Questions tagged [urban-fantasy]
Questions for incorporating fantastical elements into the modern world (20th century or later), with an emphasis on cities.
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Why would vampires sire vampires of lesser blood than they have to?
Long story short: my story has magical humanoids (known as "immortals" due to their immunity to old age and disease) existing in secret on mostly-modern-day Earth as a 1-in-1000-humans ...
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What would have been the most infamous "Reaper's Moon" in history?
My story is an urban fantasy tale, set on an alternate Earth where every mythical humanoid that humanity ever thought was real, is in fact real, or at least used to be before going extinct. From ...
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What modern-day object could a magic wand be disguised as?
In my setting, wands and staves are two of the many means by which magical creatures can harness, to a limited degree, other magical creatures' powers. When a magical creature (known as an immortal) ...
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How would the world governments define a super person?
DC, Marvel, X-men...etc style people, or things, exist. Great.
Now the existence of those people would definitely change laws and many legal practices. And of course the governments of the world would ...
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What would be the ideal date and time for a magical zombie apocalypse to occur to cause the most death and destruction?
An invisible eldritch entity has enveloped the entirety of modern planet Earth. As a result of this, any human who dies becomes a zombie. This is not spread by bites or anything like that, death of ...
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What would be US Military procedure for investigating a portal to another world? [closed]
Here's the scenario I'm working with: a portal opens up within 30 minutes' drive of one of the better equipped military installations in the continental United States. It is stable, shows no signs of ...
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How realistic would a city of over ten million people in an area of less than 100 square kilometres be?
I have been playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my PS4 and Night City in the game has almost 7 million people and an area of just 75 km2. It is very dense with suspended streets and highways and giant buildings ...
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How would a city work to accommodate much larger and smaller humanoids? [duplicate]
In my story there's a rather highly populated city with multiple humanoid creatures with varying heights. I'm not sure how much this would matter, but the most common species in the city are humans ...
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How, if at all, could my secret immortal clans hold on to territory in small towns?
I have a story set in an alternate version of 1998 USA where nearly every single mythical humanoid humanity has ever believed in actually does exist (or used to before going extinct) and lives in ...
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How can ungulate humanoids conceal their weird legs in public?
In my story, mythical humanoids secretly live amongst humanity in modern day, but not all of them are created equal when it comes to blending in with the human race. While individual humans do know ...
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How durable would a kaiju-sized human be?
I am writing a story that centres around a person who slowly grows larger and larger overtime, to the point of kaiju-size and beyond. They grow due to magic, so other than their vastly increased size ...
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How does a government handle a large number of people disappearing that are anticipated to return all at once at some point in the future
I have a world I had toyed with where our world is invaded by creatures very vaguely like the heartless from kingdomhearts. The creatures are mostly immune to traditional weapons, as regular matter ...
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How can supernatural social beings avoid total extermination/enslavement when the human world has the Big Brother system?
The human world has the world government (and thus the single Big Brother system, which monitors people living even in the most obscure places).
For sake of being short I will call "supernatural ...
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How do the inhabitants of my city-wide death trap figure out that nobody will be let out until only 100 people are left alive?
So, in my story, there is a city that gets cut off from the rest of the world. Golden translucent walls rise up on all four sides, going all the way up into the atmosphere and all the way down to the ...
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Why doesn't my memory-manipulating illuminati routinely sweep new species for immunity to their mind control? [closed]
My story is set in the late 90s, in an alternate reality where elves, dwarves, vampires, werewolves and the like all secretly live amongst the human race. Initially the masquerade trope is played ...
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How can I plausibly justify why a secret society of superhumans didn't get openly involved in the political events of the 2020s? [closed]
I have a setting that is intended to be set in the "present day" (i.e., whenever the reader is reading it) set in the United States which involves a secret society of supernatural people ...
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Seating in Integrated Cities - Not all humans, different species
Okay, so, I have different species than the ones for, well, most of my questions (This is the first question of the series), but the purpose is still here. However, it's on an alien planet, called ...
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How powerful could a person with superpowers/group of superhumans be without greatly affecting world history?
One of the major problems I've always had with the MCU and the DC universe is how powerful many of the beings or people are whilst the World is still almost the same as ours.
It was as if the writers ...
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How can a 15-year-old vampire get human blood?
Since they can't really work a job that would allow easy access to blood, I thought of having them volunteer at a blood bank then maybe steal a bag. Alternatively, is it plausible that they would come ...
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Is it realistic for a town to completely disappear overnight without a major crisis and massive cultural/historical impacts?
I was inspired by this question which talks about feuding clans of immortals in an urban fantasy setting trying to wipe out each other's cities while under a masquerade. There's a lot of this kind of ...
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How could my secret societies of immortals take over rival-clan-controlled towns without breaking the masquerade?
In a previous question, I brought up the concept of sanctuary towns, towns populated entirely by people who know about the population of immortal (as in they can't get old or sick; they can still be ...
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Is it possible for a group of supernatural beings attempt to declare an independent, sovereign state from within the U.S [closed]
I had previously asked this question about how the U.S. military would deal with a secessionist uprising from an organized coalition of werewolves, when I realized I hadn't thought very much about the ...
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What would be the best city in the U.S./Canada to live in for a supernatural being trying to exist undetected from humanity?
I am wondering if there are any specific cities on the North American continent (not considering Mexico for the moment being, for reasons detailed below) that supernatural beings trying to live hidden ...
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21st Century Intracity Train Design with These Races
Link To Races: Rail Transportation with Races Described Below - Specifically, Seating
However, this will be for my intercity and international, trains. Intercity means this: It starts in one city in ...
