Crafting as a MAGIC SYSTEM?
718K views · Apr 12, 2022 · Education
Comments · 904
@TheTaleFoundry · 4 years ago (edited) · pinned
Just so you know, there's an ENTIRE SECOND VIDEO about this topic over on our Nebula channel! <a href="http://curiositystream.com/talefoundry">http://curiositystream.com/talefoundry</a><br><br>You can get Nebula for less than <b>any</b> other streaming platform on the internet by signing up for the Nebula/Curiosity Stream bundle. Check it out, and definitely come back to let us know what you thought of our OTHER video about crafting magic! I'm really eager to hear your thoughts.
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@burghleyimeanberdly6513 · 4 years ago
The reason Glamdring and Sting glow near orcs is actually fascinating, the smith imbues the blade with his wrath and so causes it to react to that which the smith hated
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@rami_ungar_writer · 4 years ago
Writing is definitely crafting as magic. Both the process and the product are magical, and I love it.
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@Blazeboƴ24 · 4 years ago
These are some sick concepts that I haven't considered! This gives me a great idea for a group of npc's in my DnD campaign!
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@dougiethompson2822 · 4 years ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFbRXYJ67YY&t=114">1:54</a> Not Enchanting<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFbRXYJ67YY&t=175">2:55</a> Magic for Crafting<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFbRXYJ67YY&t=510">8:30</a> Magic from Crafting<br><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFbRXYJ67YY&t=931">15:31</a> Magic as Crafting
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@draconiskittensweetie9765 · 4 years ago
"Howl's Moving Castle" does a little bit of this! It's an interesting concept, Sophie makes hats and sews and fixes outfits and as she speaks to the clothes, they fill with her intention and be whatever she said they would be, positive or negative. While the magic isn't in the craft itself but is in Sophie, seeing her drawing it out via her hat making and sewing is really cool and I think fits this concept pretty well!
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@matthewrosebrock7329 · 4 years ago
This reminds me of a manga that uses ink and any writing surface as the source of magic. Draw some runes enclose them in a circle and as the circle is completed the magic is invoked. Simple, but with added complexity when you find out that being skilled in calligraphy is what makes or breaks any spell cast. The flying shoes for example use wind runes in it but if the runes are uneven in placement or different in size the magic will strongly push the user in the direction of the area with biggest and/or closely packed runes making them hard to control, but that does not make those configurations undesirable. Since the main character uses that apparent fault in design to make a makeshift mast to fly through the air when her magic shoes she was lent became unusable when the circle and runes were damaged.
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@jenfries6417 · 4 years ago (edited)
As a crafter and an artist and a writer, I loved this topic! I'm excited to read Circle of Magic now, too. One of my recent inspirations for imagining magical crafting is a book that isn't about magic and isn't even fiction. I recommend it for anyone interested in exploring the idea of craft and the crafting mind. It's called "Craeft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts," by historian/archeologist Alexander Langlands. His remarks about the mindset of the craftsperson, how fundamental craft is to human life, and how in tune the crafter must be to nature and their physical surroundings to develop a crafting mind, are particularly interesting. The chapter on beekeeping will probably trigger a LOT of story ideas, as will the chapter on sticks, especially the part about highly specialized tools being grown rather than made (spoiler: hay forks, in France).<br><br>So thanks so much for this talk. However, I do have to mention there was one teeny bit of irony in the video: Our friend, Fiber Arts, the most mysterious of all processes to those who don't do them. Your descriptions of them were spot-on, but the animations... Okay, I saw three fiber crafts in the video, 2 animations of spinning, 1 of embroidery, and 1 of weaving. <br><br>The weaving animation was correct enough - it was a proper type of loom, it looked right, and what tiny details it missed are too small to matter visually. So I applaud that, because I have seen some whackadoo representations of weaving out there in the world. So that one's good to go.<br><br>The embroidery animation had a big error, but it is an error that people can actually make when they're learning to embroider. So, we have the crafter holding a piece of fabric stretched on a frame, and we see some stitches already in the fabric - all correct. And we see the crafter frowning down at her work - and no wonder she's having trouble because she is making her next stitch wrong. Look at the pretty, golden line of the thread in the animation. It goes from the bottom of the fabric to the eye of the needle - but then where it is going? The way it's animated, the crafter made her last stitch by pushing the needle down through the fabric, and now she has carried the needle up <b>*around*</b> the frame and is trying to push it down into the top of the fabric again. Look closely, and you'll see why that's a problem. She's going to have to figure that one out before she can start stitching up some magic.<br><br>Finally, spinning. Outside of books about spinning, I don't think I have ever seen a correct representation of the craft of spinning. The video shows us the character from Circle of Magic using a spinning wheel, and the Moirai spinning the threads of fate. In both animations, there is one crucial piece missing, which makes the whole image nonsensical - the spindle. In both cases, the video shows the pretty golden thread somehow moving from the loose fiber to the wheel, and even into the wheel mechanism and around the wheel itself. Incorrect! In fact, it's the most common incorrect depiction of spinning I've seen. (Technically, the animation of the Moirai also missed the measuring and snipping parts, but who's counting?)