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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Biological siege weapons: Part 1 - Are living things capable of breaking down the gates of a medieval gatehouse?
The setting features biomancers who, to summarize, are magic users who can create living things as minions or servants through various ways(seeds, modified eggs, whatever), have the option to directly ...
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What would a website look like in a magic thought-based internet?
What would a website look like in a magic thought-based internet?
After getting some really interesting answers on this question, I decided to make a magic "internet", with a lot of similar ...
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Is ice armor better than nothing in medieval battle or is it just weighing you down?
"Speed is the essence of war" - Sun Tzu, MBA.
However, this war has dragged on for a long time and resources are getting scarce; new ice mages are issued a loin cloth while flame mages get ...
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Would soil alone be able to provide everything that's needed to feed the development of an animal body without in-between edibles?
The setting features biomancers, mages who are like necromancers in that their magic revolves mainly around the use and obtaining or creation of minions or servants or the modification of said ...
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Would clickbait work inside someone's brain? Click here to find out!
Let's assume that there is a magic that can push information directly into people's brains. However, that magic has some limitations:
It can only "push" single sentences of 15 words or less
...
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Unemployment in a magical world [closed]
Once upon a time, a world parallel to ours inhabited by magical creatures alongside human beings. But these aren't ordinary humans, they have magic. Everyone does, from the humblest farmer to the ...
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What are the adverse environmental effects of using size enhancing vegetables?
The lilliputians have been growing magic cucumbers that, when eaten, temporarily lets them grow to the size of a normal person. They've all gotten addicted to their newfound gigantism, but either the ...
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Where does most of a sun's energy go?
first post ever here. I've read the guidelines, but please do let me know if I'm breaking any rule or doing something wrong.
So, I am creating a magic system based on the energy of a star. More ...
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Terminal flux of infinite spaghetti
The story Strega Nona presents the artifact of an infinite spaghetti pot. This pot, once activated, produces enough spaghetti to cover an entire town over the course of a day or two. But this all ...
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civil and industrial applications of large amount of linear force?
What are some civilian or industrial applications of a large amount of linear force. I.e. if a magical symbol was inscribed on a piece of paper the next physical object that touches the symbol would ...
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How could force fields be stopped? [closed]
My fantasy world has magic. Magic you are born with, and magic that can be learned. The mechanics of the force field the main characters are trapped in is that when you go in you can't leave. You are ...
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Would authors be too powerful for your typical medieval fantasy setting?
Authors are magic users who have chosen to make a fictional world the source of their magic, written in a book they try to have access to at all times, instead of training themselves to follow the ...
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Changes to firearms based on gasoline
I got a little question: how would it effect firearms if they would not be based on gunpowder but on gasoline like flammable liquid?
What I think would happen:
-because the liquid would need to be a ...
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How can the transfer of a soul to a new body lead to physical deformities? [closed]
The soul is the metaphysical spirit of a mortal being and is the seat of human consciousness. It retains all the aspects that we consider makes us human, from personality to memories to how we ...
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Why wouldn't tribal chiefs use berserkers in warfare?
So in my setting, there's this magical elixir that can essentially turn people into berserkers for a short time.
They enter a state of "murder high" where they basically become hardcore ...
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The Witch's Broom
A very common trope in witchcraft-themed fictional narratives is the iconic Magic Broom, a magical object made from wood and straw to fly and serve as a vehicle for witches. Witches generally fly with ...
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What kinds of technology would we be limited to if magic causes EMPs? [closed]
In an attempt to explain why things aren't as advanced as things could be with the help of both technology and magic I've made it so that each spell that is cast emits an EMP that is extremely ...
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Why can't you keep casting Wish [closed]
In my D&D game, the spell wish doesn't work after you cast it a certain amount of times.
The relevant portion of the wish description (emphasis mine):
Finally, there is a 33 percent chance that ...
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necrobotany and necromancy - bringing the dead back [closed]
in the story i'm writing, there are different types of energy that can do different, but related things. Green energy is the closest to earth magic (think control over plants, but it can also be ...
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Where does mana come from? [closed]
I’m slowly developing a magic system loosely based on how magic is usually seen to appear in most fantasies, but with consistent rules. So far I’ve decided that mana exists in the world alongside ...
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Manufacturing and interchangeable parts in a pre industrial world
Let’s assume this is a society that has some knowledge of advanced technology but is currently in the 16/17th century politically and technologically. How would a society before the industrial ...
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What are the effects of bullets on a superhuman who keeps getting stronger?
In a story I’m writing, there’s a superhero who uses a magic spell to increase the strength of her body. This means that her body becomes more durable as well. As she increases her capacity to output ...
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How can my character transform without losing their powers?
I'm writing a story about a character who can manipulate the cells of any living organism - himself, others, plants, soil, etc. His power is psionic-based and stems from his brain.
In my story, I've ...
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How can magical creatures created from mana be prevented from using mana to perform spells? [closed]
The moon is a celestial object that rotates around the earth and is made up of warpstone, a solidified form of mana. This warpstone radiates its energy toward earth, bathing the planet with waves of ...
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Help with naming [closed]
Name suggestions
So I have a magic system that's based on creating and manipulating certain "fields" and need some help with names for the magic and the users. I don't want to call them ...
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How to keep fire magic out of the Army?
