Which came first? At the time I was watching Charmed (the original) and all the CSIs (Original, New York and Miami). There was an episode in the first season of Charmed that had the police independently investigating a series of murder that were magical in nature. They came to logical conclusions and found the person responsible. I liked the idea and it continued to play in my brain as I paid more attention to police procedures.
So, magic is real. Since an important aspect of world building is consistency, I had to come up with rules. Who could use it? How could they use it? How much power can an individual use? Does the general population know about it? Do people use it in everyday life? The rules of magic were very important. Because it would have a deep impact on how my characters would navigate this world.
So I looked at how I wanted magic to work. The first thing I decided was the type of magic. I chose to make it elemental. Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit. Each person could access only one of these. How many people could use it? I choose to make it that only a small percentage of the population could have access to the magical energy field that surrounded the Earth. Then I decided that everyone who used magic had different levels of use. That made things more manageable.
My next mental process became, how to commit a crime with magic. Not every magical criminal was going to be a high power super man who could kill at will. That would have over balanced things against my heroes who would have to be just as super powered. So, I reviewed some petty crimes.
Breaking and Entering was a test case for me, although it doesn’t appear in any of the books. I picked an element. Fire. A low powered Fire criminal. How did he get in? He melted the locks in the way a welder might use fire, it just wouldn’t take as long. There I had the how. Now for the tricky part. How do I catch him? This is where I looked at forensic techniques. Along with the normal (photos, dusting for prints, interviewing witnesses) procedures, I added a couple more techniques that are magic specific. Does the magic used leave evidence of itself? I decided the answer was yes. Combining these with standard techniques, I am able to catch my criminal.
So that concept worked and I was able to come up with the initial rules of magic and how it worked in the modern world. As I continue to write in this world, new aspects will appear, more rules added, but the foundation is there and I can continue to build on that. Things work as an extension of the real world.
