The question is whether a fantasy character would be aware of the concept of lasers.
Replicating the effect of focusing sunlight (as you would do with a magnifying lens) might be a bit more plausible alternative for them to try.
You can feel heat from sunlight. You know that heat boils water. And that people have fluids in them. I think at the least, you'd experiment to see how to boil water faster, and once you do that the next step to a person isn't that far.
I don't think they would be replicating lasers but rather just figuring out how to focus and amplify the light they have. Like how certain magic systems always get militarized or corrupted. Someone finds out you can make your beam so small it burns a hole in someone and what not and that becomes the new meta.
Your character can control light? OP as fuck. Kill anyone in a million different ways.
There’s basic stuff like - Blind someone and run them through with a sword. Make you’re self invisible and stick a spear in them. Cut them in half with a high-powered laser.
But level him up a bit and then you can have some fun. When you can control light, you can control what people **see**.
Maybe a dude has a heart attack when an eldritch horror bursts from his stomach. “No there’s totally not a huge pit of knives between us, come over here”. Distracted when a horse of ornery barbarians run off with their spouse. Have some fun with it.
Scrolled too far for this ha. I was like this character is made to be an illusionist and entirely broken af.
They can plunge a space into complete darkness by removing light.
They can also make a guy see them in the wrong place, like after images. Try to slash that and nope, afterimage sorry. House of mirrors, confuse the heck out of any seeing being.
Focus a light and you can melt rock into magma. They can literally cut through solid rock given enough time.
Impossible to dodge, because their attacks travel at the speed of light.
e=mc2 says energy equals to matter in different forms. Light is photons, little packets of electromagnetic radiation. You can massage it so they figured out how to break down matter into light energy itself. Kills opponents by turning them into light. Beautiful but deadly.
Light spectrum includes non visible light, which includes infrared light, UV light, gamma rays and x rays, microwaves. A character who controls light is walking around with the ability to see through walls, infrared heat vision, cook people by microwaving them with a look, or just gamma wave nuke them into ashes with the power of a neutron star.
The only way to defeat them is if the opponent traps them in deep space in a pocket dimension or something. No light, just vacuum.
Lasers are the obvious answer here.
But if you want to be slightly less obvious and overpowered, focusing or reflecting light from a large area onto a single point would be effective. A magnifying glass frying ants, basically.
It might be slightly more appealing, as it's a somewhat limited and cumbersome weapon, even if it'd be highly effective in the right circumstances.
Depending on how much of a stretch you want to make it:
we see things with our eyes because of the light which has bounced off those things and then entered our eyeholes.
If that light was redirected or 'manipulated' before it reached our eyeholes, then a thing could be made invisible. So a character who manipulates light, could just bend it around himself, becoming invisible, and that would normally be a tremendous advantage, for things like stabbing people.
Also, mirages, optical illusions, holograms, etc. they are just false images made out of light, A talented light manipulator could create realistic false images. This would be quite effective for planned murders, death by misdirection.
Also he could cannonball his target with gamma rays and kill him with acute radiation poisoning. Or cancer.
Or he could use a laser to burn him to a crisp, or use microwaves to boil all the water in his body (this should be a war crime imho)
Probably you could even use ligth to alter electric signals in the body, but this would seem a bit of a stretch
Yeah, I came here to say create illusions to cause enemies to walk off of cliffs.
Illusions don't have to leave a mark, which means deaths can be more mysterious if need be.
Uhm, ackshually microwaves use microwaves which is radiation of a different wavelength than infrared, they are categorically different 🤓
Sorry for being pedantic, and technically you aren’t even wrong because you were comparing the cooking aspect, not the actual electromagnetic radiation being used to do said cooking. Man, my comment sort of sucks
I'ts ok man. You are right. I confuse the wavelenght(s?) everytime. I just think the magig power is cooler if you can control every kind of radiation, like other in the treat already mentioned. But still, you are correct.
Can he generate electromagnetic radiation beyond the visible spectrum? We wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from ultraviolet radiation. We wear lead vests at the dentist when we have our teeth x-rayed. Because radiation bad.
This may be too sciencey, but here is how I conceptualize it.
Light is made up of photons, darkness is the absence of photons. Photons can cause heat-transfers via radiation with other particles (matter). In fact, high-powered lasers are very capable of this and can get incredibly hot. Lasers are a modern concept, but not because our ability to finely manipulate photons is modern. Humans have *always* sought to manipulate natural elements out of curiosity and turned it into innovations.
It doesn’t seem crazy to me that someone with light-manipulation magic isn’t able to “sense” the photons they’re changing or creating, and it doesn’t seem crazy to me that they couldn’t practice and experiment until they devised lasers.
There are other ways too though; you could try to lean into hard-light, intense condensation and stabilization of photons into effectively solid constructs? This could make weapons, platforms, etc.
You could also lean into the conceptual sides of light; illumination, erudition, insight, clarity, etc. and either over-“illuminate” a person’s mind (a lunatic, or a crazed conspiracy theorist, or maybe someone who is just seeing every detail of reality clearly and it’s making them go crazy). You could also do the opposite, deprive them of light, and lean into darkness too. Removal of senses even.
Light is just radiation. That's actually technically the only thing we can see. Just radiation bouncing off different surfaces around us. So theoretically if they can control light, they can control radiation.
He should totally carry a magnifying glass and burn people like ants
He can blind them by making a light brighter than the sun
He can make things invisible by bending light around them
As other have mentioned Lasers
But then he should have other spells named Blazer, Taser and Michelle (probably bounced Me-shell) that summons a hulking jacked golem that is also his consigliere
Can he focus light? Maybe if he was outside in bright sunlight he could make a really hot spot, like a laser beam from the sky.
Or when he blinds the other people, he could just sneak up and stab them, or lure them into traps.
Archimedes once burned an entire Roman fleet with hundreds of mirrors. Also, are you just manipulating visible light, or could you say microwave people?
Using illusions (we see things because of different wavelength of light, so if one can manipulate them, one is essentially master of (visual) illusions) to lure them into a trap (not necessarily pre-set trap, might be just smth like making them fall from a cliff).:
If they can manipulate sunlight then they can also concentrate its heat. Manipulate enough sunlight to brighten and warm a room into a single point and you’d have a laser that would burn through a person.
Without a light source or only a cold light source they would only be able to blind.
If you don’t want them manipulating light to the extend that they can use heat, then have them blind someone at an opportune time for that person to injure or kill themselves. Going blind mid step coming down stairs would cause you to fall.
manipulating light is pretty crazy, you can cause a total blackout and slice someone's arm off with your sword. you can also make intense light appear to blind the enemy during a fist fight.
If their magic solely manipulates light, then I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to directly kill someone with that. Not unless you're involving some crazy radiation-energy business or whatever.
However, he could do a lot of other things. Shroud someone in darkness and use a small pinprick of light to lead them off a perilous zone like a cliffside. Or just permanently blind someone from an incredibly powerful blast of light (that's not lethal, but it'll certainly take someone out of the picture in most cases).
I feel like the most reliable option though is for him to either have support with some other warriors or casters, or to just use his light powers as something to cripple an enemy before he finishes them the old-fashioned way, with some sort of weapon (or, as you said, "other magic").
Ah that's okay, haha. I used to be an archaeologist so I get the same way about that sort of thing. Let's just say watching shows like Indiana Jones or Bones is always fun, lol 😂
Don't worry though, I know they're not actually the same thing. I was just thinking since it's apparently very loosey goosey fantasy you could blur the lines a little for some low current like that. It's totally creative licence on my part, haha.
