The Cover Art
Credit goes to my friend.
Well, when I wrote 'liberating', I meant if it can be used to allow technological imitation of basic Magery, giving the none-Mage the taste of what's coming in future, without messing up everything. I also had an idea of rediscovered radio technology being the foundation of Magitek (while being useless in its original role).I meant my response for both posts, actually, including this one:
I wanted to limit the readily available magitek to prevent anything that could be considered a "I-Win button" but in the same time actually allow magitek to canonically exist in the setting.
Magic usually have a clearly defined rules and restrictions readers can readily understand.
Easiest way to give magic rules is to make it dependant on skills, knowledge or focus of the caster. Spirits, being inherently magical beings that don't care much about physics in the first place, are harder to limit, but still, you can limit it by knowledge of both caster and Spirit. Perhaps despite the fact Spirits don't quite understand humans or even laws of physics, most of them started to understand responsibility etc.
Magitek normally isn't a problem in the setting that wouldn't have any advanced - or should I say post-medieval - technology on its own. It's mostly window dressing for fantasy shows to look differently, is not a mean to resolve the problem of main plot / story-line.Well, when I wrote 'liberating', I meant if it can be used to allow technological imitation of basic Magery, giving the none-Mage the taste of what's coming in future, without messing up everything. I also had an idea of rediscovered radio technology being the foundation of Magitek (while being useless in its original role).
Or is it a too dangerous path to take?
Let's take this from a different angle.You once wrote that everything, including technology, is in process of acclimatizing to the changed physics of the new world. Maybe the Augmentation discipline is a Mage temporarily 'unlocking' the acclimatization of a technological item. The Magitek would be a step further from that, a piece of technological item that has been fully acclimated to the Magery, which would either make it a permanently Augmented item, or item that could replicate Magery effect, but just as Mages are rare, Magitek items are rare - even more so considering that technological item can't breed themselves, and likely kept out of reach of most people for studying.
What I don't want: Needless Grimdark. Earth-man. Aliens (except for Spirits). Advanced electronics. Evil Empire/overlord final boss. Magery being overpowered and completely replacing technology. Society treating Mages like a shit for no good reason. World War 2 expy. Explicit political message and resulting shitstorm.What you don't want in the setting?
We already made steps to enforce some of those rules / goals.What I don't want: Needless Grimdark. Earth-man. Aliens (except for Spirits). Advanced electronics. Evil Empire/overlord final boss. Magery being overpowered and completely replacing technology. Society treating Mages like a shit for no good reason. World War 2 expy. Explicit political message and resulting shitstorm.
Eh, it's to be expected, as you have noted. I can always intervene/retcon if it goes too far.What would be a nightmare is to rule out factions under self-insert mentality, i.e. have broken powers, and are too ahead of time and out of theme. You can regulate it to some point, but as you noticed on SB, people do try to make those somehow instinctively once they are given an option.
Can't be worse than me, as you have noticed.even though, I can be erratic at times, as you have noticed.
However, I can get the result of progress away from the hands of characters, either because they are out in the boonies, or because it's not really something anyone could use individually or in everyday life (radar, for example), or because it's still in prototype stage (which would make it plot item rather than gadget to be used).You can't rule out progress from the setting
Yeah, that's my worries as well.BTW should you get more writers, rule out stories taking place in past or in future, always sent in universe's "preset time". It may cause temporal paradox if you have several writers who all has been canon.
I'd like to include this on a fluff article on Spirits and Magery, with some editing. Are you okay with that?snip
It's a question whether radars in general even works ... it either gets false images, or at very least require warding to properly function. I think this wasn't clarified in the technological limitation write-up.However, I can get the result of progress away from the hands of characters, either because they are out in the boonies, or because it's not really something anyone could use individually or in everyday life (radar, for example), or because it's still in prototype stage (which would make it plot item rather than gadget to be used).
Of course.I'd like to include this on a fluff article on Spirits and Magery, with some editing. Are you okay with that?
Currently, no one has radar, and it might not work, as you noted. I'll clarify.It's a question whether radars in general even works ... it either gets false images, or at very least require warding to properly function. I think this wasn't clarified in the technological limitation write-up.
By the way, how is my What I Want in my story list? Would they be workable?
Most of it isn't really a problem.What I want: Well-written and interesting ecosystem. A fragmented world with numbers of free cities and statelets. New frontiers and badlands open to exploration. Bandits and quirky isolationists. Female airship captain. Magery well-integrated into setting.
It can, however, stay that way for the duration of the story.World will not remain fractures for a long time, eventually it will recover, unless you find out some unusual explanation why it never can.
Well, this is a problem since I want my story to be some years after the war - after the immediate chaos has been calmed, leaving only new frontiers (and new problems) to be explored.You can, however, set a stories immediately after the war, mere months after a peace has been signed, making sure world is still either fractured, or in chaos, from what it experienced. This - combined with a rule that story must be set in what is "present time" for a setting - will assure world described in stories will be in status you want it in, and easily justify why it is so.
What if I want to make her from Dar-es-Salaam?Female airship captain is not much of the issue either. We have faction or two which won't have a problem with a woman holding such a position, just give character appropriate background and you are golden.
Meta-level, obviously.Magery well integrated into the setting - it depends how you mean it. If you mean it on meta level, like integrating a magical system into the world building, this is obviously a challenge, and can be picked apart by people who pay attention (or rather, nit-pick). If you mean, in-universe, you obviously achieved that by the lore already established, and we can further solidify it by further write-ups. Just getting entertaining story may be an issue right now...
Yes. Stories usually don't span over period of several years, hence immediate chances aren't going to be visible.It can, however, stay that way for the duration of the story.
You won't get that many bandits if society had a chance to stabilise itself after the war. Yes, you can imitate a status Weimar republic was in after the war, but only to certain point.Well, this is a problem since I want my story to be some years after the war - after the immediate chaos has been calmed, leaving only new frontiers (and new problems) to be explored.
Do you really want to?What if I want to make her from Dar-es-Salaam?
This is what I am most worried about - ideas clashing with politics, unintentionally.Do you really want to?
Because, this matter touches the real world politics, and there is no correct answer. Both yes and no leads to its own set of problems.
Luckily (or sadly, depending on perspective) you aren't famous, so activists won't jump on your every word.This is what I am most worried about - ideas clashing with politics, unintentionally.
Glad that you find it good. Unexplained or warranting a further explanation... I am not quite sure where to start, considering that this setting is still rather undeveloped. And I'd like to take some time off to think.Good job. Which other part of the setting remains unexplained, or warrants a further explanation?