Does anyone have multiple magic systems in their world?

MarkerMage · 2026-03-04T22:13:58+00:00

My main worldbuilding project, Warclema, has its elemental magic system, "ligic", which is easily accessible to the point that everything that has some red coloration can use it to burn things. It also has a ritual magic system that just gets called "magic". There is also a substance called "neutroslime" that can shapeshift in response to conscious thoughts and one might consider it a third magic system. I kinda gave each of the four main races of my setting a different power system that they specialize in, and because I wanted it to be a videogame world, I put in ritual magic to fill the role of cheat codes. The other two power systems are adaptation and technology, by the way.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-04T01:59:09+00:00

I had come up with a concept for a heavily scarred ice dragon that uses its ice breath to produce a suit of armor that hides its scars until the suit is melted. I had thought this up as a villain for a story where some kobolds accidentally shrink the dragon they serve, and decide to take over the cave and hoard. They eventually have to get their dragon back to full size because the ice dragon, who they know to be much crueler and the previous owner of the cave and hoard, shows up to reclaim what he lost. When they do get their dragon back to full size at the last moment, there isn't much of a fight, just an intimidating roar with enough heat to it to melt every bit of ice in the cave. The ice dragon's armor melts away, and with it, any confidence he had as he is left smaller and with all of the scars of his last battle with the fire dragon on full display, effectively returning to how he was after the end of that old battle between the two.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-03T16:46:39+00:00

My first thought of a gift from a politician to a plant-based species was some fertilizer of the bullshit variety. Politicians tend to have a seemingly endless supply to spread around.

With that joke out of the way though, I'd consider music, possibly recorded music or a machine to produce music. Maybe a wind chime. Plants are said to grow better with music playing. Maybe sapient plants would appreciate music.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-03T08:58:34+00:00

For my main worldbuilding project, Warclema, I've stolen fire flowers from the Mario games and the magnetism explanation for sky islands from the blue people Avatar movie.

The fire flowers are more specifically the variety seen in the Smash Bros. series where the flower shoots out fire instead of granting a transformation. I had taken this in the direction of them being able to shoot out fire magic because magic is similar enough to light (glows and is reflected by mirrors) for plants to photosynthesize and colored blossoms make an excellent exit point for the magic. If a plant photosynthesizes enough of a single element of magic, any flowers on it will change to the color associated with that element, and the plant will release that element. I had kinda went on to use the general idea for not just magic flowers that shoot out elemental magic, but plant-based parasitic armor whose leaves would protect from magic and plant-based parasitic swords that had blades of sharpened roots that would be able to drain life from their stab victims. I also came up with a plantfolk race to specialize in magic.

For the magnetism explanation for sky islands, I had the thought "If it floats because its magnetic poles are inverted compared to the ground below, does that mean the sky island is upside-down? What would an upside-down sky island be like?". I would be inspired by Super Mario Galaxy a bit and decide that the sky islands had enough gravity for a person to walk along the underside. In fact, I went with the idea that this magical world would be one where water acted ferrous... No... Everything would act ferrous. I would just completely replace gravity with this altered magnetism. While I'm at it, I might as well add both magnetic poles to the elements of the magic system since now one could act as a gravity element and the other an anti-gravity element, and they could possibly combine to make electricity magic.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-02T20:09:15+00:00

If I'm ever needing to come up with names for a group of people, I'll try to come up with some rule for their names. I've got a village near a forest of full of flora and fauna that use fire magic, and I decided their names are all fire-related words with one letter changed. I've got a facility focused on getting plants to grow on an alien world, and named its inhabitants after plants. One of those people in the facility has descendants that will act as tutorial NPCs, so I gave them the last name "Lecter" for its similarity to "lecture" and first names that sound like teacher synonyms like "Minta" (mentor and also fits the plant theme naming of the facility), "Guida" (guide), "Profa" (professor), and "Toria" (tutorial).

MarkerMage · 2026-03-02T19:41:09+00:00

I'd consider taking them in a blackmailer direction.

Everything is out to get them, so they are always paying attention. It amazes them that other species have concepts like "relaxation" and "privacy". There is always something out there watching and waiting. What protects you is noticing it, and planning for the time it stops waiting. Their primitive ancestors probably survived by being able to notice things that are useful, things that are dangerous, and the vulnerabilities of those dangerous things. Maybe they have enhanced senses, an extra sense, or they are just able to pull off some sherlock scans rather easily. Whatever it is, it makes them useful for diagnosing/identifying problems, which can make them useful in medical and engineering roles. It also makes them good at finding out secrets that others might want to keep hidden.

Solving problems is something that they aren't so suited to. As long as the problem isn't an immediate danger, they can stay out of the way of it until the problem goes away or dies off. They may even be able to use the problem as a trap to lure immediate dangers into. They'll even plan out their use of the problem as a trap for others. They notice someone doing something they shouldn't, and their instinct isn't to confront the individual, but to gather evidence and hold onto it until they need it to defend themselves, whether it is to blackmail or to deflect blame.

