Magic Systems

At this point I think it’s safe to assume that everyone is familiar with Brandon Sanderson’s Laws of Magic. These three laws have spread throughout the fantasy community, and draw strong opinions both from their supporters and detractors. On the one side, those in favor point to how clearly understood systems with defined rules and limitations prevent the problems of “a wizard did it,” for resolving conflict. At the same time, opponents claim that formal systems suck the mystery and wonder out of a genre that is supposed to be all about the mysterious and wondrous. This divide is at the core of the “hard vs. soft magic” debate.

Since nobody asked me, I’ve decided to weigh in on the subject here. While ultimately a good discussion on craft, I think Sanderson’s initial essay on his laws didn’t make his point as well as it could have. This has led to most people, especially the “hard magic” crowd, taking the wrong point away from the whole thing. In his one of his lecture videos, Sanderson was asked a question about magic systems, and his answer can basically be summarized as follows.

Magic systems exist to help you tell the story you want to tell.

At some point, as writers, we have to decide what sort of story we’re trying to tell. All the other decisions we make along the way flow from and exist in service of, that decision. Magic systems are no exception.

I think one series that best exemplifies this would be Sanderson’s own Stormlight Archives. While I’m going to try and be as general as possible in the following paragraphs, I’m not going to be able to avoid spoilers altogether. Consider yourself warned.

The two characters I want to focus on for this discussion are Kaladin and Shallan. Both of them exemplify the core theme of mental health in the Stormlight Archives in different ways. Kaladin struggles with depression, survivor’s guilt, and a pathological need to protect those around him. Shallan tries to bury her traumatic past by refusing to acknowledge it, and when that fails she offloads the stress of confronting it onto the alters she’s manifested as a component of her disassociative identity disorder.

So how does surgebinding, Stormlight Archive’s magic system, factor into all this? In keeping with Sanderson’s Laws, surgebinding occupies as space squarely in the hard magic territory. The Knights Radiant are divided into ten different orders, with each order having access to different surges. They progress through the ranks of the order by swearing oaths, and by doing so gain increased access to their powers. It is through these oaths that Sanderson ties his character arcs to the magic system.

Kaladin belongs to the order of the Windrunners. Their oaths are all focused around protecting others, at least they are at first. As he swears his subsequent oaths, they force him to confront aspects of himself he doesn’t want to. He has to protect people he doesn’t think deserve his protection due to a personal distaste, and he has to accept the fact that he can’t protect everyone he wants to. Even from the very beginning of his character arc, he has to struggle with himself to live by his first oath, “Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.”

Shallan finds herself in a similar situation, but one that I think is more interesting and better exemplifies how surgebinding forces confrontation with the characters’ obstacles. She comes from an abusive home, is forced to bear the burden of protecting her brothers’ futures, and more. As a Lightweaver, her oaths take the form of speaking truths. Truths she has suppressed, and pretends never happened. As her powers manifest, she uses her surgebinding to bring her alter personality states to life, and forces them to deal with with her past and present. Shallan’s surges, perhaps more than any other character in the series so far, both enable her worst tendencies, but also force her into confrontation with them.

While magic in the Stormlight Archives certainly allows for some flashy and spectacular climactic battles, its far more than just that. Its a stick Sanderson uses to poke his characters, prodding them along their journeys throughout the books and forcing them to confront the things they’d rather avoid. Magic, as a component of story, is simply another tool we have in our box. It helps us create conflict, drive character growth, and advance the plot. Like everything else we put on the page, it serves our stories. Hard vs. soft only matters insofar as it impacts your story, and what you’re trying to do with it.