(Suggestions for a setting name welcome)

[MaggieoftheOwls]

So I, too, was inspired by Shift to come up with a thing, hi Kappa I'm joining your club.

The basic way the magic system works is that any object large enough to exert its own gravity also has what I'm calling an aetheric field. An aetheric field is, by default, blank. A blank aetheric field doesn't really do anything. An aetheric field ceases to be blank when sentient life evolves in it and starts believing things.

When sentient beings believe things in an aetheric field, they imprint them. If enough people believe something for long enough, then the aetheric field considers this thing to be true. Examples of things an aetheric field can make true are "this ritual will cause rain" "this symbol carved into a piece of bone and hung around the neck will ensure successful conception and drastically reduce the chances of miscarriage," etc. It is sort of like entanglement in that the magic system is changed by how people use it, but is a lot less responsive. There are, in fact, varying levels of how much peoples' beliefs affect the aetheric field, but even someone with a Matilda-level "entanglement" could probably only teach the magic system one completely novel thing in the course of a human lifetime.

The local sapients started out baseline human, but early on in history there was a Matilda-level "entanglement" person who came up with creating forms. To create a form, you have to meditate on something the aetheric field considers a natural category, using a member of that category as a "focus." The meditation requires a lot of focus, and it's not uncommon to have to try several times before successfully creating a form. Categories that are too broad (like "physical objects") are more difficult to conceptualize in one specific meditation-relevant way, and categories that are too narrow are more difficult in another. There's a sweet spot of reasonably achievable categories that aren't too hard in either direction, and that's where most people get theirs.

When two people have a child in different forms, the result is a hybrid. Hybrids are more likely to experience hybrid decay than hybrid vigor, but this isn't generally considered a huge problem because it's possible to get an infant a regular form to replace their weak hybrid one, and hybrid vigor does happen, so people are willing to risk it relatively often.

It's also possible to copy a form you have onto someone else; this typically comes up when someone manages to create a form outside the sweet spot of relatively easy category forms, or when a desirable hybrid occurs.

Because it's impossible to create a "default" form, and forms come with their own magic and abilities, over time baseline humans became rarer and rare, and now they don't exist any more.

Objects and people that are magical generally have their own magic, as pieces of the aether field that have been stuck to them specifically, and would continue to work if the person or object was removed to another universe.

[Bluelantern]

That is really great!
(I am forever confused why two people created offshots of this setting, but okay)
Do the rules of "shifting hurts" and "standard aging" apply?

[Kappa]

<3333 i love you maggie

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Shifting doesn't hurt. Each form ages separately and starts as a young adult, unless you gain it before the age of twenty in which case it starts as whatever age you are.

[pedromvilar]

It's interesting to note that this seems like a combination of two of our settings, Shift and Resonance

[Eva]

My first thought here was actually Gunnerkrigg Court. I approve.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Which one was Resonance again, was that the one with the covens?

[Bluelantern]

Which one was Resonance again, was that the one with the covens?

The very same! http://glowfic.com/board_sections/16

[pedromvilar]

Yeah, has a magic field and stuff, worldbuilt here.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Yeah this magic field works a lot differently than the Resonance one.