What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?



By Wendy C Allen

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What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?

NBQuaraunDayWithUnicornscreenshot5.pngQuaraun and Lich King Gwallmaiic aka BoomFuzzy the Unicorn (humanoid form)

What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?

Today I was over on Quora and I noticed a comment by Mercedes R. Lackey show up in my feed. As she is one of my favorite authors, her books being major inspirations for my own writing, I went to check out the thread she was commenting on and add my own thoughts to the discussion.

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The question is:

What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?

And my answer seems to by contrary to the answers of every other author in the comment section as they were all saying "Don't do it!" while here I am saying, oh, yeah, that's exactly what I do! LOL!

What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?

You end up with something I would write, LOL! I write Dark Fantasy, featuring a Necromancer main character, so, I suppose you could classify the primary magic system to be “Dark Magic”, yes? But, I have never set myself down to write up a set of rules for the magic system in the series. In essence, I don’t have any set rules about magic at all, let alone Dark Magic.

I wish Quora allowed question askers to ask longer questions and go into more details about what specifically they want to know, because the way questions are formatted here, they end up being very general/generic, like this one. But I look at this question and my mind sees so many possible ways to answer it depending on what TYPE of “Dark Magic” or what TYPE of “Fantasy Works” is the question asker thinking of.

For example: A Demon Summoner uses very different magic then a Necromancer. Two types of Dark Magic. But take each and put them in different genres, and now they become even more different.

Consider: In the Magical Realism Fantasy genre a Sorcerer who summons Biblical Demon Spirits or a Necromancer seeing and hearing ghosts, are going to be vastly different from a High Fantasy types that summon physical Demon monsters and raise corpses as zombies.

The Magical Realism Necromancer uses real world style Necromancy, reading tarot cards, using spirit boards, lighting candles to speak with ghosts of the dead.

Whereas The High Fantasy Necromancer uses the TTRPG style Necromancy of raising corpses and building zombie minion armies. Two vastly different styles of Necromancy, so two vastly different sets of rules to consider.

Do you see my conundrum? What type of Dark Magic was the question asker thinking of: it makes a difference. What type of Fantasy subgenre was they referring to? Again, it makes a difference.

If you were writing High Fantasy with Battle Mages and Dark Lords, and lots of big boomy, poofy, magic spells going off like fireworks, well, yeah, you probably need to lay out some pretty rigid rules.

But, if you are like me, writing Dark Fantasy Romance between a pair of mages, well, there are not going to be any epic battles, no big bad Dark Lords (unless the main character, IS the Dark Lord, like mine is, LOL!) and so not a lot of pop, boom, fizz magic spells going off, and, you could get by without rules of magic, same as I do.

So, my answer to this question is: It Depends.

It depends on what TYPE of Dark Magic you are writing about.

It depends on what sub-genre in Fantasy you are writing.

Me personally? I am writing the Romance between an Elven Necromancer and his Lich Unicorn lover, so, not a lot of magic spell casting ever gets used. You see minor magic mentioned in passing in the background, but the bulk of the story follows the relationship between the two mages. So, Dark Magic exists, but because it’s not used on the page very often, I can get by without laying out rules for the magic system.

I suppose however, if I was writing High Fantasy instead of Dark Romantasy, I probably would need to lay down the rules of magic better.

But as you have not said what type of magic you are writing, or what genre you are writing, I can not give you specific answers which would apply to your writing. I can only give examples of what I personally do in my own writing and it may or may not apply to you and your story.

But, hopefully this helps you out, good luck writing your novel!

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QS-GhoulSpawnandQuaraun-screenshot.pngThe Pink Necromancer, Quaraun and GhoulSpawn the Sheep (humanoid form)


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Other Websites You Might Enjoy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/159svu6/what_constitutes_dark_magic_in_your_system_and/

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https://matthewangelobooks.substack.com/p/writing-dark-magic-systems-rules

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https://www.dabblewriter.com/articles/build-a-magic-system

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https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/tdvjmr/discussion_about_dark_magic/

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https://blog.worldanvil.com/worldbuilding/magic-systems-getting-started-worldbuilding/

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https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/qmox5c/what_is_dark_magic_to_you/

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How to Create a Magic System in Six Simple Stepshttps://www.well-storied.com/blog/how-to-create-a-magic-system-in-six-simple-steps

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https://mythcreants.com/blog/how-to-create-a-rational-magic-system/

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https://crrowenson.com/magic-systems/how-to-create-magic-systems/

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https://www.reddit.com/r/magicbuilding/comments/159svu6/what_constitutes_dark_magic_in_your_system_and/

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https://occultist.net/black-magic-guide/

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https://www.wikihow.com/Do-Black-Magic

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https://matthewangelobooks.substack.com/p/writing-dark-magic-systems-rules

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https://magickalspot.com/performing-black-magic-questions/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_magic


https://learningsupernatural.com/cast-curse-dark-magic/

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https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Magic

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What would happen if there weren't any rules about dark magic, or magic in general, in fantasy works?





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