Tools of the Magical Trade
Not all magic requires instruments, but as you develop your magic system and get to know the characters of your story, you may find that it’s easier for your magic practitioners to have a tool which helps them utilize their magic. Also, it just looks cool to have them pointing wands, drawing cards, or riding on broomsticks.
Magical tools can vary greatly. At their essence, the tools will simply be a way for your magic practitioner to channel the magic more easily. For fortunetellers, they may use crystal balls or tarot cards. They may also use a bowl of water instead of a crystal ball. Elemental magicians may need an actual sampling of their element, or something that represents their element. Perhaps someone gifted with fire magic needs actual fire (or the ingredients for a fire), or they may simply need a piece of crystal that looks like a flame. Maybe a water magician needs a drop of water that they wear in a vial around their neck, or they just need a container that held water at one point.
Magical instruments can be anything. Even musical!
Worldbuilding Exercises:
- Do magic practitioners in your world need tools? If so, what might a ‘standard’ set of tools look like?
- If magic is more innate in your world, are those who use tools considered inferior?
- Are there any magical tools, or materials for tools, that are rare and highly coveted?
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Rebekah Loper began creating epic worlds and stories as a child and never stopped. She is the author of The A-Zs of Worldbuilding series, and has a fantasy novella published in Beatitudes and Woes: A Speculative Fiction Anthology.
She lives in Tulsa, OK with her husband, dog, two formerly feral cats, a small flock of feathered dragons (…ok, ok, they’re chickens), and an extensive tea collection. When she is not writing, she can be found battling the elements in an effort to create a productive, permaculture urban homestead.
I have a bonecaster in one of my stories. Yes, I think tools are quite fascinating, not just for what they do, but also for how they are crafted. That was a great part of the story of this character. I had a great fun with it. And even the crafting of the tools wasn’t the central part of the story, it became a good chanck of it because it helped me showing the character’s personality and what was important to her… and THAT was central to the story.