You know what they say: The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
I suppose you could explain how your magic system works, since you mentioned that the Dark Lords and your MC violate the basic rules somehow, which sounds kinda important. What are the normal mechanics and restrictions, and how does magic in general feature into your setting?
Well, every mage or warlock has a gift. This gift is limited- you can’t make it more powerful, and you can’t learn it. You have it or you do not. Every gift is fueled by sacrifice. To use your ability to set something on fire, you’d have to have a vial of blood on your person or prick your finger. The more death, the more power. The more powerful the sacrifice, the more you get. A lion is worth more than a mouse, and a king is more than a peasant, and the more potential sacrifice is worth more. A child, say. The Sorcerers were essentially identified with a particular element of nature-fire, water, night, you get the picture. They also created recipes, which is more in line with alchemy. Ingredients may include obsidian, a cartload of charcoal, twenty oxen and five slaves. Dragons stored magic like a cactus storing water, and their bodies could be burned to release power. Certain areas have more power as well, like battlefields. Anything associated with death. Those are the basic rules. It’s a pretty low-magic setting, along the lines of Lord of the Rings or ASOIAF. Dark Lords and the protagonist don’t need to sacrifice to use their powers.
Are you concerned, at all, that your protagonist is exempt from the sacrifices? From a storytelling point of view, it might make his job 'too easy'—if he can go ahead and do anything he wants without risking any kind of sacrifice or 'downside.' It's just him and the Dark Lords taking shots at each other ....who will win? But if he DID have the handicap of some kind of sacrifice (even if the Dark Lords didn't) that would make his job a lot more difficult. Which, from a storytelling point of view, might be a good idea.
Your story sounds really interesting. And I find it kind of exiting that you and I both have LGBTQ theme in our stories. But it takes more center stage in mine, though.
He does have a price-his power can easily overcome his humanity. It’s also dangerous to his allies, because his transformation is highly destructive. Even being inside a building or ship would cripple his ability, because he would just get tangled or crushed by rubble. Not to mention how he is comatose after a single battle. What I meant by not paying a price was that he doesn’t have to kill someone or prick his finger.
Oh, that's actually a good twist. Because he might actually become such a danger to his allies that THEY might need to get rid of him? That puts everything on quite an edge, doesn't it?
I agree. In fact, it even sound like it’s possibly going into a ending that I myself like to use at times. A sad, tragic one that is.
Wait, don't these two statements contradict each other? I can see how a lion might provide more power than a mouse, but a king being worth more magic than a peasant seems sorta arbitrary. I mean, they're both just men, right? One of them just wears a fancy hat and lives in a nicer house. Just seems sorta odd that social standing would affect ones supernatural potency. Potential being a factor also complicates things. After all, the king might be some incompetent buffoon who'll never accomplish much despite his position, while the peasant may be extremely talented with the potential to achieve great things. And if children are worth more magic because they have more potential, would it be correct to say that the value of a human sacrifice decreases in proportion to the age of that individual? That is to say, the older you get the less useful you are as a sacrifice, on account of having less potential. That seems to be the logical conclusion, anyway. I'd say the idea of sacrifice-based magic is in itself fine, but I wonder if maybe you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. Anyway, it seems to me that this system would heavily favor evil magicians - you know, the sort of person who don't actually mind murdering babies for power. Basically, the more of a malignant sociopath you are, the more powerful a magician you are likely to become. Must kinda suck to be a champion for good in this setting. And if this magic is powered by death, I'm now wondering if it's possible to set up some sort of positive feedback loop of sacrifices. Like, you make a sacrifice and use the power gained to cast a magic spell that kills a bunch of people and then gain more power from that, and then you kill even more people and so on.
You can’t strengthen your gift, but you can use it more with more sacrifice. Think of the gift as a car- some are nicer, some worse, but they all need gas to run. The king’s blood thing is based on the old idea that kings were worth more. That’s not true, but they do provide more fuel because they have more control over who lives and who dies. Yes, the sacrifice decreases with age. Essentially, every living thing has a soul (think a shroud of darkness visually). When something dies, the soul releases energy as it decays, generating the power to fuel magic. Yes, magic does favor the ruthless, but it’s fairly weak. The Warlocks are a powerful force, but they are not capable of many things. As for a feedback loop, it would burn itself out. The magic works with the conservation of energy, so you would basically be pouring power into a futile system. Even if you managed it, you’d probably burn out from the strain.
Right, but it's not like you can make your car go faster by putting more gas into it. So if I understand this analogy correctly, then by "more power" you don't mean it lets you cast stronger spells, rather it lets you cast more spells or use magic for longer? Like, sacrifices literally work as fuel? Hm, a system based on trading resources for power that disproportionately favors ruthless, opportunistic people willing to exploit the lives of their fellow men. That... sounds familiar somehow, but I can't put my finger on it. Well, "weak" is relative. I mean, they're certainly going to be capable of more than ordinary people. That's sorta the whole point of magic powers.
Ok, there is one thing I have started getting really curious about. You have revealed that Arsien develops romantic feelings for Elenxes, but what about the other way around? Does Elenxes feel the same way about Arsien?
Vaguely. He’s not super “romantic”, and his immediate goal is to free the rest of his people who are enslaved. He does get it through his thick skull eventually. Yes, the bigger sacrifice the longer/more you can use your gift. And yes, magic is still a game-changer. It’s just very costly, and saved for certain times. Like the magic in Game of Thrones.
Oh, if the ending is what I suspect, I’m very certain I will. BUT it will not be because of unrequited love, at least.
Putting it in a spoiler for the sake of those who don’t want to know, in case I’m right. Spoiler Arsien is forced to kill Elenxes So, am I right?
But no matter which way it goes, grief is unavoidable in the end. As I’ve said in a n earlier post, a sad and tragic ending.
