The American Wizard: A Practical Guide to Magic

What if magic were real? What if your version of magic was the right one?

Most fantasy gets magic wrong. Not because the rules are inconsistent, but because the question underneath is too small. What if some people could do impossible things? is not an interesting question. What would it actually take to do impossible things? is.

That second question has a real answer. The answer isn’t about what magic is. It’s about how you understand magic. Power does not come from bloodlines, chosen-one status, or the right incantation spoken at the correct angle to the moon. It comes from the depth of your understanding of reality. Your framework determines your magic. And your magic, if you let it, reshapes your framework in return.

From that foundation, these essays build a full taxonomy of the arcane from first principles. What does it mean to be a witch — truly, before the trials and the fairy tales and Hollywood got to her? What separates a mage from someone merely performing intelligence? What is the True Curse of Wizardry, and why does it grow worse the more powerful the wizard becomes? What is a lich, and why is lichdom the greatest failure a wizard can achieve?

The limit of magic, it turns out, is quantum gravity.