Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Writing Group => Topic started by: AvalonDreamer on November 12, 2008, 06:08:21 AM
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Before I sat down to figure out concrete-esque rules for my book's power system, I re-listened to Sanderson's First and Second Laws, and I think I did a decent job (still editing for cliches) - but as with any post here, please be critical!
The source for my system amounts to something along the lines of semi-conscious particles that sit between matter and energy, hiding in the background of other cosmic noise, called the Flow. By manipulating this force (either by channeling it directly, or using it to manipulate other things), one could produce any number of other effects if one was born lucky enough to have influence over the flow - known as Vessels.
To use it, one required focus, and using it required relative amounts of energy - with a small side effect: relative to the power of the use and the time holding it, the force would slowly damage the Vessel's body, first uncovering recently healed wounds, and moving back in time, both opening and expanding old ones.
Small expenditures (if one could, moving a marble an inch instantaneously) would result in soreness, and a bit of an ache; while Larger ones (i.e. funneling the energy from a forest fire into a lake) would begin opening scratches and unmending fractures, and leave the user exhausted on the edge of passing out.
I can post up specific powers and their explanations if this doesn't prove absurd as all hell.
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I like the price they pay for the power. The idea of using magic/power hurting the user isn't anything new, but the idea of it reopening old wounds is pretty cool. Good imagery.
Are there any set parameters on how it can be used?
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I seem to have seen this power system before...
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Wait... where?
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I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I've read it. I don't think it was the main focal point of the magic; the reopening wounds was mostly a side effect.
It's a bit of an interesting idea, though... What happens if someone uses it who has never been injured and thus has no old wounds to open?
The "it hurts the user" thing is done a lot, and the "flow" itself sounds very cliche.
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Then the person starts to uniformly degrade, it'd just take longer to notice. The reason the flow opens up old wounds is that modern humans are imperfect conduits for the Flow; just like a pipe that's been patched up over time, the patches will be the first part to go.
As for the idea of the Flow itself, the word has a cliche ring to it, and I'll admit I took a bit of the idea from Phillip Pullman's idea about Dark Matter.
My roommate asked me the "What if they were never hurt?" question and I told him, "then you'd notice that they'd begin sweating blood, the thinner bits of skin would start to degrade, to a point that they'd look like a full-body burn victim after the dead flesh has bee removed."