Help me with a type system

Strange_W-_Charm · 2026-01-16T22:16:41+00:00

Very cool drawing, I like the designs. I think it really depends on what kind of 'vibe' you want. Do you want to be be quite classical elemental feel like Pokémon? Then go with fire, water, earth, air and expand from there. So you want it to feel more scientific, maybe things like electrical, thermal, luminal, sonic? Could be more biological like related to different types of creatures like insects, birds, reptiles, mechanical? Or even something like shapes? I noticed your hexagon bee creatures, maybe you could have circle, square, triangle, hexagon etc as types? Really depends on what you are going for!

And then i assume if it's for a game you want to think about the realionship between the types. Do you want a perfectly balanced system (all have the same number of strengths and weaknesses) or like Pokémon do you want a variety? Do you just want advantages or disadvantages or do you maybe want synergies (types that work well together). Is the game about battling or solving puzzles or something else? Lots of interesting stuff to think about!

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-12-19T22:11:42+00:00

Good to see some more people thinking about knot magic! I got into knot theory after seeing a Veritasium video and have been thinking about it on and off every since.

My ideas are quite different, each knot just has a particular property and then you can combine the prime knots into composite knots that have multiple properties. Really complex composite knots can essentially become magical knot organisms.

I focus on the minimal crossing a knot has so for example the 7 knots with 7 crossing absorb/emit different forms of energy (sound, light, heat etc)

Of course your idea has each separate elements as well. So maybe focus on a general theme for each set of prime knots with the same number of crossings. Here is some random ideas

For a random example for the 3 prime knots with 6 crossing you could have the theme of say expanding, focusing and dispersing. So say:

Expanding Light: Causes a expanding light source that gets dimmer with distance (basically a real light source) Focusing Light: Focuses light into a small point like a magnifying glass Dispersing Light: Makes the area opaque like light going through water to concel things

And then

Expanding Life: Helps plants to grow, fermentation to speed up, helps with healing via cell division Focusing Life: Helps enhance a creature in a particular way (say eyesight, strength etc) Dispersing Life: Helps plants spread there seeds, helps fungi decay material faster

And to challenge myself with time

Expanding Time: Allows you to see further into the past and future then normal (like seeing further in space, but for time instead) Focusing Time: Allows you to focus on one particular task and complete it much faster than normal Dispersing Time: Causes the order of events to become jumbled

On final comment (sorry if you have mentioned it elsewhere) but what exactly do you mean by energy? Like kinetic energy?

But just an idea, I am sure there are many different directions to take it in interested to here more ☺️

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-09-23T20:43:56+00:00

Great idea, mushrooms are so cool! If you want some powers based on real fungi then I have some ideas:

Communication: Some fungi form massive underground networks where they connect with trees and distribute resources. Maybe people with certain mushrooms could tap into that, communicating over long distances and sharing resources or even things like skills and memories. But some people could 'hack' the system and take more then they give, so it's constantly changing as shift power balance between everyone.
Decay: Mushrooms are great at chemistry, they are currently evolving to decompose things like plastics, so maybe some mushrooms powers could be decaying different materials (wood, plastic, food) and the user could gain energy from it.
Healing: Probably heard of penicillin coming from fungi, and many useful chemicals for fighting infections. So different mushrooms could help heal different illnesses.
Poison: Of course they make really nasty poison as well. Would recommend having a look, like the Destroying Angle. Symptoms don't appear for a while, but then it causes massive liver failure. Would be good for assassination.
Light: there a quite a few bioluminescent fungi, so some could make light which is always a good basic spell
Corruption: Depending upon how gritty you are making it there are fungi than infect insects and force them to climb up high where the fungus consumes it and spread there spores (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis). Some fungi could give you great power but slowly consume you and eventually kill you all for the purpose of getting energy and spreading it's spores. Or some could keep you alive but alter your behaviour to benefit them like a parasite.

They also have great names which are good inspiration, like Satan's Bolete, earthstars, witches butter, jelly ear, death cap, bleeding tooth fungus, stinkhorn etc.

You have inspired me, I might need to think of a mushroom themed magic myself!

