How can a witch be prevented from getting weaker?

Question

Souls are made up of mana, which is the basic element of life. It allows our bodies and minds to function, and is also the basis for magic in an individual. A person's magical potential is determined by the level of mana they possess when they are born, and is used to perform rituals and spells.

A witch's mana is used to create the soul of a child when it is gestating. Over the ninth month period, more mana is needed to sustain the child as it grows. This saps the mother of her own mana, leading to all of the woes of pregnancy. The mana drain causes her spells to gets weaker until the child is born.

There are a number of problems with this setup works. Because the child's soul is made from his mother's mana, it can logically be assumed that she doesn't get that amount back. This means that witches get weaker the more kids they have. Since witches are at the top echelons of society, losing magic in this way is counterproductive.

How could this setup be made to prevent this from happening?

Answer 1

Just spitballing here, because I have a lot of questions. Is there a set amount of mana in this world, or can mana be created? If mana can be created somehow, then you don't really have an issue. Any decent witch should know how to find or create more mana, and should therefore be able to replenish herself during or after the pregnancy. (In this instance it may be better for people to be capped out on their capacity to hold mana. So if you want witches to be born with different power levels, then more powerful witches are capable of containing a lot of mana, while less powerful witches and regular people can't hold as much in their body).

If mana cannot be created and there is a set amount in the world, then the problem gets a little more complicated. If a child is born with the amount of mana that they will have for the rest of their lives, and they absorb that mana from their mother, then a child could never be born more powerful than their parent. Worse yet, as more generations are born, the amount of mana will be spread thinner and thinner through the population. The only solution I can think of for this, would be if mana can be reabsorbed from the dying. If this is the case, then powerful witches would know the secrets for collecting mana from the dead. That way, none of the finite mana in the world is lost when someone dies, and you could end up with a few strong witches who are hoarding the mana supply. Any children born to them would automatically be powerful because a great deal of mana would be passed down to them.

Answer 2

Change the system slightly. Make it so when you are born it sets the maximum mana, not the actual mana. As you go through life you recharge your mana reserves up to the maximum, when you use mana it consumes your reserve but you can then recharge it. How mana is recharged is down to the person creating this magic system, it could be anything from study and meditation to consuming certain herbs to mystical rituals.

Having a child saps your reserves as you sink vast amounts of your own mana into creating the mana pool and filling it for the child. The stronger the child is magically the more mana the mother had to sink into it.

(This is why magical parents generally have more magical children than non-magical ones, although there can be exceptions - for example certain plants might provide mana to the child if you eat them while pregnant - this is how the first witches came to be).

Answer 3

It not only doesn't make them weaker. It makes them stronger.

In order for witch to not grow weaker, she needs to expend her mana and absorb mana from the outside, and like a sportsman, she needs to train this ability continuously, or she might become worse at it.

Pregnancy is then like a training camp. Her mana is being devoured and she has to absorb new mana like she never did before. When the child is finally born, her ability to absorb mana has actually become stronger, and thus, so did she.

Answer 4

If mana is intrinsic in the body, it can be also absorbed with feeding and proper preparation, like vitamins, proteins and so on. Then it works the same as with normal mothers: they supply their baby in the womb as long as their body can afford the effort. Then they deliver the baby, and the baby starts feeding.

In this case the baby would be not only fed by mother's milk, but also by someone's else mana. And during the pregnancy also the mother should observe a balanced mana diet.