Hard magic systems are ones that you commonly see in high fantasy novels and like works by Brandon Sanderson and Leigh Bardugo that use magic systems that are created by well-defined rules and limitations. They show this by clearly explaining any and all of the rules and how the magic functions through the characters of the novel. The term “world building” is often used in high fantasy to show this hard magic system. Authors will use the first ten to twenty percent of the novel to simply build the world, present the magic system, and clearly lay out the rules and stipulations that the magic system requires to be abided by. A hard magic system overall leaves no interpretation of the magic system and therefore allows more of an immersive experience to the readers.

The source in which your magic in your world comes from must be believable and is important to the magic system as a whole. For example, One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig, the characters get their magic from cards that they have to tap three times in order to “activate” and the powers of the cards the longer one person uses them the more negative effects they have on the beholder. So in this novel the source are the cards. Your source of magic can be something physical like cards, wands, or weapons or there are many other options to this but it is important that if a physical object is chosen as your magic wielding item then it must be clearly explained which then makes this type of magic more of a hard magic system. Another source of magic example is being born with it. This type of magic system can be more categorized in a soft magic system because not much explaining is needed to be done to show how this magic came to be. Some examples of this are like A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas where the fae is a society and group of people who are born with their powers and their courts and their rulings