#I love how they sort of work in tandem with the arcanists' guild

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Marauder was fun and the quests were too. Onto the warrior questline!

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Discussion: The Magic System in Knightmare Arcanist

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Hello book bees and welcome to another discussion post about a magic system! Today I will be discussing the magic used in Shami Stovall’s Knightmare Arcanist. Disclaimer, I have not read the whole series yet so my understanding of the magic system is limited to the first book. I will be discussing it based on my impressions from that book and may update my blog when I finish the series.

[Spoiler warning!] A brief summary of magic in Knightmare Arcanist

Stovall introduces us to the idea of magic early on in the first book. The protagonist and first person POV character Volke informs us that starting at age fifteen–adulthood in this world–people can bond with magical creatures to become arcanists, their creature being called an eldrin. Volke introduces us to this idea by telling us about his island’s traditional bonding ceremony with phoenixes. Every ten years, a handful of young phoenixes oversee a series of trials of worth in which the hand picked students of the schoolmaster demonstrate their skills and allow the phoenixes to determine if they are worthy of bonding or not.

Volke explains that this is not a necessary step in bonding between eldrin and arcanists, but is a hugely traditional part of his island’s history. Any person can bond with any eldrin so long as both parties are willing–and in fact Volke describes the bonding twice: Once when a creature he is unwilling to bond with attempts to force the bond, and the second time when he actually does bond with his eldrin, Luthair. The bond is extended, it appears, from the mystical creature and then agreed to by the human.

Mystical creatures do not begin to actively mature beyond adolescence unless they are bonded, and thus have that motivation to bond in order to grow. On the other side, humans that are too old or too young are undesirable for eldrin to bond with. Once bonded, the arcanist and eldrin begin to share personality traits, most notably the arcanist’s personality shaping how the eldrin’s personality grows. It is also possible to bond with an eldrin that is older, something called a second bonding. These bondings make magic far more difficult for the arcanist to learn, and can have serious consequences. Most notably, if the second arcanist an eldrin bonds with is significantly different from the first arcanist they bonded to, the eldrin can go insane from the clashing personalities influencing its magic. The magic is accessible to both eldrin and arcanist, and they often work in tandem when controlling it. Magic is also different depending on the eldrin, with each magical creature having a variety of natural gifts accessible to the arcanist.

Looking at the relationship between eldrin and arcanists

While the idea of having magic wielders bond with magical creatures is not an original one, the way Stovall sets up the bond is interesting for a few reasons. First of all, in my encounters with similar bonds in fantasy novels it’s not often that the personality of the mage becomes a major influential factor for the creature. If anything, most of these “bonds” either feature strategically differing personalities in order to make a more well rounded team, or the personality of the magical creature is expected to exert more influence over the mage. Stovall’s system instead explicitly centers the influence the arcanist wields on the magical creatures, shaping the creatures’ adult personalities to match the arcanists’.

The second thing that fascinates me is the corruptible nature of the magical creatures. This is explained in two ways. Volke explains, when bonding with his knightmare Luthair, that a second bonding is usually difficult for arcanist and creature. The arcanist has a harder time accessing the magic of their eldrin since the eldrin is already a fully grown creature with vaster and deeper powers than most arcanists begin with, making wielding that magic painful. The creature, as well, risks a descent into madness if the personality of their second bonded clashes too much with the personality of their first, creating a dissonance in their own mind.

The next corruptible influence is the occult plague, an overarching threat throughout the story. Though the plague affects both arcanist and eldrin, it appears to have a much stronger ability to corrupt the eldrin. An arcanist touched by it may have warped thinking but still appear sane, while an eldrin will appear mad once they are corrupted. The plague also physically alters the magical creatures, causing them to grow unnatural limbs and affecting the eyes. The plague and second bondings both affect the arcanists, but primarily target the eldrin, implying that the bond can be less beneficial for magical creatures than expected initially.

Evocation, augmentation, and manipulation

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was when this came up in the book. These three words are what the instructors of Volke and his fellow apprentice arcanists are trained to do with their magic. They’re not just instructed to explore the bounds of it, they are given concrete boundaries as to what magic they are each capable of albeit in different manners. Evocation is the creation of something within your power’s access. For phoenix arcanists, this means creating fireballs and for Volke this means creating fear and terror that afflicts those around him.

Augmentation refers to a sort of dual power, something that the arcanist and eldrin do together. The most obvious example of this is Volke’s, as his knightmare can literally cover him in shadow armor and they can wield a sword together. In this way, Luthair’s power augments Volke’s abilities and Volke augments Luthair’s power.

The last option, manipulation, involves utilizing what is already present in a way specific to your magic. Gregory Ruma, whose eldrin is a leviathan, can manipulate the bodies of water around him, creating massive tidal waves. Likewise, Volke can manipulate the shadows around him and absorb himself into them to travel, or to avoid falling off a cliff.

Consequences, restrictions, and limitations

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love a magic system that seems limitless but actually has a lot of regulations to it. When Volke and Ilia dream of being arcanists, they dream of having the kind of power master arcanists have. Gregory Ruma, and the other arcanists they meet at the Frith guild, have immense power. These arcanists have, over decades of training, come to be powerful enough to control oceans and craft storms. However, a new arcanist has no way of creating that kind of power.

Even as Volke’s friends and fellow apprentices begin to train and demonstrate skill around him, their powers pale in comparison to those of masters. Atty can produce a minor fireball and Illia can transport something as small as an apple, and not very far. Likewise, Volke can only go short distances through his shadow travel once he learns the technique. This is because their magic requires training, and has exhausting consequences–though moreso for Volke than anyone else.

As the protagonist, one would expect Volke to be natural gifted at his magic and be talented and powerful in comparison to his peers. Instead, as a second-bonded, Volke is repeatedly informed he will have to work twice as hard to get the same results. His singular advantage is that Luthair is already fully grown, with realized powers and an idea of how those powers should be used. The magic itself, though, burns Volke and makes him weaker the more of it he uses. He works up his stamina in the face of the pain, but for much of the book he worries that in an actual confrontation he will have the chance to make one move and then pass out from the pain.

Final thoughts

I haven’t gotten past the first book in this series, so I expect that we’ll learn more and more about the consequences of using powerful magic and how hard it is for arcanists to train themselves to that point. I’m also looking forward to learning more about the different kinds of magic arcanists can wield. In this book we’re introduced to Volke’s friends and peers, and the magic their eldrin allow them to touch. But there are so many other creatures in the world Stovall creates and I can only imagine this results in some very interesting power combinations. I’m also interested to see how far the consequences go. Volke overcomes quite a bit in order to be able to effectively wield magic in this first novel, but I can imagine that as the magic gets more powerful the pain grows worse and more difficult to bear.

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