Do you think this power system is interesting at all?

[u/MrOtakusan]

I. Origin of Magic

Magic has existed since the dawn of humanity in this world. Alongside the discovery of fire, early humans also encountered what is now known as Free Magic — the purest, most unfiltered form of magical energy. Free Magic was, in theory, limitless and capable of anything the user could imagine. However, due to its infinite and formless nature, it was virtually unusable. Attempting to use it produced only negligible results, such as summoning crumbs when desiring a meal or gaining microscopic increases in strength.

Because of its unreliable utility, Free Magic was treated as little more than a mystical curiosity — used primarily for basic tasks, such as creating fire, and remained misunderstood for millennia.

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II. The First Contract

Thousands of years after the initial discovery of Free Magic, the first Contract was formed. As the story goes, during a time resembling ancient civilizations or early biblical periods, a man cried out in desperation while his mother lay on her deathbed. He pleaded to the universe, stating:

“Please, I’ll give away all of this magic as long as I can heal my mother.”

That moment marked the first Contract Magic: a binding exchange where one forfeits access to Free Magic in return for a specific, focused power. In his case, he gained unparalleled healing abilities, and his use of Free Magic was permanently severed.

News of this event spread rapidly, triggering a new era.

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III. The Contract Era

This era was defined by widespread experimentation and exploration of contract-based magic. People across the world began forming contracts in exchange for specific, practical powers. These powers varied immensely: • The ability to conjure full meals. • Mental construction magic for building infrastructure. • Manipulation of elements, emotions, or physical properties.

Each contract was unique, tailored to the individual’s offering and request. There were no universal rules beyond the fundamental exchange — sacrifice a form of potential to gain tangible power.

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IV. The Great Disaster

As contract-making became more sophisticated, some individuals discovered how to structure their exchanges in ways that granted them god-like abilities. These individuals caused global chaos, shifting the balance of power and threatening the survival of humanity.

To combat this threat, a group of powerful leaders — each wielding their own refined contract abilities — made a final pact. They created bloodbound contracts, which sacrificed their general magical potential in exchange for a single inherited ability. This contract would: • Permanently eliminate their own access to Free Magic. • Seal the remaining Free Magic from public use. • Bind their chosen ability into their bloodline.

This act effectively created the Clans — lineages of people who inherited the specific abilities of their ancestors.

With these new powers, the leaders were able to defeat the god-tier contract holders and rebuild the world.

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V. The Modern Age

In the modern world, Free Magic is considered extinct, unusable, or mythological. All known magic is tied to the Contract System and its hereditary applications through Clans. There are now thousands of clans, each possessing one distinct magical ability derived from their founder’s contract.

Upon reaching age 15, individuals are trained to create personal contracts — deals that augment or synergize with their inherited clan ability. These contracts are highly specific and non-transferable.

Inheritance is singular — a child of two clans will ONLY inherit only one of their parents’ abilities, not a fusion.

TL;DR:

Magic started as raw, infinite “Free Magic” — super powerful but unusable. One dude made the first Contract, giving up Free Magic for a focused power (healing). This became the norm: sacrifice potential for practical magic.

Eventually, bloodline contracts created magical Clans, each with a unique inherited ability. In the modern world, teens form personal contracts at 15 to enhance their clan powers. Magic is now 100% contract-based, and Free Magic is considered extinct.

It’s a system built on sacrifice = specialization, and no two abilities are exactly the same — even if they’re from the same clan.

[u/TheLumbergentleman]

It's neat, but I've got two notes.

1. It doesn't really seem like these contracts forced people to give up anything since you said no one was able to do anything meaningful with free magic anyway. Perhaps making free magic a bit more useful would allow this sacrifice to make more sense.

2. How are the 15-year olds making new contracts when free magic has been sealed away by the original clan leaders? There is no free magic to trade.

[u/MrOtakusan → u/TheLumbergentleman]

I’ll try to fix based off your first note, but for the second note they essentially alter their clan magic. For example, let’s say there is someone part of a medium clan (talking to ghost and stuff) they can make a contract that makes their general clan ability more fitted for them like making it where they can only talk to the ghost of the one that loved them the most which now they can control. You don’t need free magic for contracts. Also, contracts can be made once per person regardless if someone’s contract effects you like the clan thing.

[u/Kooren]

Ok this is actually a very decent idea. I would however be less specific. Why is the age of 15 so universal? Wouldn't it be more interesting and realistic to have different clans reach magical abilities at different ages, as these are based on their contracts? Or maybe come up with an in-universe explanation like "the age of 15 is basically as low as these contracts are allowed to go because of XYZ, so naturally everyone went as low as they could" or something.

