So I’ll admit that just over two months into this, I’m still trying to wrap my head around magiq. I read up on the summaries from before I joined, but having missed the big spells, magiq still seems like a big mystery to me. That being said, I was around for the beacon we used against the storm and I’ve been lurking a bit on the Operation Gladitor and Operation Aothora threads trying to see if I could be useful. And then last night, it struck me - what about people (like me, to an extent), who are less creative with words? If the magiq we’ve done so far has had some aspect of creative writing (poetry, stories, the song for Fragment 14…) what happens if you find it difficult to write? And that got me thinking…what if magiq isn’t necessarily based on stories in the literal sense, but the intrinsic narrative of the creation process? Personally, I’m more of a hands-on artisan Flinter. When I make something, there’s an underlying story to it - a motivation, a journey, and a resolution. So here’s some rampant speculation about translating some of the story magiq to other types of stories:
The “big magiq” - Planned spells that require a longer, metaphorical narrative - those are the big projects, the masterpiece works. Just as a writer would sit down and plan a story, the individual would plan their project. Sketch it out, make prototypes and mock-ups, and use all their energy to perfect the final product (like planning, drafting, and editing a story). These take a lot of energy, but have significant pay-off.
The “emergency magiq” - Just like we pulled together quotes to stitch together a sort of story to fend off the storm, I was thinking there could be a way to implement this into other crafts as well. Like, the individual creates “blanks” in their chosen style - something basic but unfinished that’s ready to be used at a moment’s notice. Like everyone has a sort of stash of their favorite quotes in their mind, these blanks could be kept on hand to be transformed into a spell or component when needed - painted backgrounds, carved shapes, etc that need details to be complete. So when the individual needs to cast a spell in an emergency, they take out their blank and finish it like we worked together to select and combine our quotes.
The charm - These could be small pieces of magiq that are created through smaller projects. Like a writer might have a line or a phrase just “come to them” without have a story ready to fit it into, these could be little doodles or scrap projects that don’t have a big motivation - a little friendship bracelet to cheer up the wearer, a whittling project to bring someone courage in a time of need. Something that can be executed quickly from scratch but maybe isn’t the strongest or most enduring of spells.
The combination - I also see these alternative stories being combined with poetry or something to create a hybrid spell. Something like illumination - painting and decorative calligraphy combined with the text to make something that is both art and story. Or something else similar where the final product is a combination of an artistic product and a text-based story. This could include the art of sigil-making - there’s a story and meaning behind the design that accompanies and adds to the text that’s included. I’d be interested to see the effects of that and explore this concept more.
So that’s my rampant speculation of the day. And I readily admit that I’m coming at this from a very Flinterforge-based perspective. So I’d be really interested to hear from other people, and especially people in other guilds about this more theoretical approach to the story aspect of magiq!
You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thanks for writing this up, Tinker!