The difficulty with writing superpowered characters, particularly high-tier ones, is that it’s easy to make a character feel overpowered, but there is a simple remedy for this: the character’s power set should be based around one basic concept.
I’ll start by explaining what I mean by “this character feels overpowered”. I don’t mean “this character is, on paper, far more powerful than their opponent” - that can actually be a good thing, forcing the opponent to make their clash a battle of brains rather than brawn. What I do mean is “this character’s powers are so immense that the only way to challenge them narratively is through contrived circumstances or a plot device that should be used sparingly”. Superman manages to be a good example of both, depending on which depiction you look at, but he’s not gonna be the focus of this post. Instead, we’ll start with Gwenpool.
The premise of Gwenpool’s solo comic is “Gwen is from the real world but ends up in the comic book world”, and as the story goes on she learns to use her awareness of the fact that she’s in a comic book to do stuff that is essentially reality-warping. And it’s a bizarre kind of reality warping, but everything she does makes sense because it follows the core premise: “she can do this because she can interact with the medium of the comic”. She can step from one panel into the next, she can come out of a flashback and into the present day, she can grab sound effects and so cancel out noises, she can interact with thought-boxes and speech-bubbles. And because her powers follow a core premise, she doesn’t feel overpowered, because you don’t end up feeling like she can do anything the plot demands
If a character is a magic-user then they’re essentially a reality warper. The scale of reality-warping their capable of will depend on their skill, their raw power, and the magic system at play. Now, there are arguments for hard magic systems and for soft magic systems, but I think even if you’re working with a soft magic system, a core premise helps a lot. I might make another post some day examining different magic systems (I think I’d specifically look at Avatar and at Chronicles of Ancient Darkness), but this post isn’t the time for an in-depth look at that.
There are also plenty of sci-fi reality warpers. There’s often some attempt at explaining it (”higher-dimensional beings” or “extremly advanced aliens”) but if you asked me, I’d say there were three main options for how to portray a genuine reality warper in a sci-fi story, without resorting to “space magic, but we don’t call it that.” These are: physics manipulation, higher-dimensional beings, and something I’ll call constrained omnipotence.
A physics manipulator would be someone who can locally alter the laws of physics. There’s two ways to go about this: changing the values of the physical constants, like G or c, or manipulating the quantum fields that define the laws of physics. If you go with the former… well, imagine you’re a computer programmer and decide to change one letter in one line of code, and you’ll start to understand how much this can mess things up. If you go with the latter, it’s probably a similar thing. I don’t understand much about quantum fields and how they interact just yet, but I do know that raising one a few energy levels in a specific place would a) take a lot of power, b) create some really Weird Physics in that place, and c) release a lot of potential energy when it goes back to normal. I’m talking “massive explosion”. The fun part, though, is that Weird Physics - I have no idea how it would look, but if we assume that the non-reality warpers can enter the Weird Physics Zone without blinking out of existence or dying horrifically, they’ll be faced with a world that doesn’t make sense. None of their technology would work properly, if at all. And in contrast, the reality warper might have tech specifically designed to work in the Weird Physics Zone. Remember that technology is just our way of taking advantage of physics to do cool stuff - a differently coded videogame is going to have very different glitches to exploit.
The point is, a physics manipulator can do certain things: they can make physics Weird and then take advantage of that weirdness. They can’t do anything the plot demands.
A higher-dimensional being’s whole deal is going to be that they move stuff around in more dimensions than we can see. There are a few videos on youtube demonstrating how that might look, if you wanna get an idea of how to depict something like that. And once again, a higher-dimensional being can do certain things: they can make stuff appear, disappear, distort, hover, et c. by moving it around in more dimensions than we can observe. If they’re 4-dimensional, they can move throughout time, and move objects throughout time. If they’re 5-dimensional or higher they can probably move through multiple timelines as well. They can’t do anything the plot demands.
