How to Write Magic Types: Divine (Creative Writing)
Let’s talk about an overlooked and underused magic type, Divine Magic.
It’s pretty obvious what this magic is but there are sides to it not explored. Today I want to fully explore this magic type and explain why, shocking, it’s not that powerful.
What does it do
It depends on what God you worship. Most of the time Divine Magic is shown to be healing and light-based magic but that’s a narrow view.
Not every God or Divine being(Animals included) uses light or healing magic so that shouldn’t be the only thing Divine Magic does.
Because of this Divine Magic can technically do everything but it’s limited to the God’s skill set. You also can’t worship multiple Gods so there shouldn’t be power overlap.
Even in pantheons, there’s one main God you personally worship. Maybe leaders of the religion can get multiple power-ups. Maybe they cycle through them in a fight. It’s up to you.
Divine magic can also be given by evil gods too since they too are Divine too. You can call it Demonic, Dark, Unholy, or whatever but it still falls under this category.
The final important aspect of Divine magic is Faith. The strength and variety of spells would increase with faith, dedication, and discipline.
But, most stories go too far with this idea. EVERY person who has faith should be able to do something. Nothing major but simple spells should be common.
This is even less acceptable when people worship a notable God that has a lot of power to share. I’m sure one religion comes to mind that fits this bill.
Despite all that, there’s one spell that is consistent even with different Gods; Divination.
Depending on the foresight of the God, every faithful should be able to ask their God questions. These questions can include:
- What happens next?
- What should I do?
- What is the true nature of this object/person?
Even minor gods should be able to answer these questions to some degree.
Here is a video detailing Divination in more depth.
Divine Magic in World-building
You might be thinking; “how is this magic surprising weak?”
Well, there are three reasons for this magic being weak In comparison to the others.
1: Individuals don’t have the amazing power and versatility that others have.
2: A clear limit is set for Divine Magic users, it can be a high one but it varies on which God you serve.
3: Religion holds the magic back. Systematic dogma would prevent any unique spell use or expression.
Don’t get me wrong, collectively a big religion can have a great head start over other magic. Eventually though, they’ll be outpaced.
Because of this and more, Divine Magic has a massive impact on the world. There are 4 big things that can happen when Divine Magic is introduced:
- A Very Strong Religious World and Organization
Religion is already big in our world, imagine if there was proof of a God and you get a power-up for joining the group.
Hard to imagine any refusing unless it’s an evil God. Because of this, almost everyone would be in a religious group.
That same group would have larger resources to draw from. A bigger army and more power in politics and war.
In a world like this, Religion would have a strong grip on the world until a better power source is found.
- Heroes and Villains
Like in Isekai, Gods would place most of their power into one(maybe a group) chosen one. These heroes would lead or play a great role in the religion.
Evil Gods do this too so there would be Divine Villains. This conflict cycle could end up being endless.
- Strangle Hold on Magic
Unless the God is the of all magic, Divine magic would be the only allowed magic. This would be the norm in religion-dominated areas.
This can cause magic to stagnate in those areas. This would cause other areas to develop magic that would one day surpass Divine magic.
- Wars, a lot of wars
Humans already start wars when they think they’re doing God’s work. What if they did know God’s will for sure?
Yeah, if the Gods want a war there will be war and it will be much worse than what we got.
Now, all this does depend on what kind of Gods exist in your world. Maybe they don’t talk much or they don’t give out much power for some reason.
Any rules the Gods or followers have to follow that changes things?
There are many variables but regardless, I think religion would have a strong hold on the world and magic.
Divine Magic in the hands of Gods
Finally, let’s look at the Gods themselves.
The way I see it, Gods don’t have Divine Magic per se. They are divine in nature so what they do is just their ability. Unless they’re a magic god, what they do isn’t magic.
Would you consider Jesus a mage?
Gods award their power to their followers and they use it in the form of magic. If no magic exists in the world then it’s considered an ability using the power itself unfiltered by magic.
Unless the God is omnipotent they don’t have unlimited energy. This is why they reward the faithful warriors more and why over time the power-ups for normal people lowers.
The God’s power is being pulled too thin.
Another option for God is partial possession of those they have a strong relationship with. They do this in crises, an upgraded temporary form of the Hero.
Those are my ideas though, what do you think? How do the Gods work in your world and how does that affect Divine Magic?
Conclusion
This took longer than I thought but that’s all I know about Divine Magic.
Did I miss anything or make any mistakes? Please comment below so I can edit and credit you.
I hope this helps add depths to the Divine Magic in your world-building.
With that, I’m done.