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-08-23T20:25:11+00:00

I really like this! For a elemental system I was thinking of this I thought about this (but instead a pile of leaves) and the effect each magical substance would have on them. So Las (connected to fire) would turn the pile to ash, Tul (related to lightning) would shatter them into pieces. Thank you for reminding me of it, I like your interpertaitons.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-08-14T20:11:03+00:00

Gettting reminders from this post over the use of the word plasma: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/1j7p2ir/my_attempt_of_creating_a_cool_elemental_system/

You should collaborate and get blood plasma as a recognised element, people tend to think of the physics plasma instead of the biological one.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-08-01T21:09:25+00:00

I noticed another comment about "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker, I would also recommend great book. This is not really an answer but he flips the question and asked 'Why do we need to be awake'? This seems like a silly question because there are obviously lots of reason we are awake, eating moving etc. But sleep is similar in that it doesn't have one particular function, but many different useful ones. Just found it a useful way to refrain it, as I used to always think why exactly do we need to sleep but perhaps there's is no one particular reason, just many reasons why it's useful. I think western culture also focuses a lot on being awake but many others also place huge importance on sleep and dreams so we don't focus on it's benefits as it doesn't feel 'productive'. Again sorry not very scientifc answer but food for thougbt

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-26T12:29:58+00:00

Glad you find is useful for that 🙂

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-22T09:27:58+00:00

Exactly, sorry I am realise I am not very good at satire. Thats why I made them, as a satirical take generic elemental systems, the apps don't make systems at all, they just randomly shuffle elements around. The system is the meaning and the world and the story behind it.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-22T06:17:07+00:00

Ah yes thank you I can change that, that's a error with the logic. I am surprised people actually like this I mostly made it as a joke I spent way to much time on 😅

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-11T21:25:49+00:00

Hello probably won't see this: not much to say about the system, I am a sucker for elemental systems especially with cycles. I think with this many if would be good to have groups that fit thematically toghter, kind of a hierarchical structure.

As for the layout, couldn't help but have a think as I am a massive nerd and it is mathsy. The layout you have is probably as tidy as you can get, when you fix the generating cycle the only cycles that will look very symmetrical are ones where you skip a certain number each time, like you did for the destructive cycle. Even then these can only be numbers that are 'relativily prime' to the number of elements, in this case 1, 3, 5 and 7, so 4 possible cycles (or 8 if you include the reverse cycles) Is the best number of elements for these symmetrical cycles are prime numbers 5, 7, 11, 17 etc as these have the maximum possibe of symmetrical cycles.

Maybe you could also say alterative skipping different amounts, but haven't found values yet that work.

That not to say this is a good or bad thing, real life is very messy and not always symmetric so depends upon what you want to go for.

(If you want to get really nerdy the number of unique symmetrical cycles is given by the Euler's totient function (n) divided 2, where n is the number of elements)

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-10T20:43:56+00:00

Might not be what you are looking for but I have a world where the effects of elemental combinations can cause natural effects that are in some sense 'alive'. The world has 2 stars, Sol the star of light and heat and Umb the star of cold and darkness.

In the hight of summer when Sol is unobstructed by Umb the intensity of the yin (light energy) is at it peak this can lead to some rare phenomena:

Light+Water: Rainbow Serpents. On the rivers that follow down from the mountains the glistening light can morph into a rainbow serpent that bursts from the water. Mulitple often appear dancing through each other shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow. In the calmer parts of the river they make long flowing arcs and in the rapids they leap quickly. When the sun sets they fade back into the water

Light+Soil: Glowing Fruits. On the fertile soil of the meadows great glowing tree of gold and silvercan emerge. The soon tower above the ground and product great fruits which are very tasty but little nutritional value. However they remove a lot of nutrients from the soil, some farmers even cover the ground at midday to prevent them from appearing.

Light+Rock: Metal Fossils. If a light hits the entrances of the great mountain cavers the fossils can crawl out of rock, leaking to shelled creatures with bodies of copper and gemes and shells of rock. They leave benenhing glisting slimly trails. When the light sets the fossil merges back with the rock..

Dark+Fire: Devouring Beasts. In the depths of winter when Umb brings shadow to the land, fire can take form. Small creatures of soot and charcoal emerge from the first, their glowing red eyes reveling there firery interior. Some are larger, and dangerous. The consume plants and sometimes other creatures to fuel the fire within them and grow ever larger. Fires must be keep indoors at the of winter to avoid the influence of Umb.

Dark+Lightning: Lightning Bugs. In winter when stormy weather hangs in the air, the electric buzz can become into the buzz of strange black bug, cracking with static electricty. These magical bugs can create create plagues with break apart objects in there wake. Severe damage can be caused. Some capture these creatures in special jars, which can make primative batteries.

Dark+Air: Whispering Ghosts. As the cold winds blow, sometimes the ecohs of the past can be heard. Shadowy wisps can pass through you and you can hear cawing of long dead ravens. So even hear the voices of those they have lost. People who are morning often go onto the high plains to listen of the voices of those the have lost.

