The Four Universal Types of Magic Systems

It's here. The time has finally come for us to talk about the types of magic systems. So in this video, we're going to talk about the four. Yes, four universal types of magic systems. We're also going to dig into the details so that you can really tell them apart. And we'll analyze 4 popular systems so that we can assign them to their corresponding type of magic.

I’ve developed a magic-building tool called The Magic System Blueprint and is designed to quickly give you a holistic understanding of any magic system. I’m currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo for it and you can check it out at:

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:50 Definitions (add video card in the top right
01:48 The Four Types of Magic
02:19 Hard/Soft Axis
04:31 Rational/Irrational Axis
07:12 Types of Magic Defined
08:35 System Examples
11:19 Why This Matters
11:50 Outro

[ryanratchford]

Great video. More people should talk about the rational irrational scale.
Harry Potter magic I’d say is hard-irrational as every spell has a hard rule but there’s no logic to why certain spells do certain things & there’s no way to extrapolate or come up with a new spell.

[henryfleischer]

I've been learning programming. So far, it's a soft but generally pretty rational magic system. I've found that C# is a bit less rational, and Ruby is a bit more.

[kevinkarlsson]

My favorite magic system of all time is the one of Norse mythology and Norse paganism.

Everything in the world is connected to an energy field or a force called "megin" (from the Old Norse word for magic). Megin is the devine power that gives everything life. Every thaught, decision and action affects this energy, which in turn affects you back. For every action there is an equivalent reaction from the devine, the "magic". This system is very logical, thus making it a rational system. It's very surprising how this can be so logical given it's over a thousand years old.
The gods themselves are the imbodiments of the consepts of what the magic can do.

Great video! It was really helpful!

[davidstell]

This is a really useful video, thank you. I have been reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I find this very interesting because the magic system seems very rational combining elements in weaves of varying complexities to achieve effects. On the hard/soft axis, I am slightly less sure where to place it because it seems to depend on which groups are using magic, ranging from Wilders who have had no magical training and are operating purely on instinct (very soft), to Aes Sedai who have undergone a very formal training process of how to use elements and weaves (slightly harder) and then onto The Forsaken, who comment more than once that Aes Sedai are weak and ignorant compared to themselves because The Forsaken have access to magical knowledge from the previous age of the world when magical knowledge was more advanced(much harder). Yet even the Forsaken are sometimes surprised by the magical innovation displayed by Rand Al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn. Then there are the groups such as the Aiel Wise Ones, the Atha'an Miere sea folk Windfinders and the Seanchan who all have access to limited, but still frequently powerful magic that I am not sure where to place on the axis. I am working on a system to embrace this roughly based on the Legend of the Five Rings RPG where player characters with magical talent can use their individual ring scores to attempt basic magical effects. As they gain experience and either training or intuition, they can learn weaves combining different levels of each element. If they rely too heavily on intuition, this will increase the chances of a magical mishap which will swiftly become increasingly dangerous as they develop more potential.

Can you suggest where this would fit on the soft/hard axis overall, please? Your advice would be much appreciated.

[BurtKocain]

My fave magic system is in the manga/anime 'Hunter × Hunter'. I'm pretty sure it's a hard rational system, as it's so complex you can read ESSAYS on how it works and everything about it kinda 'makes sense'.
The same with the system in Animorphs; strict rules that are set out from the beginning and stories that go into creative ways to use these powers within the ruleset.

[pm]

And then there's Divine Throne of Primordial Blood, which has a hard rational magic system but the main character is a research maniac. So at the beginning if you were aware of how complex the magic system actually was then you would consider it a soft magic system, but because of people's limited knowledge of how much they don't know it always feels like a hard magic system.

[Sb]

This is the first I have heard of the rational/irrational angle



I am attempting to write something, my system is going to be on the extreme end of both hard and rational. If there was one thing I always wondered when reading or watching fantasy magic, it was definitely the "how" of magic. I can simply enjoy something but after it's over I just ponder.
I think the Wheel of Time comes quite close as far as getting into the nitty gritty of magic. The One Power certainly is documented well in the series. It is shown how they access it, what it is composed of, where it comes from, some hard "what you can't do" limits and yet some innovation still occurs. With any magic battle, if you know the participants and what they have you could gauge who would might win.
The real soft part of WoT is the artifacts, made from a previous age of "modern magitek" they can seemingly do anything. Ter'angreal, like, one controls weather, some are light bulbs, some make portals to other worlds, it is wild.

I like knowing the intricacies of what one must do in order to make magic function, don't ask me why I am like this, Lol, I just am.
And the way I am going, I might have an actual text book on my magic before I actually begin writing.

[chase]

Really glad I came across your channel, I was gripped by inspiration recently and have been working to design a Table Top RPG and had zero ideas how to begin building a functioning hard rational magic system from scratch. Your videos have begun to clarify a path. It no longer seems impossible if still daunting.

[titocris]

Great video. The two axises of magic are fascinating and informative.
My favorite magic system is…the Force. It’s probably a soft-irrational system.

