MC's motive

Discussion in 'Author Discussions' started by AzuriEclip, Mar 20, 2021.

  1. AzuriEclip

    AzuriEclip Member

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    I'm writing a book where the mc is a practitioner of blood magic, but i'm not sure what the mc's motive for learning it is since its supposedly an illegal art in my world. I do have some rough ideas though, like the mc and his family being struck by poverty and his only hope was the magic exam, but unfortunately he failed. Suddenly, he encounters a tattered caravan with a bunch of corpses and two books, plus some stones. The other one is where the mc has a cultist father or mother and they teach him their ways.

    I'd still like to hear your guys' ideas, though, since i'm still not sure yet if they're the paths I want to go with since the first idea is rather cliche.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2021
  2. The Hamster Overlord

    The Hamster Overlord Mad scientist/Revered wizard/Alleged antichrist

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    Just love for blood magic...?
     
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  3. Fishy_MC_FishMan

    Fishy_MC_FishMan The Fishiest of Fishes

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    What about the trusty old revenge motivation? Someone killed MCs whole family, and blood magic is the only way for them to get even. Another good one is the need for power to protect someone such as a younger sibling. Yours is also fine.
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2021
  4. Aoiyuri

    Aoiyuri Active Member

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    Maybe you could do something like when he went to the academy they tested his magic aptitude and the academy found out that he has a high aptitude for blood magic (the aptitude test doesn't visually show this so he has no idea only the academy knows) . They turn him away (they also don't tell him about his aptitude on blood magic - maybe he also has a special bloodline making his blood magic more powerful?) as his aptitude for any other magic is very bad. However, although blood magic is illegal (as blood magic is presumably very powerful and dangerous) the governing power actually has hidden blood sorcerers that they raise in secret for the safety of the country (maybe other countries also have their own blood sorcerers or other countries don't have a ban? - perhaps it could be illegal due to religious reasons as it could go against the national religion?). Perhaps there is a member of the academy staff that reports to the governing power about his special blood and aptitude leading him to be recruited into training his blood magic for the country. The underlying reason he goes to the academy can still be due to poverty and the reason he accepts the training even if he may be fearful could be due to providing for his family. Lol this reply has gotten out of hand. Sorry for the long reply anyways just a few ideas.
     
  5. AzuriEclip

    AzuriEclip Member

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    ...But it's illegal. Why would he love it in the first place?
     
  6. Fishy_MC_FishMan

    Fishy_MC_FishMan The Fishiest of Fishes

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    Because it's cool, and edgy?
     
  7. AzuriEclip

    AzuriEclip Member

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    Your comment gave me an idea. In this one, his father fell sick and due to how much he cares about him, he decided to look for ways to heal him, but to no avail (since in my world, most potions, especially those of health are capitalized by nobles, mages, priests and soldiers.) Then, while researching for other ways to do so, he finds out about blood magic, an illegal art. At first, he felt hesitant about delving deeper into it to locate any practitioners of it due to the laws engraved deep within him since he was born, but when his father's condition only continued to worsen, he resignedly looked for a person who might possibly know where to find them, which is an easy thing to do since he lives in the slums, where there are alot of unruly people who has connections there.
     
  8. The Hamster Overlord

    The Hamster Overlord Mad scientist/Revered wizard/Alleged antichrist

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    Cause he loves it?
     
  9. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    First of all, I need to know what TYPE of blood magic the world has, because there are various ways in which blood magic can work:

    - 1. Sacrifice - Blood Magic is typically external, and uses the blood of either the practitioner or somebody else to generate more power than available through pure spells. The more magically potent the blood, the more powerful the spell, with higher levels practically needing one to sacrifice magically potent beings, like humans, to be utilised. Nearly always illegal due to it's vast power at little personal cost (or effort beyond learning it), and ease of use in terrorism. If this is the method through which blood magic is utilised, then having him fail the Magic Academy Test not because he wasn't skilled, but because he wasn't able to bribe the Judges AND wasn't a Noble, despite being objectively more skilled at magic than more than half the students who DID get in (to the point where it's obvious to anyone who paid the least amount of attention. Say the MC sees half a dozen students bragging about getting into school despite casting spells that didn't even reach far enough to even potentially hit the target they were aiming for). And that's despite the high entrance fee he had to pay to even be tested, which they refused to return. Then he comes across the destroyed caravan with the books on Blood Magic, and decides to take revenge against the corruption that stole any hope for him.

