[Marvolo]

Over the last three months I worked very hard to create a world that made sense around two ideas I had. The first idea was a character. The second idea was a thin plot skeleton.

I constructed a world that these two ideas worked within. I have about 25,000 words worth of notes/outlines/and character lists.

I have finished the prologue and begun the first chapter.

Now, I think its a fine idea and honestly I am probably going to go through with writing the novel no matter what. But I am curious.

So I'll do a quick query and hopefully get a feel for how people expect magic to be handled.

I came up with a very defined system of magic. But in defining how magic works, and in writing a story where magic exists, I think you immediately go into social issues.

Magic cannot exist without causing extreme civil unrest I think. So eventually, one side would win. Either the side with magic, or the side without.

In my world, the side with magic won by constructing a tower that had the power to detect them before they exhibited any magical tendencies, thus avoided the genocide being perpetrated at the time by the non-magical folk.

So, when the story starts much later, this is the world the main character goes into. I'm avoiding using names or getting too much into plot here, but here is my question.

If magic is just a matter-of-fact thing for the characters, does that turn you off? The character's aren't all-powerful because other characters have the same power. They all use their inner fire, their ardor, to force the mana around them to react to their will. Once an effect is practiced enough times, it becomes easy to create. Magicians are all noble, though to varying degrees, and everyone without magic is common. The tower detects magicians (Ardorians) when they're two. They are fosted at a noble house and then train at the tower from fifteen to twenty.

All government is magical and the highest a commoner can achieve is becoming a sworn sword for a noble family.

Commoners perform most of the tasks of the provinces that the part of the world the story takes place in. But the main characters, the ones the story is about, take magic as a matter-of-fact thing. There are tourneys where magicians duel one another for spectacle (and fear factor in the commoners). The main section of the book has the main character at the tower, learning how to effectively become a noble and magician.

The driving force in the plot is the main character himself. Why didn't the tower detect him at two?

Anyway, this isn't such a quick query.

Would such a story put anyone off? Or would it seem interesting.

Thanks,
Marv