And the last one is the constrained omnipotent character. True omnipotence is logically impossible - by definition it creates paradoxes - but we could conceivably have a character who can do anything within the bounds of physics. Presumably this character can use an insane amount of energy with an insane degree of precision, since that’s kind of required to do anything as long as it doesn’t break physics - but that’s also the point. They can do anything except stuff that breaks physics. Ergo, they can’t do anything the plot demands, only certain things.
tl,dr: no matter how powerful a character is, their powers should have some sort of core concept, as this will make them feel grounded even if they’re completly ludicrous on paper. You don’t have to explain in detail how their powers work, but if you keep that core concept in mind, then you can get a lot more creative with how they use their powers than just saying “ok, what does the plot need them to do?”
Cute girls should get $5000 a week for free and never have to work (I’m girls)
“𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫.”
༻.˓ ࣪˖ __༒__.。・—˚.❩𖤐❨⋆˚—・。.__༒__˖ ࣪˓.༺
.˓ ࣪˖ᱬ 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬
.˓ ࣪˖ᱬ 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 & 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠
.˓ ࣪˖ᱬ 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 @ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐬𝐯𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐬𝐞
She’s coming. DOCTOR STRANGE: IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (2022) | dir. Sam Raimi
An Examination of the Book of Shadows
Various Phraseologies: Spellbook, Grimoire, Tome of Magic, Book of Spells.
It is a textbook carrying the collective information that pertains to the extensive practices of the individual Witch. The name of the practitioner’s book is an extension of their evolutionary view, while traditional references may be made toward the book, unconventional and taciturn names may be given to the tome that can better help reflect the Witch and establish a deeper bond between prac and theory.
There are an abundance of traditional values that have unfolded between the ages as the notion of a Book of Shadows becomes more prominent in Witchcraft practices. Olden actions of keeping the book safe from prying eyes, to burning the book once the Witch’s time has come, there is a gentle reminder that history and it’s suggestions differ throughout the ages of time and as generational views progress, there too comes the notion of open mindedness and allowing oneself to display their Craft in whichever way is comfortable for them to do so.
This open-armed view extends all throughout the Spellbook, as what may serve one Witch in their Grimoire, may not serve another Witch in theirs. What one maybe believe in, another may not. As a general list to accomodate for the overview in which is commonly displayed in such books, it is customary to find information that pertains to the following that involves a form of instructive learning process based on personal and effective beliefs:
•Astrology (zodiacs, birth charts etc..)
•Dream Magic (lucid states, past life etc..)
•Plant Magic (herbal teas, recipes etc..)
•Rituals pertaining to diverse practices that involve but are not limited to Ceremonial Magic, Planetary Deities, Sabbats and Esbats.
•Spells pertaining to diverse practices that may involve the properties for Healing, Protection, Love, Wealth, Banishing etc..
•Conjuration of constructing the physical manifestation of Spells such as charm formation, Poppet crafting and amulet making.
•Summoning of constructing the spiritual and mindful manifestation of Spells such as with techniques of visualisation.
•Charts pertaining to the guidance of elemental and/or planetary influence such as recording Moon phases for Full, New and Dark Moons as well as rare events that can influence Spells such as eclipses or Super Moons.
•Divinatory information pertaining to the processes of Tarot card reading, Crystal ball Scrying, Tea Leaf reading, Rune casting, Bone casting, Pendulum swinging etc..
•Symbolism based on the preferred index and learnings of the Witch, which can feature a collection of Sigils and Glyphs in which pertain to their cultural practice or embodiments of empowerment (ie: Pentagram, Pentacle, Triquetra, Spiral, Cross, Hand of Fatima etc..)
•Personal notes that reflect upon the Witch’s practice and experiences that have derived from all the effects in which listed above.
As a collective and expansive review of all that is and can be entailed and entwined with relations to Witchcraft practices that correlate to the use of a Book of Shadows, there is furthermore an unlimited source of key words in which may be associated with the terminology used to connect and identify with certain Occult groups throughout the years and in diverse cultures tied with Occultism. Some of these are mentioned below and notes only a broad fraction of what is out there:
‘Rosicrucian’ , ‘Demonology’ , ‘Satanism’ , ‘Hermeticism’ , ‘Kabbalah’ , ‘Mysticism’ , ‘Solomonic’ , ‘Wicca’ , ‘Paganism’ , ‘Thelema’ , ‘Magnetism’ , ‘Leviathan’ , ‘Spiritualism’ , ‘Theosophy’
With what is penned inside a Book of Shadows, it is the inner content that too reflects upon the physical materials of the book itself. Just some of the factors to consider are: the type of material which binds the exterior of the book (ie: real leather, faux leather etc..), paper type, binding methods (ie: hand stitched, post-bound etc..) and additional construction used such as glues and fabrics. These factors can help to determine not only the longevity and lifespan of the book but also too the connection that the practitioner establishes with their book, ensuring that it is a grand tool that is ethically respected and one that the practitioner is pleased to associate with. As the Book of Shadows is a collector and container of information, the edification told can also relay through the findings that pertain to the ideal of symbologies connected to the Witch. Physical representations can be added to the pages, for reference: printable pages of purchased art or information, decorative paper that resonate with the practitioner’s theme as well as chance findings that may serve for a significant purpose delivered by nature, such as: bird feathers or dried and pressed flowers. Additionally, the overall purpose of what is in a Book of Shadows is the information, for how it gets there depends entirely on the practitioner, for the pages may be printed or they may be hand written, utilising the opportunity to work with special inks that are created for the purpose to bind and consecrate magical words can often be a great opportunity to help further establish a deep connection. Uniquely prepared inks that may vary in colour: black, red, purple etc.. may be prepared with the inclusion of added blends that contain the essence of sacred plants such as: Sandalwood, Myrrh, Frankincense etc.. These nominated plants of one’s choice can act on the behalf of intensifying the potency of written information that can pertain to any point of power, for reference: an incantation or book declaration.
Beyond the tangible varieties of a physical Book of Shadows, the desire to have this sacred information in one accessible place can extend into a digital library where magical writings are compiled online and conveniently accessed on computers, tablets and mobile phones. With an abundance of technological formats available, this opportunity allows the practitioner to construct a useful and convenient space where all important knowledge can be kept. Just as a physical Spellbook, an online one can be equally retained as a sacred tool and strategically laid out in a composition that is easy for the practitioner to access and add details to or take away if needed to. Online books can be transformed to formats that make for a simple structure to compose knowledge, creating or converting files to configurations such as Microsoft Word, PDF, Notepad or by simply laid out on an external hard drive or USB device by utilising the manageable technique of organisation by folders and files. In addition to this, most standard online filing systems allow for security measures and the use of access through passwords, therefore keeping your information safe.
i’ve been watching Caitlyn Rae on youtube since like summer 2018 and if u guys want an example of someone who has literally manifested their entire life i’d really recommend her videos. she’s not a manifestation coach at all she just posts vlogs but i’ve watched her channel grow and her get crazy opportunities through manifestation. she’s actually how i found out about manifestation bc in summer 2018 she made a video about meeting Taylor Swift and how she met her against all odds by simply manifesting it. if u guys are familiar with Taylor Swift u know that at her tours she does meet and greets but you don’t buy tickets for them, u just get chosen either through social media or Taylor’s own mother will select you out of the crowd at one of her shows, and Caitlyn was chosen during one of the last songs of the show–if not the last, i cant remember exactly right now–by simply ignoring the 3D and circumstances and telling herself that she’d get chosen no matter what. she persisted and she was able to meet Taylor. this was Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour where she played stadiums that held 100,000 people. that video blew my mind when i was 17 and still to this day Caitlyn talks about how she manifests concert tickets and trips and brand deals against all odds on the daily. so i’d really recommend her channel, her videos are a lot of fun!!
I've mentioned a few (several?) times that I'm trying to rework my practice to be so much lower energy.
I want to practice a lot. My path has responsibilities and demands. I want to be engaged in witchcraft daily and often.
As a part of this I have had to really sit down and untangle the question of chronic magical fatigue, which then turns in to chronic regular fatigue.
I've come to some personal realizations during this quest. Here is one of them, which I would like to suggest as a concept or hypothesis but not a literal truism:
One of the most vital and basic energy working techniques you can learn is feeling how full your "mana tanks" are.
Magical battery, odic fluid, witch-power, whatever you want to call it. It's finite for all of us (even if for some it can recharge faster than they can use it).
I have yet to see a "daily practice" or "101 energy work guide" provide a resource on how to feel how much magical energy you have, and explain how to avoid over-spending it.
