What Is The Magic System In 'The Will Of The Many'?

Question

Okay, book friends who've read 'The Will of the Many' by James Islington, help a new reader out. I just hit the part about the Hierarchy and Obligation magic, and I'm totally fascinated by how the power scaling works. Are there any spoiler-free resources or wikis that explain the mechanics deeper?

Richell Madrigal · Answer

'The Will of the Many' is a system of magic which utilizes a power called The Will. It is reality-warping that is based upon the collective belief of a society and the social hierarchy that is present in said society. In essence, the more people that believe in a law or the authority of another, the more that law will affect reality. Mage of Wolves is a system of magic that is vastly different from ‘The Will of the Many’. Instead of being an abstract rule set that is utilized by a character, the magic in ‘Mage of Wolves’ is deeply personal and ties very closely to the bond that the main character has with animals. Instead of growing as a character and then utilizing his magic in strange and unpredictable ways, the main character’s power grows with his connection to his wolf pack and is influenced by his survival instincts.

Liam · Answer

This magic system is brutally practical. To cast magic you use teamwork in highly realistic and efficient ways. Soldiers fight in Triads of three people with various enhancements to their combat abilities. Maritime navigators use Tethers to share senses to get through storms. The rich manipulate the system to manipulate others. Powerful academies teach their students to maintain dozens of superficially intimate "bonds" to amass influence by trading depth for breadth.

In this world, individuality is currency. People with strong wills can avoid being bound to others and, in fact, are often hunted for this reason. The protagonist’s strong will makes him very valuable to the rebels trying to break the system. As for the rest of the population, enslaved people are put into Tethers against their will in order to drain their will to resist. The bonds that nobles have are ‘pure’, that is to be with other members of their own class. These physical artifacts called Resonance Stones can also be used to store the bonded energy of others. There are black markets for willpower, stolen from others through breaking of their Tethers.

Trevor · Answer

The magic system in ‘The Will of the Many’ is based on collective willpower. No one in the world is particularly special but by uniting as one and forming what are known as ‘Tethers’ they can pool their mental and physical resources together to achieve far greater things than they could have alone. The more in sync a group is the more effective their combined abilities will be. Ammplified reflexes, shared pain points and even an occasional bout of what can only be described as hive mind all become available to those able to form Tethers. A fascinating system and one which cleverly illustrates the themes of the book – the way in which a society can be controlled by those at the top of it by exploiting these bonds between people. And there is a cost to using Tethers. Each time they are used the user will feel their emotional connections to others being drained away. Leave them too long and the user will be left a hollow shell of a person.

Jonah · Answer

So this is cool. One of the most original magic systems I’ve come across in years. ‘The Will of the Many’ is a psychological magic system where the human connections between people are the ‘fuel’ for it. For example, a group of five warriors are linked, and move as a single unit on the battlefield. Their ‘will’ (or their unified connection) can for example deflect arrows or even heal wounds. The Tethers form the base of this, but the deeper the Tether the greater the effect, and even predictive knowledge of the other(s) in the group, so that they can prepare for an attack before it happens.

This system is very layered and the hierarchy is very important. Conduits are a rare group of people who can sustain multiple Tethers at once. They act as hubs for a network of Tethers, as a general would tie together an entire battalion to be used as one big weapon. The forced Tethering of prisoners is also something that is explored in depth, as well as the idea of the Chorus, legendary groups who were able to tie themselves together in such perfect harmony that their will altered the course of history. The system even asks questions of consent and the loss of individuality that the system can cause.

This is a really compelling book for people who enjoy a hard magic system with lots of implications for society. It’s similar to Allomancy from ‘Mistborn’ but instead of using different metals to gain different abilities, the characters here use interpersonal connections to gain power. It’s very much a book about the relationships between characters, and the ways in which they lose themselves to the group as they become more and more dependent on their Tethers.

