How do you keep magic “low fantasy”? Queensblood while possessing fantastic elements drapes those fantastical elements in mystery and magic ought to be no different. Here’s the guidelines I’m using to keep magic on tone and some of the magical disciplines I’m deriving from them.
Material Focus
Casting a spell can always use a bit of material assistance. If you want to create a roaring inferno it might help to start with some alchemist’s fire. A simple enchantment to make a guard look the other way can be amplified plenty with an official looking letter with a fancy seal. If you want to blind the incoming soldiers with a flash of light perhaps you need a mirror to catch the sun just right.
Plausible Deniability
Magic is at its strongest out of the corner of your eye. Magic is a potent tool against the distracted, frightened, intoxicated, delirious, or childish. Even the most stoic and responsible opponents will at times be weary from fatigue. And if you can’t catch them at a bad time you can always make a bad time with poison, a startling bang, a booming voice in the darkness, or invoking the wrath of the gods you share.
Magic is Blurry and Superstitious
Is magic a power gifted from the fae, the favour of invoked gods, an alchemical science, or a mummer’s trick? Sort of all of the above and more. Magic much like power seems to reside where people believe it to reside. Is their truly some aetheric connection that makes the alignment of the planets or the time of year make magical forces more potent? It’s impossible to prove but the anecdotal answer is absolutely yes! A true master of magic must be a renaissance man: a doctor, a lawyer, a thief, a fool, a priest, an alchemist, an astronomer, and most of all a charlatan. That’s not to say magic is necessarily false, it’s very much real in the same way many fictions are real.
Symbolism and Magical Realism
There is magic in many mundane things. When two sisters dispute each other’s claim to the throne all manner of perfectly ordinary objects and titles are invested with very real power. The sister with the fancy crown, sitting upon a fancy chair, with the fancy (and forged) document proclaiming her to be legitimate seems to be the more true queen. A lot of life functions through seeming and seeming really is the heart of magic.
A ruthless bandit’s hand is stayed from slaying the priest, seemingly stopped by the eternal queen herself. It’s possible that in truth the priest’s prayers reminded him in that moment of the eternal damnation that awaits him should he strike down an unarmed man… but that’s not how the story is told, it’s not how the people witnessing it make sense of it. There is magic in laws, in traditions, in oaths, and in stories. The bond you made with your best friend as a child is very real, the old cave the tailor’s daughter died in really is haunted, and when your grandmother tells you that the cure to the pox is her special turkey soup recipe… she’s not wrong.
Not all superstitions are equal of course, sometimes there really is no monster under the bed. But you live in a prescientific world before there is a clear line between what is or isn’t plausible. Everything is on the table.
This general aura of magic extends to practicing magic as well. To most people, there is little difference between the doctor who saved you from plague, the lawyer who saved you from a beheading, the priest who saved you from damnation, and the witch who saved your crops with a spell of rain. Making matters blurrier is that those four specialists are as often as not the same person. The mysteries of the body, the mind, the law, math, money, weather, and countless other crafts and sciences are unknown to most. And the unknown is the domain of magic.
Magical Disciplines in the Ruined Queendom
So what kind of magical tricks can you pull off with these limitations? All of these have a great deal of crossover with each other as any attempt to categorize magic is doomed from the start.
Pyromancy
The Pyromancers craft is of commanding fire. Myths abound of pyromancers who produce flame from nothing, but this secret is unknown to the modern pyromancer. Instead, they use spark stones and a combustible concoction they call Alchemist’s fire to get their flames started. Once they have fire to work with they are truly in their element. The fire seems to favour them – burning their foes and spreading towards them, extinguishing and curving around allies, even swallowing missiles headed the pyromancer’s way. The light of the fire illuminates and blinds the enemy while seemingly having no such effect on the pyromancer’s friends.
Stormcalling
The stormcaller can seemingly command the weather. Call upon great gusts, obscuring mists, rain, thunder, and even lightning. They know when the weather will turn against you and what days will be best to embark upon your quests. They are invaluable at sea as fair winds always favour their vessel. Some claim they are charlatans who merely predict, not command the weather. This is a technique often learned from the tomes in dungeons but of greatly reduced utility within dungeons, instead it is a power you leverage outside for political goals.
Divination
Whether by astrology, haruspicy, or observation of the natural world – the Diviner knows of the future. This is obviously valuable for plotting when and how to best to embark on quests but the diviner has more tricks up their sleeves. They can bless allies with a self-fulfilling certainty and curse enemies with paranoia and doubt. Luck and the future are the diviner’s domain.
Enchantment
Speak in another’s voice, speak in a way only some hear, speak so that you are heard. The voice and language are at the heart of a lot of magic, but nowhere is this purer than enchantment. The enchantress can enrage, inspire, arouse, or enthrall with but a few words. They know just what to say and how to say it to leave a good impression, plant an idea in someone’s head, or get them thinking in a way conducive to cooperation. The church fears this power, and yet whether they know it or not they are some of its greatest practitioners. Many rumour the power to absolutely dominate another with your will, but as of the present this appears to be a fiction. Nothing an enchantress has ever done couldn’t have been accomplished by a skilled diplomat with the right ambience and plenty of time… which is to say the enchantress can move mountains.
Illusion
The illusionist is a master trickster. They can make you see things out of the corner of your eye, misplace things with sleight of hand that defies belief, and vanish if let out of your vision for even a second. Should you make the mistake of doing battle with an illusionist while drunk, exhausted, or otherwise delirious; you are doomed, as the illusionist will have full control of your every sense and you will spend more time battling hallucinations than the troublesome mage.
Necromancy
Necromancy is a language and an understanding of the undead, nothing more. Some say the necromancer puppets the undead and has complete control but this is a fiction. The necromancer simply speaks in a tongue the undead can understand and grants them a voice too. The undead are often desperate for purpose and terrified of going feral. Give them a cause and they will make you their leader with haste. But be cautious not to abuse your charges, the undead will not be happy if they are lied to or used carelessly.
Demonology
Demons obey very strange rules, and they obey these rules with the fervour of a starving man steps away from the first meal they’ve seen in a week. Writing contracts and making deals with demons is complicated and incredibly dangerous. It takes a very keen legal mind to stay safe in such dealings, but with a keen mind you can get more than you give.
Witchcraft
The witch possesses uncommon sense. They observes what others do not. By simply seeing the world and making deductions they appear to have a magical insight. They see through intentions, notice habits, and find patterns. When they are truly stumped they simply ask the crone to clarify reality. The capricious god who controls reality as some sort of game has a role for all to play, and she is not averse to giving hints as to what you ought to be doing.
Rosalind Chapman 