I have also never seen a 101 guide ever really explain that "energy-gathering" techniques which are meant to recharge you are in and of themselves draining.
Techniques which refill your mana tanks are often the same techniques as energy raising and energy programming.
E.g.: "Pull energy up from the earth" (energy raising) "and guide it to your spine, imagining that it refills and recharges your whole body" (energy programming).
This is an actively draining technique.
The only passive energy-gathering technique I'm familiar with is just resting.
As humans, this should be common sense! Eating food requires energy (to find food, to prepare it, to consume it) and then can further tire us as our body redirects resources to digestion.
As humans, when many of us get older, we start to realize our physical limits. You know how far you can get in the day on a single bagel. And for many of us, if you've pushed past your limits, your whole day is thrown off. Refueling might make you crash and nap, not suddenly fill you up with a huge burst of energy!
Yet somehow it's pervaded the 101 energy working sphere that a certain energy-gathering exercise - which drains your magical power - will just fill you up and you can do as much magic as you want again. Warnings about not over-exerting are usually like, "take it easy! Only do 1 or 2 minutes if you can't do all 15, or even take the day off ;)" but no actual instructions about how to feel out your limits and know how to reliably stop before you over-exert.
I think that for a lot of people it would be helpful to divide their energy-working abilities into two categories: Muscle and Fuel.
Your energy working Muscle becomes stronger over time. It has its own muscle-memory, and repetition of techniques can allow you to do them faster and better over time. This Muscle behaves very much like your earthly muscles: it burns fuel to work, but it also becomes fatigued and even damaged with over-exertion. It requires regular periods of rest. Once pushed to the point of fatigue, the necessary period of rest becomes a lot longer.
Your energy working Fuel can be thought of as the little magical calories floating around your energy body system. These units of energy are refilled and recharged as we do normal things like eating, sleeping, and engaging in restorative mundane activities. This Fuel doesn't do anything on its own*. In order to utilize it, you have to engage your Muscle. The more that you work with Fuel-collecting and Muscle-using, the more efficient your energy body system becomes at accepting, processing, storing, and expelling Fuel. You can use your Muscle to collect Fuel and store it inside your energy body.
No matter how much Fuel you have, once your Muscle is fatigued, you have to rest.
I can run a marathon (no I can't, but imagine with me) and be totally exhausted. If I eat an entire pizza, will this allow me to suddenly run another marathon? No, of course not!
Now, let's imagine that nobody brought a pizza to me, but I had to walk down to the corner shops to buy one - now, my poor muscles can barely hold me up. Energy-raising exercises still require you to flex your Muscle, and if it's already fatigued, you are probably just shooting yourself in the foot.
Your Fuel and Muscle are not automatically synchronised. And I think a lot of us out here are abusing our poor Muscles, demanding they work again and again and again, not understanding that they need literal periods of rest - hours and days to be allowed to relax, heal, and regrow to a stronger state. And I think a lot of people do believe that just by Refueling, their Muscles are supposed to "magically" work as if they just came of a week of rest.
In my beliefs, this Fuel and Muscle are the same ones we use for divination, spellwork, and spirit contact :) So if you're trying to do tons of these things all the time and thinking that a grounding exercise can replace rest, you're probably literally just… running yourself into the ground.
I would like to propose that if you are having a really hard time dealing with fatigue and energy levels when trying to engage with your practice**, you should learn two techniques: A way to judge the fatigue of your Muscle, and a way to judge the fullness of your Fuel.
Either of these things can be accomplished with a pendulum on a number line (using a pendulum requires usage of your Muscle, by the by!). Bodily sensations may tip you off - I get a strained feeling in my forehead when I'm close to over-exertion. You can also induce a psychic technique, such as asking yourself where you're at and waiting to hear, see, know, feel, or understand where your Muscles and Fuel are at.
I would also like to propose that metaphysical energy gathering can actually be so tiring that it might be inappropriate for everyday use. Raising a ton of energy and infusing it into yourself or objects for later use is a full day's activity, not a quick act you can shove into a morning routine. I'd like to clarify that here I differentiate between energy-raising, and meditative techniques which provide a "grounded," present-moment focused state of mind.
