Aspect - Teirs

Okay, writing the last post and sleeping on it, I have this pretty solid system.

In descending strength.

Dominate aspects can be minor, Major or Noble. Dominate just means that the person can preform magic and use most enchanted items.

Noble aspect, highest end that non-magic users may become, high end magical equipment such as Dominate aspect's staffs of whatever.

Noble aspects normally mean that it's owner is almost supernatural, or IS supernatural in ability, noble aspects hosts tend to be above average in most accounts, and tend to have some clearly supernatural perks which are passive, like being able to move impossibly fast, or being able to shrug off magical attacks with relative ease.

Major Aspect, most common aspect among developed non-magic users. Good magical equipment that non-dominates can use.

Major aspects are the generally useful ones, while nobles are more powerful it's much easier to develop major aspects instead. A major aspect could give a solider generally better specialize proformance, and also let him or her use minor aspect enchanted items.

Minor Aspect, Most common among the populace, relatively mundane magical equipment.

The great majority of aspects are minor, they don't tend to help their owner in any real manner, except making it a bit harder for possession to effect them.

Basic Aspect, Undeveloped aspects on people, or short lived enchantments or spells created by dominates.

Generally Major and Noble aspects completely prevent ghostly or demon takeovers, there's something already inside which is strong enough to keep the door shut...And at least it's a positive relationship with it's host. Minor resists a bit, but commonly fails.

Major and up also prevents a good huge sum of mind controly things aswell...And so on.

Character examples, Kloe is a dominate major aspect, as a spell blade sort of skillset.. Andrian is a Noble aspect, how ever he is a old world adventurer FIRST, and got the aspect later which freaks people out. Jareko is a Noble Dominate, transplanted, the aspect doesn't agree all the time because of this.

Kloe also shares her major dominate aspect with ALEX her ferret familiar, both are major dominate aspects but together they have the power of a noble dominate when it comes to magic output.

Now that I have some minor defineing of types of aspects, next time I will give examples of character with aspects and how it actually effects them.

Web Comic : Magic System

Consistency, this is something to keep in mind while constructing a ideally loose but solid system.

Having it loose in the sense that I can do what ever the bloody hell I want with it, and solid in the sense that... I don't break the rules of physics...much...

The general idea is mostly INTERNAL consistency, if the fantastical elements of setting doesn't act predictable, for example if you have defined that magical person finding is possible, and have a plot trying to find someone... and ignore it, it feels jarring.

For the magic in this setting I want a system that can easily by applied to people, magical creatures, magical or enchanted objects, and elemental incarnations of it. And allow different applications of the same base idea be distinct from each other. Like explosions being used for bombs, rifles, and ... air bags. .... air counts.

I decided to call it aspects, which are functionally shadows of a soul. Aspects can be created separate from a soul, but behave differently, but tends to be easier than "Harvesting" aspects from the populace. In the middle ground artificial aspects can imitate a currently attached aspect, this also allows attunement as magical items imitate the person holding it.

So I will use the term Noble aspect to describe a powerful dominate aspect, like that attached to souls, or dominate untethered aspects. Simple basic aspects can easily be created by noble aspects, or existing basic aspects can become minor aspects which are attached to objects. If a soul has no aspect attached to it, a basic aspect can latch on. Should it improve to a noble aspect is very unlikely without external proding.

Aspects, emerged semi randomly, in the presence of aspects urges completely mundane souls to from a at least basic aspect. this requires continuous exposure, and greatly depends on the strength of the aspect. Aspect strength is variable, and a basic aspect cannot do much, maybe detect magical use around themselves like a new sense was added to the basic set.

Basic aspects are easy to seed intentionally if the person was wasn't already started by simple exposure. Artificial aspects, ones that are not connected to a soul or body but a object are just as easy to create, but difficult to make USEFUL.

To improve from a basic aspect requires a little bit of external influence to allow actual tapping of the aspect and improvement through use. Once someone can influence their aspect they can directly, if slowly change it. Through personality, and use. While the aspect normally doesn't effect it's owner negatively, it can be influenced to impact it's owner painfully by those with malicious intent. Otherwise the aspect normally draws from it's owner's stamina and general energy.

Artificial aspects or normal transplanted aspects in magical items draw from it's attuned owner and the space around the object. All aspects pool mana, how much is variable, it depends on the aspects development. How well it pools mana, how well it gathers it, effecency of the use.

Kloe, one of my characters, has a very fast but light aspect, very high intake and effecency but rubbish pooling. She isn't the type that needs to gather magical energy to fight, she uses low energy magic as a force multiplier. And it doesn't take much to unravel other magics.

Should she need to Pool magic, she can pool it in external aspects in objects, or in basic aspects tied to her, manifesting as strings of glowing orbs. Storing mana inside engineered aspects is much more effective than generating storing aspects on the fly. But you do what you can do.

Noble aspects, only become magically inclined in the presence of at least minor aspects. So aspects can be shaped through magical items, but the first burst into functional magic is awakening the dominate aspect requires a already dominate aspect to spur it into step, or some stressful event will trigger it's awakening to save it's owner, Sometimes this works, but the triggering event tends to be dangerous enough to kill them regardless. Or randomly the aspect will become dominate.

Family lines which had aspects tied to them tend to be relatively powerful, each successive generation being born with a already power dominate aspect, which builds off the parents. Mothers tend to imprint the most of their own aspect just be long term carrying of the child.

Aspects improve as they continue to exist, offspring gain aspects that are weaker but still much further along than fresh blood. If someone dies their aspect is loose, unless captured or directed somewhere, Otherwise it wanders and eventually finds SOMEWHERE to be, attaching it'self to something as a mature noble aspect, or becoming a elemental of sorts.

This probably has holes in it, but wuhahh... this snowballed in complexity as I wrote it.