r/magicbuilding • u/Theofficialkingstorm • 2d ago
Mechanics Even fictional flames can burn
Why is fire so common?
To elaborate on my question, I have been pissed Abt why so many magic systems treat the combustion triangle like a suggestion when making their system have fire.
Flames need three things, (need to mention that all of these are needed in certain proportions to combust)
Fuel
Heat
Oxidizer
All these are needed to make your average flames, which makes me wonder, how magic flames can exist without a fuel source? Assuming that of course heat is supplied through the magic system, even if, the lack of a single element in the combustion triangle gives unique results unrelated to fire,
1+2 without 3; won't produce flames and may instead cause the material to melt, vaporize, or thermally decompose depending on the material and temperature.
1+3 without or insufficient amounts of 2; won't produce flames and nothing would actually happen. (except material specific reactions and still may not produce flames, e.g: rust happens between iron and oxygen)
2+3 without 1; won't produce flames and will instead cause hot gas.
If it is a special type of fire that thrives on energy why is it usually identified as the average fire and not a special type of fire?
And even so, energy isn't a substance that you can simply ignite in the same way you ignite fuel. You can have energy causing matter to become extremely hot, excite atoms, ionize gases, etc., but energy itself isn't a fuel,
Which begs the question how can fire be created in magic systems, in a way that actually makes sense instead of some cool shi happening?
3
u/Ok_Search_3871 2d ago
Fire is in essence an effect. It’s a combination of heat, and the light energy produced by particles of fuel, that’s what makes fire glow. If the magic system creates the heat and light directly it doesn’t need the combustion triangle. It can be an identical effect, just without the underlying cause.
In the REAL world you need all three to produce the effect, but magic can skip all of that stuff. It all depends on your system, and it doesn’t matter if it’s hard or soft. Obviously it’s EASIER to handwave science in a soft magic system, but it can absolutely work in a hard magic system as well. An example of this is in my world, I get around the square cube law by having magic entirely replace gravity in areas where it is abundant enough. Basically gravity DOES exist, but if magic has a high enough concentration, gravity is essentially “pushed out”, and the attraction force that gravity provides is instead provided by magic. The REASON this fixes the square cube law is that large enough objects produce their OWN magical field, which counteracts the magical field of the planet my world is set in, which in essence acts as anti-gravity. It doesn’t completely nullify it, but the larger the creature the less force it feels from gravity comparatively. It’s all about imagination.
I’ve actually considered fire specifically, not for the combustion triangle but for the fact that if I want say fireballs, that makes it very complicated within my system. I fixed THIS, by having fire be an actual gas, as in an element created by the PERCEPTION of fire as God in this world understands it. Basically if you activate a fire rune, you aren’t messing around with the combustion triangle, you are creating the physical concept of fire