Kaori sat in her chair considering how she wanted to proceed. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had felt this coming but she still hoped there might be something she could count on. She had spent hours scouring the deity catalog and come up emptyhanded. There really wasn’t a system to be had for the inhabitants of a world.
She knew what she wanted to do now but before that she was going to go on a purchasing spree. Magic was going to be a very versatile and pervasive thing in her world. She wanted all of it and then some. Her starting point would be the catalog.
Kaori opened the catalog and it flipped obediently to the section on magic for a world. She knew that she was going to buy almost every form of magic that the book had to offer but she didn’t want some of the more repulsive aspects to be present and she wanted to mitigate some of the worst clashes that having differing systems might entail.
There was a guy that she had secured from one of the limbos who was really good with magic. Kaori opened her PDI and called Foglat. The old former archmage seemed to jump mile high when his PDI signaled to him. She figured that he probably still had the default settings on which would make the notification sound something that would be very nostalgic to some older people from her former world, the sound of a ringer from a telephone.
Kaori could see how, not having had anything like that on their previous worlds, the sound might be a tad jarring for the new deities in her charge. A lot of them messaged and called each other so much that they were very used to it by now but that wasn’t the case for all of them. Foglat, at least, hadn’t had enough interactions to be used to the sound it seemed.
A moment later, rather than answering his PDI, he came shuffling across the room towards Kaori’s desk. “Eh, er hrm, you called my goddess?”
Kaori hadn’t really had much call to interact closely with the old archmage so she hadn’t seen this coming. The completely formal and honorific manner of address did nothing to dissuade Kaori’s cheeks from heating at the grandiose manner of address. “I um, I need your help on this part of things. I was about to design a new feature for the people of the world and for general purchase in the catalogs in general but I need to know if it should be incorporated into a system of magic.”
“I also plan on purchasing several systems of magic for the world but I need to know if the ones I am looking at will conflict with one another. The last thing I want is for there to be a bunch of magic that works contrary to other forms on the planet. At least, I think that would be a bad thing but that’s the reason I needed your help to begin with. Also, Please just call me Fujiwara-sama.”
After a few hours of reading over the many hundreds of pages of info on the few dozen magic systems for sale, they had settled on a selection of ten different systems. The systems they found didn’t all mesh but Foglat reminded her that it was her idea to have a world of competition and strife. He pointed out that having different magic systems that didn’t react well with one another was a perfect reason to cause some of that when different groups or even different individuals used different ones.
The systems of magic they settled on were Chaos, Conceptual, Divisive, Elemental, Ethereal, Holy, Instinctual, Intrinsic, Pact-boon, and Practical. They passed on a bunch of the weaker ones and a lot of the strongest ones because of how evil or chaotic they seemed. An example of that being the Recriminative system of magic which revolved around emotions like hatred towards others fueling the ability to form curses of different types.
Chaos magic was a very amorphous type of casting system. The amount of magic required to make any particular spell would be a good bit larger that a spell from a standardized system of magic but the tradeoff was in versatility. A chaotic caster could come up with magic effects to match almost any situation within certain constraints of their ability. The biggest limiting factor being how much magic any particular person could push into a spell.
Conceptual magic was a system that took the idea or concept behind one thing and applied it to another thing. This system would be one that would encompass a lot more support and status type magic like curses, buffs, and debuffs.
Divisive magic is the type that depends on an external source for the magic. This system includes both alchemy and enchanting. Kaori was interested to see if there would be anything else developed from this system.
Elemental magic was the type that draws power directly from a certain element of reality. This was the basis for the Greek concept of the four elements and the Chinese five phases. The version Kaori proposed to use was like the Greek elements of air, earth, fire, and water but included light and dark. It would have many mixes in between to be far more complex but she was determined to leave the final version to Foglat.
Holy magic would be that which was directly gifted by one of the deities and would function much like one of the other systems but would be orders of magnitude more powerful. This system as it were, would mostly function as a prefix to one of the other systems. For example, if kaori chose to gift a mortal with conceptual magic, it would be holy conceptual magic and would be able to force a binding of much more esoteric concepts into the final spell.
Instinctual magic was described as being able to draw on an innate pool of magic for a certain set number of effects. The nature of the effects that the wielder was able to draw on would be either set by the gods or determined at the time when the wielder could draw enough extra magic together to create a new spell.
Intrinsic magic would be the system mostly used by creatures and monsters. The magic would be things that relied heavily on certain features of the wielder. The system could be learned and the spells even taught but the effect would still be largely tied to characteristics.
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Pact-boon would be magic imparted by monsters, spirits, and other things of that type. By using this system to pledge a pact with a powerful being they could impart magic spells directly on the supplicant. The benefits of this type of magic were manifold. The supplicant obviously would get spells they could use right away or as soon as they had the magic to use them but the pact holder would also have a ready supply of help bound to them by the pact.
Practical magic was a system that would give a few useful skills to almost every being on the planet. The spells would be small things but would be things that would impact the daily lives of the wielders. Examples might include a small flame from a fingertip or a slight glowing aura to see by in the depths of the ocean. No spell of this type would be terribly powerful and most would be things that were randomly gifted to people in their daily lives in order to alleviate a persistent minor problem.