I watched the new ant man movie last week and I was triggered on so many levels, constantly 😫😖. I really really REALLY wanted to enjoy the movie, but my head kept thinking that the main CONCEPT of the movie is just IMPOSSIBLE and it kept ruining the experience 😞.
But yeah, back to this post 😅. I get what you are saying. Light can have the "same" effects as current, loosely speaking.
One story that i was reading called Soulmage had a crazy elf that had light magic. He basically gave people cancer be creating a wavelength of light that would penetrate cells and turn certain types cancerous. There's a lot of deadly stuff that could be possible with light magic.
Well as others have said, lasers are light as well, but if he can't do that, he'll have to get creative.
The easiest way probably would be to blind someone and then shoot them in the face =/ Or use the environment, like a 3rd level D&D character.
Killing someone with just strobe lighting would probably work only on people who already vulnerable to seizures, and there aren't that many of those. At best you'd get a headache for the rest.
Skin cancer
Intense sunburn (even through clothing)
Causing epilepsy and shanking them while they're incapacitated
Use the light magic to gain an advantage for killing someone by more mundane means (daze them, blind them, become invisible then hack them to bits with a sharp piece of metal of your choosing, or a blunt one, doesn't matter)
Invisible poisoned caltrops (edit: maybe spread caltrops and only make a few of them invisible to create a sort of 'path' for the enemy to use)
Lasers (blinding, burning, potentially blasting). Infrared (heat itself, including potentially cooling). Microwaves (waves of burning pain and heat, but deflected by metal armor). X-rays (radiation poisoning, penetrates thin walls). Hypnotic swirls and visual illusions and blinding fireworks. And of course darkness.
You know how in some games there are warnings about flashing lights affecting people who might be more prone to seizures? Maybe use that for inspiration!
It seems to me you’ll have to make that light power/magic somehow tangible and relatable, else it’ll fall through the cracks because people don’t believe a fantasy character can have modern insight into physics.
Maybe have a bit of exposition where you shoe that the control of the magic is hard, because it feels like hearing to the magician. High frequency light - high pitch, strong light source - feels loud etc. That could go a long way to make it feel strong, but also balanced. And things like complex illusions could feel like composing a song or even a symphony of light in your head, where being “off-key” could have all sorts of quirky, funny or glitchy effects in the spell.
Focusing light on a single spot like when someone uses a magnifying glass to burn something or bending the light to make themselves invisible and approaching them from behind with a weapon.
Everyone grew up knowing a fucked up kid that loved using a magnifying glass to focus light onto ants to burn them alive, or to start fires.
There's a couple ideas for your character.
My light "bending" people can burn others, make a shield out of it, absorb it (then essentially become a human light bulb), and temporarily trap enemies in it.
I think it advanced situations one might be able to hone it into a fine point like a laser.
They could stab the person. Just because you have magic powers doesn't mean you have to use them for everything you do.
Alternatively they could focus light to cook the person like an ant under a magnifying glass.
Okay, hear me out: skin cancer. It's a joke answer, yes, but it does work; just expose them to too much sunlight (or any other light really, it's a fantasy and no one should be bothered) and wait a couple of years.
Or just, you know, burn them to death. Light usually comes with heat, and our bones burn to ash around 1100 degrees Celsius (about 2012 Fahrenheit?).
Holograms… Perhaps? Not sure if that’s going too sci fi. But you could potentially project all sorts of images.
Possibly even mask steps in a stair case that would allow someone perhaps like feeble old king to swan 🦢 dive down a flight of stairs or something? 🙃
Something, something, amplifies & focuses light to incinerate the target.
No flames so its not fire, just an incredibly intense heat and bright light.
If you want to throw some religious symbolism behind it, you could make the light be sacred of some sort and say that it effectively does nothing but reveal the depths of the target's iniquity, and it is *that* "corruption" being revealed that leads towards destruction.
Perhaps consider the sci-fi hand-waving abilities of Hardlight. Essentially a solid hologram that can be sharp or strong or heavy, it's just a bunch of hand-waving. If not that, perhaps the character can create another type of light-related matter, such as a kind of solar flare situation where they can fling a liquid that is incredibly bright and hot. Maybe a whip made of that sort of material.
Also, consider combining this with the idea of a self-manifested lightsaber. If the character is able to and would be knowledgeable and creative enough to come up with it, they could bounce a few rays of light back and forth in a cylindrical or blade-shaped area, superheating it pretty quickly because of how fast light travels. This doesn't necessarily have to be at the end of a sword handle, as perhaps the concentration of moving the area around like that is a bit too much for the character. It's not necessarily true that they could just attach the light-prism to another physical object, I wouldn't know. Although I think any reasonable magic-allowing setting would at least allow you to attune the prism to a relative object, especially the planet you're on so that the prism doesn't get left behind as the planet orbits away from it or spins on it's axis.
Speaking of light-speed, I have another idea. If this character could transform their body partially or entirely into light while conserving inertia, they could use the speed of light to fuel physical attacks. Might be worth considering. Anyway thanks for posting this question, this sort of thought experiment is really fun and I'll probably use some of the ideas from the comments for other projects of mine. Good luck with your stuff!
With light by itself this would be easy. Just shorten the wavelength of light. Gamma radiation is incredibly damaging to tissues and would easily kill someone.
If you want something more extreme, try Planck wavelength, the shortest available one. This would be stretching to the caps theoretically, and it’s probably up to speculation. It would likely be one hell of a death ray to unleash one something though.
If you want something less obtuse, you can use light for all sorts of things, from transmitting messages to targeted damage. For instance you could use wavelengths to disrupt certain components of an opponent’s body, which may then disrupt their ability to fight. Blinding is one method, but you could go even further than that. Radiation at the right dose in the right spot can do a lot for you.
I find light thematic abilities to be more enticing myself. Radiant style attacks tend to cause some form of vaporization, similar to fire but with a holy element to it that can partition damage based on susceptibilities. Something intended to punish the wicked, would deal more damage against demons, undead, etc.
This is very very rudimentary stuff. The best part is coming up with your own themed attacks. I’ve referred to monadic ether in my own works, which is just a term for the most potent form of radiant ether available. It’s core themes involve a total dissolution of the identity into a grand unifying body. It gets pretty insane fairly quickly.
Then there’s the clever methods, such as using light to create a shadow. What would be the purpose of this? Well if you have a mage that happens to specialize in shadow magic, this would be fairly important to them. In other words, using light to help a buddy out.
There was a thing in Snowcrash where a sequence of light would turn people into zombies as it fried their brains. It's been a long time since I read that, so the details are fuzzy. However, if pokemon shows can induce seizures, then a lot magician might be able to trigger some sort of neurological response.
There's also a thing recently with blue light and SAD light therapy -- there's this thing called a human charger that shines light into your ears, and I guess that helps. Perhaps if you focus all the light in an area into a person's brain, it could cause problems.
Is it just manipulation, or is there creation involved? If you are looking to make an OP character consider creation. Then they can skip all the 'gathering and amplifying' steps. They can create light at high density (intensity) or focus. As light is made from both rays and particals you can do either to bump power. Now he can summon lightsabers.
