What is My Magic System?
When I was trying to decide how to formulate my magic system in worldbuilding, I knew I wanted it to be based in real science. Writing a fantasy novel requires functioning rules of how your magic system operates. I decided to use Alchemy, an old science that was the precursor to chemistry that people viewed as magic thousands of years ago. I put a twist on it though. In my book, the alchemists are using their minds to perform alchemy via telekinesis.
They must learn to recognize the various atoms and how they can manipulate them. Just as with chemistry in real life, one wrong decision might cause everything to explode in your face!
The children of my world must be tested to determine who is capable of performing alchemy. Failure could mean disaster or shame and a life of slavery. Once they prove themselves worthy, they are sent to a special school to learn the secrets of alchemy. No one knows what goes on inside the school except the alchemists themselves.
Book One of the Tower of Alchemy Series by Krystle Phoenyx
Research is Important
I wanted everything to be as realistic as possible in my magic system. I had to use my own chemistry knowledge and do a lot of research about real life alchemy. This helped me to decide how it fits into the plot of the story. If it isn’t part of the plot then there would be no reason to need it at all.
I had to look up the elements and their atomic models and consider how these elements work and operate in the real world. Research on early alchemists and their writings and beliefs were so important. Creating a magic system in your worldbuilding requires a lot of work to ensure accuracy and narrative consistency.
Integrating Research into the World
Why go through all of this effort just to write a book when I could just explain it away as magic and make up whatever I wanted it to be? Because I wanted to write a book where science is the magic and people can learn about things that I find really awesome and amazing in a fun and imaginative way. Is it pure science and completely realistic? No, but the spiritualism of alchemy is just as important as the realism of chemistry.
Alchemy always was a bit fantastical and unrealistic, and that is what makes it so appealing as a magic system. Part of writing a believable fantasy story is knowing how to weave reality and imagination in such a way that the reader can become lost in the world as if they are really there experiencing it all.
[…] their goals in the story? What kind of power dynamics are they participating in? Is there a magic system they have to operate within the boundaries of? You might consider the economy and whether they are […]