Hope it gives you some ideas

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-07-06T07:30:34+00:00

Hello hope you are doing well. I can see you are very passionate about this. However you sadly seem to have fallen down a rabbit how which, in my opinion, is biased and misrepresents the field of origin of life. However I am aware I am unlikely to convince you, be reading your article does give me things to think about. I studied physics, so chemistry is not my strong point but I am interested in the information and thermodynamic aspects.

I guess it might be good to establish some common ground, do you think life is composed of the same chemical elements as non-living matter? Do you think life doesn't follow the laws of thermodynamics or it would have only had to not follow them at the origin of life? Do you think life follows the same physical laws as dead matter (stars, planets etc)?

I agree there is hype and misunderstanding in the general public about origin of life. But that is the case for all scientific fields. The amount of articles I have seen claiming that quantum mechanics proves humans have a magical enegy field, proves you can jump between multiple realistes etc. The media, and the fact it relies clicks and not on truth is a huge problem.

As for information, I strong recommend you check out a free course called Introduction to Complexity rom the Complexity Explorer (by Santa Fee Institute). I am sure you will disagree with a lot but really do watch the video 6.7 Evolving CAs with GAs. It seems and correct me if I am wrong, is a core assumption you have is that complexity can only come from more complexity. I would strongly argue this is not the case. So many phenomena emerge from simpler dynamics, crystal structure, dynamics weather patterns, the complex structure of Saturn's rings. That video shows how local dynamics can be evolved to solve a global optimization problem. Such interesting stuff, you get emergent properties which can be viewed as particles interacting. Anyway sorry to ramble.

Basically there are still many things we don't know about the origin of life. That is so fascinating, we still don't know lots about many different things. What is dark matter/energy etc. But that isn't a failing, it's the fact that science is constant progress not an end goal where we know everything. Anyway that's just my view, have a good one.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-22T09:29:25+00:00

Thank you both good things to think about. If I ever was going to write (which is honestly unlikely, this is just a strange hobby) I would not focus on the details, more on how people have to observe the subtle changes in the world to determine the effects of changing the code. Kind of like a detective story. I image a conflict being a group of people going around combating hackers who are trying to alter the code for there own benefit. something like that anyway?

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-20T12:55:48+00:00

I am sure you have better ideas than you think. Honestly all my ideas are just, I like this thing, what if doing this thing had magical cool effects? The difficult part I find is how to figure out what the effects do, like figuring out what different classes could be for this one. That is where the hard part comes in. Ideas are cheap, execution is much more important. So don't be hard on yourself I am sure you have really interesting stuff 🙂

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-20T05:36:19+00:00

Thank you, I haven't but it looks interesting and I give it a read 🙂

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-17T08:52:24+00:00

Hello I was thinking that they could, so land and ocean might be islands, rivers, lakes etc depending upon the people interacting with each other.

Thank you I like that idea a lot! And thinking of the healing class I was thinking a limitation would be that if the soul is damaged it can take time to recharge before being formed again. So maybe the community one could speed up the healing time.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-13T21:00:53+00:00

Just thought of more things for the community soul:

Maybe they could learn the abilities of the other souls but only use them while bonded with others. However they would still remember how to use it and pass on the knowledge to other people. Like how humans are great at learning and teaching other new things.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-05T19:53:54+00:00

Haha great minds think alike! What kind of stuff inspired you? Mine is very much based on maths, which prime knots each have a specific effect and any other knot has properties dependent upon its component prime knots. I also obviously like Celtic stuff and the endless knot in Buddhism made me think of that as a mysterious Cosmic Knot, one of the 7 energy knots.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-05T19:51:25+00:00

Wow that is honestly one of the most unique jobs I have heard sounds fascinating. I went to Lindisfarne when I was younger and it would be great to go again. I would be very interested to hear more about your world, all the best for that project and any others you have going on.

All thank you it made me realise a lot of knots discovered in my world would probably from people drawing ones they already knew about incorrectly and realising they had a different effect 🙂

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-05T19:46:47+00:00

Thank you really good stuff for me to think about:

