The magic system I've come up with for my book mostly revolves around manipulating physical phenomena. Essentially, you use meditation/mental control to get in touch with the unconscious/life energy side of the world. By feeling certain elemental phenomena, you get in touch with it, and are able to direct it with your conscious mind. I've mostly got that figured out, but I also wanted to fit in mind manipulation into it (mostly because it's the main power of one of the villains). The problem is, I can't figure out how. I don't know what separates human thoughts from all the other types of energy (especially when there's also spirits which embody certain elements). I'm not sure how someone who uses mind control wouldn't theoretically be able to just control everything, which would really break the story.
I'm not sure I understand the problem. Why can't you just make consciousness be formed from its own type of energy? If your villain is only in tune with that kind of energy, then he can only control minds. I mean, he could probably control other elements through others who are in tune with other elements, but that way he wouldn't be able to control everything directly.
Maybe consider that the unconscious/life energy of 'things' is different than that of a conscious, living beings (or creatures). The former would not be able to resist. The latter could resist and, even if failed in the struggle, would no longer be 'compelled' by the villain, once the villain's mind control effort ended--or the overpowered being/creature moved out of sight or out of range, etc.
Well, if the system YOU built doesn't let this work, then you have two options; A, scrap it all and start from scratch so the system would allow this. This would open up the gateway for others to be able to do the mind thing as well. B, create a sub-system/subclass of magic from obscure bloodlines or something like that to make it exist, but not quite on the same level.
Since this post, I've slightly updated my magic system, and I'd like a second opinion as to whether or not it makes sense. However, I'd rather not start another thread, so I'll just be posting it here. Magic mostly revolves around elemental control, which is achieved through aether; a subconscious energy which regulates the body, along with the forces of nature. It connects humans to nature (absorbing sunlight, drinking water, breathing air), which is what allows them to get in touch with certain phenomena. However, in order to consciously direct magic, one has to focus/meditate on the effect it has on you; in order to use fire magic, one normally focuses on the Sun's rays. However, like in real life, too much of something can be deadly. For example, those who try and use too much fire magic could overheat, or even spontaneously combust. If anyone needs me to clarify something, just let me know.
I'm debating, not sure if I like the "meditate on how it will effect". For fire, are they meditating on how fire would burn their body but apply it to their enemy? I can see how they consciously feel the warmth of the fire and direct that to their enemy, feeling the body engulfed in flames maybe? I just don't see a lot of people sitting around meditating to use a force.
The way you described it the second time (feeling the warmth of fire and directing it to their enemy) is pretty much how it works. By meditation, I meant more clearing your mind so that you can have complete focus and not lose control of a force, or get distracted (which could result in a backlash, or just failure). Probably should've clarified that.
Don’t be afraid to have multiple separate magic systems in one book. Brandon Sanderson thrives on this. He shows a bunch of characters using magic, explains the rules, then something happens that the rules do not explain and it just adds to the mystery. It usually turns out that either there is another magic system, or that the rules aren’t what we think they are.
Heya, friend! I will suggest you get inspiration from different philosophies and religions that involves that kind of powers. If you know someone that practices that stuff, make questions that may help to solve your problem. Understand how it works so you can create your magic. I hope this helps. Keep on good work, and have fun!
Some "elemental" magic systems include Spirit (under various names); it usually serves as a central, catchall, "tie them all together" force. Just add this, and then you can define how it works - control over living beings, life force, mental energy, whatever. And yeah, I'm not feeling the "meditate" thing either. I'm using a similar system, and my mages just concentrate on controlling the element. I like the "could burst into flames" thing, though - Kevin Hearne does the same thing in Plague of Giants.
The brutally honest answer is real life occultist kind of just channel demons/elementals to manipulate phenomena around them, usually human and social stuff. I don't want to get to into this though. If you're looking for something like RPG magic, Dungeons and Dragons or Final Fantasy; what I do is this: Classic Elements: Earth, Fire, Air, Water Secondary Elements: Ice, Thunder, Holy, Dark It's kind of a JRPG model, but I don't really care. Eh, what I do is I use this whole Chinese Wuxia Qi/Ki principle too; make the whole idea kind of like Shounen. Really, you don't need to make your magic scientific in the modern sense of "this can be tested and proven or w/e" like at all. Hard Fantasy kind of tries to do this I suppose at times, but people who practice magic in real life don't go around throwing fireballs at each other like you see in roleplaying games and shit. As a fantasy writer what you're really doing is constructing some pseudo-scientific model of the universe--kind of like what the ancient Greek and Indian philosophers did prior to humanity have chemistry tables to consult; and in the same way gadgets shouldn't be front in center of a science fiction story, magic is kind of just, you know, what tech is I guess for a SF story: the real theme is "What is power, and how is it used?" I guess.
