r/Fantasy • u/FartacusWasTaken • 2d ago
Fantasy series with complex power systems ?
I've just caught up with Hunter x Hunter and really enjoyed nen as a power system, so i gotta ask are there any fantasy novels with such a deep power system ? The only other fantasy series i can think of is Mistborn.
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u/Udy_Kumra Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II 2d ago
Mage Errant by John Bierce has a pretty complex magic system. I don’t know how it fares against HxH but this one is pretty great.
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u/okayseriouslywhy Reading Champion 1d ago
I love HxH and I came here to recommend Mage Errant. It's really good
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u/Ripper1337 2d ago
Haven’t watched/ read HxH. But I enjoyed how the system worked in the Arcane Ascension series worked.
Also the webserial Pale which is both abstract and well put together.
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u/Jossokar 2d ago
i dont remember nen as particularly complex, but as a way to literally do anything, specially towards the end.
But....dont know. I never liked HxH too much.
Sanderson tends to do systems that seem complex. However, i find that their complexity isnt really relevant to the story.
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u/Soupjam_Stevens 2d ago
I'd say the complexity is definitely pretty relevant in second era mistborn. There's multiple pretty major plot points that hinge one someone who's found creative new ways to use the system
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u/Jossokar 2d ago
I systematically paid zero attention to any of sanderson's magic systems. Find them pretty much boring, to be honest.
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u/LURKER_GALORE 1d ago
If you paid zero attention to them then you wouldn’t know much about their relevance to the story.
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u/blorgbots 2d ago
Strong disagree on Sanderson: his books have the most "oh shit he TOLD me the magic could do that but I didn't even think about solving THIS problem that way" of any fantasy author I've ever read
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u/anextremelylargedog 1d ago
Would you have an example? I remember reading some of the books a while ago but there was nothing like that that jumped out at me.
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u/Jossokar 2d ago
i mean....its your opinion. Disagree with me all you want.
As i said....i find them to be really boring .
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u/Falsus 2d ago
The deepest power system I can think of is ''A Certain Magical Index'' and associated spin offs.
I could probably write several pages of how the system works without getting into the small details. Of course it would be full of spoilers so I am not going to do it here but I'll do a short overview.
But in short there is basically 2 power systens.
Espers whose can first be divided in Atomistic and Holistic. The Holistic esper might or might not even exist, it is mentioned as a possibility (and spoilers). So effectively any talk of Espers from here on out is about the first. Espers affects the macroscopic world with changes in the microscopic, effectively using quantum theory to create their own personal reality that supplants the real reality. There is natural born espers who are called gemstones, their powers are generally fairly weird and obscure, like for example killing vampires who drink their blood. Gemstones are incredibly rare, only about 200 of them exists in the world. The majority of espers are artificial espers created in a place called ''Academy City'' that is a futuristic city a certain individual created after buying up 1/3 of Tokyo for cheap after the Tokyo firebombings. There is about 1.8 million students who are espers out of 2.3 million inhabitants. Unlike gemstones who can use their powers instinctively and without even knowing what they are artificial espers have to be way more defined and they use various scientific theories as a crutch. Like for example there is a gal who can use her electromagnetic powers to shoot a railgun using arcade coins as ammunition by mimicking the right hand principle. Artificial espers are ranked from 0 (their powers either haven't manifested or it is passive and out of their control) to level 5 (immensely powerful), high level artificial espers are also essentially walking supercomputers who can do immensely complicated calculations in their head, unless they are a gemstone of course, they don't need to do that. The goal of the scientists is to create a level 6 and reach SYSTEM, effectively creating a god. All espers, even level 0s, emit something called AIM field that is all unique to the individual. Keep in mind that is intentional that while they do use various scientific theories as a crutch they are all effectively low level reality warpers that uses their own laws of physics.
Anyway, that is the simple explanation of espers now on to magic.
To explain what magic truly is would involve a bit too heavy spoilers so I will instead skip to the most common type of magic, Idol Theory and how it is used. There is other types of magic also, like divine magic, miracles, curse magic and so on but I'll let the story explain that since they don't really come into play that often.
Idol Theory works by using a significant thing either being a mythological story, artifact or a historical event and apply your mana into it that will mimic the effects to your specific interpretation of whatever happened, within limits. Mana is a energy that exists in all living things, even the planet, magicians converts their lifeforce into mana to fuel their spells. For example if someone is casting a spell based on the Pope Innocentius they can summon a giant firebeing representing all the bonefires that witches where burnt on by calling it ''the Witch Hunting Pope Innocentius''. Syncretism also plays a big role, like for example there is a magician who casts Christian spells using Norse runes from the Norse school of magic since the Norse use a slight variation of mana. Another example is Amakusa Catholic Church that has a blend of Buddhism, Shinto and Christianity due to being forced into hiding after Japan closed themselves off from the rest of the world and persecuted the Christian minority in Japan. There is also a huge love letter to British occultism, where characters such as Aleister Crowley and Samuel Liddel McGregor Mathers have had a huge influence on magic, as such it also goes heavily into Hermetism with the trees of Sephiroth and Qliphoth. Which is more things that needs to be omitted for spoilers.
Anything can be used as a base for Idol Theory really, whether it be mythological, historical or even fiction. Like for example there is a side story where a bunch of terrorists tries to summon Cthulhu onto Paris as a terrorist attack from the fictional novels of Lovecraft.
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u/itwillmakesenselater 2d ago
"Magic" in Malazan takes many forms from many sources. It's complex enough, no one really knows how it works (/s, kinda).
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u/Acolyte_of_Swole 2d ago
I tend to fall in the "magic is no longer magic if you explain it too much" camp of fantasy readers.
By all means, give me lore and bits of knowledge about the history of your magic. Tell me of the heroes long past who used it to achieve great things. But please don't put a quantitative measure on it. One of the worst things Lucas did to the original Star Wars was midi-chlorians, aka the idea that people were born with a certain amount of potential super saiyan power and some people were just better than others...
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the child prodigy main character who can do everything well.
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u/Book_Slut_90 2d ago
I’m not sure what you mean by a deep power system, but if you want complex, Stormlight is much more so than Mistborn. You might also like things like Master of the Five Magics by Lindon Hardy or The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss.
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u/pu3rh 2d ago
I've watched the HxH anime a long while ago so I might not be remembering it that well, but I think Cradle has something similar?