Mainly what we are talking about is more often used as a sci-fi or futuristic aspect, but we think it applies to high fantasy as well. We’re talking about using magic that you just don’t understand.
To be clear, we’re talking about examples such as: riding golem steeds, drinking potions of youth, and being teleported, but having no idea how these magical effects are done. You don’t have to be a powerful sorcerer to pay someone to teleport you to the next city - that’s what the long range teleporters are for. Similarly, you can go to the spa and drink potions of youth without understanding what the alchemist had to do in order to craft that potion. But it goes deeper than this too. Are there dangers that the common person doesn’t understand when they are drinking that potion or being teleported?
But is this realistic? Well, yes! Sure, there are a lot of people on airplanes who have some grasp of the physics behind how an airplane flies, but how many people really understand what keeps a plane in the air? How many understand what is going on inside their phones and whether or not the microwaves might be frying their brains. They aren’t, but a lot of folks think they might be. And that’s the point - The people using the devices, don’t necessarily understand them.
The same should be true of magic in a high fantasy world. We know that in FRPGs the swordsman doesn’t really understand why his sword is magical or how it got to be that way, he only knows it works better. Further, in most cases, he doesn’t even know how it works better. What does “+2 long sword” mean? Why is it more likely to hit? Why does it do more damage? The swordsman probably doesn’t know. (If you’re playing Legend Quest, both the player and the GM will know the answer - Hint hint!)
But in a high fantasy city, this idea takes on all sorts of shapes and sizes. Maybe the judicial courts have to use anti-magic devices to prevent people from lying to or attacking a court. But does the criminal know that? Will he still try to smuggle in a device that will aid him in court, perhaps by charming the judge? Not understanding the magic, he may attempt it not understanding how it will be prevented. In a similar situation, what happens if a handicapped person uses a flying carpet as a type of wheelchair. Upon entering the court, this person falls to the ground and cannot move on their own. The anti-magic device “shut off” the magic of the carpet, at least for now, but who was thinking about that when the carpet was floating into the room. This actually works in many courts on Fletnern, because they use mentalism to detect lies and other issues. They can block the magic, but leave mentalism wide open. Now if the criminal understands that, he or she might be able to use that to their advantage. “Might”.
There is a part of this that has us thinking of some of the futuristic cities portrayed in various fictions. These are often fantastic places, as long as you’re rich. The poor are still poor, and magic is expensive. Are there poor folks crammed into small apartments near the ground, while towering magical towers house the rich? Do those towers block out most of the light and assuming they do, and what impact does that have on the people actually walking the streets instead of flying above them?
Do the poor scrounge through junk yards looking for broken pieces of permanent ice that are still cold or steeled glass that may be warped or cloudy, but still functions as see-through steel? On the darker side of magic, did the alchemical processes that created those magical substances cause some manner of magical pollution that is flowing in the streams or possibly floating in the air?
Assuming that humans with magic would still be wired the same way as humans with technology, then a lot of the problems that we have today would still exist. Magic probably would not create a utopian society. The haves will still have, though they really don’t understand what they have, while the have nots will still be in similar situations, though their way out might be completely different. These are the fun aspects of world building in the fantasy era!
This post was written as
part of the upcoming The Circuitry of Magic aka All About Magitech, the
latest in our Small Bites editions. Each Small Bites book
looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of
questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject. This one is showcasing all sorts of ways to
use magic in different ways, including some that might resemble technology
and/or machinery.
We
hope we’re getting you interested. If you want to see the World Walker
edition for FREE!! click the link here. If we’ve hooked you and
you want to get the full 62 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition,click here.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment