Pacts in a fantasy story?

[Umbre]

From a perspective of someone who used to study the Occult, I can say that in general the concept varies a bit depending upon what sort of magic you're intending to work within. You can offer up as many blood sacrifices or limbs as you like, but it won't do a bit of good unless the emotional attachment to those parts is there to make it worthwhile.

Blood and animal sacrifices were initially done as a show of faith towards a spirit / concept that you are willing to give a part of you to that aspect of nature forever.

That being said, while most people aren't particularly fond of losing a limb, there are indeed those who would gladly sacrifice an arm or a leg for something. Which in essence makes that limb worthless. Think about it like this :

As a being of energy and outside the realm of the living, that transcends time, what good would a limb do for me? I am complete as I shall ever need to be. Your mortal limb will fester and disappear.

It's about entertainment value.

If you manage to survive stoically without the limb, without it causing you hardship - it isn't going to be a very good show for me.

Cute animal sacrifice - you'll get more... It doesn't hurt you. Just the cute little sheep.

Giving you the power to kill your enemies, but at the cost of never knowing of when it could make you hurt those you love. As a result watching you push them away and constantly, bitterly regretting the decision which cannot be taken back - endless entertainment... Or at least until you bore me.

Think like a demon/god...

[Silver Highlights]

Umbre

From a perspective of someone who used to study the Occult, I can say that in general the concept varies a bit depending upon what sort of magic you're intending to work within. You can offer up as many blood sacrifices or limbs as you like, but it won't do a bit of good unless the emotional attachment to those parts is there to make it worthwhile.

Blood and animal sacrifices were initially done as a show of faith towards a spirit / concept that you are willing to give a part of you to that aspect of nature forever.

That being said, while most people aren't particularly fond of losing a limb, there are indeed those who would gladly sacrifice an arm or a leg for something. Which in essence makes that limb worthless. Think about it like this :

As a being of energy and outside the realm of the living, that transcends time, what good would a limb do for me? I am complete as I shall ever need to be. Your mortal limb will fester and disappear.

It's about entertainment value.

If you manage to survive stoically without the limb, without it causing you hardship - it isn't going to be a very good show for me.

Cute animal sacrifice - you'll get more... It doesn't hurt you. Just the cute little sheep.

Giving you the power to kill your enemies, but at the cost of never knowing of when it could make you hurt those you love. As a result watching you push them away and constantly, bitterly regretting the decision which cannot be taken back - endless entertainment... Or at least until you bore me.

Think like a demon/god...

As interesting as that sounds, I'm not really aiming to make people make pacts with demons/gods. Or at least, I'm not sure how I could fit that concept in more human-focused story without requiring complicating things.

I did thought about adding some sort of deity whose influences are world-threatening to the point that sealing off timelines becomes a nescessity on several occasions.

[LadySnark]

Well then I guess I don't know what you are looking for, then.

[I am The Compendium]

Silver Highlights

Anyone?

Please don't ban me just because your story is in fact similar to something.

A lot of FMA is brutal to the reader/watcher and many of the beginning episodes are almost pure setting. Priests manipulate a populace seeking any hope of salvation, a man is so afraid of being thrown out on the street and becoming destitute that he turns his toddler into a tortured Chimera. Even most characters are influenced not by the pact system, but by the aftermath and cover ups created by the few who are involved with them, like the man who has his brothers arms and vows to kill all alchemists due to political reasons.

There is a ton you can learn just from that anime alone, as well as another, HunterxHunter. People who can use chi-like power called nen can enhance it by creating rules which take something intangible from them (such as the ability to lie). Much of the anime isn't about using Nen, merely what it's like to be part of the elite corps of hunters.

If you ban people simply for pointing out other stories that have some the same idea, especially something famous for doing something awesome with it (tons of articles on the storytelling of FMA and I think it won awards), you're implying an attitude that you're not ready to be a writer. Your agent or a someone in real life who reads your work could easily mention this.

EDIT: By the way, I'm already writing stuff like this. I'm publishing the first book of it in fall/winter.
I started on the story years ago before I ever went on gaia. I'm probably going to buy some advertising in the spring and I'm definitely going to ask gaia about advertising. This was all planned out months ago.

You're going to have to figure out what to do about similar stuff.