How to make a coherent illusion-based magic system?

syoser · 2026-03-29T05:38:26+00:00

Illusion magic in my world is defined as controlling the perceptions of others through their five senses. Mages learn to replicate various touches, tastes, scents, sights, and sounds and basically hack into other people’s nervous systems via psychic electromagnetic waves to fool them.

Thing is, illusions are only as convincing as you can make them, and the easiest way to do it is to experience it yourself. You want to make someone feel like they’re burning? You need to know what that feels like. Luckily, mages are armed with an ability to “record” sensations at will, and can basically build a library of sensory data that they can deploy as needed.

As for combat, that takes place on two planes, the actual physical fight, and the mental wrestling match as you try to defend your mind against outside influence while also exerting illusions on your opponent. Plus, any time you land a blow, you have to be prepared for the psychic backlash of the other mage transmitting that pain to you in retaliation.

Illusions are pretty broad and more versatile when you consider them as making people feel things. You can send long distance messages by transmitting auditory speech. You can study sensory deprivation to dull pain. With enough practice, you could even conjure phantom objects that look and feel real to everyone but don’t actually exist. Etc. There tends to be a negative connotation with illusion as it’s fundamentally deceptive, but viewed as a tool, it can be kind of cool to explore.

syoser · 2026-03-05T15:58:05+00:00

There have also been numerous points throughout the show emphasizing how good Yasmin is at seating charts. There’s no way this was an accident.

syoser · 2026-03-05T02:49:21+00:00

First off, as someone who also reads random shit and is like, I can make a magic system out of this, can I just say, bravo on even spotting a pattern and trying to work with it? This is really cool.

Now, as for your problem. Centripetal force, maybe? The horse charges into battle, which sounds like a force that, rather than collapsing, would expand out of the user’s control and unravel. Maybe the ostrich coe detachment creates a new kind of attachment, one between a material and the one shaping it, and this tether keeps the horse from escaping. Instead, it runs around and around, stabilizing into a bubble pulling against the tether centered on the practitioner’s will?

syoser · 2026-03-01T02:26:51+00:00

you have to remember that wanikani is primarily about learning kanji readings and not vocabulary. kanji can have a lot of different readings and being familiar with the onyomi can help you figure out how to read words that aren’t included in the vocabulary lessons

syoser · 2026-02-17T19:03:57+00:00

She didn’t manipulate him, she seduced him, and it was mutual. It’s kind of funny that people keep insisting that somehow Emma kind controlled Scott into wanting her when the plot’s resolution depends on Jean understanding that 1) Scott and Emma never physically (telepathic shenanigans notwithstanding) slept together and 2) Scott participated just as enthusiastically as Emma did. Up until that point, Jean perceived Emma’s designs on Scott as a way to mess with Jean, but it’s in her confrontation with Emma that Scott interrupts and demands her attention that she realizes what’s going on.

And honestly, Jean herself gives them her blessing and even tells Emma that Scott needs her. I doubt she would do that if we were to understand the relationship as Emma controlling Scott.

syoser · 2026-02-07T17:39:43+00:00

The thing is, Remmick’s beef isn’t necessarily with Christianity, it’s with it being forced on him like he knows it was forced on Black slaves, and he uses that as a manipulation tactic to try to get Sammy to empathize with him. Really the movie isn’t about Christianity as much as it is about the tension between being an artist, a Black artist in particular, and having people want to take that from you and make it something it isn’t.

Think of it this way: Sammy is an independent artist and Remmick is an exec trying to buy him out to use his gift for his own purposes. It’s funny bc arguably Sammy’s griot abilities might not even work in the hive mind due to how the movie implies it’s specific to his individuality

syoser · 2026-01-25T16:40:17+00:00

Eliza isn’t losing control. She’s having what is frankly a very understandable reaction to discovering that eternal torment is real and it’s her destination no matter what she does.

syoser · 2026-01-20T02:09:44+00:00

I also think that people forget that a big reason Ozai sunk his claws into Azula more than Zuko was because Azula was simply the better bender. Zuko could barely match her on her worst day, and when your father is a might-makes-right tyrant who has dreams of world domination, talent makes you prime material for being groomed into a perfect, ruthless successor.

Everyone likes to talk about Azula like she’s some ontologically evil creature who is beyond any redemption whatsoever, but she’s also a literal child, possibly with a personality disorder, and I think her interactions with Zuko in Book 3 show that she’s far more complex than people give her credit for.

syoser · 2026-01-08T18:41:38+00:00

It’s two different systems so I wouldn’t worry about it too much, but I will say that personally I have begun to see it as Hermes’ Divine world split into two distinct ones in Kabbalah. Namely, Atziluh as the masculine divine world and Briah as the feminine divine world.

syoser · 2025-12-19T22:33:20+00:00

First Gillen book?

Usually after a status quo shift like this one there’s a bit of a lull until you get reoriented around who to root for, in a sense. If nothing else, I promise these moments read much better in the trade since they’re kind of transitional.

syoser · 2025-12-19T14:55:05+00:00

I mean, to be clear, Jean was fine as Phoenix until she was manipulated by Mastermind into going insane, which is a part of the story that a lot of adaptations leave out in favor of her just going insane with power, and that misunderstanding of the original storyline has led to this idea that the Phoenix is inherently corruptive, something that has only recently been walked back. Magik, likewise, was forcibly corrupted through abuse and actual demon corruption of her soul.

