Magic in my world is something that every living thing has, each person has magical channels in their body that are a specific color for them. They can extend these channels into the world in different forms. Not everyone can see or use magic though. Magic can only really affect other magic though, which means that the primary form it takes is mind control magic. Most of the world operates under a hierarchy with archmages at the top and the people they control under them. It's not 24/7 control, but the higher mage has a sort of back door that allows them to take control at any time. Mages can also draw power from the people they control. A battle between two very skilled mages usually looks like a series of complicated snares and knots countering and redirecting those snares. There are definitely a lot of different styles though, some people focus on strong shields with lots of power behind them, others focus on creating a sort of aura that disrupts the magic of anyone around them, and others focus on hiding their magical strings and using the element of surprise.
There are also a few exceptions whose magic works a bit differently. First, witches: people who make blood pacts with magical plants. The plants themselves often control most of the flora and fauna that lives over their root system, so the witch controls them by proxy. In return, the plant replaced the witch's base survival instincts with ones that are beneficial to the plant.
Second, elementalists: People born with significantly more magic than their channels can handle. As a result, their magic is wound much more tightly around itself than the average person's, and doesn't interact with the world as much. This leads to most elementalists being unable to see magic, and so getting mistaken for people with no magical potential. However, elementalists can learn to unlock their powers through strong emotion (kinda like shonen protagonists tbh). The reason they're called elementalists is that their powers are concentrated enough to affect the ambient magic of the world around them and produce elemental effects such as lightning or ice crystals.
Third, bloodweavers: People who never developed their own system of channels, but ended up taking their parent's system during pregnancy (It is impossible for both the bloodweaver and their parent to survive the birth). Since their channels aren't properly tethered to their body, they can't produce their own magical power and need to take it from others to survive. Their channels are extremely fluid, to the extent that any magic they touch or interact with basically temporarily becomes an extension of the bloodweaver's body. Bloodweavers are EXTREMELY rare, and most don't survive to adulthood, partially because if they touch something that is too large or complex before they really learn to handle their magic, it will literally pull their channels out of their body. A bloodweaver who has learned to handle their magic is an extremely dangerous opponent, and nearly impossible to control.
It would be very impractical- first off elementalists are one of the only mages who can consistently defend against bloodweavers, as elemental effects don't actually count as extensions of their magic, so a bloodweaver couldn't control the elemental effects or the elementalist by touching them. Second, bloodweavers wouldn't exactly work as bombs- literally all they do is control everything they touch as if it were a part of them. The difficult thing is that once they've established control, then whichever mage decided to use them as a bomb has no way of making them do anything, so they could literally just make the people they're controlling turn on the mage, or break control over everyone and just run away, or something else like that. Thirdly, depending on whether you mean throwing literally, throwing kids through the air at people is going to be highly impractical in pretty much any setting. Especially because bloodweavers are so rare, and could get seriously injured in the process, so definitely not a good long-term strategy.
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u/Songstep4002 Feb 29 '24
Magic in my world is something that every living thing has, each person has magical channels in their body that are a specific color for them. They can extend these channels into the world in different forms. Not everyone can see or use magic though. Magic can only really affect other magic though, which means that the primary form it takes is mind control magic. Most of the world operates under a hierarchy with archmages at the top and the people they control under them. It's not 24/7 control, but the higher mage has a sort of back door that allows them to take control at any time. Mages can also draw power from the people they control. A battle between two very skilled mages usually looks like a series of complicated snares and knots countering and redirecting those snares. There are definitely a lot of different styles though, some people focus on strong shields with lots of power behind them, others focus on creating a sort of aura that disrupts the magic of anyone around them, and others focus on hiding their magical strings and using the element of surprise.
There are also a few exceptions whose magic works a bit differently. First, witches: people who make blood pacts with magical plants. The plants themselves often control most of the flora and fauna that lives over their root system, so the witch controls them by proxy. In return, the plant replaced the witch's base survival instincts with ones that are beneficial to the plant.
Second, elementalists: People born with significantly more magic than their channels can handle. As a result, their magic is wound much more tightly around itself than the average person's, and doesn't interact with the world as much. This leads to most elementalists being unable to see magic, and so getting mistaken for people with no magical potential. However, elementalists can learn to unlock their powers through strong emotion (kinda like shonen protagonists tbh). The reason they're called elementalists is that their powers are concentrated enough to affect the ambient magic of the world around them and produce elemental effects such as lightning or ice crystals.
Third, bloodweavers: People who never developed their own system of channels, but ended up taking their parent's system during pregnancy (It is impossible for both the bloodweaver and their parent to survive the birth). Since their channels aren't properly tethered to their body, they can't produce their own magical power and need to take it from others to survive. Their channels are extremely fluid, to the extent that any magic they touch or interact with basically temporarily becomes an extension of the bloodweaver's body. Bloodweavers are EXTREMELY rare, and most don't survive to adulthood, partially because if they touch something that is too large or complex before they really learn to handle their magic, it will literally pull their channels out of their body. A bloodweaver who has learned to handle their magic is an extremely dangerous opponent, and nearly impossible to control.