What do the following things have in common?

Kabbalah

Warhammer Fantasy's Aethyric Winds

Homestuck's Aspects

The answer is that they split reality up into neat little categories for a magic system, with the intent that said magic system manipulates the respective aspects of existence itself, which govern how reality works (partially). In some cases, they even act as a character sorting system.

Does your campaign world have something similar? It doesn't even need to have a magic system approached to it. Does your world have internal categories of existence?

Rolemaster magic has Essence (drawing from the forces of nature), Channeling (drawing from energy from gods), and Mentalism (drawing from the mind). Is this what you mean?

Quote from: FishMeisterSupreme on May 03, 2025, 01:57:46 PMWhat do the following things have in common?

Kabbalah

Warhammer Fantasy's Aethyric Winds

Homestuck's Aspects

The answer is that they split reality up into neat little categories for a magic system, with the intent that said magic system manipulates the respective aspects of existence itself, which govern how reality works (partially). In some cases, they even act as a character sorting system.

Does your campaign world have something similar? It doesn't even need to have a magic system approached to it. Does your world have internal categories of existence?

Just for reference, these are the Homestuck aspects, yes? I didn't know them, but did a quick search.

QuoteTime and Space; Action - Work/Labour and Creation - These manifest as things that are repetitive or unique; upon oneself would be artsy or workaholic.

Rage and Hope; Belief - Spirituality and Emotion - These manifest as things that cause motivation or fear; upon oneself would be supportive or domineering.

Breath and Blood; Story - Chains and Liberty - These manifest as capabilities or expansion; upon oneself would be enabling or restrictive.

Heart and Mind; Filter - Self and Society - These manifest as things that are of subjectivity and objectivity; upon oneself would be personal truth or global truth.

Doom and Life; Vibrancy - Fate and Choice - These manifest as things that can envoke pessimistic tendencies or optimism; upon oneself would be realistic or idealistic.

Light and Void; Knowledge - Attention and Avoidance - These manifest as things that are secret or common to be known; upon oneself would be intellectual or intuitive.

My last campaign world was based on based on Incan cosmology, so it had Sky/Eagle; Earth/Puma; Underworld/Serpent along with male/female division in each  (Sun/Moon, Land/Sea, etc.).

The current campaign I'm playing in is magitech cyberpunk based on Norse myth, so it's split by worlds - Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, Muspelheim, etc. Each world has its own type of magic, though we're not sure about all of them. We're based in Svartalfheim, which has runic magic that is used to power high-tech gear including guns, computers, etc.

I've thought on this subject quite a bit, the models I'm most familiar are Ars magica's and Mage: The Ascension, that being the 15 Arts of Ars Magica, and the 9 Spheres of Mage.

One thing I like about these over a lot of other models of "breaking up reality" is that they built within their conceit that they are human constructs/models, they have ambiguity and edge cases and weird blurring and that is a feature not a bug.

Humans are not omniscient, and more often then not I see settings that forget to worldbuild epistemology into the setting.
how people believe reality works, and how reality might actually work don't have to comport to one another, only close enough that the magicians/scientists are getting useful results.

I have a work-in-progress setting where levels of consciousness are a metaphysical reality, so sorcery draws from the planes of instinct, thought, dreams, memory, etc. I won't go much into detail on it here, though, since it's still very much in the earliest stages of development.

Quote from: jhkim on May 03, 2025, 03:22:00 PMJust for reference, these are the Homestuck aspects, yes? I didn't know them, but did a quick search.

Holy shit. Someone finally referenced Homestuck than me. Oh my God. I am so happy.

Yes, those are the Aspects. They also have a metanarrative twist to them because Hussie grew more up his ass as the webcomic went on..

Nephilim uses a system based on hermeticism, alchemy and kabbalah. Each of the visible planets, including the Moon, governs a magic field that constitutes the physical, spiritual and celestial essence of Earth (our planet). The planets correspond to the sefirot of Kabbalah.

The Sun governs the magic field of the soul (awareness, identity, willpower) and the Logos. The Moon governs chaos, illusion and dreams. Mars governs fire, passion and conflict. Mercury governs water, speed and harmony. Jupiter governs air, intellect and knowledge. Venus governs earth, life and growth. Saturn governs destruction and antimagic. A hidden parasitic field known as the Black Moon governs chaos, death, nightmares and the transgression thereof.

The integration between the magical and mundane sides of reality makes it feel more grounded than other magic systems imo.