Not Calea
by Timothy Deal
May 3, 2013
Since we had a request for some spoiler-free insight into the world and magic of Children of the Wells, I will talk a bit about how we developed our system of magic for the series. Of course, if you’ve read the latest chapter, you may think the timing odd, but bear with me. After all, this discussion may shed some light on previous or upcoming flashbacks (hint, hint, tease, tease).
One of the trickiest things when it comes to fantasy world-building is setting up a system of magic. If your world is going to feature magic at all, the writer typically needs to establish some rules for how it will work. Even the TV show Once Upon a Time — which follows fairy tale convention where spells can or can’t do things according to the needs of the plot — always follows at least one underlying principle: in the Enchanted Forest, magic always comes with a price. The price varies according to the power of the spell (and again, the needs of the plot), but the price is always there. Consistently following this rule helps the writers keep the fairy tale magic a bit more grounded and believable within the context of their story.
But for a modern, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting like we had in mind for CotW, we needed a system of magic that was a little more complex. We wanted to create a world similar to our own in technological level and cultural mindset, yet centered around magical power and aristocracy. From this idea we developed the idea of the magic wells, a naturally occurring phenomenon in this world that certain individuals — the Select — could use to manifest a plethora of powers and abilities.
The Select were thoroughly scientific in their study of magic. By the time of the Cataclysm that begins The Select’s Bodyguard, they had developed an elaborate technological system similar to that of our world (circa mid-20th Century), albeit powered by magic instead of fossil fuels. Everything in this society revolved around the use of magic, so you can imagine how shaken the residents of Jalseion must be by recent events.
Now I must be careful about discussing our magic system too deeply lest I ruin some surprises or get too bogged down in technicalities (I fear I may have already lost some of you). So instead I’ll talk about our system by way of acknowledging some of our influences. In the development stage, considering other stories’ magic systems helped us figure out what we wanted and what we didn’t want our magic system to be. For example, the concept of the magic wells bears some resemblance to Materia in the videogame Final Fantasy VII, but the wells in CotW have nothing to the planet’s life force or Gaia or anything like that. There is some mythology behind the existence of the wells, but I won’t go into that here.
We should also credit the animated show The Legend of Korra for some inspiration for how a semi-modern society mingled with magical elements might work. At the same time, Korra and its parent show Avatar: The Last Airbender made developing the concept of the Select a bit trickier; the creators of those shows developed such a memorable system of magic, er, bending that it took us awhile to differentiate Select’s powers from a bender’s. In hindsight, the differences are more apparent. Unlike a bender, a Select is not limited to manipulating a single element. And where bending in the world of A:TLA tends to be a sort of spiritual thing, a Select’s abilities are much more scientific in origin. In that way, Select are more akin to alchemists from the anime/manga Fullmetal Alchemist, another influential series that fuses technology and a form of magic.
Well, I’ve said both a lot and not as much as I could say about the magic of CotW, but I’m going to stop here. If you’d like to hear more of my rambling thoughts on magic in stories (hey, anything’s possible), you might be interested in this episode from the podcast I co-host with fellow CotW contributor Nick Hayden. The podcast is on hiatus right now, but it’s all still online for your listening pleasure! Until next time, dearies! *disappears in a puff of purple smoke*
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