Witchcraft: How To Break Fairy Contracts?

This actually reminds me of a fanfic I read a while back, called “Through the Hedge” where the entirety of the Fae realm runs off of this – you can make a contract with anyone… and anyTHING. As long as both parties accept the contract, then it is binding, and offers great powers for both. One character barters some of her sense of touch to the stone of the chambers she’s enslaved to clean, so she doesn’t make sound upon them – her owner, The Maestro, with silently flense any servant who makes noise during their duties. As well, she forms a deal with the sharp obsidian that forms into glassy stalactites and come crashing down on anything below them that moves too swiftly or too noisily… and sometimes shed shards without warning anyways; the deal brokered is to let her not be cut by them, and so she grows them into her skin instead, carrying them and letting the shards experience movement. Something for something, nothing for nothing – that is the rule of the Faerie. And contracts are a trade with clear rules on either side.

It made my day to see an in depth reference to Wildbow’s Otherverse stories on one of these writing trope websites. I love how performative the magic is in the Otherverse, with the ambient spirits serving as both the audience eating up the drama, and an impartial but swayable jury arbitrating on every claim made. Definitely a universe where a well placed villainous monologue might actually help you win.

Wow, I did not expect to find Pact being mentioned out in the wild when I wasn’t even looking for it. Whoo! And hey, this means you know of Wildbow, at least passingly. I certainly don’t expect it but it would be nice to see more articles about Wildbow’s web serials. Worm, Pact, Twig, Ward, Pale, his web serials a really niche but they’re also really good reads so long as you don’t mind some grit and elements of eldritch, body, and sometimes even psychological horror.

I’m actually working on my own contract based magic system where many things are contracts: Spells are contracts, discounts to spell costs are a contract, imprisoning yourself in your own pocket dimension is a “prisoners contract”. Contracts are typically signed via “overseers”, surrogates of the god of war, but signing a contract directly with the god of war? That’s where the real juicy power comes from! These contracts are also how the god of war influences the politics of the world. Thanks for the great article!

Contracts as A magic system is both a common and uncommon one depending on how you define it. Which in some ways can be really annoying or very fascinating. One I had enjoyed was A twist on it with the focus of the contract on the meaning behind it rather than the words written upon it where breaking the spirit of the contract enacted the penalty rather than breaking the letter of it, but not the spirit of it.

The Inheritance Cycle does this quite well. Especially when you examine the ancient language and how wording affects “spells”. One example that i like is when Oromis froze Eragon’s legs. When Eragon said “Release my legs” he was stuck in that spell until Oromis stopped his freezing spell. Oromis tells Eragon not to deal in absolutes, due to that when used it becomes a battle of who has more energy avaliable to them. One cannot stop the spell until it is complete. The wording “lessen the force holding my legs” would have done better and, if it didn’t work, could be cancelled. The ancient language also doesn’t allow one to speak lies, but an entire society has learned to speak around the limitations. I love how it’s done.

Duuuude! The second you started mentioning geises, I immediately was reminded of the book series called Geis by Alexis Deacon! In which, the main character was tricked into signing a geis thinking it was an agreement clause in the king’s will and testament. Instead, the geis states that whosoever agrees, is indeed entitled to the kings inheretents, but only if they succeed in beating all their competitors in a set of trials proving you worthy of not only the king’s wealth, but also the very crown itself. I got the opportunity to read the first book, “a matter of life and death,” in my local library and have been looking for the second ever since because of the art in it being so whimsical, humor, hilarious, and the plot very enticing

Another example I can think of once again from Full Metal Daemon Muramasa is the Law of Balance. While it is technically a vow, it functions more like a contract that binds the main character to it, to claim the life of a friend for every enemy slain. And there is no getting around this. If you try to no abide by the contract it will then force the issue. The thing is, it does indeed have a loophole. The main villain of the story is in fact also under this same vow, but she is able to kill indiscriminately simply from the fact she sees herself as above humanity and that she doesn’t hate those she kills, thus she doesn’t have to kill those she loves. And this also ends up being played in a really interesting way in the storys conclusion. Not to spoil things, but the contract ends up being used for a rather interesting twist. Another one I can think of that is a bit of a spoiler for the first Utawarerumono game where it is revealed that the main female lead actually made a deal with the local devil to save the life of her dying younger sister, swearing her soul to this being. The twist is that the main hero who happens to be an amnesiac is in fact this very devil, and the reason she is so ready to serve him at every opportunity is cause she is trying to uphold her end of the bargain despite he no longer remembering having made the deal. And the funny thing is, despite not being aware of it, the deal is still in effect meaning that the younger sister the deal was made for is effectively immortal, anytime she revives a mortal injury she simply comes back to life on the spot.

