in my in-progress novel (to oversimplify) everyone can do magic, but (again, to oversimplify) I, and they, don’t use the word “magic”. for narrative purposes, I will have people specialize in paerticular fields of magic.
looking for a word or term now for simple, basic magic that would not require specialized knowledge and that for the most part anyone would know. not interested in the more classic fantasy terminology such as “spells”, “cantrips”, “enchantments”.
EDITED TO ADD
not looking for an alternative term for “magic” itself. I have that!
looking for somehting modern-sounding, I think. ones that I didn’t think quite worked: “routine” (too computer-y), “stanza” (too specifc), “verse” (too specific), “rote” (used by a TTRPG and do’t want to copy).
also, if you don’t mind, please no comedic responses.
You might want to look into terms used in science-fiction for the natural ability to alter one’s shape, coloration, and so forth. Star Trek used allasomorph, chameloid, metamorph (all types of ‘changelings,’ or ‘shapeshifters.’)
Offhand I cannot think of any science-fiction examples from novels/short stories.
If it’s routine, and everyone can do it, it certainly isn’t magic to them – and would have a more routine word. As I see it you have a few options on how to pick:
A word that underlines the common / routine nature of the activity. Something like “tasking”. I’m sick of being blonde. I think I’m going to task my hair this evening.
A word that describes the action that individuals need to take to invoke the magic. If they have to close their eyes and picture it, it could be “picturing”. If they have to wave their hands, it could be “waving”, or if they have to mutter an incantation, it could be something like “canting / incanting”. Just incant this damn rock out of the door and we’ll be on our way.
A rootless word that underlines the mystery of where this power comes from. Nagir. Llandril. I quite like @November_Sierra’s suggestion of using alternate language roots for this one. Eg, the latin medeis (technically the adjective form, but hey… it sounds cool).
yes. I meant to try to say that they have (to simply) two tiers or profiency, and that I waned to find a word for routine, everyday uses. thanks for your suggestions!
Alan Moore talks compellingly about how ‘magic’ and ‘writing’ are interchangeable. He points out that ‘grimoire’ (a book of spells) is etymologically related to ‘grammar’. I recommend watching Alan Moore’s Storytelling Masterclass on BBC Maestro or have a search on YouTube.
Maybe look at etymologies of some words? Like in Irish, magic is draíocht, which comes from draoi, a druid draíocht - Wiktionary, the free dictionary and if you translate that into French it tracks back through various languages into the theology of the Zoroastrian priests…
If you have a society which is entirely magical, what’s the civil service like?
two answers. one, I haven’t worked out a lot of details about that, since I have trouble getting my head around a lot of my own ideas. two, it doesn’t have a formal government. think post-scarcity, post-Singularity. it does have some equivalents to, say, intelligence agencies, but self-elected.
Unimagical, dependant on all that’s redundant. Then again, big corporates would be the same, implementing AI driven spells to rotting wooden wands. Era-on-era they’d shed old wizards and appoint novices at a fraction of the cost who can only cast in emojis.
