad. I read my boys books, and we play games, and we talk about those things and all their history and context. (See above: geek.) Quite aside from that, sometimes they straight up just ask me out of the blue about myth or superstition, or faeries.
Just the other day, I saw some of this bear fruit when a friend asked my boys, in a very casual way, what she should do about her dice. They’d been rolling badly, and she wanted to fix them.
(These aren’t specifically her dice. They’re just cool dice.)
They jumped in with both feet. Was she looking to dispel bad luck? Or give a blessing? They talked about holy salt and the Eye of Horace…
I was so proud.
Anyway. To the point. I was thinking about magic the other day. Like I do. For… reasons. Reasons I won’t go into lest this blog become super long.
But I was wondering about how you would describe magic effects in words that were as simple as possible. Like, for example, what if you were going to try to describe magic spells or effect in the same way Randal Monroe did in his book Thing Explainer.
So, for example, for Fireball an description might be: “Flame Explode” Or maybe “Hot Explode.”
Or, now that I’m thinking about it, “Hot Explode THERE.” (As opposed to a spell that just blew up in your face, which is somewhat less desirable….)
As another example, for the dice above it could be: “Make Good Luck.” Or “Add Fortune.”
But see, “Fortune” is a really specific term. A broader way of saying it might be “Change This. Add More Good”
Or alternately: Remove Bad Magic.
See where I’m aiming with this?
So I’m throwing this out to y’all. What classic spells or magical effects can you think of, and how would you describe them in the simplest, most basic?
Curious to see what y’all come up with…
pat
Edit: I’m enjoying the back and forth in comments with y’all, as bouncing these ideas back and forth is what I was hoping to do. Kinda of troubleshooting the entire concept. That’s the easiest way to knock the rough corners off an idea, in my experience….
To further clarify for those of you who are looking to come in and participate, reading through some of the other comments first would probably be a good idea.
For example, after reading some of the suggestions below, I think “Make” is going to be out-of-bounds. “Create” is a good one though, as “Create” is a big concept, but it really only means one thing, which is “Bring into existence.”
What I’m really looking do to is develop a rough vocabulary of terms that could be assembled into different effects. Almost like computer code, but for magic. (Someone down in the comments made this analogy, and it’s too fitting not to share.)
How about this, moving foward, think of this as a note you’re handing to the universe. What’s more, it’s a universe that doesn’t give much of a shit about what you want or intend. It’s not going to read your mind or ask for clarification.
With that in mind, note that FIAT LUX (Let there be light) is pretty clear.
But something like “Do thing” isn’t.
PUSH is pretty clear. But PUSH AWAY is clearer.
(Interesting note: “Push away” in Latin is “repelle” if memory serves.)
Anyway, yeah. Thanks for everyone who’s been coming in to try out this odd idea with me. This is fun so far…
pat
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