Deborah Copeland · Answer

So I was trying to summarize the magic system for this book without giving too much away. It’s called the Hierarchy in the world of this novel, and essentially it’s the underlying framework of their society. Every person in the world has a Will which is basically a measure of personal energy. You can then transfer a portion of that to someone who is higher up on the social hierarchy than you to your patron(s). Your patron(s) then pool all the energy of people beneath them in order to get stronger. The one at the very top of the social ladder, the king/emperor, has an absolutely ridiculous amount of power. The magic, or what the magical abilities in this world do, manifests in a variety of ways (including possibly telekinesis) but it’s really about the Hierarchy, the power structure, and the structure that enables that kind of power to exist. It’s not really a system of magical castings, it’s more the internal, human, consequences of power and how people relate to each other in order to retain power, and that’s kind of terrible. Reading this, you get to see how each display of strength has very real human cost to it. The main character, Vis, is a bit of a lost soul and, naturally, he’s got a lot of trauma in his past, and various motives that he’re not quite sure he understands himself yet. The interplay of plot with these humans is very tense.

However, the worldbuilding around the Hierarchy was also excellent. It’s a magic system, and a complete critique of authoritarian power structures too.

Hannah Stasynec · Answer

For pure worldbuilding, it is remarkable in linking magic to sociology. The Hierarchy determines class, profession, rights, and architecture. The higher your place in the city the stronger you are. As such the magic system forms the skeleton of the civilization and therefore answers the ‘why’ for the incredible inequality of this society. People aren’t poor due to economic reasons; they’re poor because their Will is being siphoned from them. As a result they’re weak and depleted, both physically and mentally. The wealthy and powerful of this world aren’t simply wealthy and powerful. They’re actually superhumanly capable. It’s a great fantasy take on the idea that all extreme wealth is extracted from the labor and life force of others. Vis’ journey into the Academy isn’t a journey into magic. It’s a journey into the very heart of a large and explosive exploitation machine. How that is executed is compelling and disgusting to read.

Lily brotherton · Answer

I'm getting some Sanderson-esque system-for-the-plot vibes, but all darker and more hardcore. The focus on the systemic elements of the world and the plot really resonates with me, but it all feels so much grimmer and more complex, more exploratory of the psychological and moral decay of a system and the people in it. I'm not seeing any kind of noble or even especially bright-eyed hero who learns to harness his powers for good. The powers in this case are arguably evil, and using them to achieve any end makes one complicit in their evil. I'm kind of seeing this from the perspective of a skaa who had to masquerade as a noble to climb the ranks in a world that is just like the one in Mistborn, but turned on its head. The magic in this world is the shackle, not the key. And that’s a really interesting take on the ‘chosen one learns magic’ trope: instead of learning magic being the key to the hero’s journey, learning magic is part of the problem.

JustTolu Poadro · Answer

The thing that really struck me about fatigue of characters who have given too much Will is that it’s not just feeling tired. It’s a sense of hollowing out, of lack of passion and curiosity. They’ve lost their spark. That’s the real cost of Will in the system, I think. The system doesn’t just take your energy, it takes your ambition, your desire to rise above your station. It creates a uniformly mediocre underclass and then sustains the rulers of that underclass with magic that sucks the Will to rebel out of them. A feedback loop of control. The most frightening enemy in the world is not a powerful wizard, it’s the system that tells you that you’re normal to be exhausted, and good to be subservient. Vis is a virus in that system: he knows he’s being drained, and he’s fighting against the lethargy with pure, focused anger.

Gabriela González · Answer

So long as one strives to ascend in this world of stone and magic, he must acquiesce to the diminishment of others. In a place where one’s power and the well-being of those below him or her are inversely proportional, a truly kind-hearted individual would be wracked with physical and emotional torment every step of the way. Daily, Vis must contend with the need to form connections to simple survive in this bleak environment. Each and every one of those connections would serve as a heavy liability were they to discover his ‘true nature’. Conversely, he could be positively sapped of life force, or even be compelled to actively drain the life force of others. It would be a seriously vulnerable thing to form a truly, deeply, reciprocally connection with another in a world wherein such is actively and repeatedly weaponized against. As it stands now, the ‘magic’ of this world of stone and magic gives a serious advantage to those of a purely sociopathic bent. Thus, in this world, the most successful, and the most ‘powerful’ humans are also those who are ruthless to the core. This forms a sort of feedback loop of ever-increasing and especial brand of cruelty, and selects for the worst aspects of the humanity that exists within it, and then amplifies them in some fashion.

What Is The Magic System In 'The Will Of The Many'?

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