Hard vs. Soft Magic Systems

July 1, 2025 | Ian Everett

Greetings, dear reader! How would you  like the power to make your enemies go kablamo? How would you like to dehydrate them from the inside out? Or maybe you want to soar over their heads, gloating and laughing and maybe spitting at them from your superior position? If that’s the case, my friend, you may like one of my finest Hard Magic Systems!

What’s that? You say you’re more interested in vibes? You would rather have a sense of mystery than the ability to immolate your opponent’s ass hairs? Sure, sure, I can respect that. Well, for the discerning vibes guy, might you be interested in one of our silky Soft Magic Systems?

You’re still not sure? Everything sounds too interesting?  

Ok, what the fuck do you want, dude? I’ve laid out the two ends of the spectrum. This is a false binary and I’m making you choose.

You refuse?

Fine, fine. You want to see your options. Okay! Okay. Let’s go over them, then.

MAGIC SYSTEMS

First off, what even is a magic system? If you’re passingly familiar with sci-fi and fantasy, you know that a magic system is usually either 1) a set of rules that lets some characters blast others with shit tornadoes or 2) some kind of mysterious uncontrollable force, entity, critter, etc. that impacts the plot and characters somehow.

A magic system is just that: a system, much like politics and economics. It is distinctly fantastic, operating on the world through supernatural means. It can be very simple, or very complex. And for our purposes, it tends to exist on a spectrum ranging from Hard Magic to Soft Magic. What’s the difference between those two?

Hard Magic

Hard magic is more logical, often treated like a science or a system of rational rules: if you put X in, you will get Y out. Characters can make use of this magic by following the rules you’ve established, and as long as you don’t break those rules, readers will be comfortable with it existing. You may expand and build on those rules in ways that make logical sense, but you can’t break them.

Examples:

  • Our mage can channel and control fire, but he is bound by the rules of physics in that his fire needs fuel, air, and heat to maintain itself, and he is not immune to his own flames.

  • Our wizard can summon demons and bind them into talismans, but they must be summoned into a circle and bound with chains of silver. Once she has compelled them into the talisman, she can use them for their specific talents, invoking each talisman by giving up a little of her lifespan to the demon inside.

  • Casters can eat salt to power a set of six specific abilities relating to cooking.

So there’s hard magic. Rules are the number one thing for hard magic systems. It’s gotta be functional, logical, and figure-outable. It is best exemplified by Brandon Sanderson, patron saint of rules-based magic and his three laws:

Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.

Sanderson’s Second Law can be written very simply. It goes like this: Limitations > Powers (Or, if you want to write it in clever electrical notation, you could say it this way: Ω > | though that would probably drive a scientist crazy.)

The third law is as follows: Expand what you already have before you add something new.

So we have our hard-boiled magic systems with all the scientific rules and battle shonen protagonists figuring out how their powers work on one end. What’s the polar opposite to that, then?

Welcome to the soft side, my friend.

Soft Magic

Soft magic is more mysterious, perhaps a force of nature that can’t be controlled–that acts on its own will, if it even has a will at all. It may be employed by characters, or used or manipulated by people beyond what our POVs and readers can glean into, like angels, gods, or spirits. It isn’t bound by any rules that our characters could follow to control it, or if they do control it, they are more often than not only manipulating some small part of it or only capable of some narrow feats while the rest of the magic remains hidden behind a veil. This magic tends to feel more mystical, more miraculous. If it isn’t done right, it can come across as deus ex machina.

Examples:

  • A mysterious fog rolls in over a town, transforming all the dogs into werewolves.

  • A forest sits full of ticking trees that remember what people have told them.

  • A powerful angel gives a dying child a candle that can drive away the specter of death, but will eventually run out.

These ideas are far more about vibes and themes than specific rules to figure out. Note that in the above examples, there isn’t a larger system for our characters to manipulate and game. They may have specific things they can do but the magic and its inner workings remain… well… magical.

This kind of thinking, I feel, is best exemplified by Tolkien, who I consider the grand pappy of soft magic. Speaking on how he employs magic in his work:

“I am afraid I have been far too casual about 'magic' and especially the use of the word; though Galadriel and others show by the criticism of the 'mortal' use of the word, that the thought about it is not altogether casual. But it is a v. large question, and difficult; and a story which . . . is largely about motives…

I suppose that, for the purposes of the tale, some would say that there is a latent distinction such as once was called the distinction between magia and goeteia … Both sides use both, but with different motives. The supremely bad motive is (for this tale, since it specifically about it) domination of other 'free' wills. The Enemy's operation are by no means all goetic deceits, but 'magic' that produces real effects in the physical world. But his magia he uses to bulldoze both people and things, and his goeteia to terrify and subjugate. Their magia the Elves and Gandalf use (sparingly): a magia, producing real results for specific beneficent purposes. Their goetic effects are entirely artistic and not intended to deceive: they never deceive Elves (but may deceive or bewilder unaware Men) since the difference is to them as clear as the difference to us between fiction, painting, and sculpture, and 'life'.”

Specifically, he’s more concerned with the vibes and the message he’s trying to convey than what magic crystals Gandalf loads into his staff to shoot lightning bolts or the specific range and scope of Sauron’s ability to dominate wills (there’s some pedantic nerd out there wondering if Sauron might be limited by his ability to compartmentalize his mind over a hundred thousand orcs).


Now. You’ve seen the two poles. The hard-boiled rules and limitations, and the soft, jammy themes. Man, I really need to eat some eggs.

But before that, let’s reject the binary and introduce the spectrum. Hard and soft are not a dichotomy, especially not in modern fantasy. You were right to reject my false binary, reader, for now I will introduce you to a variety of magic systems that sit not exactly at the end of their spectrums but in places between!

