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 can wizards do such powerful things running on pure human metabolism? [duplicate]
In fiction, we often see magic used for very flashy effects (like, say, fireballs). But human metabolic output doesn't seem powerful enough to account for things like this. Is it possible to build a ...
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In a world with magic, who would govern?
In our non-magical reality, feudal nobility is postulated to have evolved from warlords - an armed man in charge of a group of armed men. Since they can intimidate less-well armed or trained people, ...
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Plausible explanation for lack of reflection in a mirror
Thanks to the commenters in the question sandbox for helping refine this question before posting.
In many vampire stories the vampires do not have a reflection in a mirror. This is generally not ...
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How to explain a livable planet the size of Jupiter in a fantasy universe
I am creating a story with wizards and a war between the medieval and the magician, but I liked the idea that this world was huge, and the different people lived a colossal distance apart, not just ...
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How to create a world where birth defects are common and where women are still treated equal to men?
I have a world I'm working on designed to be the setting for an eastern-style RPG. In the past, magic was used until the mana fueling it ran out and everything people depend on failed. At about the ...
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How can enchanted items be explained?
Let us define enchanting as binding a magical effect to or channeling it through a physical form.
Background:
Magic is an "energy," or exotic matter/energy perhaps, that exists essentially as an ...
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Using physics - How can a character fly
I am writing a story in which the characters have some power over the physical world - literally able to transform their knowledge of physics into powers. I am trying to determine a good way for them ...
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Real life explanation of inheritance of werewolves' curse
Let us imagine later medieval society, very close to our 15 century society. This society struggled with Great Plague. The legends say, that they signed a pact with some supernatural forces, and the ...
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How can magic be used to drive someone insane - later
In my world, I have a form of magic that can be used by a practitioner to connect with a subject's mind at touch range, and effectively give an experienced, powerful practitioner total control over ...
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If accelerated natural healing were to occur, what would happen to the human body?
The Details:
The human body is capable of impressive acts of self-repair, but such processes take a lot of time, and can take a toll on the body. Infection or other complications can also develop, and ...
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How might one explain (pseudo-scientifically) the generation of a "projected," guided darkness?
The Details:
We have ways to generate light and direct it with our own technology. Humans have had the ability to do this for even longer. Within the last number of decades, we have begun ...
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What needs to be considered when creating a world in which magic has evolved along with technology? [closed]
I'm trying to design a world in which (for the storyline) magic has evolved along with technology (ideally at a somewhat equal rate if this sounds coherent but I'm flexible) until the world has ...
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Why would a magic world be stuck in medieval times?
This is related to Must magic be tied to medieval tech?, but not the same.
So the setup:
There are two worlds, one is Earth, as it is now, with all its history. The other is a magic world, with an ...
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Colored magic makes my faeries too powerful [closed]
Humans have been handed a lemon, and you have 2 weeks to make lemonade.
I have a magic system based on the Opponent Processes model of vision. This magic system has three competing pairs of colors: ...
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How can I determine the color of my magic? [closed]
Background
For my own entertainment, I have been designing how I would hypothetically make a spiritual sequel to Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. It is hypothetical as the work needed to do ...
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Occultic FTL Drive
In a hypothetical futuristic society that blends arcane magic with science, humanity has spread across the galaxy. FTL drives exist, but they are relatively slow and must exit at the outer edge of a ...
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What changes to human society would be necessitated by a race with small size and the ability to fly?
I have a world where the magic system is based pretty much on the Ars Magica RPG and a technological level roughly equivalent to 17th century Earth.
Co-existing (in the same geographical areas but ...
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What species, if any, would survive this kind of apocalypse, and what would global environment be like?
So, this is going to be kind of a tricky question to answer, because the setting is a science fantasy world, in the sense that, on the surface at least, it looks like our reality and it seems like the ...
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In a world of magic, why would cities still find high walls useful?
In a world where magic exists. A large army can hire several mages that able to cast spells as, or even more, powerful than a 16-19th century cannon. The city walls will not keep out a determined mage ...
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Would we see cannons in a magic-using society?
In a society that has relatively plentiful magic, enough that spell casters would be a standard part of any size-able army, would cannons and artillery still develop?
For the purpose of this question ...
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How much can a magician lift if constrained by her own body's energy?
In Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle ( the Eragon books ), magic works in a very specifically defined way. A magician can only use magic as far as his own bodily strength would be able to take ...
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Enchanting a cannon [closed]
In a fantasy world steeped in magic, gunpowder has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Cannon and muskets have become commonplace on the battlefield; and far from replacing magic, have synergized ...
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'Magic Came Back' Catastrophes - Air and Earth [closed]
Referring back to https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/2781/magic-came-back-catastrophes
In the interest of narrowing questions down, I am splitting these out into particular elements ...
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'Magic Came Back' Catastrophes - Wood-based Disasters
Referring back to https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/2781/magic-came-back-catastrophes
In the interest of narrowing questions down, I am splitting these out into particular elements ...