    - 2. Self-Harm - Blood Magic is not all that different from normal magic, in fact, the only difference between the two types of magic is that normal magic drains one's Mana to be utilised, while Blood Magic converts the user's blood into Mana to power the spells. In this case, it could be illegal for a few reasons, some relating to mages having more mana to cast spells than generally assumed, while others relate to how dangerous it is for a person to, effectively, give themselves anaemia in order to cast more spells. In this one, I see the MC failing due to having too little starting mana to be an effective student of the school, and going back to his parents who secretly know blood magic and teach it to him.

    - 3. Control - Blood Magic's one, and only, thing is that it controls one's blood to do things. It is not more, or less, powerful than other types of magic, it just utilises one's own blood as a medium for everything. If anything, the unique trait of Blood Magic, excluding it's unique additional cost, is that it can imitate any other type of magic effectively, making it incredibly versatile. In this one, Blood Magic is illegal for a few reasons (such as the anaemia one mentioned in Self-Harm), the main one being how easy it actually is to use as an assassination tool. The "unique additional cost" of blood magic actually gives a secondary benefit of being able to cast Blood Magic Spells undetected by normal magic detection tools, by casting the spell with blood that still in the caster's body, and thus the mana utilised for the spell being relatively easy to mask. Additionally, it isn't even considered useful for casting Healing Spells on others, due to Blood Types not being known about, and thus the Blood Transfusions required to cast Healing Spells on others being as, if not more, dangerous than the actual injury. For this one, I see the MC being a magic obsessed individual who, upon failing the entrance exam due to having the wrong body type/elemental configuration for any specific program the school runs (and is informed of this fact). They end up coming across a destroyed caravan with a couple of illegal magic books and deciding "this is the only magic I can potentially ever learn. I'M LEARNING IT! MAGIC IS AWESOME AND I WANT TO LEARN IT, NO MATTER THE RISK OR COST!"

    - 4. Bloodline - Blood Magic's thing in this one is that it's a unique magic spell that one inherits through their bloodline. In this case, the MC's Blood Magic was inherited, and Blood Magic is illegal... for COMMONERS to use. Nobles, particularly the higher ranked ones, are permitted to use it, and easily abuse their inherited spells to reinforce their authority by dominating those with weaker, or no, blood magic to use in Magical Duels, with those who actually utilise any Blood Magic they inherit without sufficient authority and backing being hunted down as criminals. In this case, the MC doesn't need someone to teach them their Blood Magic, they just need to stumble upon it and learn how to utilise it effectively. This story would be about how the MC hides the fact that they are utilising their Blood Magic, despite being a commoner, and how they change their lot in life. Alternatively, this type of Blood Magic could be illegal to anyone who doesn't graduate from Magic School, which the MC failed to get into due to their Blood Magic either being too subtle, or too close to one from a particularly prominent family (or both), and they refused the MC entry due to that.

    - 5. Modification - This time Blood Magic is used more for changing blood in certain, near universally beneficial, ways. Bloodline Magic is required for this type to be properly utilised, as the Modification Blood Magic type's thing is actually creating, changing or improving one's Bloodline Magic, to the point where Bloodline Magic's basis is in Blood Magic. In this case, Blood Magic is illegal due to it being able to interact with other's Bloodline Magic, something many, including nobles and royalty, base their entire magical repertoire around. So being able to mess with that is considered incredibly threatening, even if Blood Magic is slow to effectively utilise. Especially with it's ability to create new Bloodline Magic, which is significantly threatening to those in power in and of itself. In this case, MC fails the Magic School Entrance Exam due to not having a Bloodline Magic, and stumbles upon the caravan with A book on Blood Magic, and either an introductory book to normal magical spells, or one specific magical focus, like healing, to focus their personal growth towards.

    I'm sure that there are other types of "blood magic" out there, but these are the 5 I can think of off the top of my head that can easily be given reasons for being illegal. Also, my post is getting a bit long, even for me. With the caravan, if you just have it be somewhere a bit off the normal path (say half-way through a forest between the slums and the magic school), and recently attacked by professional soldiers DUE to the Blood Magic Book, where the MC stumbles upon the end of the fight only to watch the last few soldiers in sight die, before waiting half an hour (just in case more soldiers show up) before sneaking in to take whatever loot they can find and escaping with the magic books, it should be fine. Particularly if you set it up so that the MC is hunted by people with authority who tracked them back to the slums from the caravan.
     
  10. AzuriEclip

    AzuriEclip Member

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    Woah, that is pretty long but it gave me some ideas! Anyway, for my book, I applied number 1, 2 and 3. The bloodline part of blood magic doesn't suit my plans.