Post by eurofed on Jun 14, 2019 10:23:47 GMT
In the near future, a cosmic accident brought powerful magic to our universe, creating the conditions for radical change, unprecedented opportunity, and huge disaster. First, the troublesome news. The event weakened the dimensional barriers between our universe and a cluster of hells, inhabited by endless hordes of murderous demons. They knew about and hated humanity, and soon began their indiscriminate attacks.
Moreover, magic was not as perfectly clean and tidy as everyone thought it would be. Natural concentrations of magical power or the remnants of finished spells can become magical diseases. Although magical treatment is simple, if not necessarily incredibly fast, no mundane treatment can cure them. Immediately after the event, such diseases were highly virulent and often lethal. In the long term, their severity substantially toned down; past that point, effects vary depending on the spell or ambient magic that caused them, but are never lethal, and tend towards the embarrassing and the inconvenient.
Magic also has unforeseen effects on wildlife and the environment. Wherever there is magic, monsters shall form, more numerous and more powerful as the level of ambient magic rises. Even mundane flora and fauna tend to grow and expand with unnatural speed, more so in the areas that are relatively rich with life to begin with. Various kinds of extinct species reappeared, especially if their disappearance was due to man’s action.
Natural resources magically tend to regrow and refill to the levels existing before industrialization or even the Neolithic Revolution if human exploitation ever seriously depleted them. The biosphere became extremely efficient at eliminating waste and pollution. It looks like magic pursues a hard reset of the environment to pre-modern or even prehistoric standards combined with high fantasy conditions, and actively struggles to keep them into place.
In fact, magic actively attempts to make its users and the world more thematically appropriate. This functions through gradual alterations to the environment and to physical objects. As the level of ambient magic or the number of mages in the area rise, changes tend to become more rapid and extreme. However, these changes never significantly detract from the primary function of an item or area. Magic also tends to twist its users in a way it should not. Abuse of magic has a risk of mental and physical side effects, which only the gradual passage of time can remove. By default, these side effects involve lewd, violent, and thematic features. The first two typically include such effects as increased lust, expanded sexual characteristics, increased aggressiveness, and feral mutations. With thematic, side effects tend to change a person to match more closely what magic thinks they are.
Besides the changes that magic drives on its own, belief also holds power. As magic spreads, that power can become manifest. Gods may form, living beings may be transformed into demigods, and ordinary items may become mighty artifacts. The fervent belief of millions, at minimum, is necessary to form such things, and they both strengthen with more belief and weaken as belief dies out. The types of belief that can cause such empowerment may involve religion, myth, folklore, or even popular culture, as long as they are conductive to the existence of supernatural power. Belief in monotheist religion is remarkably ineffective at triggering this phenomenon, as if magic cannot or will not empower a kind of belief that does not admit the very existence of competition. Though mostly defined by the belief that created them, every god is innately driven to accumulate ever-greater quantities of belief, to destroy any god that would oppose them, and to place demigods and artifacts under their control.
All but the weakest and least dangerous magical threats and hazards turned out to be highly resistant or immune to mundane technology, making humanity critically reliant on magic to survive and cope with them. Magic also does not work so well with modern technology. Ambient magic, mages, and the results of magic are fine, but spells and enchantments can cause serious problems.
The initial breakout of magic in the world reaped a devastating death toll, killing the vast majority of humanity. Only 500 million to one billion people survived, most of them being inhabitants of the industrialized and temperate areas. Such regions fared relatively better, thanks to their greater organization and resources, and being spared the worst brunt of certain supernatural disasters. On the other hand, developing countries and tropical regions suffered the worst, getting almost depopulated in the hardest hit areas. Over time, however, survivors were able to adapt to their new environment, harness magic to fight back the various supernatural threats, reboot a techno-magical civilization with leftover technological and new sorcerous resources, and thrive.
The onset of magic was not all about apocalyptic doom and gloom. Magic is powerful, reliable, versatile, relatively easy to use, and can help in various ways. It can perform almost all the typical effects seen in overpowered high fantasy fiction without excessive effort, including battle magic, flight, telekinesis, elemental control, healing, shapeshifting, matter and energy creation and manipulation, enhancement of people and items, teleportation, and spatial manipulation.
By default, all mages can manipulate raw magical force with a power and range broadly equivalent to anti-tank weapons or lower. Mages that match this basic power level are commonly known as the Awakened. A rarer, more powerful type of mage (the Exalted) can scale this up to the rough equivalent of weapons of mass destruction. The rarest, most powerful kind of mage (the Ascended) can tap truly godlike levels of power, being able to cast spells that can affect large portions of the world.
