✵ There is still magic among the Stars ✵
History
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.
We always seem to think that a fantasy setting develops in the medieval times or an alternate reality with many parallelisms with it. This isn’t the case with this story...
Our story starts in the XIX century, the scramble for Africa is starting and two bitter rivals find themselves with a motive to raise arms. Who shot who and who fired first? It doesn’t matter, for history will wash away the facts and replace them with the version hoisted by the winner. From the future, we spy the developments of the past and we finally have seemed to learn to question ourselves. In retrospective, almost the entire history of humanity relies of a house of cards made of small events. What you ate today? Did you go to work? What ideas you explained to the people you talked with? All of those minuscule and seemingly insignificant actions bring forth changes which might be the cause of great facts later on.
A small town lies in the banks of the White Nile, its name was Fashoda. It was the spark that almost ignited a war and the reason the project of the Entente Cordiale fell apart. The Empire of the French Republic and the British Empire would not make it a crucible for their steel-forged alliance. In other reality it might have become the first step towards something greater constructed between those two countries; in this world, it was not the case. France soon lost T’chad, granting the British a connection between the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the colony of Nigeria. France again almost went to war for Morocco when the British joined their voice to the German Empire’s in support of the Spanish claims to the detriment of them.
When war came in 1910 France and Russia stood facing against Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. Germany, cautious about the British observing from over the shoulder of the combatants decided to wait for the French offensives in the west while trying to slow down the Russian human waves that took Königsberg and heavily threatened to completely surround Lemberg, capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Cisleithania, Austria-Hungary. Great Britain, as all the Great Powers of the time, believed in a short and decisive war fought between honourable gentlemen. Once more, it was not the case. They decided to support the Central Powers to stabilize the situation and maintain the balance of power. It wasn’t necessary and indeed it was excessive as the war was over by 1913, just three years after it had started. Three years of unseen carnage and human loss.
The Russian Empire lay in ruins, destroyed from the outside by the Central Power’s armies marching over the Baltic Republics, White Ruthenia, Ukraine and the Caucasus, rotten from the inside by revolutions, nationalism and a feudal economy. France’s countryside west of and around Paris was a morass of mud and shrapnel from both sides’ shells. Italy jumped in and opened another front. The Franco-Russian Entente was no more.
In the occupied France of the 20’s there were numerous resistance cells and extremism expanded among the populace as a furious but surreptitious conflagration. Most of these cells didn’t amount to anything but to the combined rage and discontent of the nation. This wasn’t the case for one cell, very unorthodox in its methods. Magic was discovered and used again; this is the great legacy of the Great War.
All men die, all institutions fall at one point or another, even when they are bound to rise again soon. The victorious powers of the war eventually also fell too from their ivory pedestals.
Welcome to the year 2342, a time when magic intermixed with technology in an almost salacious dance of energy and mater. This isn’t the world that you remember nor how the world you imagine will be like.
The World in the year 2342
Welcome to the Solar System, a place inhabited by mankind and the sentient or semi-sentient creations of it, from stations orbiting directly the Sun in vulcanoid orbits to trans-Neptunian space stations. Even with all of this expansion, Earth is the core of the human presence in the Solar System; although it must be remembered that most of the greater space stations and colonies are completely self-sufficient. Another point to consider is that the blue planet isn’t so unique anymore as Venus and Mars now share its radiant colours thanks to terraforming. Earth is unique now in another aspect though, a system of eight space elevators form the spokes of a great wheel, an orbital ring created from concentric nanotubes. This, the greatest wonder of human ingenuity and engineering, is the main power source of the ever-growing population of Earth and an easy method to elevate materials into orbit.
Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that humankind has found new ways to manipulate and even create energy, a feat once thought impossible, allowing many incredible wonders of technology to arise. Among them is the ability to move in between the planets and stations with spaceships in the matter of days or weeks.
Trouble still rears its ugly head on the horizon as colonies are considered subservient to Earth, both in culture and government, while in practice most are completely capable of being independent. They have their own systems of subsistence, their own basic services, their own cultures, but many times they lack their own governments or those are powerless against corporations... Why would a Terran understand the daily struggles of an asteroid miner displaced by robotization, and, worse, why would a Terran seek to? Systems as absurd and pointless as the Orbital Nobility were put into place over many of the smaller stations and asteroid clusters and belts.
