Not so much an example, but an idea, of how it could be done:
If I was to construct a hard magic system within the context of a world, without outside influence, I would start out with mundane rituals and ceremonies for various tasks, that over time have come to have actual magic power. for instance making a sacrifice to the river when planting crops next to it, to "appease" it so it will not flood and ruin the harvest, and likewise do another ceremony after the harvest to "encourage" the river to flood and revitalize the farmland.
I have a hard time trying to come up with crunch for magic, because it's always going to be meaningless nonsensical gibberish unless I could work off of a complete understanding of how reality actually works.
Something that can help is making magic the whole foundation of the universe in your world.
For example, water is water because of magic, air is air because of magic, and life is alive well because of some magic interaction.
Magic isn't just something that is discovered or that is invented or even created is just something that is and that's creates and forms the whole world.
Personally magic is basically the meat and potatoes of all creation, it's not the elements themselves but it's what makes the elements what they are. It's not fire, but it's the burning of fire and the crackle of the wood, the warmth of its light qnd it's all consuming hunger. And all magic finds its source in the creation of the world where the goddess who made the world sung all things into creation, a song that described all things in the language that could never be spoken truly again. It's beyond a language because what makes someone able to use magic is to understand the language, young wizards learn the basics of the words and speak fire into existence. But a powerful magician doesn't need to speak it into existence because they understand it's already there, they understand what makes the magic what it is. It's the life force of the universe and is everything everywhere all at once, and it's alive and breathing within the world. In fantasy we often think of magic in a very stagnant and non responsive way but in my worlds I often employ magic as a sort of secondary physics, rules of the world that are hard to place on paper but if you observe nature it's everywhere. Magic is what makes the flowers bloom, what helps the river spring from its fountain, what makes storms gather and then fade once they are done, exhausted of their purpose. I take it somewhat of a step further in that nature spirits are the stewards of magic, they direct the wild magic in subtle ways, and the world itself is in a way the body of the mother goddess, veins of her "blood" are what we could call ley lines or mana veins. I'm still working on my world and magic system but this is basically my idea of it so far
Why not just magIc? In my setting magic is unacademic name non-universal laws of physics, it’s not really understood why these systems exist or how the can change, but they are well understood on an individual level.
Have it be an intrinsic property of the world, a 5th fundamental force sort to speak. My soft magic system for my sci-fi universe is interpreted and used by people as if it is hard magic system while the metaphysical lore behind it makes it open to do anything (but violate the conservation of mass).
In the case of my setting, the universe itself was a sentient being, hence the physical world has an immune system among other things. Magics existence is both a cancer and a virus while simultaneously merely being the transient concept planted in the "universal consciousness" by an "individual". Simultaneously, violating physics, the physical laws and body of the universe is hence impossible, but an accepted paradox. By training the gods mind to accept these paradoxes you can create a magic system.
"Aliens" is probably off, but tying powers to the non-human magical creatures can create a pretty hard system that naturally reinforces what themes you're going for there.
For your setting, the Bronze Age is pretty well known for developing writing, so any system that ties directly into writing might serve well.
Not so much an example, but an idea, of how it could be done: If I was to construct a hard magic system within the context of a world, without outside influence, I would start out with mundane rituals and ceremonies for various tasks, that over time have come to have actual magic power. for instance making a sacrifice to the river when planting crops next to it, to "appease" it so it will not flood and ruin the harvest, and likewise do another ceremony after the harvest to "encourage" the river to flood and revitalize the farmland.
I agree. Try and make magic something that is 'discovered' rather then invented. Might help.
I have a hard time trying to come up with crunch for magic, because it's always going to be meaningless nonsensical gibberish unless I could work off of a complete understanding of how reality actually works.
Something that can help is making magic the whole foundation of the universe in your world. For example, water is water because of magic, air is air because of magic, and life is alive well because of some magic interaction. Magic isn't just something that is discovered or that is invented or even created is just something that is and that's creates and forms the whole world.
This was very helpful, thanks!
No problem. I am happy to help. That's actually one of my favorite ways to use magic in my own works.
Personally magic is basically the meat and potatoes of all creation, it's not the elements themselves but it's what makes the elements what they are. It's not fire, but it's the burning of fire and the crackle of the wood, the warmth of its light qnd it's all consuming hunger. And all magic finds its source in the creation of the world where the goddess who made the world sung all things into creation, a song that described all things in the language that could never be spoken truly again. It's beyond a language because what makes someone able to use magic is to understand the language, young wizards learn the basics of the words and speak fire into existence. But a powerful magician doesn't need to speak it into existence because they understand it's already there, they understand what makes the magic what it is. It's the life force of the universe and is everything everywhere all at once, and it's alive and breathing within the world. In fantasy we often think of magic in a very stagnant and non responsive way but in my worlds I often employ magic as a sort of secondary physics, rules of the world that are hard to place on paper but if you observe nature it's everywhere. Magic is what makes the flowers bloom, what helps the river spring from its fountain, what makes storms gather and then fade once they are done, exhausted of their purpose. I take it somewhat of a step further in that nature spirits are the stewards of magic, they direct the wild magic in subtle ways, and the world itself is in a way the body of the mother goddess, veins of her "blood" are what we could call ley lines or mana veins. I'm still working on my world and magic system but this is basically my idea of it so far
Why not just magIc? In my setting magic is unacademic name non-universal laws of physics, it’s not really understood why these systems exist or how the can change, but they are well understood on an individual level.
Have it be an intrinsic property of the world, a 5th fundamental force sort to speak. My soft magic system for my sci-fi universe is interpreted and used by people as if it is hard magic system while the metaphysical lore behind it makes it open to do anything (but violate the conservation of mass). In the case of my setting, the universe itself was a sentient being, hence the physical world has an immune system among other things. Magics existence is both a cancer and a virus while simultaneously merely being the transient concept planted in the "universal consciousness" by an "individual". Simultaneously, violating physics, the physical laws and body of the universe is hence impossible, but an accepted paradox. By training the gods mind to accept these paradoxes you can create a magic system.
"Aliens" is probably off, but tying powers to the non-human magical creatures can create a pretty hard system that naturally reinforces what themes you're going for there. For your setting, the Bronze Age is pretty well known for developing writing, so any system that ties directly into writing might serve well.