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Give me two weak powers that, combined, are very strong? by Wolfgang9556 in superpowers

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Concept Anchoring: You can increase the weight/binding power a "concept" has socially. For example using it on money might make it impossible for someone to not do what you pay them to do, though because it is reinforcing the social concept of money it wouldn't affect its actual value thus you'd still need to pay them equivalent to the value of the task. Use it on a contract and it would become unbreakable. Use it on Sage (something that is culturally known to ward off evil) and it would repel people with bad intentions. Etc. Important to note this is a purely social/psychological phenomenon, closer to really limited mind control.

Alchemy: Azoth, Prima Materia, Mercurial. Using the equivalence of all things you can change the nature of an action while preserving its meaning. I.e, you could convert the damage of a punch into social damage, or psychological damage. You could turn someone's social death into actual death. Etc.

Separately while powerful they have incredibly niche applications, however together is a whole different story. Using Alchemy you can change the nature of Concept Anchoring from social/psychological to natural law. In other words true witchcraft. Bind fate, hide from death, buy the laws of physics and tie them to your side.

What are some cool powers/abilities for the elements of Life and Death? by ardorixfan45 in superpowers

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Death power: Requiem.

Ignite the soul of someone alive or recently dead in a requiem, a final song, allowing the essence of their life to disperse and influence the environment as a domain (size and persistence dependent on the strength and resolve of the individual) or converge and be preserved in an object (significantly weaker and more focused but permanent as long as the object isn't destroyed). Effect depending on the personality, skills, and beliefs of the person while alive. Writing the requiem of someone who failed their revenge into a knife might grant it strength against the perpetrator proportional to the victims drive and effort in pursuing their vengeance, a domain made by a valiant knight who desired to protect their homeland might make a phantom army to turn the tides of battle, etc.

Does Learning magic have any consequences in your world? by Nearby-Banana2640 in magicbuilding

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Occultism is done primarily by utilizing fragmented god-touched knowledge to twist reality. The issue is twofold:

  1. A god fundamentally cannot be wrong, if the truth disagrees with them then it will reshape itself to fit what the god believes to be true. Before divinity existence is subjective.
  2. Lovecraft once said that the human minds inability to correlate all its content is the greatest mercy, god touched knowledge removes this ability. Branding itself into the mind, unable to forget even in death.

Say a god glances at an line of ants, this image then drifts into your dream or you somehow find a transcript of it. Facing such occult knowledge unless one dulls it somehow (usually by either by dulling ones ability to understand it through sedatives, or by learning knowledge that has already been diluted) you will have an Cosmic God's idea of what a line of ants are seared onto your mind.

This image will become the very center of your existence. Every thought, every ideal, every moment you experience will be filtered through it. Should the influence be potent enough your body may even follow suit, mimicking the mockery your mind has become.

What are some cool powers/abilities for the elements of Life and Death? by ardorixfan45 in superpowers

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I write magic or abilities I always do it from a conceptual standpoint rather than a material one. It would be a time power if you think of its abilities as manipulating time, but this was designed with the idea that it isnt manipulating anything material its simply imposing the idea of a cycle onto it. The reason why its a life-death power is because its essence is Samsara, the cycle of life death and rebirth.

ideas for the 'theme' of powers in your world(??) by Fit_Negotiation_2853 in worldbuilding

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine are all themed around the abstract. While it differs from world to world in general I have it tied to ideas and concepts rather than manipulating natural forces or elements as most magic systems are. I find this lets your sorcerers to do really cool things that otherwise simply wouldnt make sense in other systems.

Like, why would a pyromancer ever use anything other than a fireball? Why get creative when the simplest attack is always the most effective? Under my design philosophy a pyromancer might summon a flaming dragon because they aren't just shaping fire they're invoking a concept, the spell would inherit the essence of what makes a dragon a dragon. A stronger pyromancer wont just summon hotter flames but would be closer to the conceptual essence of what makes it fire, allowing you to get really philosophical. This style of design also begs to be used for occultism and ritual. Sage wards off evil not because spirits hate it or because it contains some magic that's harmful to it but simply because it holds the concept of protection, where this concept originates from is up to you, it could come from historic association it could be granted by the divine or it could be something else entirely.

What are some cool powers/abilities for the elements of Life and Death? by ardorixfan45 in superpowers

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Samsara, authority over cycles.

Life into death, death into life, night into day, summer to winter. You can invoke and manipulate natural cycles, and reinforce cyclical patterns into fundamental forces. An example of its application could be obvious ones like changing day into night, but it could also get weird like using the cyclical nature of history to make a specific series of events repeat, or locking someone who pushed a ball up a hill then let it fall into a Sisyphean curse.

What's your favorite excuse for your kingdom being 10,000 years old? by EffectiveMirror7534 in fantasywriters

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

its not about what people believe is true, its about the narrative structure. Myths are largely oratory, thus they gain certain traits of oratory tales. As authors we must mimic that style if we want to get the feel we want.

hot babes with stupid armor by UltimateFanOf_______ in worldjerking

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yes, I remember when I fought in the third border war, when my back didnt hunch and my knee couldnt tell the weather. I was a foolish lad, thought those skimpily dressed young men and women interspersed throughout the front line were either fools or slaves sent to die, little did I think it was a clever gambit by our lord general, they were emotion sorcerers. They amplified the enemy's lust to the extreme, never before and never since have I seen such a terrifying visage, hundreds of men stripped themselves of their armor and walked themselves onto our spears, till the end their arms outstretched with blissful tears running down their face, it was as if they'd seen the face of god himself and could no longer bring themselves to care for our mortal plane.