Synergistic magic was a system that allowed the wielders to copy aspects of another person’s or creature’s spells and tie their own spells into them in a way that made the whole more than the sum of its parts. This form would be mostly used in a support role but could be used in conjunction with almost any other system.
Kaori purchased those and many more magic systems. She then made it so that all of the deities had access to every system if they needed. However, she set it so that the only systems that the inhabitants of the world could use were the ten they had settled on. there would be leeway for a deity to impart a totally different system onto a certain individual but they would have to champion that individual.
Foglat had been working with the various gods and goddesses that were laying the foundations of magic in the world. He now had to have a team of his own and Kaori decided that it would be a good time to see if there were any more applicants in the magical field for hire.
When she opened her book to the help section, what she found were throngs of deities and elevated beings that were overly eager to come work for her. She perused the page about magic deities and chose one. She was an older elven woman that had a ready smile when told about the challenges that the position would entail. Kaori was astonished when just as she was about to hit the hire circle, the price dropped but she didn’t pause long.
The goddess was named Lethris and the first thing kaori did after hiring her was ask her about the sudden price drop. Her reply was a little astonishing. “Great Fujiwara Kaori-sama, I have been employed on many worlds to manage the magic of that world. I have seen countless mortals struggle to use a singular system. Most eventually figure it out, especially if they have help, but they only have the one option.”
“Usually, it’s the ever popular elemental magic system but for there to be ten systems of magic available to learn or more at the deities discretion… *She had turned her head away wistfully and looked at the ground towards the last few words. Now, she looked right at Kaori and she had tears streaming from her eyes.* This is the most complicated and beautiful idea for magic I have ever heard of. I have to be a part of this and I would almost do it for free just to see the kind of world that it will create!”
Kaori was left feeling a bit dumbstruck by the intensity of the older deity’s words. She introduced Lethris to Foglat and was surprised when he asked to be her subordinate instead of the other way around. Kaori was a bit stunned by this turn but agreed to it. She then hired a series of several beings that ranged from lesser deities or demigods to angels and demons.
She put the whole team together and told the new arrivals to go through the PDI process. She then gave them all access to every system she had purchased for magic. After that, it was on to the tour where she told them all about the work space, the planet below, their personal apartments, and all the various amenities she was providing. The lot of them grew more enamored the longer she spoke.
Next, she asked them all if any of them knew any limbo-like realms that souls were cast into and they all nodded yes. She then asked for the directions to those realms and several wanted to balk but then Foglat explained the loophole that had led to his freedom and employment and they all looked stunned but agreed.
One of the angels named Nrafthys spoke up at last but looked really sheepish as he did. “Fujiwara Kaori-sama, Would I be right to assume that the details on the limbos are compulsory and we loose the position if we don’t agree?”
The lot of them looked stunned by her expression of abashedness. “Absolutely not! Your employment is already set. The information that you choose or choose not to supply on realms from before your employment here is entirely voluntary. I would simply like to make an offer to as many souls as possible to join me rather than stagnate for eternity and I Imagine that most of you would feel the same but if you don’t that is your personal prerogative.”
Kaori paused for a moment to let that sink in but then thought about why he might ask her something like that. “Is there some reason that you wouldn’t want to see a soul or souls freed from eternal relegation? Perhaps, something more to it than that?”
Nrafthys looked uncomfortable for a few seconds before he finally met her eyes and replied. “My previous deity was a very good woman but kind of an idiot. She never considered putting a form of punishment into the afterlife and as a result, many very evil people went on to enjoy a pleasant afterlife. It took a warlord almost destroying the world she was in charge of before she ever decided that somebody didn’t need to enjoy the afterlife.”
“Since there wasn’t any form of punishment set up, she cast him into never. It was only after that that she plucked some of the revolting specimens from the past and threw them into never as well. The never doesn’t have a lot of souls in it but they were all evil people.”
Kaori smiled kindly at him for a second before she replied. “I appreciate you telling me. *This made him relax but he stiffened as she continued.* However, I have an afterlife that not only accounts for evil but actually promotes it. Before you get too worried, let me explain. The afterlife here works like a dream where the souls of the deceased quest to better themselves, for good or ill.”
“Those that truly wish to pursue the path of evil have the choice to do so. The cavoite is that the memories of every soul gets taken from them unless they earned enough merit in the afterlife. They can even advance their abilities and divine nature by their actions in the afterlife.”
“The ultimate good goal for souls is becoming an angel. Evil souls can evolve into a demon. Each have their purposes on this world and in the afterlife where they will earn merit towards eventually becoming a deity. A deity of good or evil. Make sense?”
The formerly reticent among the group gladly agreed to provide directions to every limbo-like dimension they knew of. Kaori then rallied their attention again to get started on her next project. They were going to make a video game-like system for their inhabitants. What’s more they were going to have to make the system compatible with every system of magic and all types of martial and spiritual abilities. Kaori made the executive decision that the first step was going to have to be visiting her apartment to watch a lot of system-based anime! You know, to give everyone the general idea. It certainly wasn’t because she just wanted to space out and show off her otaku collection to the new hires. Certainly not!