<br><br>What's missing is the spindle - a straight, pointy stick - it can be made of wood or metal. The spindle is mounted to the wheel. The wheel's job is to turn the spindle - to spin it, in fact, hence the name "spindle." The loose fiber gets attached to the spindle, and the spindle is what makes the thread. So the wheel turns, the spindle spins, and it causes the fibers attached to it to twist. That's where the craft comes in. The spinner must control how much of the fiber is pulled through their fingers to get caught up in the twist coming off the spinning spindle. That's what makes the thread. Then there's a whole bunch of technical stuff about how the thread gets wound up, and about tension and plying and whatnot, and that all varies by fiber and what kind of wheel you're using, etc. - it doesn't matter.<br><br>The point is, you can be forgiven for not getting this right, because of all traditional crafts, spinning is arguably one of the most arcane and, yes, magical.<br><br>No one gets it unless they've done a little of it. I used to demonstrate spinning at a living history museum, and it was one of the most fun parts of that job because most visitors were just wowed, like jaws hanging open, when they watched me do it. The constant questions were "what are you doing?", "how is it happening?", "what am I seeing?"<br><br>This is because spinning is fast. It's based on a dynamic, kinetic force, rather than mechanical construction. The thread or yarn is created in literally seconds, and the moving parts spin so quickly, the eye can't follow what they are doing. Depending on the machine the spinner is using, it can literally look like thread is magically emerging from their fingertips. My favorite visitor a the museum was a physics professor, who became so engrossed by the spinning wheels, that his family left him behind to finish their tour. He peppered me with questions for over an hour, practically writing a paper in his head. I even let him try his hand at it with the drop spindle (probably the tool used by the Moirai, btw), which we used for teaching kids.<br><br>That speed is why people who have never tried spinning cannot wrap their brains around what all the parts are and how they fit together, and why I have never seen a correct modern image of spinning made by anyone who isn't a spinner.<br><br>And I think there's a clue here to the magical-ness of craft and its potential as a magic system, and the role of expertise, learning, and practice in magical craft. Anyone who truly masters a craft will end up with such an intimate understanding of the craft's processes that they can do things others simply cannot comprehend.<br><br>One reason crafting may be uncommon as a magic system is because crafts, like spinning and weaving and metalurgy, etc., are extremely technical - arcanely technical - and if you don't know how they work, you won't be able to build an effective story around them. Plus, the world is full of people who do them in real life, and they will absolutely call out every error, just like I did - from a place of love and gratitude! I recommend that anyone seeking to explore crafting as magic should take up a craft as a hobby. At least take some classes in whatever craft you want to write about, even if the system you're planning won't have to be entirely realistic.<br><br>That's probably why so many gods are depicted as craftspeople just magi-crafting mythical McGuffins into existence - because it's okay to just handwave craft into a story if the characters and audience aren't expected to understand how it was done. It's the old "a wizard [a crafter] did it" trope. But if you want to tell the story from the crafter's point of view, you should do some hands-on research.
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@kharijordan6426 · 4 years ago (edited)
So.. Ok instead of connecting with a dragon to the point that you get magical benefits,<br>You connect with your craft to the point you get magical benefits. The coolest part about this is that I think each and every person will have a different understanding and connection with each craft.<br><br>Edited: and a different understanding and connection with the same craft to. <br>Someone understand painting in way that... let's them walk on air...and another person understands painting in way that.... let's them turn solids to liquids.<br><br>Ok I guess this might take more thought in order to give ppl perfect powers that makes the most sense but is still different for each person to signify subjectivity.
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@kofimoon-vv-8279 · 4 years ago (edited)
"Paper magician" - oh boy I was gonna read that one! It appeared recently in our school library and I thought it looked really nice and was gonna be interesting but I forgot the name before I managed to borrow it. Well now that I know the name I have a few days of spring break to read it, also apparently there's more than just one book~
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@techstuff9198 · 4 years ago
"Being empathetic toward a piece of string is going to do you much good if it can't feel anything."<br>Who said the string had to do the feeling? I know a handful of artisans that extend their own senses into the material that they're working with, and am unlocking this capability myself.<br>A spider can feel the vibrations along the length of its webs, we can find vacancies beneath the earth by sending shockwaves into it, and many more examples of sensing through a medium that isn't a part of yourself.<br>The very languages we use require air to carry the vibration, or light the reflect off of us and into the eyes of another.
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@izthistle6196 · 4 years ago
There’s the magic engineers who knows how magic works fundamentally, and then there’s magic technicians who is experienced with what it does and knows how to fix it safely.
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