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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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[–] redhorsejacket@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How are you defining "soft" in this case? It seems you and I have very different ideas of what that term means, and I'm curious about your perspective.

[–] bismuthbob@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 days ago

Haha! My definitions are arbitrary now that I think about it. Tons of gray area, since it's all fiction to begin with.

My definition of 'soft' would be any magic system that lacks exact rules or a concrete cause and effect relationship with scale. Flexible power from a vague connection to a god, planet of origin, or elemental source would be soft. Even softer if there are dozens or hundreds of vague sources with unpredictable effects.

Specific, quantifiable effects from a concrete source (a specific spell, ritual, or x amount of a substance) would be hard.