Help with making Incantations

[blairWitcher]

hi to everyone

Im writing the first chapter of my story.you can find it posted on the critiques section under the title A.S.H: (though Its real title is "SOULTAKERS and the PRISMS of MADNESS) its already half-finished. the story tells about a young man named ALBERT STINE and his partner FELIX CROSS,both third level SOULTAKERS and areworking for an institution called A.S.H.E.S, abbreviation for Academy of Soul Hunting and Erasure Studies.

After successfull mission involving the "erasure" of a demon on the abandoned village of hunter's cove, the pair was given another assignment by the academy to investigate a series of mysterious,brutal deaths and disappearances occuring on the country of Drayne, believed by organization to be the work of a mindless DREIMUS or"devil caller". There investigation led them closer towards the mythical demon objects known as the PRISMS of MADNESS that was said to be holding the broken spirits of the primal demon TIAMAT that was defeated and imprisoned ,many years, by the first soultakers that founded ASHES. If aone of the pieces fall to the hands of a the DREIMUS, Tiamat will once again be set loose on the world and envelope it in madness. Together with a druid hermit and a young lady with an exceptional "purifying" abilities, they must destroy all the pieces before the Dreimus could use it to destroy ASHES and the entire world.

In this story, there are alot of fighting scenes involving arms and weapons combat combined with "Spiritual Arts", manipulating the enegy of spirits on the surrounding and turning it into a powerful force embodying the properties of the six elements, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth,Life and Death, that deals with a lot of incantation mutterings.

Now can anyone suggest or give any ideas about incantation forming?

any reply will be deeply appreciated.

 

[BookStop]

so they must have incantations to recite for the 'magic' parts?

 

[blairWitcher]

yup! could you give me an example

 

[BookStop]

what are thier attacks in english? Do they draw thier power from a source? Will they be muttering under thier breath or speaking aloud? I assume short ist better if during combat.

Hmmm - you should choose a base language first so all the incantations will match in origin - Incantation comes from latin so maybe that'd be good place to start. If you could find a pheonetic latin translator for exactly what you want to say, then take bits of the words to combine into incantations. Often just putting what you want into another language makes it sound mysterious and important. For expamle:

firestorm in Italian is: licenziare la tempesta

sounds much neater and more powerful, eh?

 

[Sapheron]

That pretty much sums it up. Choose a language, or make it up, and then write down some neat sounding words. Ryhming might help to make it flow better as well. Keep it short and sweet through if you want it to work in combat; a sentence that takes a few seconds to say wouldn't be any fun when someone is trying to hit you.

 

[chrispenycate]

Most incantations are carefully crafted poetry, combining precise rhythm patterns with exact rhyme. I don't believe this is to please the aesthetic sensibilities of the demons (and yes, your summoned powers are as demonic, or as angelic, if one can define the difference, as the dark forces they oppose, and require strict controls), but for mnemonic purposes, so one does not forget a critical word at an inconvenient moment and get devoured by the entities one is releasing.

Nice, rolling sonorous words are good for the dignity of the sorcerer, but nursery rhymes would probably be as effective. The name of the controlled entity (or names, if the same has been controlled by several different cultures) is critical; the maps is the territory, the symbol holds influence over the symbolised, and the more references you can include to sources and limits to this power and its qualities, the more control the incantation can apply to released forces.

Because you've postulated a technology based on conscious, sentient energies, which can be controlled or released uncontrolled by symbolic magic, some of which are definitely hostile to human desires, others might not be, although enslaving them for particular jobs probably doesn't endear humans to them too much. I don't know what that fire elemental might do if it were asked nicely, rather than constrained to act, but I suspect its acts might not be identical.

 

[HareBrain]

"Real" incantations are meant to induce an altered state of consciousness necessary for the magic to work, and this is why, as Chris said, they're more poetry than prose (language designed to work on the subconscious) and heavy on the rhythm. They often sound completely ridiculous to the uninitiated.

 

[blairWitcher]

Thanks guys

btw, I would like you to check out and critique the incantations i made on the story. Its posted under the heading A.S.H: rewrite of first chapter.

I would like to know your opinion on it.

 

[Team 2012]

Wouldn't we see "real" incantations as pleas for supernatural intervention, as well?

To summon an angel or demon or whatever, one speaks in the language that binds or compels that particular entity?

Not to root for our own side much here, but if you want some weird incantation language, try looking up a Mayan glossary.
There are several listed on our fledgling links page at http://mayancalendargirls.com/links.php

 

[blairWitcher]

thanks team 2012. I'll look upon them as soon as i can.