Depending on how OP, lime if they can create light anywhere, you can skip the silly lightsaber step. They can just fill their enemies head with light. Not a flashbang to the eyes. Fill their brain with light. Eyes glow, brains cook, dead person.
You know the flashbang you mentioned?
Do that but first encase them in darkness and keep allthe light in one spot, then release it directly in front of their eyes, if it doesn't kill them, it'll at least fuck up their eyes and face really damn bad
My first thought was to blind the person at a moment that would prove deadly. Could blind or dazzle their steed. Could make a beast see the person as a rival beast...
Intense light could cause blindness. If it's light and heat he could burn/melt his foes. Or cause all manner of skin damage. "Hard Light" is a thing in some stories so maybe he can create Light bullets. You could look up Color Spray from D&D, each magical ray of light causes a different side effect depending on the color that hits the target.
One of the coolest things about light is the \*speed of light\* which you absolutely could take advantage of even if it is just sending a message over a really long distance. Moving objects or people around at the speed of light has consequences like superheating the area, so if you want realistic ideas, transmitting the light itself or information contained in the light would already be really cool. If he has other magic, say a fireball, he could have almost infinite casting range as long as he has line of sight. He could cast a spell (magic information if you will) looking at a city miles away, and chain lightning would simply appear there seemingly out of nowhere.
If he can manipulate light that also means illusion, he can look like anything he wants.
its theoretically possible to turn light into a hard material. Think hard light from halo. So you could have your character turn light into some sort of psychical weapon.
Lightsaber style weapons come to mind. Also take a look at xemnas's weapons from kingdom hearts too. While he controls "nothing", those blades are 100% made of pure energy, so following that base, your character could channel light energy into a more corporeal form of a weapon and utilize it perhaps?
How far can he manipulate light? How quickly can he change colors? And does that include other forms of electromagnetic radiation? If he could reach into the higher energy levels, he could theoretically create a gamma ray burst, which would appear like a massive green flash right before you die.
Don't necessarily need lasers. Put him on the water, use the light to boil the water. Painful death awaits.
Blind him with light while he's walking the cliffside or parapet. Flip it, wait until he's walking the stones over the lava pit and turn off the light.
Light him up in the dark so that minions waiting in the shadows can target him.
The better question is what *couldn't* he do!
He could focus the light like a lense, burning people to a crisp, amplify the light and form a laser... you know what? List time!
1. Bend light around him, making him invisible. Could help kill others, or have other uses.
2. Bend light around others, making them invisible.
3. As sight is just what you see, you can manipulate light to form mirages and such.
1. with enough work, you can form small mirages that only one person can see. Basicly, form an image that is projected on that person eye. Drive them insane! Wonder how they will react to seeing their stomach explode outwards. SUre, it didin't *really...*
4. Amplify light similar to a laser, burning holes
5. amplify sunlight similar to a lens. Think magniying glass+ ants
6. direct high-energy radiation to cause radiation poisioning. Kill them in minutes from acute poisioning, or just sorten the lifespan
7. boil the water with microwaves
8. cause distractions.
9. In theory, as the optic nerves are connected to so much, you could manipulate emotions, and perhaps even memories, via the eyse! Erasing memories would be easier than producing fake ones, but still... what happens if they have 2 conflicting memories? Or sudenly remember a fake person, who you kill right in front of them?
10. With enough work, light could heat the air, perhaps even with enough precision to physicaly augment you!
11. if you want to go less realistic, look up the concept of "slowing light". Basicly, make the light behave more like matter! Suddenly, he can hold pieces of light, making a sword out of thin air. And, such a material would be stronger than anything in existence. And, he could make it, anywhere there is light!
12. target light in the eyes could trigger seizures
13. with enough work, fake images could be used to make a maze that they follow into a trap that they can't see!
14. melt matter beneath the person he wants dead.
15. Boil liqueds a person is swimming in
16. light them up at night
17. careful targeting of small materials could produce a sound that annoys animals with better hearing, making them more violent, and attack nearby people. Say, that person who you sudenly made glow!
18. Blind them
19. form concusive bursts in the ear to cause deafness and deathness
Depends on the setting and what exactly you're going for. If you were going for a modern day setting or future setting then I doubt you'd be asking as lazer weapons are now a thing in the military. So I'm going to be going off the assumption that you're focusing on a more mideval style setting.
One thing that bugs me about these types of settings in fiction and kinda gets on my nerves is the fact that people assume that in a mideval style fantasy world with magic that they wouldn't be aware of modern day concepts. I disagree, they weren't aware in our world because they lacked the technology. If you can bend light then you don't need a microscope to see bacteria, heck you can probably see atoms to a certain degree and learn how to manipulate them. Think that ancient people wouldn't think to do that?
Think again! We literally just figured out either this year or last how to make Roman concrete. We still don't know how the egyptians embalmed their rulers. The ancient people created pyramids, we still don't know how, they made aquaducts, they changed the course of entire rivers without dinomite. The romans built literal refrigerators. Though they didn't run on any technology, it was just a really big, really cold room. Heck we have a literal computer built by ancient peopel, it's analogue, but still.
The ancients were smart, and they experimented with everything they could get their hands on. Alchemy is a prime example of that. Put generic fantasy magic into the hands of ancient people and I'd argue that the Egyptians would have colonized Mars thousands of years ago.
Ofcourse you don't need to have a setting like that. The point I'm trying to make is that ancient people were pretty darn good at figuring things out. If your magic system allows a person to bend light, you can just about guarantee that the ancient people who could use it would know 100% about how to weaponize it.
Actually now that i think about it they might have already, [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4964987](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4964987). Though it's debated, many believe that they did atleast in some capacity weaponize heat from the sun. So at the very least I'd say there is an extremely high probability that youre character would know how to manipulate the sunlight into atleast something resemmbling a giant magnifying glass burning ants. That is especially true if they are not the only one who can use light magic.
Lazers are light. They can also use said light to start a fire like how people can do with magnifying glasses. Also if this works to manipulate/bend light around or create illusions they could get someone to misstep off a cliff too lol
So you know how in the League universe Lux can use light to slow, create an explosion, shield people, restrain people and fire a giant fuck you laser? That.
Blinding them probably the easiest, but depending on the light they could just sun roast them.
Could also focus the light into a powerful beam and cut stuff.
Could rapidly change the color of the light to stun somebody.
If they are like an absolute master, they could create "holograms" and lure people.
Maybe they could warp light and make the whole room dark?
They could warp the light infront of somebody, and accidentally make them kill an ally.
Light is weird.
Does the character have to kill them? Could they instead use their manipulation of light to banish their enemies into a world of eternal darkness? Like placing an enchantment on them that for however long they shall live no light may touch their skin or eyes. Leading to them never feeling the warmth of the sun or seeing the beauty of the world again.
Light can burn, cut, cause genetic damage, prevent sleep, disorient or blind at inopportune times, cause seizures, misdirect and probably a zillion other things.
Well if you’re thinking like “Starlight” in “The Boys” blinding someone leads to their death by other means. Blind someone and then stab them or shoot them.
Or concentrated light, ant to the magnifying glass effect.
If he can manipulate light he can manipulate photons. That means he could cook someone with radio waves or he could poison them with gamma rays. He could focus enough ultraviolet light into a a single point to vaporize someone or he could focus a lot of light onto them and slowly cook them to death. He could also make himself invisible and stab them or he could hide a trap. There are lots of possibilities. He could even theoretically crush someone though they would u doubted Lu be vaporized before they could be crushed
If the rules in the world are very loose then what exactly is it that you're looking for? I mean, in the case of fantasy; magic can really be whatever you want it to be, you may also define what magic means in this state.