There is no theoretical limit to the precision and complexity of one’s spells beyond the mage’s own intellect, though raw power limits are harder to break. Mages are usually bound to their default power levels, although especially successful ones can sometimes break through to a higher tier. Magic is inherently versatile, and may stretch a bit beyond the normal limits of its potential. As far as anyone can tell, the supply of magic in the universe is inexhaustible. However, there are limits to how much power any mage can channel from personal reserves and environmental sources, without spending time to rest and/or let them replenish.
Magic can be safely directed to heal and repair with imperfect understanding of how it heals and repairs. This makes physical healing and repairs easier and mental healing actually possible. As those who would heal the mind naturally must understand it, it is possible to observe the mind directly, initially through a form of empathy. Of course, magical techniques that heal and repair can be easily reversed to harm and destroy. Shapeshifting gets to be fail-safe and temporary by default. All forms of shapeshifting are relatively easy to perform; it is possible to discover how to gender swap yourself soon after gaining magic. Changing others is harder, especially if they try to resist, and changing items involves a greater degree of complexity. Changing minds is hardest of all.
Magic can be used to project and manipulate a variety of kinds of energy, including raw force, heat, cold, light, electricity, and magnetism. It is fairly easy and efficient to cast spells using these energies, as they adjust to match the user’s intent. Preventing these energies from harming the caster, and directly shielding yourself or others from these energies and mundane equivalents, is trivial in terms of complexity. Magic also can directly influence the other fundamental forces, including gravity and nuclear forces, as simply as it can other energies. Energy requirements scale normally to match the scope of this influence. Magic knows not and is not subject to conservation laws or the laws of thermodynamics.
It is possible to use magic to transfer the contents of a region of space directly to another location. This does not interact with the space between, and ignores the speed of light delay. Magic can also directly manipulate the fabric of space-time, including stretching it and opening portals. Mages have tested this up to interplanetary travel, but it is theoretically possible to use this to travel to interstellar distances, other universes, or even different historical periods. As far as the theory can tell, time travelers that attempt to change the past are going to create alternate timelines.
It is possible to apply magic to something to enhance it directly, with incomplete understanding of how the enhancement takes effect. A mage may use this to make materials stronger, or make complex items better at what they do. It is also feasible and safe to apply magic to living beings in this way, enhancing their skills and attributes beyond normal levels. Magic can make such enhancements temporary or permanent.
It is relatively easy to conjure temporary objects magically. Depending on the conjuror’s intent, they may or may not function exactly like normal matter. Conjured food and drink can safely sustain living beings, but may eventually stop them from generating waste. It is also possible to create real, permanent matter magically. At greater complexity and power expense, a mage can create more exotic, magical materials.
Moreover, magic was not as perfectly clean and tidy as everyone thought it would be. Natural concentrations of magical power or the remnants of finished spells can become magical diseases. Although magical treatment is simple, if not necessarily incredibly fast, no mundane treatment can cure them. Immediately after the event, such diseases were highly virulent and often lethal. In the long term, their severity substantially toned down; past that point, effects vary depending on the spell or ambient magic that caused them, but are never lethal, and tend towards the embarrassing and the inconvenient.
Magic also has unforeseen effects on wildlife and the environment. Wherever there is magic, monsters shall form, more numerous and more powerful as the level of ambient magic rises. Even mundane flora and fauna tend to grow and expand with unnatural speed, more so in the areas that are relatively rich with life to begin with. Various kinds of extinct species reappeared, especially if their disappearance was due to man’s action.
Natural resources magically tend to regrow and refill to the levels existing before industrialization or even the Neolithic Revolution if human exploitation ever seriously depleted them. The biosphere became extremely efficient at eliminating waste and pollution. It looks like magic pursues a hard reset of the environment to pre-modern or even prehistoric standards combined with high fantasy conditions, and actively struggles to keep them into place.
In fact, magic actively attempts to make its users and the world more thematically appropriate. This functions through gradual alterations to the environment and to physical objects. As the level of ambient magic or the number of mages in the area rise, changes tend to become more rapid and extreme. However, these changes never significantly detract from the primary function of an item or area. Magic also tends to twist its users in a way it should not. Abuse of magic has a risk of mental and physical side effects, which only the gradual passage of time can remove. By default, these side effects involve lewd, violent, and thematic features. The first two typically include such effects as increased lust, expanded sexual characteristics, increased aggressiveness, and feral mutations. With thematic, side effects tend to change a person to match more closely what magic thinks they are.
