Explaining where energy comes from to power magic

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I'm trying to create a realistic magic system, this may be a lost cause.

Imagine in our story we have a wizard who wants to cast a spell to start a fire.

In some magic systems there are magic words, in others the wizard waves a wand but these are just ways of controlling the spell. What I'm interested in is where the power comes from, the real measurable energy to have this effect.

Someone with better knowledge of physics than me will tell me that you need a certain number of KJs of energy to ignite the wood and start the fire. Forgetting for the moment how the wizard controls this energy what could the power source be?

I'm loathed to have it as a mythical floating store of energy which wizards tap into - the energy to cause wood to spontaneously ignite doesn't just float around in our atmosphere. What measurable battery of energy could the wizard use to start the fire?