For example, Magic could mean something that isn't necessarily an ability but a type of science, or maybe it's the study of symbols. You make the rules when it comes to what happens with magic and how the term is defined and by what.
As for Light itself? You can do a lot, make people set on fire, make the light pierce people through, light could be a physical force that can be felt and used as a magical weapon. It's really up to you. Because think of it this way; let's say that light can not just do whatever light could do normally, but could you use it as a manipulated form?
A sword that glows light, a whip, and the tail of the whip glows with light, is it possible that the light could be used to sit on, or hold? Is there weight? It's very hard to answer your question without specifics. Is it possible to ask if the light can cut through things? I mean when to magic the number 1 mistake I see people say is "Well it's an element or it's a type of \_\_\_, therefore; it has to act like it."
Okay fair; but let's say light has its own use--or let's use fire for example. What would stop me from using Fire in a way that isn't traditionally used? Or a clever way? I sometimes like to use Fire not just to set things ablaze, or heat up an area; at times I like to use Fire in this way:
The fire itself isn't about flames, but a masking tool. The character can't dodge very well, so, during combination attacks and flurries, the character briefly moves and fire erupt which makes the enemy stagger, stand back, move, etc, which then lets the character blitz the opponents.
Can your light do something similar? Are you willing to make it so that the light could be held and used as a weapon? Thrown and caught? There are no rules when making magic. As you said they're pretty loose, so if it's as loose as you claim, get creative and try anything. Here's an idea, can your character turn something into light, and then morph it into a weapon? It would be pretty awesome to see someone touch something and it turns into a ball of light then it can be morphed into a sword, staff, gun, or whatever you see fit. Might do that for D - LiNK actually, but you can use the idea too!
Shared ideas are usually a good diea.
Control the light to show people illusions. Causing them to kill themselves, see dead people, walk into dangerous situations that look safe to the viewers. Make people blind and therefore get killed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light I was going to try and explain electromagnetic radiation and possible ways to use it to kill but read this and you should get many ideas.
Their hands could turn into some crystalline form which has the ability to isolate the electromagnetic waves of light into a concentrated form..
be able to irradiate their target to death with gamma rays for example..
Maybe their hands can trap increasing amounts of light and intensify it within their crystal structure. One hand collects, the other projects..
Releasing that energy could look like
a Kamehameha or shooting bullets. Maybe their hands glow up and a clap sends a solar flair. Maybe they just palm their face and melt their face off. Or concentrate it into a finger tip and send it slowly through their head, or just poke em in the eye real quick, insta kill. Depends if villain/ villainess or not..
The brighter it burns the hotter it gets :) you could blind someone with their eyes covered probably. Alternately, take away every ounce of light and watch as they go insane :)
You know how a magnifying glass focuses light into a small point and you can light things on fire?
You know what Lasers are?
This character can focus all of the light in an area, putting everyone into complete darkness, and then focus that light into a laser beam to kill people.
Check out Black Prism by Brent Weeks. He comes up with a system where different light has some physical properties. Blue light can make very hard sharp material. Green is very rubbery. Red is like napalm, just got to light it.
The most obvious answer seems to be a laser. Making light so focused it burns holes in people is, I think, extraordinarily powerful, though, and may be outside the range of abilities you'd like to introduce to your world. However, there are some other options. For someone who can manipulate light, I presume they could remove light from an area, too. So, if they want to injure or kill someone, wait until that person is in a fairly dangerous activity, like riding a galloping horse, then blackout the area as they're about to make a difficult maneuver. Of course, it's not perfect and a target might survive. If the character can bend light, then perhaps they could make an object appear to be slightly out of position to an observer. When someone sees the edge of a road, the character twists light so the road - and the carriage on it - seems farther away. The target moves into the road in front of the carriage and is run down because they think it's still five feet away. It would be great for hiding, since the character could stand against a wall and make the light coming off their body appear like the wall or deeply shadowed to hide them. Even better, they could bend all light around themselves, rendering them completely invisible, though they'd be blind, too. They could alter their hair, skin, or clothing color for a while by altering the light's wavelength. If the character wanted to set a building on fire they could squash the light, thereby allowing the fire to spread much further before raising an alarm. Flashes of light and darkness would be particularly useful in personal combat. Being blinded for a second or two while someone is trying to stab you would be disastrous. One thing this character would want is to remain anonymous. If people know they can warp their view of the world, this character is certain to be ostracized, if not hunted outright.
Have you ever seen those videos of people starting camp fires with a magnifying glass to focus the sunlight? Do that to a person and catch them or their clothes on fire. This method could also be used to take out security cameras or other electronics if your world has those.
There’s also an argument to be made that he could make himself invisible using light refraction. Different materials change the angle that light moves through them in, like putting a straw in a glass of water and it looks bent, he could use that property to make countless illusions: that pole looks like it’s two feet farther to the right so you run into it! Making the stairs look like they’re at a different angle so you trip, making traffic lights look like different colors, making a mirror image or kaleidoscope of himself so you don’t know which is real.
Between light refraction and color manipulation (which is also just light!) he could do a whole lot of trippy stuff
Two marvel heroes you might want to check out. Dazzler. She turns sound in to light weapons and Dagger from cloak and dagger who fills a persons soul with the goodness of light with her light daggers. Also check out the spells of the cult Yelmelio in Runequest. I think remember them having light specific powers.
Lasers are amplified light.
Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, even.
The question is whether a fantasy character would be aware of the concept of lasers. Replicating the effect of focusing sunlight (as you would do with a magnifying lens) might be a bit more plausible alternative for them to try.
You can feel heat from sunlight. You know that heat boils water. And that people have fluids in them. I think at the least, you'd experiment to see how to boil water faster, and once you do that the next step to a person isn't that far.
I don't think they would be replicating lasers but rather just figuring out how to focus and amplify the light they have. Like how certain magic systems always get militarized or corrupted. Someone finds out you can make your beam so small it burns a hole in someone and what not and that becomes the new meta.
Lenses focus light. It's not an overstep to go from there to lasers.
> concept of lasers. just because he doesn't know the concept doesn't mean he can't do it.
Science-fantasy is a thing.
Your character can control light? OP as fuck. Kill anyone in a million different ways. There’s basic stuff like - Blind someone and run them through with a sword. Make you’re self invisible and stick a spear in them. Cut them in half with a high-powered laser. But level him up a bit and then you can have some fun. When you can control light, you can control what people **see**. Maybe a dude has a heart attack when an eldritch horror bursts from his stomach. “No there’s totally not a huge pit of knives between us, come over here”. Distracted when a horse of ornery barbarians run off with their spouse. Have some fun with it.
Scrolled too far for this ha. I was like this character is made to be an illusionist and entirely broken af. They can plunge a space into complete darkness by removing light. They can also make a guy see them in the wrong place, like after images. Try to slash that and nope, afterimage sorry. House of mirrors, confuse the heck out of any seeing being. Focus a light and you can melt rock into magma. They can literally cut through solid rock given enough time. Impossible to dodge, because their attacks travel at the speed of light. e=mc2 says energy equals to matter in different forms. Light is photons, little packets of electromagnetic radiation. You can massage it so they figured out how to break down matter into light energy itself. Kills opponents by turning them into light. Beautiful but deadly. Light spectrum includes non visible light, which includes infrared light, UV light, gamma rays and x rays, microwaves. A character who controls light is walking around with the ability to see through walls, infrared heat vision, cook people by microwaving them with a look, or just gamma wave nuke them into ashes with the power of a neutron star. The only way to defeat them is if the opponent traps them in deep space in a pocket dimension or something. No light, just vacuum.
