Attract Mode

Help Me Name Magic

June 2nd, 2006

In my current novel, there are certain people who can access a shared dreamscape. This dreamscape is called ‘the phantasmagory’.

Most of the people who can access the phantasmagory can also manifest things from the phantasmagory in the real world. I have been calling this, generally, ‘phantasm magic’ or just ‘phantasms’.

These manifestations are able to affect the real world, are immune to other forms of magic, and look dreamy and unreal. Sometimes they’re transparent, and of variable solidity.
The most basic form of manifestation is a critter or object. For example, Danika the Witch’s most basic manifestation is a crow. She can manifest up to five of these, controlling them in a formation directly. They can’t go further than a mile or so away before dissolving.

At more advanced levels, Danika can imbue one or more of these crows with a shard of her own will, perception and intellect. This makes it able to feel pain, and able to act autonomously, usually as a really smart magical animal with a set of detailed orders. The effect on Danika is much like taking a single dose of those medications that say ‘don’t operate heavy machinery’. She could theoretically do that to all five crows, and this would leave her practically insenate, unable to move or defend herself.

When an autonomous crow returns to her, it merges with her form, and she gains her shard of self back, along with perfect recollection of all of the crow’s experiences. If it is destroyed before returning to her, she gains only fractured set of impressions.
Also at more advanced levels, Danika can alter the form of her manifestations. She can make them larger or smaller, or in another shape entirely.

At very high levels of skill, Danika is able to mostly divorce the effects of her manifestations from the shape and capabilities of a critter. There are visible traces of the source of the effects, like smudges on the air, or ghostly rainbows, but for the most part, she has effectively achieved the kind of telekinesis we find in X-Men.

Now: I have been calling the critters ‘phantasm constructs’ or ‘phantasm beasts’, and the telekinesis ‘phantasmal forces’. I’m pretty unhappy with those terms because they’re unwieldy and kind of lame. Help me pick better terms!

For the critters, I’ve thought of the following; pick one or suggest your own:

1. Totems
2. Soulbeasts
3. Chimerae
4. Eidolons (which is, yes, a real word as well as something that shows up in FF)
5. Shadows
6. ???

For the phantasmal forces, I’ve had fewer ideas, and none of ‘em really strike a chord:

1. Animations
2. Fields
3. Worldbinding
4. ???

Categories: A Trilogy of Darkness and Glow, Citadel of the Sky, Structure Tutorial, Writing | Tags: tfn, Writing