You are one of the few creators in the writing community who talks about actual storytelling and interesting ideas rather than the act of writing, and I appreciate that. It seems like productive conversation has gone the way of the dinosaurs sometimes. It’s always “Never do this”, and “Always do that”, and “TOP TEN WRITING TIPS FOR (GENRE)”, and “I’M SICK OF (TROPE)”. It stopped being about creativity, and I’m sick of it. Oh, and name dropping my favorite anime and pronouncing it correctly? Chef’s kiss.

One series I found had interesting magic system that I’ve never seen anyone talk about is a YA series called The Spoken Mage. In it, the very act of writing is magic, even something like scribbling random letters in the sand with a stick can cause an explosion if people don’t have enough magical ability to control it and even if they do they need years of training first. It naturally results in a very strictly class-based society where even learning to read and write is completely illegal (and requires life-imprisonment, since once you’ve learned how you are permanently a danger to society) except for the select few families with the natural ability to control it. The series itself is pretty standard magic school stuff, but I found the magic system interesting enough to finish it all.

My favorite is where the agreement could be something cheap (like you just need to pay some honey or a disposable razor) but if you don’t pay up the debt collection is steep (your soul). Also, the beings can be bound longer than the contract. Because power of friendship or something (well the demons aren’t sure either).

Using pact/contract style magic in an rpg I’m game master for, there’s a catch: It functions as a verse enforced feature, meaning if your offers are imbalanced there can be ‘power bleed’ and backlash. Had a GM character have to explain to a player that he did not want to over give on his contract with vim, risking bleed side effects, like he’s gotten from other contracts. Reason being said character comsumes energy and power bleed to ‘balance’ the contract could risk the player gaining a version of that, meaning he could literally drain the life energy out of people, and gaining that with no understanding of how to control it could put all his loved ones at risk. Had to literally explain it as Rogue’s problem from X-Men. Said player had been over giving in all but one of the previous contracts he’d made, and gaining bonus abilities because of it; had to teach him that positive gain was not guaranteed. The verse in the setting is just concerned with balancing the things exchanged, with modest impact of the bargainers’ feelings towards the contracts… So, let’s just say he played very careful while making that deal; then promptly screwed himself with the one he also made with the second GM character present that session.

I can’t for the life of me remember what its name is, or exactly what it’s about, but a relatively long time ago, I read about a magic system that was contract-based. Or rather, somewhere between contract-based and promise-based. In it, characters swear off things in exchange for power. The more you want that something, the more it is something you love and/or aspire to, the more you gain from swearing it off; it is fully based on subjective value. What makes it interesting is that it’s not ironclad. You can break the vow, but the moment you break one, you break all, and once you’ve broken your vow, no new vows will be accepted. It also isn’t something that takes time or preparation. Just the right conviction and intention, provided you have the prerequisite training. For example, let’s say we have a man who loves food above all else is driven to the edge, where not just his life is about to be lost, but maybe that of his loved ones aswell, or maybe his home town. As long as he has the time to react, he has the time to strike a new vow. If he truly lives for next to nothing but great food, swearing off any and all foods but plain oatmeal on water he’d gain immense powers. With these new powers he can avert whatever terrible fate awaited him, and strike down those who caused it. But he needs to be careful, for nothing prevents his opponents from taking on a similarly powerful vow to become his equal. Wielding such immense powers is addictive, far beyond just the allure of great power in general, the very act of wielding it is like a drug, and so while this former gourmet has the option to give up his life of being more and revert to nothing but a mortal human, it is far from as easy as one might thing and the process of losing said power is tortuous; a withering affliction that drains you until you feel as feeble as an elderly on their deathbed.

In the Destiny universe, there were ancient Wish Dragons called Ahamkara. They were a sort of living monkey’s paw, granting the desires of a person, even if the person doesn’t explicitly say their desires aloud, or even if they didn’t consent to it. That said, their wishes tend to warp the wish the person asks. The wish granting properties are so strong that even their bones need to be plated in Silver, unless their latent Wish energy could corrupt wayward Guardians. Eris Morn, for example, clutched a bone of an Ahamkara after losing her vision to a species of aliens called the Hive. As she wished for vision, she encountered one of these Hive, which she killed and took its eyes. This all but sealed away her connection towards Humanity, leaning her more towards the magics of the Hive. Another example, Uldren Sov, had the bone of an Ahamkara oh him when he came across a dead Eliksni. As he held it in his arms, he desired for it to live once more, and it did, though warped and not right. It was the first Scorn, basically zombie insect aliens, and these Scorn were ultimately pulled under the control of the Witness – the ultimate welder of the the Darkness and enemy of Humanity.