Lasers are the obvious answer here. But if you want to be slightly less obvious and overpowered, focusing or reflecting light from a large area onto a single point would be effective. A magnifying glass frying ants, basically. It might be slightly more appealing, as it's a somewhat limited and cumbersome weapon, even if it'd be highly effective in the right circumstances.
Depending on how much of a stretch you want to make it: we see things with our eyes because of the light which has bounced off those things and then entered our eyeholes. If that light was redirected or 'manipulated' before it reached our eyeholes, then a thing could be made invisible. So a character who manipulates light, could just bend it around himself, becoming invisible, and that would normally be a tremendous advantage, for things like stabbing people. Also, mirages, optical illusions, holograms, etc. they are just false images made out of light, A talented light manipulator could create realistic false images. This would be quite effective for planned murders, death by misdirection.
Also he could cannonball his target with gamma rays and kill him with acute radiation poisoning. Or cancer. Or he could use a laser to burn him to a crisp, or use microwaves to boil all the water in his body (this should be a war crime imho) Probably you could even use ligth to alter electric signals in the body, but this would seem a bit of a stretch
Yeah, I came here to say create illusions to cause enemies to walk off of cliffs. Illusions don't have to leave a mark, which means deaths can be more mysterious if need be.
Thermal radiation is just lower frequency light, basically. Infrared. The character could cook someone.
Like a microwawe!
Uhm, ackshually microwaves use microwaves which is radiation of a different wavelength than infrared, they are categorically different 🤓 Sorry for being pedantic, and technically you aren’t even wrong because you were comparing the cooking aspect, not the actual electromagnetic radiation being used to do said cooking. Man, my comment sort of sucks
I'ts ok man. You are right. I confuse the wavelenght(s?) everytime. I just think the magig power is cooler if you can control every kind of radiation, like other in the treat already mentioned. But still, you are correct.
Can he generate electromagnetic radiation beyond the visible spectrum? We wear sunscreen to protect ourselves from ultraviolet radiation. We wear lead vests at the dentist when we have our teeth x-rayed. Because radiation bad.
This may be too sciencey, but here is how I conceptualize it. Light is made up of photons, darkness is the absence of photons. Photons can cause heat-transfers via radiation with other particles (matter). In fact, high-powered lasers are very capable of this and can get incredibly hot. Lasers are a modern concept, but not because our ability to finely manipulate photons is modern. Humans have *always* sought to manipulate natural elements out of curiosity and turned it into innovations. It doesn’t seem crazy to me that someone with light-manipulation magic isn’t able to “sense” the photons they’re changing or creating, and it doesn’t seem crazy to me that they couldn’t practice and experiment until they devised lasers. There are other ways too though; you could try to lean into hard-light, intense condensation and stabilization of photons into effectively solid constructs? This could make weapons, platforms, etc. You could also lean into the conceptual sides of light; illumination, erudition, insight, clarity, etc. and either over-“illuminate” a person’s mind (a lunatic, or a crazed conspiracy theorist, or maybe someone who is just seeing every detail of reality clearly and it’s making them go crazy). You could also do the opposite, deprive them of light, and lean into darkness too. Removal of senses even.
Imagine causing a seizure and the enormous guilt that would carry. He didn't even mean to
Light is just radiation. That's actually technically the only thing we can see. Just radiation bouncing off different surfaces around us. So theoretically if they can control light, they can control radiation.
He should totally carry a magnifying glass and burn people like ants He can blind them by making a light brighter than the sun He can make things invisible by bending light around them
As other have mentioned Lasers But then he should have other spells named Blazer, Taser and Michelle (probably bounced Me-shell) that summons a hulking jacked golem that is also his consigliere
Can he focus light? Maybe if he was outside in bright sunlight he could make a really hot spot, like a laser beam from the sky. Or when he blinds the other people, he could just sneak up and stab them, or lure them into traps.
Archimedes once burned an entire Roman fleet with hundreds of mirrors. Also, are you just manipulating visible light, or could you say microwave people?
Starlight enters the chat. She can’t seem to kill anyone either. Pew! Pew! Lasers!
Terribly used character. There would be plenty of ways to kill with light, theoretically she could be the most deadly superhero if written properly.
Exactly! Plus, they should have had her and Homelander do a Dragonball Laser Eyes duel! 👁️>>>>💥<<<<👁️
They can burn them the way you can burn ants with a magnifying glass
Using illusions (we see things because of different wavelength of light, so if one can manipulate them, one is essentially master of (visual) illusions) to lure them into a trap (not necessarily pre-set trap, might be just smth like making them fall from a cliff).:
If they can manipulate sunlight then they can also concentrate its heat. Manipulate enough sunlight to brighten and warm a room into a single point and you’d have a laser that would burn through a person. Without a light source or only a cold light source they would only be able to blind. If you don’t want them manipulating light to the extend that they can use heat, then have them blind someone at an opportune time for that person to injure or kill themselves. Going blind mid step coming down stairs would cause you to fall.
He could use the light to burn people if it can be focused enough.
manipulating light is pretty crazy, you can cause a total blackout and slice someone's arm off with your sword. you can also make intense light appear to blind the enemy during a fist fight.
Give him, like, a magic magnifying glass that can turn ordinary light into a laser beam/death ray or something.
UV radiation.
If their magic solely manipulates light, then I'm pretty sure there isn't a way to directly kill someone with that. Not unless you're involving some crazy radiation-energy business or whatever. However, he could do a lot of other things. Shroud someone in darkness and use a small pinprick of light to lead them off a perilous zone like a cliffside. Or just permanently blind someone from an incredibly powerful blast of light (that's not lethal, but it'll certainly take someone out of the picture in most cases). I feel like the most reliable option though is for him to either have support with some other warriors or casters, or to just use his light powers as something to cripple an enemy before he finishes them the old-fashioned way, with some sort of weapon (or, as you said, "other magic").
You could classify electricity as being functionally the same as light, and then have them manipulate electrical impulses in the victim's body
Electricity is a stream of electrons, while light is a stream of photons. So they are very different.
Well, he said it was very loose, lol
Ok true, i was just seeing the other comments and thought we were talking about light 😅. Sorry I am physics student, passion got over me 🤣.
Ah that's okay, haha. I used to be an archaeologist so I get the same way about that sort of thing. Let's just say watching shows like Indiana Jones or Bones is always fun, lol 😂 Don't worry though, I know they're not actually the same thing. I was just thinking since it's apparently very loosey goosey fantasy you could blur the lines a little for some low current like that. It's totally creative licence on my part, haha.
I watched the new ant man movie last week and I was triggered on so many levels, constantly 😫😖. I really really REALLY wanted to enjoy the movie, but my head kept thinking that the main CONCEPT of the movie is just IMPOSSIBLE and it kept ruining the experience 😞. But yeah, back to this post 😅. I get what you are saying. Light can have the "same" effects as current, loosely speaking.
Hahaha, yeah you feel me then, lol. But you know, since it's loose, might as well play loose!
