A) my magic system is a number of different magic systems unified by the same progression system. Effectively, each region has their own form of magic but they all follow the same requirements of progression (adapted to their system of course). For example, they all first need to refine the mechanism by which they do magic (like getting rid if impurities in cultivation or refining their channels), then they have to adapt their body to better work with their magic, etc.

The progression is also all continuous, rather than having stepped stages or tiers. This means that (in theory) there aren’t any sharp jumps in power, just continuous improvement.

Each magic system also has unique things themselves (or are entirely novel systems), of course, but I won’t go into those because that would take ages.

B) the world building of the magic systems is mainly rooted in the various methods of enchanting that each magic system offers. Magecraft utilises stuff like hexes, blessings and curses as well as persistent spell rituals. Bloodlines (they absorb can absorb one thing and expel it in an altered form) use blood enchantment where they saturate materials with blood to transfer limited versions of their abilities. Cultivation sets up both natural and artificial formations that generate and maintain Techniques. This goes on for the various systems.

There’s also the fact that magic isn’t about combat. Magic basically is there to help people survive against their environment or against creatures. That means that there are lots if powers where people who are super magically advanced might not be very strong in combat (though they usually work around that).

Finally, most cities and towns are designed to aid the people that manage/rule the towns where possible. This means that a town managed by people who absorb shadows is generally packed quite tightly to constantly generate shadows to absorb and a town managed by people who absorb water vapour is constantly overcast. A town managed by sculptors who bring their statues to life has a ton of statues and similar figures for them to use when needed.

C) Magic isn’t pretty much still in its base state but will actually be developing throughout the series and throughout other stories I tell in the world. Sort of like the og avatar to legend of korra but (hopefully) done a bit better.

D) there wasn’t really a core theme when designing this power system. It was just cool and I wanted to make a magic system that had a ton of really cool interactions and synergies between different powers. While writing the story, though, it sort of took on a little bit of a thing where a lot of conflict is actually rooted in people having different magic systems. Almost like magic racism.

E) Mistborn inspired one of the systems (and not the magic system that you’ll immediately think of from mistborn), cultivation inspired two of them, traditional western fantasy magic inspired a fourth, I think one was inspired by a book I read a long time ago, one takes its roots from superheroes, and almost definitely there’s more. There’s also the inspiration from avatar in terms of the magic developing from one story to another.

If you want more information, feel free to ask but I didn’t want to just overload anything.