[BBS/maaaybe action]

[haha_steelguard]

Got a question for you all out there... at least, the ones I've never asked this of before.

What's magic like on your worlds? Did it exist? Could anyone use it, or was it in the hands of just a few? Did it terrify people, like it does here? Was there a substitute for it?

No deep reason, just curious. My own world has a lot of similarities to this one, that way. Makes me wonder what other ones are like.

-Instructor Snow Villiers

Comments

[rewritethis]

Define magic. Seems like it doesn't mean the same to everyone.

[haha_steelguard]

Same sort of thing you'd associate with a Sorceress here. Pretty much literally. Hurling fire or ice. Blinding, dazing, stunning. Healing, curing. Guess you'd call it direct energy manipulation. Something out of nothing.

[rewritethis]

But energy manipulation isn't the same as something out of nothing. THAT doesn't exist anywhere.

[haha_steelguard]

Question is, then, where's the energy come from?

[incinerare]

Depending upon your own definition of magic, there was nothing like the magic here back in the world I'm from originally. However, some people seem to consider alchemy a sort of magic. If only due to the appearance of what it can do, but alchemy is not magic, despite what it might look like. It follows laws and is more of a science. Unlike with magic, you can not obtain something out of nothing with alchemy.

[haha_steelguard]

We had something like that... AMP tech. It was as good as magic, even did the same things as magic in a lot of cases, but was all science. Magic was like here, scary. The people who had it were (supposed to be) monsters.

[incinerare]

AMP tech? [You've got his curiosity pinged, not that that's very hard to do when mentioning technology or science really.]

How did that work, if you don't mind me asking?

As for actual magic... I'm still getting used to the magic that is used here, even though I can understand how to use it and how it's obtained for people other than sorceresses, I still don't understand how it actually works like it does. You shouldn't be capable of achieving something from nothing like you apparently can with it.

I don't think it is quite as bad as the people here tend to believe it is though. As in most cases, it isn't that magic and those capable of it are bad, it's how a person uses it that matters. Unfortunately it seems that all the natives here remember are the bad ones and thus they judge everyone by that standard.

[haha_steelguard]

Antimatter manipulation principle, AMP. Don't know the details, but the fal'Cie are involved with it, so it might just be impossible without them.

Back on Cocoon, the ability to use magic came with an order, something called a Focus: "destroy the world" in most cases. You didn't do that, you turned into a horrible monsters.

[9tailedtemptress]

Runeterra is an immensely magical world, sometimes to a fault as it was almost the cause of it's destruction during one of the many wars that were waged upon it.

It wasn't rare, but the truly powerful are and it was them who made the decisions and shaped the world making the weaker fear them or adore them, many resented them.

It was learnable... to a point. There were many ways to use 'magic' in the sense of it being something incredible but very few were able to wield pure or raw magic in it's strongest ways.

As far as the substitutes, many delved into technology or magitech which provided... interesting results. Alchemy was also heavily used but mainly by the people of Zaun.

Hope that's enough to answer and satisfy your curiosity~!

[haha_steelguard]

Different ways of using it like what?

Magic on our world came in different roles. Some of us were better at attack magic, some of us were better at healing, some of us were better at sabotaging our foes or helping our allies. By the end of our journey we could all do a little of everything, but I was always better at, say, attack magic.

[9tailedtemptress]

It all depended, again, on how well you could naturally wield it or how much training and understanding you put into it. However, focus was usually a defining aspect of it.

Some focused on offense, some on defense, some would focus on a specific element... it was those who had a grasp of the true essence of magic that stood out over everyone.

[manslut]

Magic? Nah, we didn't really have anything that was magic like the shit here. We used materia, which was sort of like the draw system, but we put the stuff into glass-like balls. Which were then junctioned onto weapons or armor, that was the only real way to use it.

Though considering some of the shit Sephiroth was using, I guess it was possible to use it without materia...

[haha_steelguard]

If it's like paramagic, the magic it started out as had to come from somewhere, though, didn't it?

[manslut]

Probably, though the only things I can think of that used magic without materia were the monsters that run about. Or, well, the damned Cetra that don't really exist anymore. Materia's just something we bought in stores like it wasn't any big deal at all.

[werepanther]

Magic existed, but only people called Homo Magi can use it. I guess metahumans were a substitute - those're people with superpowers - but magic's still feared in my world. Most people don't think it actually exists.

I know a lot of Earths're different, and mine seems to be the crazy one, but their magic isn't much like yours, LOL. Kinda wish it was!

- Tom

[haha_steelguard]

No, you really don't. The price is too high.

[werepanther]

So I've heard. :/ Hence the 'kinda.' Magic's weird and I don't pretend to understand it, but I'm glad I'm a metahuman instead.

- Tom

[doublewhite]

people were scared of black mages...... not of magic on its own just the black mages.

I use white magic and summoning magic.

white is healing, black is for attacking, and blue copies monsters.

[haha_steelguard]

So they were scared just of black magic, because all it could do is destroy?

BBS

[seethelanterns]

There was magic, back home. I'm pretty sure mine was...unique though. And yes, it did kind of freak Eugene out when I first showed him.

[haha_steelguard]

Because it was magic, or because it was unique?

[seethelanterns]

Both, I guess?

[absolute_zero]

In my world magic had eclipsed science to the point where it was the center of our society. By combining it with technology we were able to create much of the same comforts I have seen in this world..just different.

In general we referred to it as Ars Magus. Ability for it varies among people, and not everyone has the talent.

[haha_steelguard]

That's... hard to believe. Not that I think you're lying, but imagining that much acceptance of magic...

[absolute_zero]

I don't know the details of your world, but in mine the use of magic was essential to defeating a monster that nearly destroyed the world a century ago. After that it became indispensable in rebuilding civilization, so it was natural for most people to accept it.

It doesn't go for everyone, though. There are some people who still believe in 'pure' science and eschew the use of Ars Magus, but they are in the minority.