I’d definitely mention systems like Hunter x Hunter’s nen or Jujutsu Kaisen’s curse system as unique interpretations of contracts. They both use contracts you make with yourself, limiting your own versatility or giving yourself weaknesses in return for greater power. Although it doesn’t function as thematically as the others, it does give a really understandable way to make different characters have more limited powers when otherwise they’d have infinite options. It also can work thematically such as Kurapika’s self destructive conditions in search of revenge, or Gon’s literal self destruction in return for a pact.

This reminds me of the contracts and power level systems of a webtoon called Savior of Divine Blood people called players go into originally 3 types of gates they are bronze, silver, and gold and the main character goes into the only ever existing rainbow gate and while in these gates, they do a trial by one of the various supernatural entities behind them therefore, making a contract with them they inherited their powers and abilities and as far as I can tell into the story there are no drawbacks for getting the powers when they do the contracts

What if the contracts did not come in paper forms? That’s what all Ghost Riders have to deal with. Mephisto did not give them papers to sign. He just talked them into agreeing with his deals that are sealed with both parties willingly shaking their hands after both sides accepted the set conditions of the deals. Aside from purely relying on memories, perspectives and interpretations of each condition, what can the Ghost Riders do to break free from Mephisto’s chains?

Contracts are always an interesting concept in fantasy. But when I read the title I first thought of warlocks/witches. I love pen and paper games and the whole concept behind the warlock/witch class (or what other names they might be called) get their magic through a contract. I built a character that turned to her patron when she was traumatized and her beliefs were shattered. She grew up in a religious cult and turned to a fiend to rescue her. Her side of the deal is bulding a new cult that follows her patron and help him gain power.

Wonder how I stumbled upon a comment comparing the Chainsaw Man system, while I couldn’t find the magic system of Jujusu Kaisen even at a second glance. Oh well. So, I think so far this is a contract system that has a lot of enjoyable creativity to it among many other magic systems. You can make “binding vows” between people, “curses”, and even yourself. You can make a ” vow” with a situation you are currently in. Example: you can tell your opponent about your ability’s workings in exchange for a boost in your overall combat performance. You can make these contracts on two individuals, who just want something from each other. Or it can affect the ability itself, making one of its stats, such as range, lower, but increasing its firepower in return. And as far as manga goes, this system is as flexible as the caster’s imagination. I really love the concept of “flexible meaning” of an “exact term” in worldbuilding mechanics. What unfortunately readers could not get in the end, is the consequences for breaking the contract/vow. Of course this can be no more than the author’s oversight, but I like to look at this as something deterministic. Something like “if the binding vow is made, fate itself will cast itself in a way that the how’s terms will be executed, one way or another. ” Thanks for reading my comment, whoever you might be, dear reader)

One option to consider is that someone knows they are taking a contract with unfavourable long-term terms as a sacrifice for the greater good or a particular cause. Say that the hero cannot defeat some grave threat to the realm as is, so they take what measures are necessary to be capable of achieving their task. They are in effect sacrificing themselves so that they can wield an otherwise unattainable power when it matters.

On the subject of simply being unable to refuse fulfilling your end of the contract: I’m in the middle of Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. It’s the second book in his Stormlight Archive series, an excellent and gripping narrative that I highly recommend. Spoilers incoming. The book features a woman named Eshonai. She is a free spirit who loves to explore, but finds herself duty-bound to fight in a war that is slowly exterminating her people. Her race has the ability to invite a magical creature, known as a spren, into their bodies to transform them to help fulfill a task better, which becomes a sort of contract between the two. Eshonai’s sister claims she finds a new transformation that will help them win the war, and as their military’s top soldier, Eshonai volunteers to test it out, despite the fact that she was planning a meeting to broker peace in a few days. She transforms, but in accepting the new power, she allows the god who sent the spren to make her a puppet, say and act as he wishes, and the whole time she is conscious and aware and horrified.

reminds me of how some powers work in Hunter x Hunter universe, the more “restrictive” a power is, the stronger it is, even if the restriction is put there by the user himself. in the case of kurapika he created a chain that can only be use in members of the spider group he hunts, the “contract” made with another chain that would kill him if he were to break it

A article about magic contracts and nobody is talking about the so-called contractors from the anime Darker than black? It’s a kind of gash as well I think, but in a quite unique way. If I remember correctly, any person could randomly turn into a contractor by some supernatural force. They would gain a superpower, but have to pay the individual price of their contract whenever they do. For example, there was a show-magician, with the contract to actually bend space, but his payment was to reveal how magic show tricks work.

