Questions tagged [magic]
For questions that have to do with magic, as opposed to science/technology. Remember to explain any limits.
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How much of a small, isolated, civilization's culture would survive a magical cataclysm?
I'm starting with some background so the question can be answered in-context. Apologies if I veer into too much storytelling.
Pre-Cataclysm Setting:
A fantasy civilization, essentially only humans, in ...
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How does "innate magical power" fit into a magic system powered by emotion and memory?
In the magic system I've been workshopping, magic is powered by the caster's emotions and memories. Specifically, mages can shape spells by creating associations to their own memories, and strengthen ...
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What causes my expedition RTG to produce way less power when deployed in a magic realm
Dear colleagues from the Institute of Subatomic Research,
as you will have noticed, our latest expedition to the Magic Realm (TM) through the Strange Portal (TM) was a considerable success. No one ...
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What makes small-scale private star-harvesting profitable?
In a distant future where FTL interstellar travel is commonplace, there is a stable large-scale market for a commodity called photonic negentropy ("PhoNE" for short, though nobody remembers ...
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How could entropy control go wrong? [closed]
The magic system of my story works by either increasing or decreasing entropy with the decrease requiring a specific spot ex. dust collecting into a concentrated point or the increase requiring an ...
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Could Megaflora Sustain Permanent Settlements?
So, a setting I'm brainstorming is basically a tribal world, with Hunter-gatherers, animism, and the like.
One of the features I want to add, to make it stand out from our own world is the existence ...
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Would a world twice the size of Earth be able to have similar weather patterns?
The TLDR for this is if I have a planet that is twice the diameter of Earth, (so four times the surface area), would continental distribution have more effect on the weather patterns than the sun and ...
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Avoiding time travel or causality stuff
How to avoid blatantly time traveling or breaking causality in a big way when getting my characters to places quickly (Faster than light)?
The method used is a tunnel in some sort of different space ...
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Defensive Middle Ages measures against magic-controlled "smart" arrows
Hear hear,
with the latest arcane technology, archers on the battlefield are able to shoot "smart arrows". Smart arrows are propelled by a little unit of magiteck, which allows the archer to ...
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Dragon's body proportion: eye size to body length [closed]
A classic dragon shape, eg Smaug, approximately 6 km length from nose to tail with similar wingspan.
Ignore square cube rule due to magic and also neglect gravity as its native habitat is space.
Eyes ...
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How might a science-fiction world's technology advance faster than our own? [closed]
I'm wondering what techniques exist to make the technology change quicker in my story. I want to be able to change the setting quickly, like progressing from a computer mechanic where space travel is ...
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When does it makes sense for Sword Masters to use a sword beam as a one-time killing move?
Intro
In the creation of my Wuxia-inspired world, 'Sword Intent' is a cornerstone concept where sword masters channel a life force known as 'Qi' to perform extraordinary feats. 'Sword Intent' in my ...
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What Stars Do I Need to Make a Railgun?
Alright so I have come up with this idea for the primary weapon of a particular class of mages in my fantasy world: the Railgun. These mages are called starborn because, when they are born, they are ...
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Advice/Feedback on building a working Ocean Current model for my fictional world
after much umm-ing and ahh-ing and head scratching, I've decided to seek some advice about my worldbuilding project for the novel I'm writing.
Im looking for feedback/critique on what I've done wrong ...
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How can I make the lowest plane of existence in my novel relevant and important? [closed]
I am working on a lit-rpg novel where the universe is called Arcus, and it has three types of planes of existence: Imminus, Medius, and Summus. Each plane has its own characteristics, inhabitants, and ...
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What kind of magic could people able to manipulate the 4th dimension do? [closed]
In this world with renaissance-like technology wizards are able to "feels" creases in the 3D space and manipulate space in ways limited to their understanding of the 4D (wich is still not ...
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Dealing ethically with future human monsters
My world is similar to modern-day Earth, though with additional magical realms not readily accessible from the Rational Realms that are familiar to us. In this world, as many as ten people in every ...
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Is it reasonable that magic would become a subject and magi would become students in military academies in a world with rediscovered magic?
Until twenty years before the time at which my story is set, the world was pretty much as our modern-age world is now. Magic was thought to be nothing more than myth and superstition. Alien worlds ...
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All arsenic not in the ground is magically removed. What effect would that have?
The land of Koyokuni has been depopulated of people and their domesticated animals for many years, and had been sown with ergot spores, venomous insects, large, aggressive venomous birds and even ...
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How would a fantasy world change if every mage exploded/caused natural disasters upon death [closed]
In a fantasy world I'm building, one of the main two types of mages have innate control over natural elements. About 1 in 50 people in this world have the ability to take part in the ritual to give ...
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How can I incorporate both the metaphysics of the story and magic into a system without compromising one or the other? [closed]
I'll try my best to make this not so nonsensically long and give you the basics with brevity. I'll be summarizing ALOT.
In the beginning was an entity known as the Eternal Sovereign, a being whose ...
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Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but not on Earth? [closed]
TL:DR:
"Why is "magic" possible in the Elidrian side of reality but on our terrestrial side of the universe? "
I'm creating a game and attempting to breathe life into a story that
...
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Practicality of engine-mediated magic
In another universe in which humans may exist but did not evolve, the laws of physics allow phenomena that we in this universe would call magical, where matter and energy may be moved, transformed and ...
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Is There Any Reason for a High Fantasy civilization to use Stable Higher-Generation Matter
So, in the process of developing a magic system, I have come up with an ability and I don't know why any mage would want to use it. Basically, some mages can control radioactive decay, and what that ...
