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@corine

Alright. *cracks knuckles*

Okay, so first off, I’m just going to give a total disclaimer – I love magic in books. So yes. I’m a big fan of good implementation of magic in all it’s properties in books and movies.

But now, let’s crack down on exactly what ‘good implementation’ means. First off – magic, defined by the wonderful internet: “the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces”. Obviously, this is written from a real-world point of view, which doesn’t always apply to fantasy. For one, in fantasy it is often not ‘apparently’ influenced by magic, but is influenced by magic. So for this discussion, we’re just going to call magic the “ability to change the natural order of things by using an inherited or learned power”.

But how does this apply to fantasy? Well, obviously real-world magic is evil. In fact, real-world magic is probably one of the scariest things I can think of, and should be avoided at all cost. Now, I don’t think that this means we should entirely avoid writing about magic in a real world setting – but if we’re going to draw the line that this is a absolute reality that we live in, we also need to draw the line and clarify that this magic is purely black and evil. There is no good real-world magic – anything called this is either a miracle from God or demonic forces.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is not real life, and need not be dictated by real life, except in moral and ethical concepts – you cannot change an absolute truth, no matter the universe, but you can change the mechanics of the universe. Does that make sense? Basically, all I’m saying is that in a fantasy universe – murder should always remain evil, but magic can be added to the actual mechanics of the world and how things work, just like we have gravity and air resistance. If it is not brought in by an evil force, and governed/controlled/gained from an evil force – you can make magic good. The problem is when people take the real-world magic, which comes from an evil source, and attempt to change it to a good force in fiction, which is impossible as it is an absolute truth that real-world magic is evil. You can even have magic that comes from an evil source in your books – but you must eventually differentiate between the evil and the good and make the reader/characters realize that this is indeed evil. I have a story in progress where the protagonist tries to learn magic for about half the book, and then is shown/realizes that magic is evil. The area from which you draw the source of power from determines whether the magic is good or evil – if it’s drawn from evil, it will always be evil in nature, even if it’s used for good. One good deed does not counteract the evil process in which you gain the power. If it’s drawn from good, it can be good – but also can be evil if used for evil. It’s man’s choice to decide what to do with the power, but the source will determine if it is truly good or evil. A good gift used for evil is evil, but an evil power used for good I believe is still evil.

Hereditary magic, on the other hand, is slightly different. In most hereditary magic, its power level is not determined by the strength of spell/artifact/etc, but the user’s inherent ability and skill level. Take Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example. Both the good and evil forces use the same magic, and there is no differentiation between the use in power. This is true hereditary magic, in which magic is simply a tool just like inherent good eyesight or intelligence might be. It cannot be good or evil in itself unless it was originally received from a good or evil source. The magic can never truly be good or evil – the person makes all the decisions themselves, and simply uses magic as a tool to complete these tasks. Side does not increase, decrease, influence, or change the user’s inherent ability to use magic. Skill and natural talent are all that matter.

In conclusion – decide the source of magic, in good or evil – and then be sure to differentiate between the two when using magic that is gained from an outside source and is not something the users were originally created with. If you use hereditary magic, you don’t need to differentiate between the magic’s own inherent standing on a moral scale unless it wasn’t something the bearers originally were created with – you need to define if the bearers are good or evil.

So yeah. I hope this helped. 😉