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On my commute to work this morning, I was listening to The Totally Rad Show, and their discussion of The Sorcerer's Apprentice sparked a huge thought tangent within me. I think I missed ten minutes of what they were saying. They'd been discussing the way in which various stories and settings handle magic, and they compared The Sorcerer's Apprentice to Harry Potter. Harry Potter, they said, had some concrete rules and limitations on magic, whereas The Sorcerer's Apprentice did not. I started thinking. Rules? Well, sure, Harry Potter has laid out that it's impossible to resurrect someone, that wands and spoken words help wizards to cast spells but are not necessary, and that there are certain specific spells used by everyone. So yes, I guess there are rules that have been laid out. But while Harry Potter may be an apt comparison to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, it's not the series that I'd have thought of when I thought of magic having rules.

Similar to Harry Potter, The Dresden Files has both rules that apply to magic and rules about how practitioners of magic in the world are allowed to use it. Harry Potter has the unforgivable curses, and the Dresden Files has the rules of magic, as laid out by The White Council. But now I've gone off on another tangent. What I mean to speak of here is the way that magic works. The world of the Dresden Files has magic like the soulgaze, Listening, wards, and the death curse. In this setting, strong emotion can be channelled into magic strength. All of these things strengthen the narrative and make the story more interesting, more engaging.

Compare this to The Lord of the Rings. Gandalf is doubtless a powerful wizard, but he uses magic very infrequently, and his uses of it are never spectacular. The use of magic in Middle-Earth is never spelled out, and aside from The One Ring, glowing swords, and magical creatures, one might easily doubt its existence.

When I began thinking of the rules of magic, the first series that came to mind is Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. The descriptions of Saidar and Saidin, how the One Power is channeled, and the means by which a channeler can be shielded lay out a very firm structure for how magic works. Beyond that, new rules are constantly discovered regarding stilling/gentling, The Taint, "The True Power", ter'angreal, tel'aran'rhiod, balefire, traveling/skimming, and dozens of other powers. Jordan has written tens of thousands of pages in his world.

Describing the rules of magic is not limited to worlds with wizards and dragons. Think about The Matrix. I'd argue that a very similar device is in place here. A power is described: the ability to travel into the matrix. Rules are laid out: you can bend reality, but if you die in The Matrix, you die in real life. Enemies appear: agents can dodge bullets and anyone can suddenly become an agent without warning. And if you unplug without clicking that safely remove hardware icon, you die.

This has been an interesting topic to explore - what settings can you think of that make good use of a rules structure to regulate and shape its fantastic elements? I'll leave you with one of my favorites: Master of the Five Magics. I read it when I was fairly young, and I loved the rules it applied to its rigidly laid-out five schools of magic. If you're interested in reading more about them, there's a ton of info here. Very cool.

Holy cow! I just learned that there are two sequels to Master of the Five Magics! Twenty years after reading the original! I'll be getting a copy soon.