The big Empire in my setting has some inspiration from the pre-Islamic Persian Empires, and thus they really like Fire. They were the first to develop fire-magic and all of their priests are educated ...
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Terms for magical effects in the same vein as chemical reactions
Magic in my world is something that isn't explicitly explained but is measured and observed. Magic occurs from a consciousness with a positive or negative "charge" of magical energy. The ...
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How can heavy molecules slow down the rate of condensation? [closed]
Mana is the background energy by which witches use to create magical spells. The level of mana content within the environment rises and falls with the passage of the tides, and consolidates in certain ...
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Preventing a word from being spoken
Toward the end of the war between Atlantis and Mu, such magicks were cast that their interaction rent asunder the very length and breadth and height of the world and through that tear entered The ...
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How to avoid resource curse with an extremely valuable and exclusive resource?
I have a nation, Arunya, which functions under different magical rules from the rest of the world. The entity governing their magic is much more closely tied to the state due to historical factors, ...
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How can a spike in Mana content lead to inconsistent birth rates?
The moon is a celestial object that rotates around the earth and is made up of warpstone, a solidified form of mana. This warpstone radiates its energy toward earth, bathing the planet with waves of ...
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What is a realistic psychological response to magic? [closed]
So I think about this a lot based on seeing things like clichés or unrealistic reactions - how would someone actually react to magic?
In some media, the character is in unbelievable denial - you've ...
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Day/night in Aether
An extremely powerful wizard decided to create a new dimension as a birthday present for his wife, this dimension is composed of flying islands inhabited by fantastic plants and animals. The islands ...
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How much sand is required to create a fluffy barrier?
I've got my stone mages who can manipulate earth (let's define earth as silicon dioxide). They can form protective barriers, raise platforms for them to stand on, or lift entire boulders to lob at ...
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What rituals should be used by oracles? [closed]
I am creating a role-playing game(LARP) where rituals are actually performed in real life.
The spells are probably going to be created in advance because one can imaging that all following systems are ...
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What effect would a perpetual cold zone in the tropics have on the global climate?
In my fantasy world, there is a peninsula around the size of mexico almost entirely surrounded by mountains about the size of the himalayas which go directly into the ocean.
How they got there is ...
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How to make the best use of the ring of life [closed]
So basically the only magic in the world comes from artifacts that fall from the sky on a more or less weekly basis that clearly have some sort of creator but no one can say exactly who or what that ...
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Would spontaneous electron excitation be biologically dangerous?
I am considering a setting where an all-permeating "background magic field" has a side-effect of randomly bumping electrons of any contained matter into an excited state (let's say it can ...
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Pragmatically, what is the ideal shape for enchanted jewelry to take?
Enchanted jewelry is a major mainstay of basically any genre of fiction involving magic. It comes in many forms, but the concept is the same: wear it, and it gives you certain powers or protects you ...
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Why would mages think the spell analysis is useless? [closed]
The world setting is high fantasy with some game elements (Just a status screen) and a fair amount of realism. Even with magic, it's fairly easy to die. The magic system is a hard type. To use a spell ...
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How to ensure magic-sensitive population remain low? [duplicate]
In my world, China earns its beginning to three major clans: the Huang, the Yan, and the Chi You.
Huang and Yan are normal homo sapiens, but Chi You is a clan of sentient magical reptiles like dragons ...
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How would modern religions react to magic [closed]
So I have an idea for a scenario in which all at once humans across the world are able to do at least some magic.
This event is entirely random so a Christian pastor has the same chances of gaining ...
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Possible Reason, why magic can't be recorded by modern technology
I am imagining a Harry-Potter-like magical scenario: A secret parallel society of magic wielders in our modern-day era, only known to those, who grew up in it or those, who got initiated.
I find it ...
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Wizards have nuclear weapons now but how have they not killed themselves
The wizarding world is a cut throat place. It's divided between several great mage families. Each one of these has a network of lesser families allied to them through marriage. Relations between ...
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How would this sort of limited teleportation affect strategies and tactics used to defend against a tactic like pincer movements?
How would this sort of limited teleportation affect strategies and tactics used to defend against a tactic like pincer movements?
In my world, teleportation circles are not only possible, but ...
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How would someone break into a vault in a pocket dimension? [closed]
In my fantasy world, most very rich people hide their wealth in a pocket dimension. Now, normally there are two ways to get into a pocket dimension: a spell that requires a tuning fork with a VERY ...
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Effectiveness of lightning weapon on a medieval sea
How effective would a charged weapon be on a medieval sea
Alright, so imagine we have a barge — a city barge, similar to some of Technochtitlan raft farms. Due to (magicly caused) climate conditions ...
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How do I stop annoyed wizards from killing people all the time?
How do I stop annoyed wizards from killing people all the time?
In my fantasy world, wizards are quite powerful, and they can kill anyone they know the location of with just a thought. The usual ...
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How to have humans evolve the same on multiple planets
How to have humans evolve the same on multiple planets
In my fantasy universe, almost all sentient life, and most non-sentient life including humans, was teleported to hundreds of planets after a ...
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How can two disciplines of the same magic system be made incompatible?
Daemons are malevolent spirits that inhabit the astral plane. This religion views these spirits as divine beings and worship them as gods. They are heavily revered in the faith, and are considered ...
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