There's almost no way to come up with a system that somehow excludes the majority of society from casting spells without appealing to some racist (muh elven blood, muh dragon grandmother) or classist (muh royal bloodline, muh selective school of magic) bullshit. I think magic being almost written in an exclusionary way is the root of the problem.
Magic is also almost written in an exclusively individualist way as well. Why isn't communal magic more of a thing? Imagine if the Harry Potter series ended with Harry and Voldemort each casting some communal spell against each other and since Harry isn't some freaky weirdo, his side has more wizards which means their communal spell is stronger by virtue of having more people behind him.
I could do one even better. What if Voldemort was able to obtain some magical MacGuffin that made him insurmountably powerful and as a final gambit, Harry tear apart the masquerade (or whatever it's called in the HP universe) that separates magic users from nonmagic users and on the knowledge of Voldemort's atrocities, humanity's collective contempt for Voldemort is so great that humanity unconsciously casts a communal spell that, powered by every single living human in existence, was able to simply will Voldemort from existence?
Magic being written in an exclusionary and individualist way has ideological baggage. It's not "what if I'm able to cast fireballs" but "what if I'm able to cast fireballs, but the filthy plebs aren't able to." This is why magic quickly devolves to some shitty power fantasy or is filled with racist and classist bullshit that does nothing but ideologically reproduces the status quo in capitalist hellworld. It should be no surprise the Harry Potter series was written by some fucking Blairite terf.
There’s almost no way to come up with a system that somehow excludes the majority of society from casting spells without appealing to some racist or classist bullshit
I find appealing the chi system similar to DBZ, minus the races/aliens stuff. I suppose it makes sense that elves would have a slightly higher propensity to do magic than humans, but that's an option I'm not about to talk about.
Of course, nothing particularly interesting would stop the world builder from deciding that some people are genetically more likely to do magic, in the same way that some people are just taller.
Drop from DBZ the concept that everybody is ripped and punches and that chi is mostly used for punching/defending punches, if you want.
There is a bit of a skill ceiling in using chi. IDK how you would explain that, depends on how much you want to gate keep it. After all, nothing really stops you all from becoming programmers and contributing to hexbear's rust backend, AFAIK.
Once you've gate-kept, have a second skill ceiling. Some people can shoot fireballs out of their hands, fly, etc., whatever. But some people can create advanced chi procedures and store them inside objects or people. For example, create a scroll that shoots fireball when read, or plant in a person's brain/soul the ability to use a fireball technique without the formal chi training it would normally require.
Decide how rare the scroll-makers are, if they are alive, etc..
There's almost no way to come up with a system that somehow excludes the majority of society from casting spells without appealing to some racist (muh elven blood, muh dragon grandmother) or classist (muh royal bloodline, muh selective school of magic) bullshit. I think magic being almost written in an exclusionary way is the root of the problem.
Magic is also almost written in an exclusively individualist way as well. Why isn't communal magic more of a thing? Imagine if the Harry Potter series ended with Harry and Voldemort each casting some communal spell against each other and since Harry isn't some freaky weirdo, his side has more wizards which means their communal spell is stronger by virtue of having more people behind him.
I could do one even better. What if Voldemort was able to obtain some magical MacGuffin that made him insurmountably powerful and as a final gambit, Harry tear apart the masquerade (or whatever it's called in the HP universe) that separates magic users from nonmagic users and on the knowledge of Voldemort's atrocities, humanity's collective contempt for Voldemort is so great that humanity unconsciously casts a communal spell that, powered by every single living human in existence, was able to simply will Voldemort from existence?
Magic being written in an exclusionary and individualist way has ideological baggage. It's not "what if I'm able to cast fireballs" but "what if I'm able to cast fireballs, but the filthy plebs aren't able to." This is why magic quickly devolves to some shitty power fantasy or is filled with racist and classist bullshit that does nothing but ideologically reproduces the status quo in capitalist hellworld. It should be no surprise the Harry Potter series was written by some fucking Blairite terf.
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I find appealing the chi system similar to DBZ, minus the races/aliens stuff. I suppose it makes sense that elves would have a slightly higher propensity to do magic than humans, but that's an option I'm not about to talk about.
Of course, nothing particularly interesting would stop the world builder from deciding that some people are genetically more likely to do magic, in the same way that some people are just taller.
Drop from DBZ the concept that everybody is ripped and punches and that chi is mostly used for punching/defending punches, if you want.
There is a bit of a skill ceiling in using chi. IDK how you would explain that, depends on how much you want to gate keep it. After all, nothing really stops you all from becoming programmers and contributing to hexbear's rust backend, AFAIK.
Once you've gate-kept, have a second skill ceiling. Some people can shoot fireballs out of their hands, fly, etc., whatever. But some people can create advanced chi procedures and store them inside objects or people. For example, create a scroll that shoots fireball when read, or plant in a person's brain/soul the ability to use a fireball technique without the formal chi training it would normally require.
Decide how rare the scroll-makers are, if they are alive, etc..