What are your favorite magic systems that you've read about, played with, seen, or even invented? I'm not talking about the generic magic systems, where 'magical' things happen because you said an incantation, or waved a wand, or something like that, I'm talking about the really well defined ones that have their own physics and whatnot that create a solid continuity.

Also, what are your favorite uses of even the generic magic systems? Things like necromancy, but applied to things other than people and animals, bringing plants, stars, dreams, back to life; things like systems that work generically, but involve currency, in payment of your soul, or similar things...

Thoughts?

Brandon Sandersons Mistborn series has a really cool system.

I've got some writings on that right here:

aristodes.deviantart.com/gallery/49616..

I still have to finish them. I also have some earlier notes, from when I was just starting to add these sorts of details:

aristodes.deviantart.com/art/Basic-Rul..

An Octave Higher.

It breaks down how spells are cast into equations that you can actually understand.

Every person is born gifted with two out of five Traits (Courage, Willpower, Faith, Intelligence and Compassion), and those Traits determine what sort of magic they can use. There are four basic kinds of spells: Summon (produces the corresponding element), Amplify (produces a stronger effect than the basic Summon), Nullify (produces an inverted effect, such as negating gravity for Willpower or cooling hot objects for Courage), and Transform. Spells of different Traits can also be combined to produce more complicated spells, such as combining Water (or Summon(Intelligence)) with Freeze (or Nullify(Courage)) to cast Ice.