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Freezing the water in blood
Ice magic lowers the temperature of things. I was thinking of freezing the water in blood (specifically blood plasma) to kill. How would this work? Also, can it be used on non-mammals, like sea ...
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How do I strike a balance between real-world inspiration and purely fictional design, especially for alternate cities? [closed]
My primary question comes from a fledgling animator's perspective. I'd like to capture the general look and feel of a lot of South Florida's cities, while also combining it with my urban-fantasy/...
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How large could a population of supernatural beings be and still be plausibly hidden?
I am trying to figure out how large the population of supernatural beings can be in a stereotypical urban fantasy setting before their numbers stretch the suspension of disbelief. I.e., your standard ...
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Is there a place in which a portal to another dimension could be hidden for five years, but then discovered by children? [closed]
I am writing a story in which two children, ages 12-14 years old, discover a portal to another dimension. The portal is roughly the size of an average door and has existed for five years prior to ...
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How hard would be to make a concrete fluid container to explode?
The situation is that two magic users are fighting a concrete golem, their only way to defeat it is to destroy it, when this characters crack it they find that the golem is hollow so their strategy is ...
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Could cobalt make a good sword? and what knownk alloy would be the closest to it?
The setting is semi modern urban fantasy where there are mercenaries with the task of slaying monsters on the unpopulated areas, steel is the first metal to go when it comes to making weapons on large ...
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How bright and lit up could cities be in the future?
Technology will obviously make lamps much brighter and with wholly new designs and functions like self-illuminating walls, surfaces and glowing objects. Genetic engineering could also create trees and ...
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How would people in the 1920s-1930s explain or rationalize superpowers?
In June 1938 Action Comics #1 was published, introducing Superman to the world and codifying the modern idea of a superhero that the world has known for almost the past 80 years. There were ...
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Where could a vampire get blood without harming people?
I am looking for possible ways in which a vampire could obtain blood to feed in an modern urban fantasy setting explicitly without harming humans or other sapient beings. Parameters for this question ...
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Tracking time between multiple different realities simultaneously
How do I track time (using a special time system) between two realities that are not necessarily parallel but if a person jumps from one to the other what would the time be in comparison to their ...
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How do you all work out the relative costs of spells?
Magic system question here. Would much appreciate your help!
I've read a decent bit about writing magic and I think I have a decent grasp of Sanderson's laws.
My magic has a cost (you have to shed ...
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Strategies against a water bender in modern day for an average citizen?
Assuming a water bender can only manipulate water that they are either touching or is within their relative touching distance (say, a few cm to a meter away), and assume that blood, saliva, and sweat ...
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How big would a Daddy Longlegs Spider need to be to kill an average Human?
Daddy Longlegs Spiders, officially "Pholcidae" are known to be the worlds most venomous spiders, sort of.
We are supposedly unaffected by them because their fangs are too small, the shape of their ...
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Best gun to modify into a monsterhunter weapon?
In my post-apocalyptical-urban-fantasy setting, the main character is a mercenary mage who uses a gun with a big bayonet as his main weapon. The blade is supposed to be some kind of a glaive.
The ...
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Why do dragons like shiny stuff?
I like the classic trope of dragons loving gold and collecting it in their lair, yet it seems poorly justified. I know that it is often used as a metaphor for greed; "dragons disease" to show how ...
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Ideal time in human history for reveal of Demi-Humans and the Conditions for their coexistence
In this world, demi-humans (not just elves or orcs, but also other races like lamias, centaurs, minotaurs, driders, lizardman, alraune, vampires, etc.) have always existed but they did not start ...
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What accommodations would a giant need?
I'm making a human female who's size was multiplied by 10. I need to know what sort of accommodations she'd need to make up for any disadvantages. This is in the modern day, so 21st-century medicine ...
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What would one wish to make magic real? [closed]
One day, as I walked in some random countryside, I found myself in the presence of some higher being. It's kinda blur in appearance, and I can't quite say if it's a genie in a lamp, a technologically ...
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Reason why dimensional travelling would be restricted
Alternate dimensions/timelines are an important part of one of my settings, a modern fantasy. Magic is well known, and it is possible for objects to be enchanted by a powerful magic user to connect ...
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What are some reasons for mages to use guns as well as magic? [duplicate]
The world that I'm building is set in a fantasy world that is reminiscent of the early 20th century. Magic involves the traditional eight schools and anyone can become a magician if they choose to ...
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What would be a source of iron to ward off faeries in todays world
In a story I'm writing, I'm going to need iron to ward off magical creatures, faeries to be exact.
This iron should not be used in an alloy with other metals or coated with something like paint, tin,...
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If fairies don't need as much food, water or space, why wouldn't they overwhelm humans in the post-apocalypse? [closed]
I'm writing a story about the aftermath and consequences of a runic magic system being mysteriously introduced to the human race by an unknown entity. Every week a new rune is given to everyone on ...
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Is an hour-long weekly driving ban feasible in modern America?
So here's the deal: my story takes place in modern America in the aftermath of an unexplained event where a runic magic system was introduced to humanity by an unknown entity. Every week a new rune is ...
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Earth under one roof: Feasible?
Okay, so how feasible is it- if even possible- to put the Earth under 'one roof'?
So here is the premise. The world is heavily heavily over populated, so overpopulated in fact that almost all of the ...
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Is it possible for two dimensions to exist on one planet? [closed]
I'm writing a fantasy comics and I am stuck on a particular idea. Imagine if Hell existed on our planet. Like hell is here, we simply cannot see it, because there is an invisible barrier between the ...
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Whats the difference between the plane, dimensions, realm and realities [closed]
I'm trying to trying to world build a high fantasy and sci-fi. But I can't differentiate the difference between the plane, dimensions, realms and realities. So, I want to know what the difference ...
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