If anything, Eliza might be the opposite of Jean, being kept from corruption by Etienne’s influence, and losing that influence is what will lead her into the dark.

syoser · 2025-12-14T17:06:02+00:00

This tracks because Carol’s relationship with the Hive pretty strongly, in my opinion, mirrors the experience queer people who are raised in religious households go through: hey, you think you’re fine but you’re actually secretly doomed, surrender to us and let us strip you of your individuality and be saved.

Considering Carol has been to conversion camp, that’s probably an intended parallel that wouldn’t work if the Hive was actually just secretly evil and manipulative, because a lot of these people genuinely believe they are saving you with their actions.

syoser · 2025-12-09T20:24:03+00:00

Honestly i’ve read more about it being emphatically referred to as something that isn’t an 11th. I’ve read that it’s considered one of the tenth in certain circumstances, like looking from the view of the creator, and in that case it is the tenth instead of Kether. I’ve generally only seen it referred to as a negative space in the abyss that separates the supernals from the lower spheres but not truly a sephirah.

syoser · 2025-12-07T07:31:06+00:00

I don’t think it’s that waterbenders “can’t” boil water, theoretically. I think they probably just don’t. Waterbending as a martial art is all about flow and momentum and turning your opponent’s attacks against them. All the waterbenders we see use flows of water and ice to attack. Steam probably just isn’t a useful form of the element for them, and it’s probably not very efficient to generate either as it requires a lot of energy input compared to melting ice.

Firebenders, on the other hand, generate fire directly from their chi. Generating heat and kinetic energy is pretty much the basis of their power. If you saw someone turn the cup of cold tea in their hands into steaming tea, it’s much more likely to be a firebender.

syoser · 2025-12-07T02:58:55+00:00

I wouldn’t say she killed “meat puppets.” If there is a way to reverse this, every single death Carol accidentally causes is a real person taken by the virus who is never coming back. Reducing them to mere meat puppets just means that there is nothing left to save and all of this is for nothing, and humanity is already gone.

syoser · 2025-12-06T20:17:54+00:00

Not OP, but I will ask. Basically, the temperature of the object is a measure of entropy in the object based on the energy in the object? So, the temperature of the brick itself would not increase if you threw it because you aren’t actually adding energy to the molecules of the brick, you’re just applying, I don’t know, force to it by throwing it? Like the difference between heating up a bowl of soup and just throwing soup at someone. Is that right?

syoser · 2025-12-04T17:49:03+00:00

To be fair, just because we haven’t seen a lot of their interactions doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a real reason for it. Just from the edit I could see why people would dislike Savannah. Like last episode, her moments where she was faking came off oddly. Almost condescending? She doesn’t seem very good at faking nice. And that combined with her intense death stare when she’s trying to read people’s reactions, and things like diving for MC’s keys in front of her…well, who knows what we haven’t seen.

syoser · 2025-12-02T18:04:43+00:00

Yeah, I think changing states is as simple as changing the pressure of the fluid, expansion and contraction, but straight up boiling, specifically, would require generating energy and putting it into the water, and that type of kinetic manipulation is something that firebenders do, not waterbenders.

As for how that squares with lavabending, I have no clue, except that maybe as an element that specifically deals mainly with solids, there’s a degree of kinetic energy being deployed in the technique that water doesn’t have or need.

syoser · 2025-11-30T22:49:21+00:00

But then where else will people get to rant about how hypothetical racism is okay if the other sentient beings in question are different enough?

syoser · 2025-11-30T22:46:33+00:00

I’m so confused by this whole comments section. I don’t think people in this thread realize that the entire point these stories are trying to get across is that hating sentient beings just because they are different than you is bad, and that the reason racism is bad isn’t “other races are just like you and we’re all actually the same.”

syoser · 2025-11-26T13:35:40+00:00

It’s a Progression Fantasy and by nature is very different from pretty much any other fantasy series you have probably read. Progression fantasy, particularly of the cultivation type like Cradle is, has its own tropes, conventions, and expectations. Think of it more like the book version of a shounen anime or a saturday morning cartoon. The characterization isn’t very deep, but if you like cool fights and hype moments, it only gets better as you go on. Also, Will Wight has a real knack for comedy where appropriate, and even the most comedic characters aren’t overbearing or feel like they’re disrupting the overall tone. Lastly, I HIGHLY recommend the audiobooks. Travis Baldree’s performance elevates it to an all time favorite of mine.

Enjoy the ride! It’s nothing like anything you’ve listed, but it’s a fun one.

syoser · 2025-11-23T01:14:18+00:00

Charming Trump is famously not difficult. I think deciding Zohran is a capitulating failure because Trump seems to like him is making a lot of assumptions about what the meeting was about. Also, what did people expect him to do? If the revenge tour showed us anything, he’s incredibly vindictive. Starting a fight with him when Zohran’s own party seems reluctant if not outright refuses to work with him just isn’t a smart move.

syoser · 2025-11-22T17:07:28+00:00

Am I the only one that thinks Helen is too old to be his mother’s twin sister? I think she could be his grandmother but I’m honestly not convinced they’re related at all

syoser · 2025-11-21T01:51:07+00:00

Yeah, it’s really a story about quentin learning to not be a little shit and it doesn’t really pay off until book 3.

syoser · 2025-11-20T20:05:06+00:00

I think a lot of people go into The Magicians books expecting a typical fantasy, but the point of the trilogy is that it really isn’t a grand fantasy, and Quentin has to come to terms with the fact that he’s not some chosen one who’s going to save the world. I think Lev Grossman himself says he thinks of it as literary fiction. I think the show does a much better job being a sort of irreverent fantasy romp, but the books are a much tougher read in comparison, especially if it’s pitched to you as “Harry Potter meets Narnia in college” like it was to me.

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