It's a Kind of Magic?

Its all just fireballs and blowing people up isn't it? Well... yes... and no. I read someone else's blog somewhere, and I am sorry, I cannot remember who it was but it was about peeves in books. It focused on Fantasy fiction and it has given me cause to think about how my own novel will work. The three that stick out in my mind are:

1. Kings that don't King - they have a job too, not just moping about and being rich, they have a role to play
2. Elves - Been done to death.
3. Magic without a function - nobody uses magic to cook food or do every day things, only for grandiose displays of power *yawn*

Admittedly I am paraphrasing, and it was a list of 10, I can remember others, but these three have stuck with me. I have really thought about the third one the most. I studied Literary History at uni. I know about Kings Kinging and elves don't really get much more than a mention in this novel as it currently stands.

How does magic work in The White Rose? Good question! I have always known this and have divided the types of magic up into four different groups: Life, Death, Elemental and Mind Affecting. I also assigned them all colours: Green, Blue, Red and Yellow. The mages are trained in their arts from a young age and face a final testing.

These fully-fledged mages are then awarded a Sprite - a miniature dragon creature which becomes a familiar to them for the rest of their lives. The four major dragons (the type St George went off to fight) disappeared many years before the novel starts, taking all major forms of magic with them. They left behind the sprites to help enhance the puny humans ability but only after they proved they could handle the power responsibly.

The dragons need names, I know this, I need to sit and dream them up while not at work surrounded by financial paraphernalia. The four major dragon's colours are the same colour as the robes the mages wear - green robes follow get their power from green dragons.

So, that's how it roughly how it works. I can fill in the finer details in the novel and your just going to have to wait for that for the finer points. The next questions are, what does the magic actually do? What is its practical application in the world? How are the mages recognised?

Necromancers - Blue - Specialise in Death Magic (shocking eh) They can perform proper funeral rites for people from all walks of life but don't often do so. They deal with the executed as well as those that died from disease. They are similar to the priests of Cuthbert - the death God but they have a more hands on approach. They are able to find out whether a person is dead or not by using their full name and an article that belonged to that person. They are able to speak with the dead - useful in murder cases. They can raise the dead.

Life - Green - specialise in healing and growing. Perform Summer rites and specialise in the bringing of life and preservation of life in the world. Provide healing for the sick as best as they can. Have the capacity to encourage growth of plants and such. Ensure those who are imprisoned are being treated properly and not tortured - left in bad conditions.

Elemental - Red - These are your fireball wielding nut cases, use the power of the elements to cause all round death and destruction. Generally used to supplement the army troops of whatever place they are posted to. They make excellent body guards for this reason.

Mind-Affecting - Yellow - Use magic to read minds and cause havoc this way. They are a different form of combat mage. They are also useful in trials as they can use their capacity to read minds to find out whether a suspect is guilty or not, or whether the victim is lying. There are not many of these mages and they are viewed with the most suspicion, due to being able to get in people's heads. They are open to abuse from a corrupt ruler so are very careful about who they help.

The mages cannot be trained in more than one school, and to do so carries the penalty of death. This is to prevent one individual from becoming too powerful. This is a rule set down the mages organisation, rather than by the Major dragons so it can be broken

This is a brief introduction and there is a lot of work to be done on how the magic works specifically, however, I wanted to try and show that there was more to it then FIREBALL!