If you're taking suggestions, I would recommend figuring out how much magic you can do before you achieve a state of 50% Muscular fatigue/Fuel exertion, 75%, and 90%. I believe you shouldn't push past your limits. It just hurts. It feels bad, it's exhausting, and it takes exponentially longer to rest and heal. And I think many of us will be surprised at how little magic we can accomplish when we respect our limits.
*Some people who experience a great over-abundance of personal energy do have weird stuff happening around them all the time; it's the metaphysical equivalent of a cat rubbed with a balloon and set loose in a Styrofoam factory.
**Here, I mean people who notice marked upticks in exhaustion and fatigue when working magic, not people with baseline fatigue which just carries forward.
guys i stg i’ve been manifesting soooo much and so fast lately and it’s only been 2022 for two weeks!!! so here is the list of things i’ve manifested so far in 2022🤍
-i told my friends how i wanted to get sweetener by ariana grande on vinyl sooo bad but they barely ever repress it and i always miss it when they do and then i went on the vinyl releases subreddit a few hours later and someone posted a restock and i got to buy it!!
-i literally posted on here that i should manifest my drivers license and within a week i got a car + someone offered to take me to get my permit (yes at 21 years old ok) and also i finally took action and finished my online drivers ed course😌 (literally all i did was make that post and i didn’t think about it again)
-i was sooo hungry and i was complaining to my friends and i was like wouldn’t it be nice if they texted me “look outside” and there was food and a few hours later i got that exact text and there was an amazon package of snacks on my doorstep
-manifested getting my financial aid for school + getting a fat refund 🤑
-literally thought to myself that i prob wouldn’t get my refund until at least january 18th when the semester starts but then after listening to a self-concept tape overnight i woke up to my refund in my bank account😌
-passed a class last semester that i should’ve failed bc i didn’t even do half the work (🤪). i count this as this year bc ive putting off checking my grades until like two days ago lol. and i’ve been affirming that i passed all my classes :)
-i was convinced i accidentally threw away my birth certificate (lol) a few months ago when i moved but i just affirmed once that i found it and my dad told me he had it the next day even tho i’m like 100% positive i did not give it back to him lol
-also manifested myself remembering things multiple times this is something i love manifesting it’s so fun
-sometimes my cat scream meows in the middle of the night (ok he does it every night🙄) and i manifest him falling asleep on my desk chair and shutting up :)
+there’s more but i’m blanking cuz it’s 4am as i’m typing this hehe
but i’d like to add pretty much all of these things i’d either think about wanting it once and i’d get it or id affirm for a few times and literally still think negatively about it and still get it. sooo self concept guys. so important. it’s how i got everything on this list :)
Hello pals im Roy, hi, how are you? Im back! Isn’t that great, i think thats absolutely fabulous! Anyways little context, i was trapped because of the pandemic but im back home and that’s what matters.
Anyways let’s start with the very interesting topic of enchanting objects xd.
What does enchanting objects mean?
Basically and in a fast summary, you are putting your energy into that object so it fulfills an intention/purpose. Example, im gifting my best friend a little necklace, i enchanted it so it protects her against negativity and toxic people.
Can the enchantment run out of energy (stop working)?
Yes, as most of spells that surround energy, they can stop working but don’t worry! There’s actually a great post regarding this topic by @scroll-of-thought right here that i would recommend to read. If you’re too lazy the summary is basically 1. create a sigil who recharges the enchanting through something simple such as touch or moonlight 2. create a spell jar who grabs energy from the surroundings and doesn’t need to be recharged.
How do i enchant objects?
1. Cleanse the object, you don’t want to put your energy into something that has negative energy in it.
2. Then there’s actually a lot of ways of enchanting an object. So here’s a brief list:
Enchanting with touch
Visualizing energy running to the object (my post regarding visualization here)
Surround the item around crystals (if you have them) that match the intent
Draw a symbol/sigil on it with an invisible thing such as water, or idk be creative
In general i personally prefer the visualizing thing, but you know, paths are so different and maybe some people prefer enchanting with crystals! Remember not to use too many of your energy and that you can grab energy from other things such as plants, crystals, the sun, the moon, etc!
With nothing more to say, good luck in your craft <3