The Power and Thrill of Naming: Magical Limitations

It's what you can't do that makes the magic pop.

Brandon Sanderson's second Law of Magic is:

Weaknesses, limits and costs are more interesting than powers.

So, to riff off that, I'll be conjuring up another edition of the Power and Thrill of Naming Things, an exercise in creativity.

Magical Limitations:

Telekinesis that takes 10x the effort and time of performing it normally
Magic use is highly carcinogenic (even worse than chain smoking cigarettes)
Spell can only be used at midnight on Tuesday
User blacks out after every spell
The only magical spell that can be used is a version of the one last used

Variant: spells evolve each time (like biological evolution, only faster)
Story Plot: finding out who cast the first, original spell

Magic is powered by technology (generator)

Variant: fueled by atomic bombs
Story Plot: Nukes are used for magic; magicians are used to stop nukes

Side effects of magic like alcoholism or drug abuse
Any magical use causes a slight break in the timeline
Using magic creates an evil, antimatter clone of the magician

Variant: clone appears in alternate world
Story Plot: Alternative world of millions of clones invade after centuries of magical use

Using magic slightly slows Earth's orbit

Variant 1: slows the Moon's orbit
Variant 2: cools Earth's molten core
Story Plot: long-term use of magic starts to have planetary effects

Spells requires almost insurmountable sophistication to succeed

Variant 1: Ten minute synchronized motions of a group of wizards
Variant 2: Requires complex formulations more difficult than string theory equations
Variant 3: Requires solving problems akin to protein folding prediction

Have to ingest special animal to gain its power

Story Plot: special animals are bred for magical use
Example 1: special owl wing to gain night vision
Example 2: special tiger steak to have speed and power of tiger
Example 3: special fish fin to breath underwater

Magic use speeds up or slows down aging
Magic use breaks down DNA
Spells require very rare reagents

Variant 1: fossils
Variant 2: endangered animals
Variant 3: rare elements
Variant 4: cosmic or exotic particles

Spells require a very specific location

Variant 1: mount Everest
Variant 2: deep ocean trench
Variant 3: North Pole

Comments

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