The title pretty much says it! I'd like to explore that idea a little and would love to hear y'all's recommendations. This thought was originally inspired by lord of the rings, but I'm also currently on a little nostalgia trip by reading The Sea of Trolls and the soft magic system in that is pretty fun
A few years ago, I devoured the Ascendant series by K Arsenault Rivera. Basically a soft magic universe based on Mongolian and Chinese mysticism set in a different world, but the parallels are pretty obvious. The main focus is the sapphic romance between the two leads, but It does a good job of mixing world building, epic battles and military maneuvers, demons and magic, and relationships. I highly recommend it.
I'm more of a sci-fi guy but I listened to Joe Abercrombies The First Law trilogy as audio books and holy shit was it great. Ended up devouring the 3 standalone books and the following Age of Madness trilogy that plays out in the same world. Very dark stuff and I believe fits within the requested "soft magic" setting.