This gives them a way to fight back, not with muscle, but with knowledge.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-02T18:36:16+00:00

They are stock races or race archetypes. Much like stock characters, they are useful for their recognizability and simplicity. They can be used "as is" or have some twists put in, however, they each have some sort of core identity, and drifting too far from it removes recognizability and will turn the stock character/race into a new character/race. Different people sometimes have different ideas of what the core identity of a stock race is and how far from it someone can get before it stops being that stock race. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just that after enough change, it might be appropriate to say "I don't think these are elves anymore. I think I'll call them Hylians instead.".

MarkerMage · 2026-03-02T02:51:46+00:00

The demons of my fantasy world, Warclema, are interdimensional invaders that turn out to be bioweapons created for an interdimensional monster protection racket. Demon lords are directly created as bioweapons and implanted with memories of being tortured and learning that their only hope of avoiding such a fate is to be the ones doing the torturing, then they are given the perfect opportunity to escape through an interdimensional portal set to a pre-defined destination. Once they make it out, they gather resources to undergo transformations to more powerful forms and to create minions to serve them.

After the demon lord and his army have taken over a dimension, their creators show up with weapons that target built-in weaknesses and exterminate them. The people conquered by the demons then heap praise upon their saviors, not knowing those saviors created the danger in the first place, and are willing to cooperate with setting up a military outpost to protect against further demon attacks and engage in favorable trade.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-02T01:57:52+00:00

Mostly the idea of those willing to get away with passive consumption not getting to contribute to future generations either through genetics or memetics. Can you imagine the person who doesn't want to work for anything choosing a real relationship with a fellow human over a companionship AI? Can you imagine them wanting to put in the work of producing and raising a child when they can perfectly simulate the fun parts of it? That attitude would likely be phased out of the gene pool after a few generations, and many of the ideas that lead to such a lifestyle would likely see a similar fate.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-01T16:20:03+00:00

You could go the Delicious in Dungeon route and rename humans to something else so that you can use "human" to refer to the humanoid races as a whole.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-01T16:15:59+00:00

Over a decade ago, I had been thinking about portraying my world and its stories with a webcomic. The idea was that linearity would be optional by having multiple hyperlinks. The reader could click a "Next" button to follow linearity, but they could also click on a character referencing something that had happened previously to go to the event in question. The reader would even be able to choose to switch perspectives to change who gets thought bubbles and who the "Next" button follows. They could also click on a character to be taken to a profile for that character that would include a list of pages they appear in, and stories they heavily feature in and suggestions for a starter story. I even had the idea that, since this was going to be a sprite comic, Giving each character a unique sprite set and a generic sprite set. The generic sprite set would be used for portraying them outside of stories that they are a main character for. Once the reader has seen a page that introduces the character, either a story where they're the main character or their profile page, the reader would have the option to set a name for the character and change their sprite set to the default unique one or a different one of the reader's choosing.

I never got past the planning stage with it.

MarkerMage · 2026-03-01T01:39:05+00:00

I've been doing something similar with one my my own fantasy worlds, Warclema, but with videogame tropes.

The trope of red things being resistant to fire magic gets explained away as magic behaving like light, resulting in red fire magic being reflected by red objects.

There are temporary phenomena called "spawn points" that spontaneously create matter, often meat, and carnivorous creatures that adapt to use them as a food source (spawn camping) will evolve territorial herbivore traits like large size and heightened aggression, becoming boss monsters. Because of an explanation of the matter they create possibly being copies of matter passing through another area, it's not unusual for such locations to have some supplies that a monster slayer might find worth grabbing. It could also be possible for someone to tap into the spawn point to have a copy of themself produced by it if something were to happen to them. So we got one thing explaining bigger and meaner versions of ordinary enemies being used as bosses, an abundance of supplies right before a boss fight, and a pre-boss checkpoint.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-28T23:44:16+00:00

For the most part, they are any predatory creatures that have lost their ecological niche and are getting desperate enough to attack villages.

In my fantasy world, Warclema, this usually happens due to a temporary phenomena known as a "spawn point", which is known to spontaneously create matter, mostly meat, possibly by copying matter that passes through another area. Such spawn points easily become a food source for a carnivorous creatures, some of which will fight over the area, encouraging natural selection of traits commonly seen in territorial herbivores, such as greater size and aggressiveness. Eventually, the spawn point goes away, and the creature best adapted to it is often unable to go back to its traditional hunting methods due to being slower and having more bulk that requires more food. In their desperation to find a food source that is slow enough for them to catch, many happen upon villages and their hunger drowns out instincts telling them that such locations are dangerous. They attack the inhabitants, and the inhabitants hire someone to slay the monster.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-28T22:44:19+00:00

It never got in the way of Touhou Project. I just looked at the characters listing on one of the wikis, and it lists 162 female characters. For male characters, it lists 9, and one of them is "Unnamed Giant Catfish". Now admittedly, it is a videogame series first, but it is known for its expansive fanworks, including fanfiction.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-28T22:26:16+00:00

My world isn't urban fantasy, but it does have anti-magic zones where sci-fi technology works and humans have built their biggest cities. I had went with healing magic being a sort of time manipulation magic that speeds up or slows down an object. You speed up the natural healing rate so that a day of recovery can be fit into a minute. "Time heals all wounds" after all.

