Magical Creations- Have you ever made one?

[The Creator 8]

Hey Magic Lovers! I would to know how many of you have made a magical creation for your magical world. Would anyone like to discuss how you make your creations? Need to think out a problem or glitch in your magic creation idea? Or just in general chat about magic creations?
That is what this thread is for! I am interested in see how many people have created magical creations and how they came up with the ideas. Now let's have those juicy secrets spilled out on this thread!

 

[Jorick]

I've made plenty of different magical items for various roleplays and solo writing endeavors. My method for making magical things is to answer a few simple questions: what does it do, how does it do it, and what does it look like?

Generally speaking, I like to start out by answering "what does it do?" Is it supposed to shoot giant pillars of flame? Is it supposed to unlock the door to an ancient tomb? Is it supposed to be used in a ceremony to bring the totally-not-Satan of the world into the mortal plane? I figure out what it's actually meant for, why it has reason to exist, and then move on to the details.

Answering "how does it do it?" is reliant on the magic system at work in the world the item is being created for. If all magical power is derived from crystals, then the object in question will need to have crystals embedded in it. If magic all comes from a pool of mana within a mage's body, then it will need to draw on that power. So on and so forth, the gritty mechanics that probably never need to be explained to the reader but are important for the writer to work out so there's no deus ex machina or inconsistency going on.

"What does it look like?" is the really fun question. Once I have the mechanics worked out, it really doesn't matter much what the thing looks like. Is it a key to a tomb that is powered by crystals? Okay, it could look like a gauntlet, or some unnaturally shaped work of stone, or an old and still functioning golem, or the figurehead of a ship, or whatever amuses me at the time. Generally it ought to fit in with the aesthetics of the world, or at least of the culture of whoever made it, but aside from that it's all up to how I feel at the time of creation.

One of my favorite magical creations was in fact a set of items made for an over the top crazy fantasy world that operated with anime-like physics and power level juggling. I started off by deciding I wanted something that would empower the user to unnatural levels, above and beyond the power of almost anyone lacking such items, but customized for each user. Then I worked out how they operated, which was just "magic in this world is a basically omnipotent force, so they're literally made of magic, and they're sentient so they can adapt to the user's needs." I decided that they should be big ole warhammers, and so they were, each one looking different and having a different set of powers. One of them allowed the wielder to sense the crimes of a target and could one hit kill the guilty, another allowed for insanely powerful plant magic abilities, another one was just about raw strength and defensive fortitude and could morph into different shapes to emphasize one side over the other, and so on. None of them were particularly innovative, but with the character power levels jacked up to 11 and all sorts of over the top nonsense going on they ended up being fun elements that gave already powerful characters even more power to be crazy with. For instance, the main protagonist was a shaman type who could eat the flesh of other things to gain their powers for a time, kind of cool but only of middling power levels in this world, but in the final showdown he got the hammer with the raw offense/defense boosting and ate some dragon flesh he could stand against the big bad evil lady and ended up beating her by taking a bite out of her and stealing some of her power. Cannibalism is always a fun way for the hero to win, right? :D

 

[The Creator 8]

That is a good way to start. Here is my first one I ever made.
I made this in a desperate need of self-preservation from a few friends of friends and did not like blocking people at that time. I did not know how to fight (and still don't fight well yet after all these years.) so I needed a way to defend myself and I can't get hurt by trying to escape the scene. So far no one has figured out how to break the barrier of the Cube.
I took jello like substance from a rubber tree. I combined it with a resilient yet highly intelligent jelly fish DNA. The jelly fish DNA made the Cube to be Sentient. Like a jelly fish, these cubes can fit into a small area which in this case is a small dice size box.
This is the End result of the Cube . It was portable because of the size. A simple plug held it in by elastic bands. It was easily opened and tossed up into the air. Once it is opened it would allow the Cube slide out easily and it would gobble up the first thing that it touched. It would think that it was full and satisfied. It stayed happy until it was hit by something. Then it would become angry and the sides would sink inward making the side concave and would reflect the attack back to the one who threw the attack. Each attack would make the cube stronger and stronger. There was only one way that a person could get out of the cube. Yes, the Cube's side would allow in and out due to the jelly fish DNA.
Can you figure out to break the Cube? Only one did after much thinking and examining the evidence.