Questions tagged [magic]
For questions that have to do with magic, as opposed to science/technology. Remember to explain any limits.
2,688
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Is it possible to make sand from bones ? Would it have the same properties as regular sand?
Context : In a magic city, artificers use various types of sand as components for their magitek contraptions.
I like the idea of having one type of sand made out of the bones of magical creatures and ...
3
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10
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Would superhuman elites allow for more liberal governance? [closed]
Suppose, if you will, that the aristocracy of my fictional pre-Christian European nation is entirely composed of superhumans. The source of their powers lies in their blood, and can only be inherited ...
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4
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How can agriculture/industry be economically viable in setting where magic exists?
D&D type setting where creation of materials from 'thin air' with some sort of ingredients. Basic economics would state that anything made with little to no initial cost would drive prices way ...
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Is my magic enough to keep a person without skin alive for a month?
A specific ritual conducted by mages called the Skinless removes their entire skin as a consequence. To prepare for this, they hire a Blood Mage specialized in human biology, a Destruction Mage ...
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13
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What would be a good weapon to use with size changing spell
Partial setting summary
It's a mage-centric world where spells are treated as family secrets (secrecy refers specifically to chants and moves needed to cast a spell, more experienced mages can omit ...
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How to reconcile the effect of my time magic spell with my timeline
Magic is able to achieve its mystical effects through its Pleroma. Basically, Pleromas are magical and non-physical locations and objects that serve as the sources of power for magic. Each Pleroma is ...
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How would increasing atomic bond strength affect nuclear physics?
I'm writing a magic system, and one of its types directly affects the atomic bonds of materials. What mages can do is increase the amount of energy required to break or create those bonds. How would ...
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Why would luck magic become obsolete in the modern era? [closed]
I have an Urban Fantasy setting where people can choose to walk on only one path of magic. After choosing, these mages gain spells related to said path. Furthermore, these spells mutate and transform ...
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Consequences of a Character Being Unaffected by Gravitational Force? [closed]
In a world where a character gains the ability to be unaffected by gravitational forces due to true magic runes,
the first scenario I thought of was : The character is launched toward a library wall ...
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1
answer
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How might religion evolve in a detached spacefaring human society? [closed]
Three hundred years from our current time, humanity under a unified central government attempt to colonize beyond Earth. Having relied on pre-FTL travel to navigate their solar system, the means to ...
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Can I replace the Sun with a non-nuclear equivalent?
The Scientocratic Hivemind has killed the Fire Deity at the cost of erasing the Earth's sun. For the sake of the lifeforms of this Earth before it goes away, it refines the Deity's corpse into a Sun ...
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Political Relations on an Interstellar Scale
I'm working on a sci-fantasy (think wizards calling in JDAM strikes) setting where humanity has colonized about a hundred tightly located solar systems split up between 5-6 giant ethno-political ...
5
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1
answer
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What would the sky look like on a planet under a green sun? [closed]
Basically what the title says. I know green stars are completely impossible, but this is a fantasy world with completely different laws of physics, so on a planet with a green sun, what color do you ...
11
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1
answer
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Chemical Coin Flipping as Divination
Let me explain what the odd title means. In the I Ching, a book of ancient Chinese divination, there is a process of using 50 rods to produce what is essentially a binary outcome. The details aren't ...
7
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How could double damage be explained in-universe? [closed]
I'm creating a tabletop role-playing steampunk fantasy game. Within the game are elemental weapons and spells similar to the ones in Borderlands. One of the elements is Slag. An organism or structure ...
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2
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Leftover fallen world technologies [closed]
My fantasy novels are set in a world that reached WWI era technology in the distant past, but used magic in place of electricity and combustions. For complicated reasons, the magic stopped working, ...
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Can my necromancer have this bridge built with those constraints?
Long story short I got a very powerful necromancer living on an island that is 33 kilometers from the nearest land mass. He wants to create a mega bridge to connect his island to the continent.
The ...
3
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5
answers
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Air magic only used to decrease humidity and improve living conditions?
I'm writing a world with an overall warm and very humid climate (Eocene-adjacent, although it does not have to be 100% realistic). Population is very low compared to Earth. Humans generally live in ...
0
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3
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How to Communicate Something Secret to Many People in an Urban Fantasy World? [closed]
(Hi, this is my 1st question on here, so feel free to LMK if you need more info to help answer...)
In my story, the world is like ours, with the exception that there are some aliens who telepathically ...
5
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8
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Practical Combat Pipe
One of my worlds has a magic system in which people smoke an expensive substance called "salt" to temporarily gain increased strength, agility, and durability. Depending on the amount smoked,...
3
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2
answers
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What type of climate or geography would allow for a large mountain (10000m+) that glows when the sunlight hits the rockface?
The idea behind this is that there is a large mountain in my world that can be seen from the capital city over 500 km away. I took inspiration from Denali in Alaska, and how it can be seen from ...
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How could ear plugs resistant to extremely loud sounds function?
In my story I have a character with the ability to emit powerful electric blasts. These electric blasts as you can imagine emit extremely large amounts of sound, heat, light, and obviously current. I ...
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Looking to shape a magic system based as much as possible in actual science [closed]
I am looking to create a magic system that is grounded in science. My initial thought was the ability to manipulate electrons on the atomic level. Since I do not want the magic users to be walking ...
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designing an elven magic system that blends with a WW1-esque world [closed]
I'm having issues designing a balanced magic system.
let me elaborate.
a handful of nations have allied against a big empire, and the fighting has regressed into trench warfare. Tech level is early ...