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson

Style: Harder

Overview: The main users of this are called Channelers who use the One Power. They channel the male and female halves, saidin and saidar, to create weaves which act much like specific spells (for example Balefire is a specific weave that is used repeatedly)

Hard Elements: Men can only touch saidin and women can only touch saidar. The weaves are broken into five elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit. These elements are combined to make specific spells, and the more one trains the more skill they have in creating these weaves, while having more strength allows them to channel more weaves at once, with more power. Channelers are limited by their strength (RJ had an extensive power ranking document) and there are costs to doing more beyond their ability, such as burning their connection to the One Power out. Channellers can also link together to use more power than they normally would alone, and there are very specific limitations on how many people can link together.

Soft Elements: The worldbuilding incorporates spirits and reincarnation, a mysterious cosmic wheel that weaves fate as it will, and reality/luck/fate bending around the main heroes without their control. The overarching forces behind the Light and the Dark are aloof and not truly understood even at the end of the series. There is a dream world that only some can access (and wolves?). Lots unexplained in the background.  

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

Style: Softer

Overview: Users are called orogenes. They can draw on heat and kinetic energy to move the earth. Later on, there is also some life magic, but generally accessed by the same people. Dangerous to wield, the biggest rule seems to be that not being careful with it can get people killed around you by “icing” them. This has led to significant oppression and regulation of orogenes.

Hard Elements: Orogeny needs to manipulate kinetic energy in some way.

Soft Elements: There are many mysteries around the use of magic and where it comes from, making this a softer system. How exactly the obelisks are made and how souls are tied to the magic system remains unclear even at the end. There is an entity that is basically the Earth that has always just been and its power is very god-like and inexplicable.

Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

Style: Hard

Overview: Alchemists in FMA are wizards who transmute based on one simple rule: equivalent exchange. To create a transmutation, an equal amount of materials and energy must be given. The process is broken down into Comprehension, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction.

Hard Elements: The above. Plus specific state alchemists have circles they are very talented with using, usually on their person in some form, giving them a quick-cast alchemy that is specific to them, but all other alchemic transmutations rely on preparing the proper materials and circles.

Soft elements: The Gate, Truth, and God are all very mysterious. Also unexplained are what powers alchemy and where it comes from.

The Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix

Style: Medium

Overview: Magic is broken into a binary: Charter and Free magic. Necromancers tend to rely on Free magic, while Charter mages use the Charter to do specific things and bind magical creatures. The Abhorsen work in death but in an orderly way, with each of their magical bells compelling undead monsters to do specific things.

Hard Elements: Charter has a variety of subtypes but is generally runic magic. The Charter defines everything in the world, and places constraints on what one can do with it (although it can be broad) and has physical consequences for doing too much.

Soft Elements: Free magic is generally a raw and unrestricted force of power, and those who use it can become corrupted. Death is a potent source of free magic and dead things are generally free magic beings. Death is also a river that spirits go down as they move on to whatever is next.

The Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir

Style: Harder

Overview: Necromancers again! But this time in space! Necromancers can control Thanergy, the energy of death, to control one of the three elements of necromancy: bone, flesh, and spirit.

Hard Elements: Magic is classified into two energies:

  • Thalergy, the energy of life

  • Thanery, the energy of death

And into three schools:

  • Bone magic – imprinting bones with commands and growing bones

  • Flesh magic – a wide ranging school but concerns itself with flesh only (specializations include lymph and blood magic

  • Spirit magic – centers on the River, ghosts, and revenants

Necromancers can do specific things with these different schools, although generally the scope is quite broad and the only limitations seem to be personal strength/knowledge of what can be done.

Softer Elements: Like The Old Kingdom, death is a mysterious realm that can actually be navigated. John, the first necromancer, gained his power rather mysteriously with little explanation. He also seems to be quite god-like in his capabilities, using his power across vast distances, returning himself from being completely disintegrated, and resurrecting an entire solar system.

Earthsea Series by Ursula K. Le Guin

Style: Softer

Overview: Magic is broken into lesser and greater/higher arts – the most well known is the Naming system in the Old Speech. There are many unknown factors giving it a sense of wonder, but it is fairly simple and has consistent rules, not making it truly a soft system. But knowing a True Name to control something is fairly broad.

Hard Elements: True Names

Soft Elements: Dragons exist, demons/shadows, there are other mysterious powers and magics that aren’t taught in the main Roke Island school.

Avatar, the Last Airbender / the Legend of Korra

Style: Hard

Overview: Bending revolves around using one of the four elements: fire, earth, water, and air.

Hard Elements: Benders outside of the Avatar can only access one element. Bending has specific techniques and applications within each element, such as water providing healing and bloodbending, and fire providing lightning manipulation. When they reach out for things beyond the basic definitions of the element, like into lightning or metalbending, these expansions make logical sense.  The rules of this series are well established from the beginning, making it a hard magic system compared to many others.

Soft Elements: The spirit world in general is a little softer, being mysterious. There are some creatures that exist outside of the elemental bending system thanks to the spirit world.


Dear reader, I pray that this small smorgasbord of magic systems, each of varying degrees of doneness, have satisfied your curiosity. I hope that you can now go look at the many other magic systems that exist and figure out where they sit on the spectrum, and then you can go onto the internet and argue about it. Or better yet, I hope that this has inspired you to create your own! Just as long as it isn’t a really hard magic system, you nerd.

Thanks for reading! If you ever need further instruction on magic, how to implement it in your story, what kind of system you’re working with, or any other speculative needs, the Tomeworks Editing Collective is full of sages that can guide you! Reach out to us and we will start you on your journey, young one.

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