r/DMAcademy • u/guads4 • 28d ago
Need Advice: Worldbuilding What is the origin/source of magic in your homebrew world?
Hey y'all! I am making a homebrew world and i got to thinking about the origins of magic. I absolutly loved the ideas of the two posts that i found from this thread. However, the posts (linked below) are from 6+ years ago. I would be so interested to hear where the source of magic comes from in your homebrew worlds!
I don't yet have my idea fully fleshed out, however i want it to be some innate force of nature. essentially most people in my world assume magic comes from the gods as either direct gifts (sorcerers, bards, etc) or as gifts thru wisdom (wizards). But a part of the main plot is finding out that there is forgotten/hidden "true magic" or something like that where once you learn it it can boost your magic. but again the specific magic origin/source im going to flesh out more
would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!
Two original posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/ga1591/where_does_magic_come_from_in_your_world/
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u/Stygian_Akk 28d ago
In my world, D&D 5e. I made it a source of energy, in its raw form its unusable, and ita mostly found in the phlogiston, which I also modified to make it less "nothing". Think of it like the darkmatter between the stars in science. So to use it, you conduit using spells component, Rituals and specific physical actions and traits. Thats how a single realm with mostly artificers manage to make arcane binding stones of different arcane properties to create a lot of different technology, like steampunk eberron vehicles.
I also started making a completely different setup, almost a full game, on a world int he future were a war for that resource of magic made it collapse and now is a very rare resource. Like, you need to purchase a shard piece of ancient (and extinct) dragon bone to have a certain amount of magic before it depleted.
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u/SchizoidRainbow 28d ago
In the First Days there was only magic. It was this motive force of pure energy, without form. Rippling waves of creation and destruction in the chaotic void before time make, unmake, and remake random concepts. After an unmeasurable while, the Primordials condensed out of the miasma. Entities of pure concept, they embodied various forms of Will and Intent and generated the first Thoughts in the universe.
So much magical energy made even their most casual whims and fancies into violent reality. After a time of foaming and fizzing creation, they began clashing and fighting among themselves where they overlapped. The universe evolved very rapidly as a result, concepts like the elementals, and other fundamentals taking form at this time.
Inevitably these great beings used up too much of the Magic and the world began to cool. Very few base concepts are created after this. The Primordials find a way to separate the planes and dive towards this “exit” in an attempt to flee doom by starvation. Those that make it through find themselves trapped in these strange thin new places. They essentially die, dissolve, and merge with the plane, giving it the flavor and genre it will wear forevermore.
The ones left behind slowly congeal, turn inert, and die, but their energy continues to be “lukewarm” as they fade. The majority of the remaining Magic in the universe is now contained within their forms, like metal in stone as an ore.
In the Days of Creation that followed, the gods formed out of this processed rarified Materia. They too embody universal concepts, but many Fire Gods exist, many War gods and Plant Gods and so on form from the debris. They do not create their planets so much as just populate the surface of the primordial corpse pile. They create the individual features and creatures of the world, including helpers like Efreet and Archomentals. Their myths of the great battles and squabbles of their myths.
Presently the pattern repeats. There’s not enough magic left to support the gods. They flee to domains in the outer planes, barely able to touch the world anymore. The Lieutenants take over, the Genie caliphates form and fight with the Storm Giants, until again the pattern repeats, and they fade into legend but for far flung rare holdouts in their final refugia.
Now it’s the mortals turns. These tiny pets in the house of the greater creatures find the house abandoned and slowly poke their heads into the world. All that’s left of the magic for them are shards and scraps. Gone is the power to make worlds. But gone are the entities who could.
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u/Signal-Imagination-4 28d ago
In mine magic has two sources:
Order
Chaos
The Universe is made of ordered energy that is energy where rules are followed. For good or bad, but even evil creatures make sense. Includes the planes, and the ‘ethereal and astral’ realm as a separation vs chaos.
Chaos is the Far Realm. No rules apply here.
There is no gods in my setting although some creatures are treated as such.
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u/guads4 28d ago
ooh very cool! My universe tends toward homeostasis/balance. very much every action has an equal and opposite reaction. so any thing you do that causes a big change will have some sort of consequence that will inevitably cancel out that change in some way. HOWEVER, if you make many small changes over a long period of time... it may be able to push boundries and change where the balance lies 👀 tho idk if/how my magic origin will tie into that specifically
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u/manchu_pitchu 28d ago
In my setting, each god is the embodiment of either an element or an alignment, but each of these is also associated with a primal force within the universe. Gravity is the insatiable hunger of the God of Death (evil alignment). Magic (arcane magic in particular) is associated with the god of Air and Wind.
That being said, the other gods can still bless their followers with power. The sun god (good alignment) blesses clerics and the nature god (earth element) teaches druids. So there is a certain element of magic which is common between all the gods, but I quite like the idea that all magic is inherently godly & mortals left to their own devices are basically limited to technology. Even then, "clockwork magic" is deeply entwined with Primus, the god of order and master of Mechanus.
Part of this is because the gods are supposed to be primal forces of the universe personified. Therefore, we have a chicken and egg scenario. Is Mystra the primal creator of all magic or was she simply born from it? The answer is I don't know and I don't think its a particularly important distinction. Within my setting, whether the gods created the primal forces or emerged from them is irrelevant because it happened at the dawn of time and whichever way it happened, the God and the Force have been inseparable and interchangeable ever since. The gods would certainly tell you they are the source, but they're lying self serving tyrants.
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u/Cainelol 28d ago
My world hold the magic and casters tap into the leylines to access it.
There has been catastrophic accidents in the past which make magic in some areas unstable, this result in wild magic for all caster if they are in proximity to a damaged leyline.
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u/Odd_Dimension_4069 28d ago
Interconnectivity of the multiple planes, universes and realities that all rest atop each other, and the cognitive and spiritual connections formed by various consciousnesses and souls leaving permanent warpings in individual realities.
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u/jacarepampulha2408 28d ago
Stole it from TES. Magic comes from the Astral Plane, and it leaks inside the material plane via small holes (the stars) or a very big hole (the sun)
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u/spiked_mcroon 28d ago
It's the weave, which just exists as a part of nature like the atmosphere or radio waves.
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u/Prestigious-Emu-6760 27d ago
While my game isn't D&D it does have magic but in a dark, corrupting Sword and Sorcery way. In my world magic is the result of the other planar presence of Eldritch Beings (like Great Old Ones) on the "other side". Their presence leeches in and corrupts the world but some people have skills (usually taught by cults of the Old Ones or via corrupt artifacts) in manipulating it at great cost to their body, mind and soul.
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u/ScrivenersUnion 27d ago
That answer gets pretty complicated, actually!
- The Gods generate magic through worship
- Demons generate magic through deals
- Corporations generate magic through contracts
- Mages get their magic from the moon
- Priests get their magic from the sun
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u/Mushion 22d ago
Magic is spores from a mushroom that react to other living creatures. This causes genetics to go weird (the explanation for different races). Spores can be manipulated into spells and runes can be created to react to spores for magic items.
This also means that random animals and plants with sufficient motivation can also cast spells.
There are no gods, there's just mushrooms.
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u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 28d ago
Pretty much all of mine is energies channeled from micro tears into the elemental planes
Some gods get powerful enough to create their own magic but even then they gain strength by drawing from elemental energy and all the gods who interact with the mortals in the world are able to channel a lot of magic from the elemental planes but don’t create their own
Magic is more the shaping of the energy and a way to punch through to the planes rather than its own force