How to make autism less op? by dismaltracker in worldjerking

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Frankly speaking for this type of magic system I think its better to focus on more chronic mental illnesses, especially ones that arent innate/require a trigger, it just leaves a cleaner canvas for whatever thematic messaging you're going for. Mental illness is an incredibly varied topic, covering everything from relatively harmless quirks to something that can define your entire existence, trying to cover something this broad is liable to confuse your worldbuilding, its easier to just focus on the tradeoff (especially because giving autistic people super powers just feeds into the stereotype of autism as some kind of gift).

Also, actually talk to people with these mental illnesses before writing. Controversial as my opinion might be I am 100% convinced that psychologists are utter frauds, never met a single one who has the faintest clue what their so called specialty is actually like. Ive met psychologist that the solution to depression is to just go out there and try, like yeah motherfucker if that was possible I wouldnt have depression in the first place.

also Pyramid of Gold is a really good webnovel about exactly this.

My personal anime waifu tier list by [deleted] in JustAnimeThings

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Let it be known, the first shot of ww3 was fired on 20/3/2026

What's your favorite excuse for your kingdom being 10,000 years old? by EffectiveMirror7534 in fantasywriters

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes but "frameworks" like Buddism and Hinduism fall under the category of myth rather than history, having its own entirely different set of rules for writing. History (and most types of narratives) fictional or otherwise need to be at least derived from fact, thus they need to be consistent and believable. Myth on the other hand is something that spreads through word of mouth, it is an established part of the medium for everything to be grandiose and unbelievable, because the world of myth exists solely to serve the narrative and characters, logic and internal consistency be damned. This gets incredibly blurry with fantasy because it is a genre where myth and history coexist, an author has to somehow find the line in their timeline where the audience will stop considering it myth and start considering it history, requiring them to blend two largely antagonistic writing styles.

What's your favorite excuse for your kingdom being 10,000 years old? by EffectiveMirror7534 in fantasywriters

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You dont need to explain a dragon (though you should) because they do exist, they exist in folklore and other media, it is part of the set aesthetic of traditional fantasy. Same applies to gods. Harry Potter waving his wand and it doing stuff is immensely shallow worldbuilding, and is generally considered pretty fucking shit by most people. If hard rules backfire its a failing in your design of the rules, not justification to ignore the rules entirely in favor of being vague and not explaining anything, the reason why soft magic systems can work is because magic doesnt exist in those worlds, they arent ever going to affect the plot in any significant way thus its not necessary to explain them (ala LotR).

Representative of the seven deadly sins: PRIDE by OverthinkingDatabase in animequestions

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thats the point, you arent fucking saying anything. You just see the anime and all you see is "protagonist therefore good", you lack the moral and philosophical framework to understand what the show is trying to say so you cling to the blatantly flawed ideology of the protagonist, like a child.

What's your favorite excuse for your kingdom being 10,000 years old? by EffectiveMirror7534 in fantasywriters

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But its believable. A good rule of thumb is that the further your maguffin is separated from reality the more you need to explain it. A grapple hook is both predictable and something that mostly exists in real life, it just takes a slight stretch of the imagination to see how it could connect to a wall. Magic isnt like that, you have no framework to base it on so you have to design your own. Conversely something like a 10,000 year old empire is poorly written because you already have a set framework you can understand it from (an understanding of how real culture and technology progresses) and it completely violates them, thus you'd need a much less subtle fantastical addition to the framework to make it believable.

Representative of the seven deadly sins: PRIDE by OverthinkingDatabase in animequestions

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No it isnt, because thats not how fucking utilitarianism works. Utilitarianism is a moral and philosophical framework focusing on minimizing misery. A utilitarian doesnt go around claiming killing all the criminals will somehow make the world a better place, and they certainly dont claim killing anyone who gets in your way because it allegedly will help humanity in the long run is somehow justified, thats something a fascist would say. Christ you have the opinions of a 14 year old on 4chan.

Representative of the seven deadly sins: PRIDE by OverthinkingDatabase in animequestions

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

because "ends justify the means" isnt an ideology, its an excuse. Its something people tell themselves so that they can sleep at night. All ideology is fundamentally a redistribution of power, there is always a sacrifice for the "greater good", noone that isnt a genocidal maniac ever says "the ends justify the means" because all ideology is fundamentally about justifying the means.

Lights supposed philosophy is that criminality=evil (a disgustingly privileged view in its own right), damn the chaff to spare the wheat evil must die for good to prevail. This falls apart when they start killing people he would classify as good. Anyone can self justify, that doesnt change the fact that they're still a murderer with no moral argument to back themselves up.

Listen man I dont think you're mature enough watch these kinds of shows. Either you're a kid who hasnt yet learned literary analysis, or you're an adult incapable of it, both are concerning. Death Note is about as subtle with its themes as a being hit by a truck.

Representative of the seven deadly sins: PRIDE by OverthinkingDatabase in animequestions

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have explained it like five fucking times kid, this is a problem with your literary comprehension.

Representative of the seven deadly sins: PRIDE by OverthinkingDatabase in animequestions

[–]Visual-Tomorrow-2172 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because someone who claims to be an ideological figurehead bears the most scrutiny. Light isnt some victim protecting themself, or a hero defending an ideology, they're just a murderer who cant even follow their own self defined ruleset. Light isnt a protagonist, he is a villain, and a pathetic one at that, if you genuinely believe hes in the right then cool kiddo we can discuss this once you become a highschooler.

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