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Plausibility, habitability and conditions of shell-system
I have some questions regarding the feasibility of this planetary shell-based construction. I have read other questions about shell worlds, but this case has some unique elements, so I thought I would ...
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Potential problems with magic creating energy
Context
When hit by sun rays, the moon creates excess energy, it increases the energy & reflects it back to earth as mana rays to make magic possible (the exact process is not important). Most of ...
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Does magic speed up technology?
In a classic RPG magic system, energy/mana/handwavium points are expended to manipulate reality. The cost increases with the complexity and extent of the alterations being made.
Natural talents for ...
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Could Mages which can control London Dispersion Meaningfully Control the Air [closed]
Alright, so I've been trying to figure out my magic system for my story, and I'm trying to figure out how I could have water mages that were actually powerful. My fundamental idea behind the magic ...
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I cast spark! Or, Design of preindustrial firearms when people can cast spark
So, in this fantasy preindustrial world almost everyone can cast small spells like spark within a one meter radius from their mouth.
Taking that into account, igniting mechanisms like matchlocks or ...
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Is there any general word for a space between universes?
I have many imaginary worlds in my head that are all separate from each other and they exist in bubbles but plenty of worlds have enough tech and/or magic (depending on how the individual world works) ...
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Would it rain if there was only daytime? Would water be sustainable? [closed]
In a world that has only daytime would it rain? In this particular magic world that I’ve created the land is plentiful and the soil is rich and perfect for farming but, it’s always daytime.This land ...
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Could a character go back in time and then "kill" the timeline they came from? [closed]
So I'm trying to see if this scenario would work for a piece I'm writing. I know timetravel can be quite specific and most people dont like it because its executed poorly.
To specify say the ...
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Can I Achieve Immortality by Controlling Brownian Motion within cells? [closed]
Okay, so I have these beings that are supposed to be able to alter their bodies and do it in such a way that they can make themselves and other practically immortal. But now I am needing to know how ...
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Is it possible for a group/clan of 10k people to start their own civilization away from other people in 2050? Like the Amish but with more technology?
They are a group of fed up people in a third world country who somehow acquire/buy land in a remote place near the Himalayas.
Ignore the powers like China trying to conquer them.
Is this possible in ...
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Can birds fly with broken ribs?
So again, in the book I'm writing, and yes, I do understand it is not plausible for humans to fly, I want one of my characters to be hit while flying and continue to fly with broken ribs. Now along ...
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How would a fantasy civilization terraform Mars-like planets using magic?
Backstory
The fantasy civilization in question was stolen from this other question:
Which of these space colonizing civilizations has the advantage in a conflict
It is a civilization with Roman/...
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How much stuff can I alter using the weak force before I kill myself
Weak Nuclear Alchemy, that is the power I am asking about today, a power that was already discussed in What Would Powers Based of the Weak Force Look Like, but I am asking a more specific question. ...
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How would trees which contain magic react to being cut down? [closed]
In my fantasy world, trees inhabit the magic that flows through all life. This magic contains the energy of both earth (roots) and air (branches), foregrounding the balance that is needed in both ...
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How would life, that thrives on the magic of trees, survive in an area with limited trees?
In my fantasy world, there's 'magic' which is produced by trees; flowing from the roots up to the branches, which send out the magic into the atmosphere, allowing it to flow through all life. Humans ...
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Could a newborn baby survive on a paleo diet?
Background Info
One of my stories features the classic isekai trope of a person being reincarnated into a baby's body while still retaining their full cognitive abilities. The world they are ...
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Covert conflict between different organizations and paranormal groups [closed]
I was recently thinking of creating a reality very similar to the real world but which is under a supernatural "cold war", where scientists, researchers, wizards, techno-wizards, witches, ...
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What material properties would be expected from magically-produced iron?
Magic System
One of my magic systems consists of the ability to magically synthesize a material in a given shape. The material can be any one of the elements from hydrogen all the way up to gold, or ...
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Why would a god stop using an avatar's body?
I'm relatively new to worldbuilding, and even more to this website.
Context
In my world, gods are known to arpent the world.
Concerning magic and spiritual world, these usages are really common but ...
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Why would LGBTQIA+ people be sacred individuals? [closed]
In my world, there are magical humans often called wizards (their scientific name is Homo magicus) (so, they are still humans, just not Homo sapiens). They are traditionally a very religious race. ...
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How does the world rebuild after an apocalypse? [closed]
140 years ago, the world was nearly torn apart as rifts to other realms sprung up across the continent. Former societies of elves, humans, dwarves, halflings, and more were devastated, and now new ...
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How would a Society Develop in the Underworld?
I am writing a story about a period of time in my world where the God of Death has been arrested for being too merciful, and is thus unable to move any souls to their afterlives. The court that ...
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How would humans adapt to suddenly gaining new senses?
I'm working on a magic system for my story. One of the ideas I'm toying with is magic users gaining extra senses, depending on the kind of magic they can use.
One example is Reachsense (WIP name), ...
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What Unique Property can Wind Magic have? [closed]
My world uses a 5-element magic system: electricity (Electro), wind (Anemo), fire (Pyro), water (Hydro), earth (Geo) and tree (Dendro) which will only appear in a spin-off series but I decided to ...
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Can it be called an 'illusion' if it can change things? [closed]
In a sci-fi book that I am still to write, can I use the word 'illusion' to denote extreme cases of mind trickery where such an 'illusion' can alter things and space around, example: people are able ...
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How to use and abuse a transformable metal [closed]
My dm has given my character a metal that can:
"Be as flexible as linen or more rigid than tungsten. Properties that can be adjusted: tensile strength, torque strength, rigidity, density."
...