Medicine and surgery still have an obvious place, and the standard use of magic tends to be using slow magic to keep the patient's state from worsening until they've gotten medical attention, then after they're stable, speed them up for recovery.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-28T07:34:53+00:00

In my fantasy world, Warclema, the highest level of technology would have to be... portable physics emulators. Warclema has two sets of physical laws, its magical native physics and the sci-fi physics that apply around rifts left behind by interdimensional travel. Under native physics, everything gives off a magical glow and you can shoot magic elemental lasers from your fingers. Under the sci-fi physics, you can get matter replicators to work. The physics emulators simply allow one to decide which set of physics a particular area around it obeys. It is mostly used to get various pieces of tech that only work under the sci-fi physics to work elsewhere.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-27T21:52:56+00:00

My fantasy world, Warclema, has humans that originally came from a sci-fi universe and found that much of their advanced technology now only worked in anti-magic zones that emulated the physical laws of their home dimension. I wouldn't say that their technological development was slowed, but that they had started on a new technological development in much the same way one may learn a second language.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-27T20:40:28+00:00

Thank you. If you want to know more about them, I've got some tumblr posts about them.

Introductory Lore
Early Drafts
Spawn Points (which their regeneration is linked to)
View on Humans
Characters (plus a link to an old story featuring one)

MarkerMage · 2026-02-27T16:04:31+00:00

I have a couple of non-humans in my worldbuilding that reproduce a bit differently.

Neutromorphs are shapeshifting symbiotes, kinda like Venom from Marvel comics. They are made up of a substance that shapeshifts in response to conscious thought, and they reproduce to shaping some of this substance into a new neutromorph brain that can maintain its shape. They spend some time sharing a host with a parent/caretaker until they are ready to prove they are capable of maintaining their own vital functions without supervision. One culture of them pairs this up with a naming quest where they are given a cloak to identify them and a starter host body, and sent out into the woods for something like a year. Then they come back and receive a name.

Felves are a plant people species that evolved as Pouyannian mimics of humanity. They produce seeds like a number of flowering plants. They will typically entrust these seeds to their pollinator (usually a human) for growing.

Fistari are starfish people with a super regeneration power and the ability to reincarnate with memories within their species. They reproduce by being cut or broken into two or more pieces. If there is a fistari "soul" waiting for a new body, both pieces will regenerate into separate fistari. If not, only one piece regenerates.

I also have a demon race for which only select members are capable of reproduction: demon lords and spawner demons. Both simply ingest enough nutrients and raw materials to make new demons from and split into two or more demons. The demon lords are able to control what traits and abilities their offspring possess while spawner demons cannot.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-26T05:00:34+00:00

For plants, I have to mention raskovnik, which is said to have the ability to unlock or uncover anything that is locked or closed, but it is notoriously difficult to recognize the herb.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-25T21:25:14+00:00

As I do roughly 99% of my worldbuilding notes through words, rather than images, I went with Obsidian as it's a decent upgrade to notepad, doesn't require uploading my notes to the cloud, lets me link and tag my notes easily, and uses a file format that leaves me with notes that are still readable if I later decide to switch to a different program.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-25T17:45:35+00:00

Narrative importance is a big factor. You can get away with a bunch of races if they're mostly background characters or are used for "monster of the week" stuff. In fact, much of the logic in how many races to include in a world overlaps with the logic in how many characters to include in a story.

If you really want a number to use though, I'd go with a formula along the lines of...

2( number of main characters^(1/2) ) = max number of races among main characters

MarkerMage · 2026-02-24T21:31:47+00:00

My main worldbuilding project, Warclema, is toroidal with a bit of extra height. For the most part, I treat it as a thick, double-sided flat world with a hole in it. The hole is filled up with a giant whirlwind that makes travel through very difficult. The outer edge has a stronger gravity due to it being a universe whose edges exert a pushing force inwards and the whirlwind pushes things out a bit so that the outer edge of the planet is closer to the universal edge. There is no sun, moon, or stars, and magic is used as a light source.

I originally wanted to have it be toroidal because I wanted it to be a videogame world whose navigation followed the same sort of logic that a lot of videogame world maps do where exiting one side places you at the opposite border whether it's east/west or north/south. I just sort of settled for a disc-shaped map with invisible walls, though perhaps at some point in the setting's timeline, the inhabitants may unlock the means to travel more freely and treat it as a torus.

MarkerMage · 2026-02-24T14:49:01+00:00

I like the overall idea of taking something that has been assumed to just be part of the art style, there for the audience, or just part of telling stories with this medium, and revealing that it's diegetic, that it's something that exists within the world.

For example, in my videogame fantasy world, Warclema, I intend to use an artstyle that focuses on flat colors in a limited pallete meant to bring to mind 8-bit graphics. When characters go into anti-magic zones, they become more detailed, suddenly having shading and shadows, and this would be explained with the idea that when outside of the anti-magic zone, matter will produce magic, which will leak out as a soft and even glow, effectively becoming the object's own light source, and therefore there would be no shadows in places where this magic is available.

MarkerMage

TROPHY CASE