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Fantasy books with an interesting "soft magic" system? (lemm.ee)

submitted 6 days ago by BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee to c/books@lemmy.ml

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The title pretty much says it! I'd like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y'all's recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I'm also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun

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[–] OmnipotentEntity@beehaw.org 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

A serial web story by Wildbow named "Pact" has a pretty interesting soft magic system with a decent amount of depth.

Description of Magic System

All characters who can use magic in the story are not able to lie on penalty of their magic power being greatly reduced. The magic system is based around tiny spirits who listen to and judge people. There are powers in 3s, power in performance, powers in name, yet despite this the magic system still feels ad hoc, like you can make magic happen that you would not normally be capable of if you are just smart enough, poetic enough, and persuasive enough to the spirits...

Magical beings feel Eldritch, actively dangerous, and typically very clever. The ones who are clever typically have very good mental models of what makes humans tick, yet clearly do not fall under the same rules.