Yes, in a sense, you could say it's a hard magic system where I withhold the full "rules" from the reader and the characters (prompting them to make up weird theories about how it works and how to harness it). But it's also a soft magic system, in the sense that →
the closer you get to an understanding of the full "rules," the less like a hard magic system the system performs, lol 😅 Which is why I put "rules" in quotation marks. There is a point, I suppose, where I wonder if it would be appropriate to call it magic at all. →
But we won't get that deep into the worldbuilding in this particular novel. ✨Altaluna✨ only deals with the breakthrough that substitutes the dominant cultural theory for a slightly more perceptive one (so only one rung down the ladder, so to speak). →
What a great question! Hmm... I reject the dichotomy; it's both; it depends on who you ask. The dominant view is that it's hard, but just because the models & theories currently in vogue re: the magic system ✨work✨ doesn't mean they're accurate, if that makes sense. The magic system can be softer →
But it'll take a major counter-cultural breakthrough for anyone to figure that out, let alone put into practice. I should add that neither approach is better or worse than the other (in theory); they simply open up different limits & possibilities for magic use. Thanks for the question btw!!
The primary system in my world is hard, though that's me writing out a critique of modern fantasy. Much of what we have today in the genre is alternate physics rather than magic proper.
Comments