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'Magic Came Back' catastrophes - Water-based Disasters
Referring back to https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/2781/magic-came-back-catastrophes
In the interest of narrowing questions down, I am splitting these into particular elements and ...
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'Magic Came Back' catastrophes - Fire-based Disasters
Referring back to https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/2781/magic-came-back-catastrophes
In the interest of narrowing questions down, I am splitting these out into particular elements ...
- 10.9k
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How to design a world for a western marches game?
Western Marches is a style of RPG game where the players face an increasing amount of danger and hazards the further they go in a given direction. This can be due to being on a frontier, on the ...
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How can I save a high-tech/no-spaceflight civilization against the wrath of non-technological gods?
The Problem:
Atlantis has angered the gods. Having developed fantastical technologies far beyond the rest of the planet, they have managed to challenge the gods themselves. The gods' reaction is to ...
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Centralised continent, with sea/wind currents?
I'm currently designing a large scale D&D based campaign, magic is based on winds and weather coming from two points, the 'northern pole' and the 'southern pole'.
Currently the "world" is a ...
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What would the effects of static teleportation points have on a Renaissance society?
You'll begin to see a pattern emerge...
If there were teleportation points near major cities, at points of interest, and otherwise spread across a vast renaissance society, what would be the key ...
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What are the societal effects of an easily available resurrection service?
Let's take a world where you can be resurrected, D&D style, but maybe a little cheaper, no constitution-based ill effects, and easier to access. Perhaps any cleric worth their salt can bring you ...
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What would happen if magic was constrained by the second law of thermodynamics
This is a followup question to the question Wondering what would happen if magic was constrained by Conservation of Energy and it's related to this post. This question asks which sources of energy ...
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How to go from Australia to Europe using correspondences?
I am writing a story where we have our real science-based world, and a parallel world where magic is the more dominant principle. In fact the principle of magic is so dominant, that one cannot travel ...
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What fantasy race has an affinity for water? [closed]
I am designing my own fantasy world. In it, I am trying to tie various aspects of the world, such as water, fire, life... to a particular race that has a magical affinity for that aspect. Dwarves ...
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Explaining where energy comes from to power magic
I'm trying to create a realistic magic system, this may be a lost cause.
Imagine in our story we have a wizard who wants to cast a spell to start a fire.
In some magic systems there are magic words, ...
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Solving the difficulties of a world based on harmonics
If you were to do a plane or world where music interacts with everything and instruments are essentially able to influence reality based on how they are played, what would be the practical ...
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Wondering what would happen if magic was constrained by Conservation of Energy
Would throwing a fireball leave a trail of frost in its wake? Would transmuting too much lead into gold cause a small meltdown? Would collecting enough power to cast a really big spell like causing ...
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Assuming magic is a source of energy that wizards have access to, how would they "bleed off" the energy when not using it?
So in many worlds, magic is a source of power that magic users can draw upon and "do stuff with" - make elemental effects (fire, cold, lightning), heal wounds, shield from arrows, light rooms, etc. ...
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How can magic and the economy reliably stand together?
This question assumes that in any kind of magical world, any form of magi can create nearly anything, but especially -- using only magic, can create gold, silver, gemstones, other currency, etc. as ...
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Would a roof over a ship's board hinder operation of the ship significantly?
Related to: How would rudder protection against water elementals affect ship's performance and How would sails from a fireproof material affect ship's performance?
Most real-world ships from say 14th ...
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How would sails from a fireproof material affect ship's performance?
Related to: How would rudder protection against water elementals affect ship's performance
In a world with ordinary magic, military ships should be prepared for enemy fireball-hurling wizards. Is ...
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How would rudder protection against water elementals affect ship's performance?
In my world, there are two countries constantly in cold or warm war with each other, and one of them has quite a lot of magi in their army. In my RPG campaign, the party is sailing one of the best-...
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What and how main technological breakthrough we have today could be replaced with magic? [closed]
In my opinion, magic can lead to its very own kind of technology, possibly very similar to ours.
If it is a kind of magic where you use one energy source to trigger one other event (like in The ...
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What effect would elemental magic have on the work force
Imagine a society where everyone controls a variation of one of the four elements: earth, fire, water, and air. What I mean by variation is some might control metal, but not rocks. Others control ice, ...
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In a world of science AND magic, how is magic explained scientifcally? [closed]
Obviously there are multiple ways to explain this, so the correct answer in this case would be the most reasonable and detailed answer with as many explanations as possible.
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Regulating the usage of magic in the modern era
If magic were to manifest in the modern (present) age, how would first world governments attempt to classify and regulate its usage? To be more specific (and an example), if the USA created a ...
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Must magic be tied to medieval tech?
Most settings with a magical component, whether this means wizards, magical races, or something similar, seem to be parked at a medieval level of development in terms of technology and society. Is ...
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