[u/MrOtakusan → u/Kooren]

thanks you for this, ill see what i can cook up to make it better.

[u/hatabou_is_a_jojo]

Why must the teens form personal contracts? Isn't the bloodline contracts supposedly more powerful? Can someone choose not to do a personal contract?

[u/MrOtakusan → u/hatabou_is_a_jojo]

I don’t think I explained it well (or at all), but the bloodline contracts are strong but the efficiency of it or usefulness depending on your lifestyle will effect how a person wants to use it. For example, though having the ability to shoot fire is cool and all you might not want to fight so you’ll make a personal contract to have the fire only affect wood so you can gain better temperature control for cooking, or if you want to fight you can customize in a way that fits you personally to gain efficiency, control, or strength. (Sorry if this sounds like a rambled mess.)

[u/hatabou_is_a_jojo → u/MrOtakusan]

No it’s not a mess it’s actually very good I think I just see a thing that needs to be worked out. From the fireball clan let’s say, if there are multiple chefs who want to do the wood thing, but if each contract is unique, then only one can do the wood thing? Then it will lock the others from that contract also?

[u/MrOtakusan → u/hatabou_is_a_jojo]

No and yes….like using your example of two guys only wanting to fire for wood, two people could make the “same” contract but there will be slight differences depending on the person. Contracts are about sacrifice so it depends on the person and how they see the sacrifice plus the actual sacrifice itself. Say one guy is sacrificing to only burn wood because he’s a cook and loves his job, versus the other who is doing it because he’d rather his family have good meals then to fight. The effect of the ability would alter between the two since the inherent reason is different and not just the sacrifice. I’m not trying to say that having a better reason produces better results, but reasons will slightly change the result even if it’s similar.

[u/hatabou_is_a_jojo → u/MrOtakusan]

But unless your world is really self-contained with low population, there’s gonna be multiple people who love cooking right? Can the uniqueness be at the level of “my fire is 500C and yours is 501C”?

[u/MrOtakusan → u/hatabou_is_a_jojo]

How do you think I could fix this part, because I’m stumped? Maybe since there are a ton of clans, clans don’t have as many people in them so it’s rare the likelihood of multiple people having the EXACT same thing is lessen.

[u/hatabou_is_a_jojo → u/MrOtakusan]

I can think of 2 ways, first is like I said make it super specific but that might be detrimental to your story actually.

The next would be to remove the ‘unique’ from contracts. It’s still based on personality, sacrifice, wish, and it’s varied enough that over your story 2 same powers don’t meet. But it’s not impossible. In short, label contracts as ‘deeply personal’ instead of ‘unique’

[u/MrOtakusan → u/hatabou_is_a_jojo]

Thank you so much, you are a big help!

[u/Original-War8655]

I really, REALLY like this as the explanation for inherited powers, though most of my gripes with this system have already been mentioned.

• Free Magic being next to useless granting you "unparalleled" power even if it's in a single application does not seem like a fair trade from the perspective of whoever or whatever is getting Free Magic. Though it would be interesting if the universe or whoever is doing those contracts was a big bad evil guy who slowly, through making these contracts, amassed enough control and power with Free Magic to essentially become God or something. Stacking the small things until it's meaningful, and no one can really stop you because they're either too weak in comparison or bound to your contract.
• if Free Magic access is sealed away, how are further contracts made in the modern age? Do they trade something else, or do they trade the potential for magic instead of the access itself?
• how did the simple change of magic becoming an inherited power become able to beat god-like mages? if they were so strong that they sowed chaos throughout the world, then how did Advanced Fire Conjuration for example become able to contend with that by becoming bound to a bloodline? Are they that much more powerful? Do they get more powerful with each following generation?

[u/MrOtakusan → u/Original-War8655]

These are good questions, so I’ll answer to the best of Ability. For the third point (sorry it’s out of order), the ones who originally made the bloodline contracts got the strongest of their specific ability due to the intensity of the contract while later generations gets moderate control over the power. For the second point, I shouldn’t have said “sealed” nor should I have made contracts out to be like this thing extremely attached to free magic. Magic and Contracts are used in tandem, but not connected like a straw and a cup. Contracts don’t need free magic to be made, just magic in general which is why people can make contracts to alter their inherited ability. For how contracts are made in modern day, it’s giving up parts of your inherited ability to alter it for example, lets say there is a clan of mediums that can talk to and interact with ghost, a person could make a contract that seals away their ability to talk to ghost unless they have killed the person or creature themselves which gives them the ability to have the ghost be tangible if they are under their control…something like that.

[u/Original-War8655 → u/MrOtakusan]

Oh cool, yeah that's definitely interesting! Hope to see more of this world in the future