Back when I started planning to write the Artisan Magic books, I spent some time dipping back into the subject of writing craft–specifically, rules for writing fantasy.
Obviously, when talking about something like fantasy, the very concept of “rules” is a little shaky, but exploring how others approach world building always helps me figure out how many things have already solidified in my mind before I start writing a new world.
One thing stood out while I was reading, though. There was a lot of debate over which magic system was better to use, but something a lot of writers commonly agreed on was that it was important to establish whether your world’s magic system would be hard or soft magic. I’d already decided on the path I’d take for the Artisan Magic books, but for me, seeing everyone agree on that subject made me keenly aware of the fact there’s a third path, because it’s what I took in writing the Snakesblood Saga.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of hard and soft magic, it’s pretty easy to explain: Hard magic follows strict rules for how it functions, as well as what it can and cannot do. Soft magic is far more ambiguous, largely unexplained, and how it works and what it’s capable of is generally a mystery.
Gandalf’s powers in The Lord of the Rings is based on a soft magic system, where it’s a strange, otherworldly thing that everyone knows exists, but no one is quite sure how it works or what it can do. And for hard magic, the popular children’s show Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example, where powers are neatly categorized and there are solid rules, even when it falls outside the skill set of a typical bender.
Pretty much everything I’ve ever read or seen falls into one of these two camps, so where’s the third I mentioned? Well, it seems to be an unpopular choice, but in the Snakesblood Saga… I used both.
Bound mages follow strict hard magic rules. They’re limited in what they can touch and what they can do, and their power is generally well understood. The other side of the coin is the free mages, who are exceptionally rare. Their power is raw and unrefined, a power source that defies all known rules and cannot be understood. While it can be wielded with clear intention, what it can and cannot do is unknown, which is part of what makes them dangerous–they have no obvious limits.
The strange thing is that I never intentionally combined hard and soft magic systems. That was something that grew organically in the story as I wrote and developed it. Since becoming aware of it, though, I’ve been on the lookout for more stories that include both hard and soft magic in the same world, and I haven’t been able to find any good examples yet.
Which do you prefer, hard or soft magic? Have you ever read another story that combined both?