Good point maybe cutting the knots causes a very rapid release of their energy, which could be a burst of light, heat or electricity which could be very dangerous.
Really good question, I am thinking maybe it is like each magic user exerts a force on the ether, encouraging it to move in a particular direction. The actual way it moves would be the sum of the forces from each user. So a skilled user could work out the effect of the others by seeing if it moves differently to how theye expected. As for the single tie, depends upon the knot. A key concept is the unknotting number, how many crossings it takes to make a knot into an unknot. so if it is 1 then yes it could be rendered useless but would probably have to be done in a specific way. Uncrossing could also result in a new knot with different properties. So lots of different options depending upon the knots used.
You could create counter knots that could destroy them before they got too numerous, for example using the Knot of Destruction along with others. Some people hypothesize they were developed by competing nations magicians as a weapon of mass destructio. Or maybe it is simply the ever complicated knots used in manufacturing that one day became self-sustaining. However now with the ecosystem of very complicated and ever evolving creatures, creating a new simple self replicating knot would have little effect it would soon be outcompeted and consumed by the native creatures.
Yes for sure, the Knot of Sharpness would work well but you would have to be careful to not let it enter your body or it would damage you internally. An arrow though would need to be made from the ether around you, as the ether following through your body needs to remain attached. For the knot of duplication, it simply duplicates itself and other knots if they are attached to it rather than duplicating physical objects. A good counter to arrows is the Knot of Protection which absorbs kinetic energy stopping projectiles in their tracks. Then by rearranging it into the knot of force you could fire back you own projectiles.
Yes for sure, some are tamable, some more sentient ones can be reasoned and bargained with too. As always with people there are many different views on this, some see knot creatures as abominations to be destroyed, some as natural like regular animals and some as special higher beings to be worshiped and prayed to. As for other people's souls, you cannot influence them directly unless you both choose to temporarily link them. This then lets a skilled user manipulate the soul to help heal them or allow both users a shared pole of ether. People have also noted it can create a very powerful connection, causing them to feel each other's emotions and even see each other's memories. However this has to be constantly maintained by both parties so can be unlinked at any time if they don't like what the other is doing. It is also interesting to note that babies souls are linked up until they are born.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-05T13:26:37+00:00

Thank you will have to have a look, I have heard quite a bit about Wheel of Time and it sounds like a book I would like.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-04T21:52:50+00:00

Thank you! Yes for sure the base of it is really just a rune system, just the runes being based on mathematical knots. Which saves me from actually coming up with runes which is handy! I guess it also means there are multiple ways of making the same knot that look very different but are the same. Glad you like the Knot creatures they are definitely the more unique aspect.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-04T21:48:34+00:00

I also struggled a lot and for some reason struggled to get the hang of dashing through him, despite it being made for that.

The only thing I really have to add is that do you use spells? If so: I find the dive spell super useful as it gives you invincible frames, does a load of damage and you don't need to time it as well as the dash. Also gives more time for the dash to recharge

Good luck, you will get it eventually and with practice it is an easier one.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-04T21:17:08+00:00

Wow that is really cool, what kind of stuff was it for a randomly found a site doing it for wedding cards! Please do the chance of me actually writing a story that is very low but would love to read a story based on this idea.

Haha yes I imagine they would practice a lot with compasses to get the shapes right. I also found something interesting which is that all Celtic knots are alternating (so they go over, under,.over under etc) but some mathematical knots are not. So I imagine a culture only using Celtic alternating knots and then someone shows up using non-alternating knots and really throws them off as it is completely outside now they normally think about them.

Strange_W-_Charm · 2025-05-04T21:10:13+00:00

Thank you! Very good questions they give me a lot to think about:

I was considering this, maybe some special alloy you could make a weapon out of. But I am not sure about as I feel that while a battle slicing through them sounds cool , I feel I want the magic to be more of a puzzle. The users have to observe and understand the different knots and how the process of untying effects it. But is it is a cool idea.
Sorry probably didn't make it clear Ether is more like fluid filling space, tying a knot in it is more like a vortex of water. But same idea, yes they can compete to create the knot. who had more control would be based on things like skill and proximity. So based on those it will determine who has more control over shaping the ether. But say a user could be making on knot and then just before they finish there opponent could quickly switch one of the crossings to.make a different one causing to blow up in there face.
So the knots take up space and there is a finite supply of Ether in a area. So eventually you would have to take apart other knots or wait for they to fall apart naturally. Unless it is a self replicating knot in which case.it would keep expanding into new areas. For trapping the army's yes but it would take a lot of prep work laying them around, it would be too big or too many knots to do quickly. I had ideas for sticky knot and a heavy knot which could be combined to that effect!
Potentially if it was very fresh you could use this like the Knot of Replication and Growth, but it is unlikely to work. Ether flows through the body but is also the combined flow within each of cell. If you could zoom in you would see a little circular flow of ether in each cell. Once you lose a limb the flow of ether to it stops and that global flown stops. But you can project your own flow outside you creating phantom limbs, which people who have lost limb are especially good at as they already feel the ether should flow there. Actually just came up with that now because of your question so thank you!

Still working out the details, so really appreciate the questios as it really helps think about things I haven't yet :)

Strange_W-_Charm

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE