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- Nov 14, 2012
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- 154
I've noticed a lot of RPG/ORPG map makers do not put a lot of time into developing the subtext of their plot or story. They usually have a very simple one like "This army is invading the land and you must stop it." This get's Really Really boring when it's used again and again. The other mistake is they don't have a lot of magic or too much magic. I hope this info below will help you with developing your plot and how you view and use your magic.
Today we’re going to discuss how to balance magic with the rest of your fantasy piece using examples from Martin and Abercrombie. Then I’ll give a go at creating an example and then I’ll finish off by giving you a prompt to start you working on this idea. First, let me explain what I mean by balancing the magic with the rest of the piece.
Principle 1: Magic must have a cost.
Magic, by its very nature, has a million possible uses, but in a fantasy novel it is always threatening to undermine the carefully crafted tension a writer has so painstakingly created. The idea of magic can be used to solve any problem, so we, as creators of fantasy worlds, must attach a ‘cost’ to the magic to prevent the reader from doing just that in his mind. Magic should never solve a problem for the protagonist, rather it should add another layer to the problem.
In A Game of Thrones Martin quickly sets up one of the costs of magic in the prologue. After being struck down by a mystical being known as one of the ‘Others’, Ser Waymar Royce of the Night’s Watch dies and then rises again.
“Ser Waymar Royce Stood over him. His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin, A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye. The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw. The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the fines moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.”
In the example above the cost is indeed great, Ser Royce pays for his magical return to life by losing his identity, essentially making him a kind of frozen zombie, a cost no one would willingly pay. This is only the first of many examples where GRRM brilliantly balances the benefits of magic with the cost. Let’s see another example from Joe Abercrombie before we move on to an example of my own.
Principle 2: The Benefit and Cost must be equal.
Joe’s first introduction of magic in his brilliant first book The Blade Itself from the series titled The First Law has us in chapter 3 with Logan Ninefingers at a camp fire alone. This example is quite a bit more subtle in its cost. Let’s see a bit from the book and then I will explain what I mean.
“It was a while before they came. Three of them. They came silently from the dancing shadwos among the trees and made slowly for the fire, taking shape as they moved into the light.
‘Ninefingers,’ said the first.
‘Ninefingers,’ the second.
‘Ninefigners, the third, voices like the thousand sounds of the forest…The spirits squatted and stared at him without expression. ‘Only three tonight?’
The one on the right spoke first. ‘Every year fewer of us wake from the winter. We are all that remain. A few more winters will pass, and we shall sleep also. There will be none of us left to answer your call.’
Logan nodded sadly.”
The spirits show up without warning or preamble from the author. The cost Logan pays is subtle but still very compelling. They go on to alert Logan to the fact that there is a Magi searching for him, a potentially dangerous one. Logan then decides he will seek out this Magi and ask him what he wants, thus starting Logan on the journey that will imperil him for the rest of the series. A heavy cost indeed as we see the spirits give Logan new problems rather than solving problems he already has.
A second part of the cost is revealed by the casual nature that Logan greets the spirits that arrive at his campfire with. They don’t seem, by his lukewarm reaction, to give Logan what he wants and in this instance they give him what he doesn’t want, a journey that will time and again put his life at risk. While Logan isn’t aware of all this himself, the reader knows that this call to action, if answered, will start the hero’s journey and we all know what kind of trouble that involves.
The reader also learns that this magic, by its very nature, will soon be gone, a kind of cost as well. And when the spirits end their conversation with Logan by telling him that he may never see them again he sarcastically replies, ‘I’ll try to struggle on without you.’ In this instance Abercrombie stresses that the magic does not provide much reward thus allowing him to lower the cost Logan pays for it. And now an example from me before you get your writing prompt.
My Practice
In my own epic fantasy novel The Prince of the Morning the young protagonist is immediately placed on the streets of a new city in his country of Bahvaria where he meets a homeless man. The homeless man startles the prince as Bahvarians are known to take care of their own. The homeless man recognizes the prince and proceeds to introduce the magic into the story. Here’s the example.
“You know who I am?” Agis said.
“I don’t suppose you’d find another man with blue eyes and rings. Rings get you laughed at, but I guess nobody laughs at you on account of your being a prince and can turn demons loose and all that. No offense intended, mind you, just that you asked and all.”
When the homeless man says, ‘No offense intended’ he alerts both the reader and Agis to the fact that not only does he not approve of demon magic, but that no else does either. Young Agis has experienced a cost simply for being associated with magic even though we, as readers, know this boy prince has no such powers. I’ve already set up a cost balance for any future magic that rears its ugly head.
Your Practice
Write a short piece that implies a cost for some kind of magic without coming right out and saying what the cost is. For example, rather than saying,
“Harry could turn frogs into cakes but he had to sleep for three days afterward.”
You could say,
“After looking down at his frumpy little cake that had a moment ago been a frog, Harry plopped over on his side and slept as the dead will sleep. When he woke he was covered in dust and sore as all his enemies could wish. I’m disappointed, his father would say after asking why the farm’s chores had been ignored for three days. Harry could hear his father’s voice all the way back to the farm. He had no thought for the cake that had been eaten by something during his sleep, nor for the frog the cake had once been. But years later he would wonder if the cake had been good, at least.”
Sincerely, Black Hand Industries.
Today we’re going to discuss how to balance magic with the rest of your fantasy piece using examples from Martin and Abercrombie. Then I’ll give a go at creating an example and then I’ll finish off by giving you a prompt to start you working on this idea. First, let me explain what I mean by balancing the magic with the rest of the piece.
Principle 1: Magic must have a cost.
Magic, by its very nature, has a million possible uses, but in a fantasy novel it is always threatening to undermine the carefully crafted tension a writer has so painstakingly created. The idea of magic can be used to solve any problem, so we, as creators of fantasy worlds, must attach a ‘cost’ to the magic to prevent the reader from doing just that in his mind. Magic should never solve a problem for the protagonist, rather it should add another layer to the problem.
In A Game of Thrones Martin quickly sets up one of the costs of magic in the prologue. After being struck down by a mystical being known as one of the ‘Others’, Ser Waymar Royce of the Night’s Watch dies and then rises again.
“Ser Waymar Royce Stood over him. His fine clothes were a tatter, his face a ruin, A shard from his sword transfixed the blind white pupil of his left eye. The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw. The broken sword fell from nerveless fingers. Will closed his eyes to pray. Long, elegant hands brushed his cheek, then tightened around his throat. They were gloved in the fines moleskin and sticky with blood, yet the touch was icy cold.”
In the example above the cost is indeed great, Ser Royce pays for his magical return to life by losing his identity, essentially making him a kind of frozen zombie, a cost no one would willingly pay. This is only the first of many examples where GRRM brilliantly balances the benefits of magic with the cost. Let’s see another example from Joe Abercrombie before we move on to an example of my own.
Principle 2: The Benefit and Cost must be equal.
Joe’s first introduction of magic in his brilliant first book The Blade Itself from the series titled The First Law has us in chapter 3 with Logan Ninefingers at a camp fire alone. This example is quite a bit more subtle in its cost. Let’s see a bit from the book and then I will explain what I mean.
“It was a while before they came. Three of them. They came silently from the dancing shadwos among the trees and made slowly for the fire, taking shape as they moved into the light.
‘Ninefingers,’ said the first.
‘Ninefingers,’ the second.
‘Ninefigners, the third, voices like the thousand sounds of the forest…The spirits squatted and stared at him without expression. ‘Only three tonight?’
The one on the right spoke first. ‘Every year fewer of us wake from the winter. We are all that remain. A few more winters will pass, and we shall sleep also. There will be none of us left to answer your call.’
Logan nodded sadly.”
The spirits show up without warning or preamble from the author. The cost Logan pays is subtle but still very compelling. They go on to alert Logan to the fact that there is a Magi searching for him, a potentially dangerous one. Logan then decides he will seek out this Magi and ask him what he wants, thus starting Logan on the journey that will imperil him for the rest of the series. A heavy cost indeed as we see the spirits give Logan new problems rather than solving problems he already has.
A second part of the cost is revealed by the casual nature that Logan greets the spirits that arrive at his campfire with. They don’t seem, by his lukewarm reaction, to give Logan what he wants and in this instance they give him what he doesn’t want, a journey that will time and again put his life at risk. While Logan isn’t aware of all this himself, the reader knows that this call to action, if answered, will start the hero’s journey and we all know what kind of trouble that involves.
The reader also learns that this magic, by its very nature, will soon be gone, a kind of cost as well. And when the spirits end their conversation with Logan by telling him that he may never see them again he sarcastically replies, ‘I’ll try to struggle on without you.’ In this instance Abercrombie stresses that the magic does not provide much reward thus allowing him to lower the cost Logan pays for it. And now an example from me before you get your writing prompt.
My Practice
In my own epic fantasy novel The Prince of the Morning the young protagonist is immediately placed on the streets of a new city in his country of Bahvaria where he meets a homeless man. The homeless man startles the prince as Bahvarians are known to take care of their own. The homeless man recognizes the prince and proceeds to introduce the magic into the story. Here’s the example.
“You know who I am?” Agis said.
“I don’t suppose you’d find another man with blue eyes and rings. Rings get you laughed at, but I guess nobody laughs at you on account of your being a prince and can turn demons loose and all that. No offense intended, mind you, just that you asked and all.”
When the homeless man says, ‘No offense intended’ he alerts both the reader and Agis to the fact that not only does he not approve of demon magic, but that no else does either. Young Agis has experienced a cost simply for being associated with magic even though we, as readers, know this boy prince has no such powers. I’ve already set up a cost balance for any future magic that rears its ugly head.
Your Practice
Write a short piece that implies a cost for some kind of magic without coming right out and saying what the cost is. For example, rather than saying,
“Harry could turn frogs into cakes but he had to sleep for three days afterward.”
You could say,
“After looking down at his frumpy little cake that had a moment ago been a frog, Harry plopped over on his side and slept as the dead will sleep. When he woke he was covered in dust and sore as all his enemies could wish. I’m disappointed, his father would say after asking why the farm’s chores had been ignored for three days. Harry could hear his father’s voice all the way back to the farm. He had no thought for the cake that had been eaten by something during his sleep, nor for the frog the cake had once been. But years later he would wonder if the cake had been good, at least.”
Sincerely, Black Hand Industries.
(no offense)
