Monday - Richard Morris - Worldbuilding (I'm failing my first prompt task!)
Go to the (excellent) SFWA's guide to worldbuilding questions and select three (3) to answer as a prompt. You can do many more if you like, but only three are required to satisfy the prompt.
I'm not worldbuilding, not for this particular character however this question was great for my Richard Morris character) Okay Morris...let's do right by you...(for some reason, I feel the need for character building to be done in 1st person)
1. What is the price magicians must pay in order to be magicians — years of study, permanent celibacy, using up bits of their life or memory with each spell, etc.? Does anyone ever try to get around the price of magic?
The Craft requires years of dedication, of studying, of working. I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a household where the craft was practiced and encouraged on a daily basis, except by myself of course - only my mother and sister were encouraged to use magic, I was simply allowed to study it.. Our hidden library was filled with books dedicated to particular elements, to particular tools, all that had been gathered by my mother's ancestors over centuries. Men are not usually allowed to practice the craft, it is written that the man's sould is more fragile than a woman's, more susceptible to evil, there are even tales of a man's spirit breaking thanks to magic. For this reason, women have been forbidden to pass on the tools of witchcraft - the key tool being the Gift - a poition containing the blood of a magical person.
When my mother died, my sister tried to write a loophole. She created a ritual that was "sure to work". She mixed two potions, the Gift for me, and an Immunity potion for herself. She wrote a spell, which was to be burnt on the exact moment of both potions touching our lips. Unfortunately, it backfired. The flamed engulfed the spell before I could swallow, taking her hand with it, and then the rest of her body. My sister was gone in a blinding flash of flash, which burnt itself out as the potion vile she had been holding fell to the floor with a crash. That was the last time I saw the solid form of Joanne Morris.
I'm not worldbuilding, not for this particular character however this question was great for my Richard Morris character) Okay Morris...let's do right by you...(for some reason, I feel the need for character building to be done in 1st person)
1. What is the price magicians must pay in order to be magicians — years of study, permanent celibacy, using up bits of their life or memory with each spell, etc.? Does anyone ever try to get around the price of magic?
The Craft requires years of dedication, of studying, of working. I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a household where the craft was practiced and encouraged on a daily basis, except by myself of course - only my mother and sister were encouraged to use magic, I was simply allowed to study it.. Our hidden library was filled with books dedicated to particular elements, to particular tools, all that had been gathered by my mother's ancestors over centuries. Men are not usually allowed to practice the craft, it is written that the man's sould is more fragile than a woman's, more susceptible to evil, there are even tales of a man's spirit breaking thanks to magic. For this reason, women have been forbidden to pass on the tools of witchcraft - the key tool being the Gift - a poition containing the blood of a magical person.
When my mother died, my sister tried to write a loophole. She created a ritual that was "sure to work". She mixed two potions, the Gift for me, and an Immunity potion for herself. She wrote a spell, which was to be burnt on the exact moment of both potions touching our lips. Unfortunately, it backfired. The flamed engulfed the spell before I could swallow, taking her hand with it, and then the rest of her body. My sister was gone in a blinding flash of flash, which burnt itself out as the potion vile she had been holding fell to the floor with a crash. That was the last time I saw the solid form of Joanne Morris.