Since you like anime and this topic, you should watch Jujutsu Kaisen. The magic system is similar to HxH’s Nen system. Both shows, JJK and HxH have a way for someone to get stronger by making a promise or contract of some sort. In HxH we see it with kurapika and the phantom troupe… in JJK its something literally called a “Binding Vow” where an individual can make one with themself or with others but all parties have to follow on their end of the vow.

Another good example of this is the system in Hunter x Hunter, your powers, are based around one of 6 particular archetypes, like a hexagon, and the two closest are easier to use than the next two, and the furthest is practically impossible for you, however, by making a deal with the magic itself, vowing to only use X power in Y situation, or else losing Z, based on how powerful Z is, or how constricting Y is, X can be as powerful as you want One character’s X is complete mastery of all 6 points on the Hexagon, but only under the Y of, while fighting a certain clan of murderers, if he uses it on anyone else, the Z is his life, his contract he made with himself was the ability to effectively overpower anyone, and he puts his life up for grabs with it, but will only use it against a select few people. Other characters have also made these contracts, but this is one of the most extreme instances. Usually though, the power they give themselves is the X, Y, and Z, like for example, in D&D, casting Fireball could be one of these contracts in it of itself, it is a power, X, that can only be used with enough points, Y, that, while targeted, is entirely unbiased in who or what it affects, the Z There is no other party involved in Hunter x Hunter’s system, you’re simply binding yourself to a vow you made, and that vow gives you the strength you seek through following it. And while it’s more like a promise, it is very contractual as well, for example, if the first person, who put their life on the line, were to have used it against someone from that clan, but, before dying, they renounce the clan, and the rest renounce them, then the person who made the contract would die, as they are no longer in that clan, but the powers are still being used against them- a little loophole that could spell the end for our hero-

I really like jujutsu kaizen uses binding vows which are basically promises with the magic system itself. A bit into the manga there’s a situation hakari gets into while fighting another sorcerer and he makes a binding vow in which he loses his arm but in return can survive 1 blow from the other sorcerer. Or in the same anime Nanami makes a binding vow which limits his output while “on the clock” and before 9am and after 5pm his magic/cursed energy output increases dramatically. It’s a very intricate system that has very clear terms, up and downsides

When you talk about one-signer contracts, I thought you will eventually cover Hunter X Hunter’s Vows and Limitations. It is a contract that made by one self with one self. It is an oath between the person and his own power. I think it is kinda interesting and worth mentioning. when compared to everything you mentioned in the articles.

One of my favorite shows when I was little was called Xiaolin Showdown. In it, a villain by the name Chase Young makes a contract with a demon named Hannibal by drinking a soup made of dragons. It’s not a paper he signs, all he has to do is drink the soup. According to what the demon says, he can only fulfill his destiny of being the greatest warrior in history on the side of evil, and he will get that by drinking that soup, and giving up his soul. It is shown later on that the demon itself doesn’t own his soul, since Chase is perfectly capable of betraying it and trap it. but the warrior is unable to not be evil (even says at some point that being bad is an acquired taste). I like the idea that even if the contract is absolute, and he cannot go back to the good side, he can work with others to go around the wording and help prevent truly terrible endings, without going against the need of being evil. I am currently writing something about it so I am thinking about it a lot.

Madoka Magica makes me think of well, two things TF could cover, but the more likely one they would first; it’s a feature not a bug. in MM Madoka asks Kyubie why magical girls fight witches, why they would still fight if there’s a fault in the process that would turn them into witches and give into despair, Kyubie essentially has a speech of how it’s a feature not a bug, the universe needs the energy released from the birth of witches, magical girls are more like a clean up crew how many stories have something that makes those who use it suffer, that makes the benefit effectively worthless as the disadvantages is the thing working as intended? I can think of one other story off the top of my head, Magical Girl Site, it’s an utterly miserable manga that had a single season on amazon. in the manga, young girls living unfortunate lives are given magic “wands” that often look like something they’d normally have or a toy with it’s own special power these magic wands use up part of the girl’s life span each time they need it. fast forward to late in the manga and the earth itself says it needs the strong emotions of young girls to survive, it’s chosen to drain the negative emotions from girls by using wands, the wands killing them and causing more chaos is well, how they’re intended to work as the earth made them the second idea is a look at different power/magic systems in anime, though it doesn’t have to be anime and how they can be used in a plot. one that comes to mind for this is JoJos Bizzare Adventure and it’s stand system that’s existed since part 3, a stand user has a spiritual representation of their own personality with it’s own special ability, but only that ability.