Besides the changes that magic drives on its own, belief also holds power. As magic spreads, that power can become manifest. Gods may form, living beings may be transformed into demigods, and ordinary items may become mighty artifacts. The fervent belief of millions, at minimum, is necessary to form such things, and they both strengthen with more belief and weaken as belief dies out. The types of belief that can cause such empowerment may involve religion, myth, folklore, or even popular culture, as long as they are conductive to the existence of supernatural power. Belief in monotheist religion is remarkably ineffective at triggering this phenomenon, as if magic cannot or will not empower a kind of belief that does not admit the very existence of competition. Though mostly defined by the belief that created them, every god is innately driven to accumulate ever-greater quantities of belief, to destroy any god that would oppose them, and to place demigods and artifacts under their control.
All but the weakest and least dangerous magical threats and hazards turned out to be highly resistant or immune to mundane technology, making humanity critically reliant on magic to survive and cope with them. Magic also does not work so well with modern technology. Ambient magic, mages, and the results of magic are fine, but spells and enchantments can cause serious problems.
The initial breakout of magic in the world reaped a devastating death toll, killing the vast majority of humanity. Only 500 million to one billion people survived, most of them being inhabitants of the industrialized and temperate areas. Such regions fared relatively better, thanks to their greater organization and resources, and being spared the worst brunt of certain supernatural disasters. On the other hand, developing countries and tropical regions suffered the worst, getting almost depopulated in the hardest hit areas. Over time, however, survivors were able to adapt to their new environment, harness magic to fight back the various supernatural threats, reboot a techno-magical civilization with leftover technological and new sorcerous resources, and thrive.
The onset of magic was not all about apocalyptic doom and gloom. Magic is powerful, reliable, versatile, relatively easy to use, and can help in various ways. It can perform almost all the typical effects seen in overpowered high fantasy fiction without excessive effort, including battle magic, flight, telekinesis, elemental control, healing, shapeshifting, matter and energy creation and manipulation, enhancement of people and items, teleportation, and spatial manipulation.
By default, all mages can manipulate raw magical force with a power and range broadly equivalent to anti-tank weapons or lower. Mages that match this basic power level are commonly known as the Awakened. A rarer, more powerful type of mage (the Exalted) can scale this up to the rough equivalent of weapons of mass destruction. The rarest, most powerful kind of mage (the Ascended) can tap truly godlike levels of power, being able to cast spells that can affect large portions of the world.
There is no theoretical limit to the precision and complexity of one’s spells beyond the mage’s own intellect, though raw power limits are harder to break. Mages are usually bound to their default power levels, although especially successful ones can sometimes break through to a higher tier. Magic is inherently versatile, and may stretch a bit beyond the normal limits of its potential. As far as anyone can tell, the supply of magic in the universe is inexhaustible. However, there are limits to how much power any mage can channel from personal reserves and environmental sources, without spending time to rest and/or let them replenish.
Magic can be safely directed to heal and repair with imperfect understanding of how it heals and repairs. This makes physical healing and repairs easier and mental healing actually possible. As those who would heal the mind naturally must understand it, it is possible to observe the mind directly, initially through a form of empathy. Of course, magical techniques that heal and repair can be easily reversed to harm and destroy. Shapeshifting gets to be fail-safe and temporary by default. All forms of shapeshifting are relatively easy to perform; it is possible to discover how to gender swap yourself soon after gaining magic. Changing others is harder, especially if they try to resist, and changing items involves a greater degree of complexity. Changing minds is hardest of all.
Magic can be used to project and manipulate a variety of kinds of energy, including raw force, heat, cold, light, electricity, and magnetism. It is fairly easy and efficient to cast spells using these energies, as they adjust to match the user’s intent. Preventing these energies from harming the caster, and directly shielding yourself or others from these energies and mundane equivalents, is trivial in terms of complexity. Magic also can directly influence the other fundamental forces, including gravity and nuclear forces, as simply as it can other energies. Energy requirements scale normally to match the scope of this influence. Magic knows not and is not subject to conservation laws or the laws of thermodynamics.
It is possible to use magic to transfer the contents of a region of space directly to another location. This does not interact with the space between, and ignores the speed of light delay. Magic can also directly manipulate the fabric of space-time, including stretching it and opening portals. Mages have tested this up to interplanetary travel, but it is theoretically possible to use this to travel to interstellar distances, other universes, or even different historical periods. As far as the theory can tell, time travelers that attempt to change the past are going to create alternate timelines.
It is possible to apply magic to something to enhance it directly, with incomplete understanding of how the enhancement takes effect. A mage may use this to make materials stronger, or make complex items better at what they do. It is also feasible and safe to apply magic to living beings in this way, enhancing their skills and attributes beyond normal levels. Magic can make such enhancements temporary or permanent.
It is relatively easy to conjure temporary objects magically. Depending on the conjuror’s intent, they may or may not function exactly like normal matter. Conjured food and drink can safely sustain living beings, but may eventually stop them from generating waste. It is also possible to create real, permanent matter magically. At greater complexity and power expense, a mage can create more exotic, magical materials.