2
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2
answers
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what types for guns and magic would be suited, for a arabian-style steampunk 5e setting? [closed]
I am in the process of doing a homebrew setting for 5e. That is based around a steampunk arabian aesthetic. My setting will include guns alongside magic, though both won't be common nor rare but ...
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answer
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Super speed based on magnetism
Context
In my story there are several types of magic like wind magic, gravity magic, etc. My main character possesses magnetism magic which includes the ability to create strong magnetic fields on ...
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Opposite 'Fire Magic'?
Not 'Ice Magic'. Ice is just frozen water and fire magic goes beyond water. But, for the sake of explaining in this question, let's go with "Ice Magic".
In a world where these two magics are ...
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Advice on designing an inconsistent magic system [closed]
I'm working on a story (see here) where the way magic works is ... difficult, to say the least. Most magic occurs naturally, either through ley lines (naturally occuring lines of magical energy that ...
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1
answer
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How to achieve immortality? [closed]
I've been planing a story for a long time and I have everything ready except this, Does anyone have an ideas on how to achieve immortality (doesn't have to be super scientific but i would appreciate a ...
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3
answers
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How could a magic user increase air pressure for jet blast like effects
In my magic system characters possess the ability to control air and wind. They can usually expel 300 mph winds from their body however these winds lack force over distance. I should clarify that the ...
0
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6
answers
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Why would two neighboring kingdoms fight over an island? [closed]
This story is set in a medieval-esque world, on a continent roughly the size of Australia that is separated into six different kingdoms/territories. Each territory is its own sovereign country and has ...
3
votes
1
answer
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A smart way to ground yourself to help a person who is being shocked by electricity [closed]
:)
I am currently planning a scene for my fantasy novel that involves electricity. I'm unsure if regular electricity with its properties known to us works in the context of my magical world or if I ...
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13
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Fastest way to do damage/kill with wind
Wind powers in fiction are often extremely powerful with the ability to kill or even level objects with a single attack. In real life wind is typically weaker than the wind in fiction and unless the ...
4
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4
answers
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Laser finger guns
This is not really connected to my story but I had an idea of having finger guns that actually work. Because lasers are cool I thought that you could have a character with the ability to magically ...
3
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5
answers
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Is it possible for magical Universities to become powerful political entities, and is my structure for the same sensible?
Y'all remember that old adage about how knowledge is power? When that knowledge is magic, specifically the type of magic that can do almost everything, the adage becomes a lot more practical than ...
4
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1
answer
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Would this method of lightning superpowers work?
In my previous question I mentioned a character with the ability to control electricity. I had an idea of them using Lorentz forces as a main method of offense but we found that this was extremely ...
5
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4
answers
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What if a wizard mass produces gold and silver to crash the market?
A Wizard that grew up poor and resentful of the jewellery of the rich people around him decides he'll end the allure of gold and silver for good. For this purpose, he immediately produces a billion ...
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Will nothing bad happen if I just create infinite energy?
My magic system introduces an additional energy form that one can convert at a rate leaving out surplus energy, thus generating more than what was initially utilized.
For instance, using Arcana to ...
8
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8
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What's a semi-plausible 24 hour planetary sterilization look like?
In my setting, there is a type of airborne fungal spore that can infect all living matter, and a Star Wars Galactic Empire style/sized faction that wants to sterilize planets with this spore ...
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How would the existence of sapient "Pet Rocks" affect the economy of a medieval kingdom?
The world: A standard medieval European-ish fantasy world, with very limited magic, which aside from the titular exception has little to no effect on everyday life. The continent is divided into ...
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Why does a goddess put a low limit on the number of priests?
This is probably the first magic question I’ve asked so sorry if I get anything wrong this time.
In this world, there is a goddess, and she is very, very real. She’s functionally omniscient: whenever ...
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1
answer
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Magic System Based on Electronics [closed]
Lets assume mana as electrons . We have current, voltage, and resistance of a mana. Current is the flow of mana in our body, voltage as the force to make mana flowing in our body, and resistance to ...
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Moon calendar with a permanent full Moon
The Situation
This can be considered a continuation of the following question:
Permanent Full moon via "Magic"
In this question I asked how a permanent full moon could be possible. While I ...
6
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2
answers
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Could nanotechnology have the ability to control the weather?
In a short story I am writing I have a magic system that involves nanotech left behind from an ancient advanced civilisation that can allow for magic like effects. In this story the characters ...
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How to build a defensive wall that Stone Mages can't easily deconstruct?
Assume that the time period takes place at some point before cannons and other later siege equipment (medeival, antiquity, bronze age, etc.)
Stone mages can affect materials that follow the geological ...
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2
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Highly Visible Comet in the Sky
There is a comet in my world which passes my world's version of Earth every 25 years. I'm having difficulty figuring out how to make the comet fit my requirements.
Requirements:
Passes my planet only ...
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Permanent Full moon via "Magic"
The Problem
I had in mind giving my world a permanent full moon for a long time. Though I generally ran into 2 problems along the way.
Firstly I wanted of course to make it appear as if it was always ...
1
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7
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How can I make a military that largely enlists spell swords viable? [closed]
I really need help trying to get this to work. I'm working on a faction that primarily employs spell swords as their Frontline force.
They have other parts such as artillery, combat medics, and other ...
7
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3
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Highly resistant House Plant
The Premise
My world takes place about 25 years after an magical apocalyptic event killed most life in my setting. It also left the sky permanently dark which is caused by thick magical clouds.
I know ...
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Would the diet described below sustain a human?
In my world I need to feed a colony of Kobolds. I'm modeling my Kobolds' dietary requirements on humans. My question is whether or not the following foodstuffs would meet the dietary needs of human ...