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Author Topic: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]  (Read 56138 times)

Hapchazzard

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Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« on: February 05, 2019, 11:46:37 am »

I've been thinking, since the magic system will likely be tied-in with the current sphere system, maybe it would be useful to make a compilation of suggestions for the magical effects and attributes of each current sphere. This would be stuff like potential spell effects, environmental effects, effects on objects and critters, etc. Since the current list of spheres is rather large, I thought that it would be fun to make this a sort of community effort. In essence, take any of the current spheres (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere) and suggest whatever magical effects you think should be associated with it. These would be, as I said:

1. Spell effects - what kind of spells are potentially enabled by this sphere's magic? These could be anything from minor cantrips to region-shatterers
2. Environmental effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic have on the surroundings? This could range from almost imperceptible to reality-bending
3. Weather effects - does a high presence of this magic potentially produce unique weather?
4. Creature effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic (either inherent or temporary) in an individual creature have?
5. Object effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic (either inherent or temporary) in an individual object have?
6. Rituals and enhancers - are there types of rituals that are more innately connected to this sphere than most? e.g. sky magic being affected by the presence of the open sky, day magic being affected by whether it is actually daytime, etc.
7. Plant effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic (either inherent or temporary) in an individual plant have?

Also, it would be useful to describe at what sphere-intensity the effects usually tend to start appearing. Sphere-intensity is basically how prominent sphere-aligned magics are in an area/creature/object/whatever. I would personally divide it into 4 categories:

  • LOW is for magic that is above ambient levels, but is usually not perceptible to the untrained eye. Effects in this category should be subtle - animals avoiding the area, water flowing more rapidly, lights being brighter than usual, a sense of unease permeating the area, etc.
  • MEDIUM is for magic significantly above ambient levels. At this point, even non-magic users should be able to tell that there's something off about it, and visibly magical things might occur. Effects in this category shouldn't be too overt, but usually won't need a keen eye to notice - e.g. animals acting in a visibly erratic fashion, water flowing unnaturally fast, lights being uncomfortable to look at, a constant feeling of being watched, rare auditory hallucinations, etc.
  • HIGH is for magic much above ambient levels. At this point, it should be exceedingly obvious to anyone that the area/object/creature in question is magical, and the laws of physics and logic might break down in places. The signs are overt and instantly noticeable, and even a layman might be able to tell which sphere the magic is associated with - e.g. water flowing uphill, shadows being absent entirely, visual hallucinations, etc.
  • EXTREME is for places, creatures and things where the magic has completely overwhelmed the normal laws of physics and logic. Areas permanently affected by this level of magic would presumably be rare in the normal world, but elemental planes are good examples of regions with this level of magic. Creatures that are inherently 'made' of some type of magic - e.g. fire elementals, would fall into this category. You can go wild with the suggestions here - imagination is the only limiter.

There's no need to adhere rigidly to this categorization, but I think that it gives some useful ballparks. Now, feel free to throw in your own suggestions! I'll add them to the OP, and we can make a compilation of the community's suggestions. You don't have to strictly abide by the format I'll gave, I can convert whatever suggestion you make into said format when adding it to the OP, to make everything more easily readable.

NOTIFICATION: I am no longer maintaining this list directly myself, but another helpful poster has done so instead. You can find the more up to date list here:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=173189.msg8376282#msg8376282

Here's the list so far:

Index:
PART I: A TO C: (this post)
PART II: D TO F
PART III: G TO M
PART IV: N TO Z

Google Docs link(if anyone wants the whole thing in one place, for some reason. May be slightly out of date compared to forum version): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wLVpJxIKFffyHqGdU1LkY2NzJY9H0oiJZOm-doPT02A/edit

PART I: SPHERES A TO C

Agriculture
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Animals
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Art
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Beauty:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Blight
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Boundaries
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Chaos
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: July 10, 2022, 02:05:25 pm by Hapchazzard »
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voliol

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2019, 01:44:43 pm »

Due to the original OP going inactive, the above post is out of date. The new ”hub” for gathering all the suggestions is over here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=173189.msg8376282#msg8376282


Original comment:

This is a fine idea!

More FIRE:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Azerty

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2019, 03:33:39 pm »

I've been thinking, since the magic system will likely be tied-in with the current sphere system, maybe it would be useful to make a compilation of suggestions for the magical effects and attributes of each current sphere. This would be stuff like potential spell effects, environmental effects, effects on objects and critters, etc. Since the current list of spheres is rather large, I thought that it would be fun to make this a sort of community effort. In essence, take any of the current spheres (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Sphere) and suggest whatever magical effects you think should be associated with it. These would be, as I said:

1. Spell effects - what kind of spells are potentially enabled by this sphere's magic? These could be anything from minor cantrips to region-shatterers
2. Environmental effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic have on the surroundings? This could range from almost imperceptible to reality-bending
3. Creature effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic (either inherent or temporary) in an individual creature have?
4. Object effects - what kind of effects does a high concentration of this sphere's magic (either inherent or temporary) in an individual object have?

Poetry
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Justice
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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"Just tell me about the bits with the forest-defending part, the sociopath part is pretty normal dwarf behavior."

Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2019, 04:14:22 pm »

PART II: SPHERES D TO F

Darkness
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Deformity
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Disease
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dreams
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fire
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: June 21, 2019, 04:34:16 pm by Hapchazzard »
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PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2019, 04:45:33 pm »

I feel like I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this thread. :P

Darkness
Spoiler (click to show/hide)


« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 04:56:21 pm by PlumpHelmetMan »
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

voliol

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2019, 04:48:30 pm »

Poetry
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote
Justice
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edit: MEDIUM is written twice, both where it should be, and where HIGH should be instead. Also, it seems some of my suggestions were already added to the list... :I Oh well.

Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2019, 05:07:44 pm »

Edit: MEDIUM is written twice, both where it should be, and where HIGH should be instead. Also, it seems some of my suggestions were already added to the list... :I Oh well.

No worries, you've actually been a bit more eloquent and descriptive than me, so I'll replace my cursory descriptions with yours. Also, what you mentioned about law!=justice is something I wanted to point out, too. In general, I'd advise people to be careful with metaphorical associations, e.g. like light being associated with good. While some very basic metaphorical associations (like darkness being aligned with evil) are fine, keep in mind that many metaphoric associations between spheres are culture-influenced. For example, while white has positive connotations in western cultures, in other cultures it is associated with death. Just an example, but people should keep it in mind.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 05:14:18 pm by Hapchazzard »
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PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2019, 05:13:47 pm »

Also don't forget to add my suggestion, just in case you didn't see it yet (it's sandwiched between a few other posts). :)
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2019, 05:16:24 pm »

Also don't forget to add my suggestion, just in case you didn't see it yet (it's sandwiched between a few other posts). :)

No worries, I read through all of the suggestions. I thoroughly enjoyed reading those so far :) . Keep in mind that the OP is a bit tedious to format, so I might not immediately add people's suggestion, but you can assume that I'll add it sooner or later. Since I'm going through posts chronologically, if I actually miss your post you will notice it by the fact that someone else's later post was added, but yours wasn't. If that happens, feel free to inform me.
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PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2019, 05:18:47 pm »

No problem, just checking.
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2019, 05:48:43 pm »

Here's another suggestion from myself (I will post my own suggestions as well, to better keep track of the chronology of posts and so that people don't get confused if I just add something to the OP without warning):

Dreams
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Ninjabread

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2019, 07:13:19 pm »

Ooh, ok. I think I'll try tackling one

Agriculture

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Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2019, 07:41:23 pm »

Ooh, ok. I think I'll try tackling one

Agriculture

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nice, versatile suggestions for agriculture! I like it! Adding it to the OP.

EDIT: My own tentative contribution, for boundaries:

Boundaries
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« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 08:10:50 pm by Hapchazzard »
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thompson

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2019, 09:43:54 pm »

More ideas for

Dreams
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 09:46:42 pm by thompson »
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Hapchazzard

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Re: Sphere magic and associated effects [community suggestions]
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2019, 12:38:33 am »

More ideas for

Dreams
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Added!
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