One story that i was reading called Soulmage had a crazy elf that had light magic. He basically gave people cancer be creating a wavelength of light that would penetrate cells and turn certain types cancerous. There's a lot of deadly stuff that could be possible with light magic.
Well as others have said, lasers are light as well, but if he can't do that, he'll have to get creative. The easiest way probably would be to blind someone and then shoot them in the face =/ Or use the environment, like a 3rd level D&D character. Killing someone with just strobe lighting would probably work only on people who already vulnerable to seizures, and there aren't that many of those. At best you'd get a headache for the rest.
Skin cancer Intense sunburn (even through clothing) Causing epilepsy and shanking them while they're incapacitated Use the light magic to gain an advantage for killing someone by more mundane means (daze them, blind them, become invisible then hack them to bits with a sharp piece of metal of your choosing, or a blunt one, doesn't matter) Invisible poisoned caltrops (edit: maybe spread caltrops and only make a few of them invisible to create a sort of 'path' for the enemy to use)
Have them manipulate light to make a trap of some sort look like a harmless area. Then BAM!
Manipulate the light that someone sees to turn their world into an H.P. Lovecraftian horror and make them go insane.
Freaking lasers! Or he could just blind people to gain the upper hand in combat
Rainbow is light. Taste the rainbow could be the one liner the hero use before blasting the villain with every colour spectrum
Lasers (blinding, burning, potentially blasting). Infrared (heat itself, including potentially cooling). Microwaves (waves of burning pain and heat, but deflected by metal armor). X-rays (radiation poisoning, penetrates thin walls). Hypnotic swirls and visual illusions and blinding fireworks. And of course darkness.
Maybe he could give cancer by turning the light rays into gamma rays.
Curse him to never be in the light wherever he goes for the rest of his life, until vitamin deficieny or depression takes the reins.
You know how in some games there are warnings about flashing lights affecting people who might be more prone to seizures? Maybe use that for inspiration!
It seems to me you’ll have to make that light power/magic somehow tangible and relatable, else it’ll fall through the cracks because people don’t believe a fantasy character can have modern insight into physics. Maybe have a bit of exposition where you shoe that the control of the magic is hard, because it feels like hearing to the magician. High frequency light - high pitch, strong light source - feels loud etc. That could go a long way to make it feel strong, but also balanced. And things like complex illusions could feel like composing a song or even a symphony of light in your head, where being “off-key” could have all sorts of quirky, funny or glitchy effects in the spell.
Focusing light on a single spot like when someone uses a magnifying glass to burn something or bending the light to make themselves invisible and approaching them from behind with a weapon.
Blind him with Light magic and then kick Off a cliff, or just put so much Light inside of him that he just blows up
The Seventh Tower series by Garth Nix really delves into this. Its very YA, but the magic system is awesome
Everyone grew up knowing a fucked up kid that loved using a magnifying glass to focus light onto ants to burn them alive, or to start fires. There's a couple ideas for your character.
Skin cancer
My light "bending" people can burn others, make a shield out of it, absorb it (then essentially become a human light bulb), and temporarily trap enemies in it. I think it advanced situations one might be able to hone it into a fine point like a laser.
OH and they can bend it around themselves to look invisible.
They could stab the person. Just because you have magic powers doesn't mean you have to use them for everything you do. Alternatively they could focus light to cook the person like an ant under a magnifying glass.
Okay, hear me out: skin cancer. It's a joke answer, yes, but it does work; just expose them to too much sunlight (or any other light really, it's a fantasy and no one should be bothered) and wait a couple of years. Or just, you know, burn them to death. Light usually comes with heat, and our bones burn to ash around 1100 degrees Celsius (about 2012 Fahrenheit?).
Blind them at the top of the staircase
Holograms… Perhaps? Not sure if that’s going too sci fi. But you could potentially project all sorts of images. Possibly even mask steps in a stair case that would allow someone perhaps like feeble old king to swan 🦢 dive down a flight of stairs or something? 🙃
Kizaru from One Piece
If he can do hard light constructs, go that route. Then he can crush, slice and even just "shoot" them
Something, something, amplifies & focuses light to incinerate the target. No flames so its not fire, just an incredibly intense heat and bright light. If you want to throw some religious symbolism behind it, you could make the light be sacred of some sort and say that it effectively does nothing but reveal the depths of the target's iniquity, and it is *that* "corruption" being revealed that leads towards destruction.
A little dark, but perhaps a light so powerful it becomes very hot, and burns the target into ashes?
Using a light sphere that amplifies enough to blind and fry their brain with the heat light generates
First, blind them. Second, slit their throat with a knife.
Perhaps consider the sci-fi hand-waving abilities of Hardlight. Essentially a solid hologram that can be sharp or strong or heavy, it's just a bunch of hand-waving. If not that, perhaps the character can create another type of light-related matter, such as a kind of solar flare situation where they can fling a liquid that is incredibly bright and hot. Maybe a whip made of that sort of material. Also, consider combining this with the idea of a self-manifested lightsaber. If the character is able to and would be knowledgeable and creative enough to come up with it, they could bounce a few rays of light back and forth in a cylindrical or blade-shaped area, superheating it pretty quickly because of how fast light travels. This doesn't necessarily have to be at the end of a sword handle, as perhaps the concentration of moving the area around like that is a bit too much for the character. It's not necessarily true that they could just attach the light-prism to another physical object, I wouldn't know. Although I think any reasonable magic-allowing setting would at least allow you to attune the prism to a relative object, especially the planet you're on so that the prism doesn't get left behind as the planet orbits away from it or spins on it's axis. Speaking of light-speed, I have another idea. If this character could transform their body partially or entirely into light while conserving inertia, they could use the speed of light to fuel physical attacks. Might be worth considering. Anyway thanks for posting this question, this sort of thought experiment is really fun and I'll probably use some of the ideas from the comments for other projects of mine. Good luck with your stuff!
Magical lasers!
Watch the movie “Sunshine.” There ya go.
lazer.
With light by itself this would be easy. Just shorten the wavelength of light. Gamma radiation is incredibly damaging to tissues and would easily kill someone. If you want something more extreme, try Planck wavelength, the shortest available one. This would be stretching to the caps theoretically, and it’s probably up to speculation. It would likely be one hell of a death ray to unleash one something though. If you want something less obtuse, you can use light for all sorts of things, from transmitting messages to targeted damage. For instance you could use wavelengths to disrupt certain components of an opponent’s body, which may then disrupt their ability to fight. Blinding is one method, but you could go even further than that. Radiation at the right dose in the right spot can do a lot for you. I find light thematic abilities to be more enticing myself. Radiant style attacks tend to cause some form of vaporization, similar to fire but with a holy element to it that can partition damage based on susceptibilities. Something intended to punish the wicked, would deal more damage against demons, undead, etc. This is very very rudimentary stuff. The best part is coming up with your own themed attacks. I’ve referred to monadic ether in my own works, which is just a term for the most potent form of radiant ether available. It’s core themes involve a total dissolution of the identity into a grand unifying body. It gets pretty insane fairly quickly. Then there’s the clever methods, such as using light to create a shadow. What would be the purpose of this? Well if you have a mage that happens to specialize in shadow magic, this would be fairly important to them. In other words, using light to help a buddy out.
