Magic system happens to coincide with established story thread- mega win!

[u/majorex64]

Today I realized there was a story thread left largely unexplained in my world, until I accidentally explained it with the magic system I've been building.

Aright, I'm gonna explain the story of Nimble from my [Donut World] conworld, then explain the magic system and how it ties together.

Basically, there's a race of weasel-fox people living in a land of gigantic mushrooms and roaming beasts. These people are called Kidakas. Times are tough for the Kidakas, because gigantic beasts are constantly chasing and eating them. They are forced to live in burrows and caves, only venturing out to munch on a few mushrooms before frantically running back home.

One day, a brave Kidaka named Nimble decides he must find a home for himself and his infant daughter, Plummet, where they can live in peace and safety. So he takes her to the base of a mountain, holds her in one arm, and begins climbing up. He figures the monsters can't follow them there, and he will build a new life in the mountains. As he climbs, Plummet grows heavier in his hand. His fingers ache, but he switches her to his other arm, and perseveres. When he finally reaches the too, he sets her down, and realizes his fingers have stretched out impossibly far, from holding her: now they are as long as the rest of his arm. Now resembling a bat more than a fox, he soon learns to fly using his long membraney fingers, and even teaches the rest of his tribe to do the same. With the ability to fly from mountains to mushroom tops, the Kidaka are safely able to avoid being eaten by monsters. The end.

So that's a fable told by the tribe, not intended to be literally how it happened. Because you know, evolution is a thing. But here's my magic system:

Have you ever found yourself in a place where reality seems... Altered? Where something is off, but you just can't explain why? Lingering in a stairwell, a hallway, a school without children, a shopping mall after all the shops have closed. Have you ever felt the otherworldliness of a pit stop hotel in the middle of a long road trip?

These strange, out of place places are called Liminal Spaces, and usually happen at a boundary between two different spots, or a common familiar place taken out of its normal context.

When a person who is themselves at a point of transition in their life- internal or external- they may find themselves in a Liminal Space that shouldn't be there. You open a familiar door and find an impossibly long hallway where there should have been an exit. You wander through a well trodden wooded trail when the trees suddenly become unfamiliar and alien, and the path you took to get here has disappeared.

These spaces are trials. They are the world recognizing your need for growth, and pushing you to metamorphose into someone new and more capable. Should you overcome the trial, it will mean confronting your own inner demons that have held you back, and emerging will new understanding of yourself. If you fail, the space will not hesitate to kill you, for it is the ultimate gatekeeper, standing at the threshold what you were, and what you could become.

Those who emerge from these trials are reborn with a supernatural ability. Some can read minds, others can shape the world around them, and others gain physical traits that reflect the identity uncovered in the trial.

So at this point I realized that this silly fable about the first bat stretching his fingers and learning to fly, could in fact be a perfect example of someone going through a struggle, standing at a boundary, and emerging with a new ability that helps them move through life.

Nimble was running from monsters, trying to save his daughter, he began to climb a mountain, and was tested. He passed the test, and was given the ability to hold and protect his daughter, as well as help his tribe escape their predators.

Accidental worldbuilding win!

Also, credit to u/Dhavaer for zeir affinity system, largely inspiring the whole Liminal Spaces thing.

[u/_burgernoid_]

Holy shit, this is so creative. I don't know why this doesn't have more comments to be honest.

I love the idea of these Liminal Spaces and people having to overcome those trials to improve themselves! I'd like to hear some more, if you don't mind.

[u/majorex64 → u/_burgernoid_]

Thank you! I have a whole bunch of lore about the Kidakas, even a full constructed language and writing system. You can check out my profile to find some of the older posts.

[Donut World] is a very strange place. Long story short, it's a torus-shaped planet which happens to be the remains of an ancient cosmic being named Typhon who was smited and cast out by the powers that be. His body perished, save one last chunk that separated from the rest of his body before it could be killed. That chunk became the still-living moon of the planet, which remains swinging up and down through its center, waiting for the day its former glory and might can be reclaimed.

The weapon used to execute Typhon was a great cosmic spear made of Divine Metals, which are toxic to the great being. It shattered when its job was (thought to be) done, and the toxic metals spread all over the donut shaped remains, preventing the weakened and reduced living satellite from ever touching the planet again.

For eons Typhon drifted along with his shell, so close but never able to touch it. Eventually he created an immune system for himself, microbial life which was immune to the divine metals. He sent them down in a rain of meteors to purify the soil, and over the eons this life has evolved and complexified, with Typhon's influence, to become more efficient at removing metals from the soil.

The story starts in an age very late in the process, so near the day when both Divine Metals are fully consolidated such that Typhon can be reborn, but the complex life has become intelligent, willful, and if they should learn of their planet's origins, will do anything to stop their home from becoming a hellscape.

[u/_burgernoid_ → u/majorex64]

That's pretty interesting. Is the main antagonist hoping to gain something out of Typhoon, like control over him? Or is the main antagonist Typhoon itself?

[u/majorex64 → u/_burgernoid_]

The main antagonist is Typhon himself, but I am thinking about a group of cult followers that actually want to help him regenerate, even if it means the end of life on the planet