I’d like to see a magic system where both sides benefit from a contract. A more symbiotic relationship. Maybe these magical entities gain power, status, and substance from signing contracts with mortals to give them magic on the terms that they make it their own. They are contractually obligated to change or improve the magic they have. A trade of magic for novelty and innovation. With the more “popular” entities having a corporate feel. And ones with less attention are a bit more desperate and chaotic trying to pitch their magic to mortals instead of having mortals come to them kinda like a magical startup company. “Corporate” powers will probably be modular, easy to modify, and reliable, if boring. While “startup” powers are powerful, complicated, or half built, and tend to be risky often failing and requiring you to “work out the kinks”.

You know what would be neat. If in one of these contract stories the protagonist instead of going on a magical adventure hired a lawyer who though from the modern world with “no magic” has enough contract knowledge to sue the Demon, fairy, etc bringing the fact the magical creatures do exist to light and winning back the protagonist their soul, firstborn, whatever. Maybe this could be lore for a modern fantasy setting instead this starts a chain reaction of people filing suits against all sorts of magical beings. Eventually magic gets regulated like any buisness.

two words… or the same one twice?.. lol anyways HunterxHunter has one of my favorite versions of this idea. If you notice, most of the more well adjusted people in the series have weaker powers compared to the strongest characters. Most strong characters either have some sort of sociopathy/psychopathy, varying levels of trauma, and some sort of feelings of vengeance, malice, or ambition. I just described like a ton of characters and their foils. Gon and (insert antagonist of pretty much any arc). Kurapika and Chrollo, Hisoka and Netero, etc.

I’ve stewed on the idea of a one of those “serve my bidding in exchange for power” contracts, except the ‘devil’ in the deal never comes knocking beyond maybe the occasional “move that bottle two inches to your left” kind of asking. Weird, small things that contribute to a butterfly effect you’ll never see.

Cú Chulainn, my dude, you can “accept” the food without eating it. 🤣Carrying it around isn’t a great solution since it’ll smell and it’s not weightless, and your enemies can send an army of women with dog meat, but it’s still better than violating the geasa. Maybe make it into a smoothie? Does drinking dog meat violate the contract? (Curse the Internet for even making me type that sentence.) Graciously accept the dog meat and claim, “I shall use this as an ingredient in a wonderful dogmeat jerky recipe. It takes 1,000 years to cure properly.” Then you have 1,000 years to figure something out. Which, as long as there’s no clause saying you cannot gift the jerky to others, just do that! I can tell I’ve played too many TTRPGs where the Big Bad tried to use contracts to screw me over. 🤣

I normally wouldn’t nitpick over pronunciation but as a native Irish ( Gaeilge) speaker who had both the language and his story forcefully drilled into my head since primary school it made me wince every time you said Cú Chulainn. You need to stress the C and pretty much ignore the H in Chulainn to a degree. Less C-hul-ainn and more Chul-ainn, its spoken closer to the word cull then hull. It’s a common mistake outside of Ireland so I don’t blame you. As a side note Cú Chulainn wasn’t his original name it was more of a title given to him after his first heroic feat, his name was Sétanta . Basically when he was a kid the dude was late to a party because he was busy playing Hurling (Irish National Sport) and the guy who was throwing the party was Culann. Once all the guests arrived at the party except for Sétanta, Culann let out his famous guard hound to protect his land (This is a reference to an Irish Wolfhound, still a dog but picture a dog about the size of pony that could go toe to toe with wolves or small bears ). When he arrived the Hound attacked Sétanta and using his Hurl(Like A hockey stick crossed with a bat) he hit a sliotar (like a baseball) into the mouth of the hound and down its throat killing it instantly. Everyone at the party came out to see and were amazed that this kid was able to defeat his huge hound with just one hit of a ball . Sétanta felt sorry for the hound and knowing it was kinda his fault for being late he vowed that he would protect Culann’s land in place of the hound until Culann could get a replacement so that’s when he got the title Cú Chulainn which translates as The Hound of Culann, the H gets added because of grammar rules in the modern way the Irish language is written using the arabic alphabet which is why when its spoken you don’t stress the H.