In my roleplaying game, I've realized I need to change a certain crucial aspect of the world: one of the laws of magic, because it would essentially cause anyone who became powerful enough to instantly explode and die. Now my campaign is VERY hard-magic, so this is difficult to explain in-game.
Here are the details of my problem.
To understand magic in my world, there are three major concepts you need to know: Mana, Essence, and Casting. Explanations for these can be found in my WB question here, but I'd like to go into more detail about Essence.
Essence is what the Universe thinks of you, but the Universe has no mind of its own. It relies on the judgement of the countless sentient minds within it, giving no weight to their power, only the number of minds who believe in something. Or at least, that's what is was, until I realized this would makes gods almost infinitely powerful, and break an upcoming plot point where the BBEG was revealed to be someone everyone thought of as a subservient weakling. A good explanation of the old idea of Essence is Sanderson's Identity; especially in The Emperor's Soul (Great book. If you haven't read it, do so). The new idea of essence is heavily weighted, however, giving more weight to those who know the topic best. Of course, this means that for sentient beings, the one who knows them best is usually, if not always, themselves.
The issue, however, is with another concept: the Magiclysm Limit. A Magiclysm happens when there is too much magic stored in a single thing; when one happens, all the magic in the thing is released and something called Passive Spelling happens. Passive spelling is when magic is uncontrolled; it does something entirely random, usually bad, similar to radiation. Generally, whenever a Magiclysm happens, everything around it dies, or is mutated into a hideous monster.
The amount of magic that is able to be stored in any given object is defined by their essence; using the old definition, the BBEG would instantly magiclysm given the amount of magical power they hold.
Should I break suspension of disbelief to change this and other crucial worldbuilding aspects, or is there a better way? If so, what is it?
