Anti-Mysticism: Creating Magical Wonder within the Explainable

5–8 minutes

The Eferian Day’s foundation lay within an explainable magic system whose ideas map out the entire process of spellcasting and spell formation down to the individual elemental components of its composition.

Because of this: it is important to go through the thoughts and mentality behind this type of magic system to gain an understanding as for why this system was even created to begin with. The overarching idea behind the project’s creation have to do with how magic is structured and presented in storytelling of Fantasy worlds whose ideas stems in grounded fictional worlds. Magic, by definition, is not grounded. It can’t be since the idea of what magic is lay within mysticism and unexplainable natures of said Fantasy world. This makes ‘’historically accurate’’ Fantasy worlds an oxymoron once magic is introduced.

Or just any Fantasy concept overall.

A fictional world who has Fantasy elements in it can’t be historically accurate nor be based in realistic foundations. So, what needs to be established from the start is a clearcut definition of what said fictional world is about and the principles behind its creation. Whether it being historical accuracies, sending a message within its story or just creating Fantasy worlds for the sake of the imagination: the work needs to know what it is before one can talk about the concepts and elements in said world.

Since there isn’t a linear structure every Fantasy world goes by, each world has its own laws and principles each world follows. And therefore: it is not possible to make defined guidelines or ‘’correct’’ structures to follow. Every world exists within its own reality. Including The Eferian Day.

The Eferian Day’s Principles and Foundation

In the case of this project: The Eferian Day’s world take inspiration from northern European history with related places, such as cultures and the history of Siberia, into the creation of Sagen. This is due to my familiarity surrounding those parts of the world as the creator, both through my educations and general upbringing in Scandinavia. And since this project was created with traditional Fantasy storytelling and folklore as part of its foundation. So, it is of interest to keep many of these types of worldbuilding aspects alive within Sagen even though the world has branched out a lot since its first years of creation.

Its should be noted, however, that Sagen are heavily reliant on Fantasy species who make up the majority of the Eferian continent’s population with Humans being introduced later in the lore. And these Eferian species are of complete separate origins from Human ancestry. Because of this, there will always be elements within the Sagen world who cater to the nature and the life of these species. Since this is the case, this project can only take generalized inspiration from the real-world. I as the creator actively attempt to keep in many historical practices, technological advances and living conditions into Sagen. But there will always be several restrictions from the Fantasy side constricting the overall appearance and functions of Sagen.

Whether this is a good or a bad thing all depends on the person, of course.

And with this also comes the question of the magic system itself. The Haan system takes one of the most influential roles in how Sagen look and function. This also affects Sagen overall in how the people living within a world whose nature have this type of impact greatly change the way in which the population think and live in general. So, this is also something which needs to be taken into consideration with the worldbuilding process.

What is Affected, Exactly

When it comes to the introduction of the Haan system as The Eferian Day’s magic system — as I came to find out once I started including the system’s functions into the overall text of the books — the appearance and style of spellcasters and magic users did not change much at all.

The ability of explanation the spell formation process did not affect the way in which the character used said functions. This was somewhat expected. For the ability to explain how magic forms does not change how the magic is being used nor how the magic is thought of in the fictional world itself. Just like how a blacksmith doesn’t have to know the entire scientific process of metals to be able to use and form said metals into usable items. The appearance and usage of the magic system in place is only done once the system is created in a way for the practices to change according to the system’s functions.

This is not the case for the Haan system since the system only explains the elements used and the spell composition. Yet does not change how the magic is being used overall.

This is important to remember.

It does, however, have additions which is not seen elsewhere. Spellcasting itself isn’t altered by the ability of explanation. But the magic system’s nature adds on onto already existing practices. Such as Catchers and Dhemsen Sweepers. These concepts to Sagen don’t change magic usage overall but instead adds on to already established practices. The magic system being ‘’anti-mysticism’’ ultimately don’t change much whatsoever once these ideas are taken into practice in published text. For most of it stem in a mental puzzle game of wanting to see an explanation rather than for said explanation to be necessary for the Fantasy world.

As mentioned above: the ability of explanation only serves the Fictional worlds who seek out to have these types of ideas behind them. They are not vital for Fantasy world to have nor feature to gain an enjoyable and entertaining experience reading about the world itself. This makes the ability of explanation optional. A book can have more plot holes then a honeycomb but if it serves its purpose of being entertaining the work have succeeded. For all: it’s all opinions. And too its success is also attributed to the overall appearance of the world itself.

So, when it comes to the Haan system, the ability to explain serve the minds of those who wants explanation to exist. Just like how a ‘’historically accurate’’ Fantasy book caters to those who wants those aspects to be featured, the Haan system caters to those who wants to see explanation.

For all: it’s all opinions and preference.

In Conclusion

Though the Haan system is one of the core ideas behind the Sagen world and is the foundation for many of the concepts featured in the books: the need for a detailed explanation don’t change magic functions. Instead adds more concepts to already established ideas of what magic is and how it is practiced within Fantasy worlds.

As showcased many times before, these types of core ideas only serve to bring ideas to light and feature them in a more thought-out fashion. And by doing so, new ideas have a much greater chance of being implemented into a system whose primary goal is to map out fictional world’s natural states. For these types of ideas are not made to undermine the imagination of others. But to build more wonder and magical worlds among already existing wonderous and magical worlds.

Just like science in real-life: the ability to explain will only showcase the world to be filled with more magic-like wonder then one thought from the start.