[Elyandarin]

I have a third axis I sort my magic systems by - the degree to which they violate physics.
Like, can you violate causality? Can you violate conservation of energy? Can you remove entropy from a system? Can you transmit information faster than light?

I made one system of magic, low on the scale, which was sorted into different schools based on where they got their energy. There were the lightning wizards who went around with huge batteries on their back, the biomancers who were overweight so they could draw on their fat deposits, the illusionists who were near-useless at night, the fire wizards who went around with gasoline to set everything around them on fire if they needed power...

In my favorite home-made system, higher on the scale, wizards store up on anentropic mana, and can just get their energy from leeching heat from their surroundings or something, so they get sorted into schools based on methodology and effects. What I like about it is that the elementalist blowing-shit-up magic is one school out of eight, and the rest of them have to get _creative_ if they want to do damage. (That, or multi-class.)

[RebelliousTeddy]

I already knew of hard and soft magic systems *but this*, this clean explanation of rational to irrational was new to me. This clear explanation will help my session 0 so much, thank you.
But I'd love constructive criticism on my take (to all who might read this, all 3 of you lol) & I'll be using this world for years to come so no reply is ever too late!
Divine, faith & religious types fall under hard rational. Even certain runic tech or steampunk styles too. Magical machines can be explained by just taking them apart carefully and with a magical eye (like a "carpenter's eye")
Darker practices of faith or weaker gods (little "g" was intentional) might be closer to soft rational. Kinda discovering how to help make their faith stronger via certain sacrifices over others or weird practices to gain a boon "running naked in a forest, my gods like dis!" for example.
I've kinda lumped the irrational hard & softs together. Kinda explaining there functionality on ruined civilizations/forgotten knowledge but artifacts of bullshittery still exists & can be found. How hard or soft are these artifacts? Up to me :D

[Coralsys]

Interestingly I think my world has 1 hard rational system (alchemy), 1 soft irrational system (old magic), and 1 hard, somewhat rational system (common magic). They intersect in certain ways and really flesh out the world. I’m not using it for a book but I might run a tabletop game in it

[nothingiseverperfect]

Ohhhh this video is a BANGER! very clear and throughout THANK YOU!

[bgtyhnmju]

I know this is a year after, but I like that you built a bit of a set to film in.

[Centeris]

Ooo I've never heard of the rational/irrational system, but I love it! I also didn't expect the Stargate mention but as soon as you said it, it made perfect sense!

[AngelichuXD]

im still figuring out my magic system here but from the video ..i want it to be in soft rational.

[therealdoomsage]

"Superman is hard, and irrational."

Oh I think we've all been 'there' before. :P

On a more serious note, I've been working on a system for an original setting that would land somewhere in the region of 'core of a collapsed star that is also a flat earther despite being a literal celestial object.' on your chart; so getting on the harder/basket case-ier side of the spectrum.
So far I've completed the framework for like half a dozen systems, except it was all just in the one system, which I retconned over and over again until it was so lacking in any focus or theme that it became the simulacrum of nutrient paste-magic systems; technically a very decent option, still I'd rather take a suppository.

[warlock]

You should read this book called 'Lord of the mysteries'.

It has a God-level power system where getting strong is not a good thing but being weak is not good either. The abilities are so common yet, they are turned into something so unique.

It is Victorian era, steampunk and elderitch horror story.

[AdaraFukuchi]

im writing a book rn and for now, its soft rational. it'll slowly keep going to hard the more stuff I show :)

[heathercampbell]

I wanted to give you an up vote several times during this. Then I went down and... Oh, I've already up voted it. ^^;

Then you used SG-1 and I squeed. <3 All of these are fabulous examples. :D

I love the Fullmetal Alchemist magic system. Hard rational and so well done.

I also like the Demon Slayer magic system, though I count it as two. One is hard rational, for the most part. It has sword forms, and those forms and how they are used and how someone practices is whether someone can use those systems. It's very much based on existing sword forms (if pushed to an extreme, lol) and then given a fantastical element. And because a sword fighter has to train to use their entire body to use a sword form, it's understandable that an expert could, theoretically, use their bodies to do extraordinary things. (Some of it does push the limit, it's shounen manga, but the writer usually does a good job sticking within the confines of the rules he's created.) The second is the demon magic system. That's most definitely somewhere between hard and soft Irrational. Hard because once a demon gets a power, they have to stick to that general ability (IE, fire, ice, force, splitting themselves into different aspects, etc.). Soft because a demon can have more or less any magical ability and it's not always predictable. One boy gains powers like a spider, and we have no idea why. Some of the others make a little more sense--the artist that used to live by the sea has water-like powers and lots of fish, but there's also an element of art to his powers too sooo.... eh? (There IS one example of a combination, and it moves into hard rational, which I find very interesting.) Not my favorite ever, but definitely interesting and pretty consistent.


My current magic system has twelve elements, seven physical and five esoteric: Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Lightning, Gravity, Light/dark as physical, Life, Death, Time, Luck, and Fate as esoteric. There's also a controversial thirteenth element, but it's more an element of building the spell itself than an ingredient to the other spells, so it's in a category all its own. Some cultures count it as an element, some don't. I'm pretty proud of it. :)