Magic!

[Celadon's Penultimate]

I was wondering the same for Mimicry.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Time stop = negation. You're removing the effects of time.

Summoning = connection. You're bringing a creature to you.

Mimicry = revision. You're changing yourself to look like something else.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Hm...yes, I suppose you're right.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

I've been thinking more about this, and I think I can fit each type onto the visible spectrum.

White = Creation
Violet = Augmentation
Blue = Connection
Green = Revision
Yellow = Reversion
Orange = Rejection
Red = Destruction
Black = Negation

Creation is just what it sounds like: You create something were there was nothing. Throwing a fireball or conjuring up food is creation.

Augmentation is improving something that already exists, adding to it without changing it's purpose. A blow would hurt more, medicine would heal faster, food would taste better.

Connection is a little trickier. Anything that serves to connect would be connection. Binding someones hands, reading a mind, and teleportation all fall under connection.

Revision is changing one thing into another thing. Frog to prince, pumpkin to carriage, man to beast. Changing a bunch of stone into a regal castle. Changing someones thoughts is also covered under this category.

Reversion is putting a thing back the way it was. Healing injuries, mending objects. Traveling to the past.

Rejection is keeping something away. Magic barriers would count as rejection.

Destruction is unmaking things. Any spell that is dedicated to sundering, breaking, or wearing something down is destruction.

Finally, Negation removes something or the effect of something. Time, gravity, force, other spells. Strength, life, people.

And now, my stupid looking affinity chart:


Your position on the chart determines what you are good at. For example, someone who has a Creation Affinity would also be able to learn Augmentation and Connection quite easily, but would find Negation almost impossible because of how far away it is. The same holds true for other affinities: Connection and Rejection, Revision and Reversion, and Augmentation and Destruction are all diametrically opposed.

To post a practical application, under this system Billy Bishop would almost certainly have a Connection Affinity, and most of the spells he has or will used are Connection based because he shaves off parts of his own mana and gives it to those he revives. Zaubar would be of the Rejection Affinity because of his wards, while Asoka and Wulf would be Creation, and Eric either Creation or Revision depending on whether he creates air or simply manipulates the air around him. Tiberius would be Connection because he's a summoner, and someone like Kyrse would also be Revision.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Could there potentially be cross-sections? Like a cerulean (blue-green) to combine connection and revision?

ie improving something by combining two or more things into a powerful gestalt?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

It's not totally impossible for someone with one affinity to learn abilities related to another, just difficult, with the "all but impossible" being reserved for the affinity that is opposed to yours. It does get more difficult the farther away it is from your "Home" affinity, however.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 Hm. Fascinating...

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Think of it as the law of diminishing returns. Lets say for example, you have an Affinity for Reversion.



If you were to train your Reversion abilities, you would gain 100% in Reversion power. However, you would only gain 80% of Connection or Destruction with the same amount of training. Note also the steep drop-off of Revision, which is diametrically opposed to Reversion.

[Philote]

Why do you have them connected in that specific order and color combo?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Left to right the colors line up with the visible spectrum of light, with black and white as the outlines. I thought it worked thematically. As for how their arranged, each affinity is an equal distance from it's opposed opposite. If I'd have put them all in a circle, Creation and Negation would be right next to one another.

[Philote]

Did you put any reasoning into the colors besides White/Black? Like Orange for Rejection?

And why is Reversion better with Connection and Destruction instead of Rejection and Augmentation for example?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Not really. I just tried to put the ones that seemed similar close together on the scale.

Reversion is on the side it is mostly because, if it wasn't, then either Connection and Rejection or Augmentation and destruction would be on the same side. Honestly, you could probably swap Revision and Reversion and the difference would be the same. I chose the sides they were at because Reversion seems closer to Destruction. If I wanted to stretch it, I could also so that it's only possible to have a Connection to something in the past or present which goes along with Reversion.

[Zaleramancer]

Have I mentioned I really love the way you think?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Only whenever I go incredibly nerdy.

Still, there are a few problems. For example, I can't quite figure out where illusions would fall on this scale.

[Zaleramancer]

Creating images or turning air into light?

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Those both work. I never had any problem with using two different Affinities to achive the same results.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Making things, changing things into other things, removing things from perception...sounds like three, to me.

[Zaleramancer]

You could, arguably, cause nearly effect with enough wiggling.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

Yes, but wiggling would be harder.

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

I've been thinking more on this, and come up with a few things. For one, the most important affinities are rejection and connection. You need connection to directly influence something other than yourself with magic, and you need rejection to protect yourself from harmful effects. As such natural connectors have almost no ability to defend against magic happening directly to them. The best hope they have is to negate any hostile magic, which means they either block the whole thing or get hit by all of it. The converse is also true, with rejectors not being able to use magic on or through anything but themselves.