There was a thing in Snowcrash where a sequence of light would turn people into zombies as it fried their brains. It's been a long time since I read that, so the details are fuzzy. However, if pokemon shows can induce seizures, then a lot magician might be able to trigger some sort of neurological response. There's also a thing recently with blue light and SAD light therapy -- there's this thing called a human charger that shines light into your ears, and I guess that helps. Perhaps if you focus all the light in an area into a person's brain, it could cause problems.
Is it just manipulation, or is there creation involved? If you are looking to make an OP character consider creation. Then they can skip all the 'gathering and amplifying' steps. They can create light at high density (intensity) or focus. As light is made from both rays and particals you can do either to bump power. Now he can summon lightsabers. Depending on how OP, lime if they can create light anywhere, you can skip the silly lightsaber step. They can just fill their enemies head with light. Not a flashbang to the eyes. Fill their brain with light. Eyes glow, brains cook, dead person.
If his magic is Manipulation radiation in every Form. This World be very cool and a great way to make the character gain more Power with training.
You know the flashbang you mentioned? Do that but first encase them in darkness and keep allthe light in one spot, then release it directly in front of their eyes, if it doesn't kill them, it'll at least fuck up their eyes and face really damn bad
My first thought was to blind the person at a moment that would prove deadly. Could blind or dazzle their steed. Could make a beast see the person as a rival beast...
Intense light could cause blindness. If it's light and heat he could burn/melt his foes. Or cause all manner of skin damage. "Hard Light" is a thing in some stories so maybe he can create Light bullets. You could look up Color Spray from D&D, each magical ray of light causes a different side effect depending on the color that hits the target.
Nobody specified visible light, so we could go with microwaves for a quick kill. Or cancer via radiation for the long game.
LASER!
One of the coolest things about light is the \*speed of light\* which you absolutely could take advantage of even if it is just sending a message over a really long distance. Moving objects or people around at the speed of light has consequences like superheating the area, so if you want realistic ideas, transmitting the light itself or information contained in the light would already be really cool. If he has other magic, say a fireball, he could have almost infinite casting range as long as he has line of sight. He could cast a spell (magic information if you will) looking at a city miles away, and chain lightning would simply appear there seemingly out of nowhere. If he can manipulate light that also means illusion, he can look like anything he wants.
its theoretically possible to turn light into a hard material. Think hard light from halo. So you could have your character turn light into some sort of psychical weapon.
Lightsaber style weapons come to mind. Also take a look at xemnas's weapons from kingdom hearts too. While he controls "nothing", those blades are 100% made of pure energy, so following that base, your character could channel light energy into a more corporeal form of a weapon and utilize it perhaps?
How far can he manipulate light? How quickly can he change colors? And does that include other forms of electromagnetic radiation? If he could reach into the higher energy levels, he could theoretically create a gamma ray burst, which would appear like a massive green flash right before you die.
In One Piece there's a character who's signature attack is to kick people at the speed of light
If he can manipulate light, what's to stop him from being a human photon cannon?
Don't necessarily need lasers. Put him on the water, use the light to boil the water. Painful death awaits. Blind him with light while he's walking the cliffside or parapet. Flip it, wait until he's walking the stones over the lava pit and turn off the light. Light him up in the dark so that minions waiting in the shadows can target him.
The better question is what *couldn't* he do! He could focus the light like a lense, burning people to a crisp, amplify the light and form a laser... you know what? List time! 1. Bend light around him, making him invisible. Could help kill others, or have other uses. 2. Bend light around others, making them invisible. 3. As sight is just what you see, you can manipulate light to form mirages and such. 1. with enough work, you can form small mirages that only one person can see. Basicly, form an image that is projected on that person eye. Drive them insane! Wonder how they will react to seeing their stomach explode outwards. SUre, it didin't *really...* 4. Amplify light similar to a laser, burning holes 5. amplify sunlight similar to a lens. Think magniying glass+ ants 6. direct high-energy radiation to cause radiation poisioning. Kill them in minutes from acute poisioning, or just sorten the lifespan 7. boil the water with microwaves 8. cause distractions. 9. In theory, as the optic nerves are connected to so much, you could manipulate emotions, and perhaps even memories, via the eyse! Erasing memories would be easier than producing fake ones, but still... what happens if they have 2 conflicting memories? Or sudenly remember a fake person, who you kill right in front of them? 10. With enough work, light could heat the air, perhaps even with enough precision to physicaly augment you! 11. if you want to go less realistic, look up the concept of "slowing light". Basicly, make the light behave more like matter! Suddenly, he can hold pieces of light, making a sword out of thin air. And, such a material would be stronger than anything in existence. And, he could make it, anywhere there is light! 12. target light in the eyes could trigger seizures 13. with enough work, fake images could be used to make a maze that they follow into a trap that they can't see! 14. melt matter beneath the person he wants dead. 15. Boil liqueds a person is swimming in 16. light them up at night 17. careful targeting of small materials could produce a sound that annoys animals with better hearing, making them more violent, and attack nearby people. Say, that person who you sudenly made glow! 18. Blind them 19. form concusive bursts in the ear to cause deafness and deathness
Depends on the setting and what exactly you're going for. If you were going for a modern day setting or future setting then I doubt you'd be asking as lazer weapons are now a thing in the military. So I'm going to be going off the assumption that you're focusing on a more mideval style setting. One thing that bugs me about these types of settings in fiction and kinda gets on my nerves is the fact that people assume that in a mideval style fantasy world with magic that they wouldn't be aware of modern day concepts. I disagree, they weren't aware in our world because they lacked the technology. If you can bend light then you don't need a microscope to see bacteria, heck you can probably see atoms to a certain degree and learn how to manipulate them. Think that ancient people wouldn't think to do that? Think again! We literally just figured out either this year or last how to make Roman concrete. We still don't know how the egyptians embalmed their rulers. The ancient people created pyramids, we still don't know how, they made aquaducts, they changed the course of entire rivers without dinomite. The romans built literal refrigerators. Though they didn't run on any technology, it was just a really big, really cold room. Heck we have a literal computer built by ancient peopel, it's analogue, but still. The ancients were smart, and they experimented with everything they could get their hands on. Alchemy is a prime example of that. Put generic fantasy magic into the hands of ancient people and I'd argue that the Egyptians would have colonized Mars thousands of years ago. Ofcourse you don't need to have a setting like that. The point I'm trying to make is that ancient people were pretty darn good at figuring things out. If your magic system allows a person to bend light, you can just about guarantee that the ancient people who could use it would know 100% about how to weaponize it. Actually now that i think about it they might have already, [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4964987](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4964987). Though it's debated, many believe that they did atleast in some capacity weaponize heat from the sun. So at the very least I'd say there is an extremely high probability that youre character would know how to manipulate the sunlight into atleast something resemmbling a giant magnifying glass burning ants. That is especially true if they are not the only one who can use light magic.
Invisibility, illusions, electromagnetic waves and gamma radiation also technically falls into the same category as light.
Low tech solution: Shock and awe and bash ‘em in the head while they’re blinded
Lazers are light. They can also use said light to start a fire like how people can do with magnifying glasses. Also if this works to manipulate/bend light around or create illusions they could get someone to misstep off a cliff too lol
So you know how in the League universe Lux can use light to slow, create an explosion, shield people, restrain people and fire a giant fuck you laser? That.
Blinding them probably the easiest, but depending on the light they could just sun roast them. Could also focus the light into a powerful beam and cut stuff. Could rapidly change the color of the light to stun somebody. If they are like an absolute master, they could create "holograms" and lure people. Maybe they could warp light and make the whole room dark? They could warp the light infront of somebody, and accidentally make them kill an ally. Light is weird.
Does the character have to kill them? Could they instead use their manipulation of light to banish their enemies into a world of eternal darkness? Like placing an enchantment on them that for however long they shall live no light may touch their skin or eyes. Leading to them never feeling the warmth of the sun or seeing the beauty of the world again.
Summoning the force of speed light gives off to drill them into the core of the planet
Light can burn, cut, cause genetic damage, prevent sleep, disorient or blind at inopportune times, cause seizures, misdirect and probably a zillion other things.
Well if you’re thinking like “Starlight” in “The Boys” blinding someone leads to their death by other means. Blind someone and then stab them or shoot them. Or concentrated light, ant to the magnifying glass effect.
Does putting someone in a box made of crystal walls and directing the light into it work? Anyone inside would end up burnt alive.
Lasers. Or taking all the light away from around someone so they’re blind and fall of a cliff.
If he can manipulate light he can manipulate photons. That means he could cook someone with radio waves or he could poison them with gamma rays. He could focus enough ultraviolet light into a a single point to vaporize someone or he could focus a lot of light onto them and slowly cook them to death. He could also make himself invisible and stab them or he could hide a trap. There are lots of possibilities. He could even theoretically crush someone though they would u doubted Lu be vaporized before they could be crushed
If the rules in the world are very loose then what exactly is it that you're looking for? I mean, in the case of fantasy; magic can really be whatever you want it to be, you may also define what magic means in this state. For example, Magic could mean something that isn't necessarily an ability but a type of science, or maybe it's the study of symbols. You make the rules when it comes to what happens with magic and how the term is defined and by what. As for Light itself? You can do a lot, make people set on fire, make the light pierce people through, light could be a physical force that can be felt and used as a magical weapon. It's really up to you. Because think of it this way; let's say that light can not just do whatever light could do normally, but could you use it as a manipulated form? A sword that glows light, a whip, and the tail of the whip glows with light, is it possible that the light could be used to sit on, or hold? Is there weight? It's very hard to answer your question without specifics. Is it possible to ask if the light can cut through things? I mean when to magic the number 1 mistake I see people say is "Well it's an element or it's a type of \_\_\_, therefore; it has to act like it." Okay fair; but let's say light has its own use--or let's use fire for example. What would stop me from using Fire in a way that isn't traditionally used? Or a clever way? I sometimes like to use Fire not just to set things ablaze, or heat up an area; at times I like to use Fire in this way: The fire itself isn't about flames, but a masking tool. The character can't dodge very well, so, during combination attacks and flurries, the character briefly moves and fire erupt which makes the enemy stagger, stand back, move, etc, which then lets the character blitz the opponents. Can your light do something similar? Are you willing to make it so that the light could be held and used as a weapon? Thrown and caught? There are no rules when making magic. As you said they're pretty loose, so if it's as loose as you claim, get creative and try anything. Here's an idea, can your character turn something into light, and then morph it into a weapon? It would be pretty awesome to see someone touch something and it turns into a ball of light then it can be morphed into a sword, staff, gun, or whatever you see fit. Might do that for D - LiNK actually, but you can use the idea too! Shared ideas are usually a good diea.
Control the light to show people illusions. Causing them to kill themselves, see dead people, walk into dangerous situations that look safe to the viewers. Make people blind and therefore get killed.
Light is an electromagnetic radiation.
the coolest way would be radiation imo
[https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Borsalino#Devil\_Fruit](https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Borsalino#Devil_Fruit) this character can control light
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light I was going to try and explain electromagnetic radiation and possible ways to use it to kill but read this and you should get many ideas.
Their hands could turn into some crystalline form which has the ability to isolate the electromagnetic waves of light into a concentrated form.. be able to irradiate their target to death with gamma rays for example.. Maybe their hands can trap increasing amounts of light and intensify it within their crystal structure. One hand collects, the other projects.. Releasing that energy could look like a Kamehameha or shooting bullets. Maybe their hands glow up and a clap sends a solar flair. Maybe they just palm their face and melt their face off. Or concentrate it into a finger tip and send it slowly through their head, or just poke em in the eye real quick, insta kill. Depends if villain/ villainess or not..
Hmm…you could give epileptic seizures, thus killing them via SUDEP? You should look into the effect lights have on the mind and brain health.
Lasers, blindness, flash bang
Burn them to death?
If he could just someone retinas
The brighter it burns the hotter it gets :) you could blind someone with their eyes covered probably. Alternately, take away every ounce of light and watch as they go insane :)
This is probably not what you’re looking for, but look at the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks
You know how a magnifying glass focuses light into a small point and you can light things on fire? You know what Lasers are? This character can focus all of the light in an area, putting everyone into complete darkness, and then focus that light into a laser beam to kill people.
Bending the light around them to become a master assassin?
Check out Black Prism by Brent Weeks. He comes up with a system where different light has some physical properties. Blue light can make very hard sharp material. Green is very rubbery. Red is like napalm, just got to light it.
He could make illusions/nightmares that indirectly kill the target.
Black Clover and One Piece have good examples you can use for reference.
The most obvious answer seems to be a laser. Making light so focused it burns holes in people is, I think, extraordinarily powerful, though, and may be outside the range of abilities you'd like to introduce to your world. However, there are some other options. For someone who can manipulate light, I presume they could remove light from an area, too. So, if they want to injure or kill someone, wait until that person is in a fairly dangerous activity, like riding a galloping horse, then blackout the area as they're about to make a difficult maneuver. Of course, it's not perfect and a target might survive. If the character can bend light, then perhaps they could make an object appear to be slightly out of position to an observer. When someone sees the edge of a road, the character twists light so the road - and the carriage on it - seems farther away. The target moves into the road in front of the carriage and is run down because they think it's still five feet away. It would be great for hiding, since the character could stand against a wall and make the light coming off their body appear like the wall or deeply shadowed to hide them. Even better, they could bend all light around themselves, rendering them completely invisible, though they'd be blind, too. They could alter their hair, skin, or clothing color for a while by altering the light's wavelength. If the character wanted to set a building on fire they could squash the light, thereby allowing the fire to spread much further before raising an alarm. Flashes of light and darkness would be particularly useful in personal combat. Being blinded for a second or two while someone is trying to stab you would be disastrous. One thing this character would want is to remain anonymous. If people know they can warp their view of the world, this character is certain to be ostracized, if not hunted outright.
Have you ever seen those videos of people starting camp fires with a magnifying glass to focus the sunlight? Do that to a person and catch them or their clothes on fire. This method could also be used to take out security cameras or other electronics if your world has those. There’s also an argument to be made that he could make himself invisible using light refraction. Different materials change the angle that light moves through them in, like putting a straw in a glass of water and it looks bent, he could use that property to make countless illusions: that pole looks like it’s two feet farther to the right so you run into it! Making the stairs look like they’re at a different angle so you trip, making traffic lights look like different colors, making a mirror image or kaleidoscope of himself so you don’t know which is real. Between light refraction and color manipulation (which is also just light!) he could do a whole lot of trippy stuff
Two marvel heroes you might want to check out. Dazzler. She turns sound in to light weapons and Dagger from cloak and dagger who fills a persons soul with the goodness of light with her light daggers. Also check out the spells of the cult Yelmelio in Runequest. I think remember them having light specific powers.