Many groups are in what they believe a quest for liberation through various means, some more violent than others, much more... But this isn’t only theoretical, no, for there are groups who are prepared to unleash up to Von Neumann weapons upon saints and sinners. Even more primitive weapons are able to cause major destruction upon unsuspecting populaces, such as orbital launchers, rods-of-God, nuclear devices from both inside and outside the atmosphere, radiation launchers, e.m.p.’s and the ever dreaded anti-uranium combined nuclear-antimatter bombs. Many of which can be accessed and used remotely through informatics, after all, hackers and digital mercenaries are abundant.
Wars and speeches are in the air, flags are hoisted, and a in the shadows lurk and prowl dark creatures, black shimmering against black in the dead of the eternal night moves. Not everything is what is seems.
As posthumanism promises to liberate many from the clutches of only flesh it is time to ask ourselves the question, what is to be human? Is it to be conscious of the self and free? Maybe, but then what happens to so many which in practice truly are not?
What can you expect?
In terms of the setting in general:
- The most important is that you think about this setting as semi-hard sci-fi with some magic mixed in. No ladies in bikini waiting in Venus together with dinosaurs nor having to use multistage launchers every time from an established launch platform of which there are one or two per great power to reach space.
- Alternate history: As you can see in the history, this isn’t your typical future scenario. Colonialism lived a whole lot longer.
- Melee combat: Swords came back with magic, but don’t let that ever make you forget that a bullet to the head will most likely kill you.
- Snippets of the past: There will be small fragments of the progression of history now and then between my updates. If you feel like you need more context for a character that isn’t given, just ask.
- A different society: Continuing from the point above, technology changed more than your car into a spaceship. It changed more than your body into an image of beauty. It changed society and many social norms, they are looser this time. Things such as murder are still crimes of course, but what about a multiple marriage? Does it matter if you marry someone of your same gender when gender can be changed as you change a car?
- A complex system for magic: It doesn’t use numbers or dices, mostly being a concept thing, but pay attention to it.
In terms of technology:
- Rampant Transhumanism: Do you want a different eye colour? Are you discontent with your gender? Wings perhaps? Humanity’s oldest fantasy. How about simply being able to walk again for the unfortunate ones? You have it.
- Some posthumanism: Think about the large distance involved in a travel between two planets, shouldn’t it be better just to travel at the speed of light and be downloaded into a new body should you have the money?
- Neurally-controlled Mechs: Yes, some Mech combat can be expected from this setting, although my focus won’t be it and I shall treat them as another asset of war. They aren’t invincible; think about them as you would about a tank, an APC or a stealth bomber.
- Awesome Weapons: Yes, there will be laser swords, just that in this case they are formed by superconductor cable in the centre surrounded by plasma. Yes, there will also be chainswords and hyper-sharp katanas, thank carbon nanotubes for them.
In terms of magic:
The magic on the setting spins around two main principles: the equivalence of exchange and the Elemental Wheel.
The equivalence of exchange is, as its name states, the rule that for everything asked, created, destroyed or changed with magic there is an equal and, in the case of creation or destruction, and opposite reaction and need to be fulfilled by the universe which the executor has to provide.
The second principle is the Elemental Wheel, which must be respected in its entirety. The Wheel is a method of organizing the elements, their nature and the relations between them. The elements can be put in any order in the Wheel, but there is a traditional order which makes it easier for the magician to operate in and makes the relations between the elements easier to understand, memorize and therefore apply.
The first thing about the Elemental Wheel that is noted is its shape, more akin to a spherical compass, that is necessary because the relations between the elements need to be represented in more than three dimensions. With current understanding of physics and chemistry is possible to dismantle the Wheel and find many mistakes on it. In the RP, it is an unsolved mystery of the universe why it still works.
The first level of human affinities refers to the elements that have a tendency to be associated with humankind as a whole and are therefore easier to manipulate. The second order of human affinities are those either believed to be derived from them or that are the next level in difficulty for executioners.
There are other classifications of the Sixteen Elements, for example, a few of the main ones are:
The Quartet of diametric mind and matter: Mind, Soul, Altered States of Matter, Altered States of Energy.
First Derived Elements or Second Corporeal Elements: Ice, Lightning, Magnetism, Lower Nature, Upper Nature.
Their name and classification comes from the fact that these elements are the ones which are believed to be directly derived from the First Holy Quartet and should therefore offer more affinity for executioners.
Second Derived Elements or First Incorporeal Elements: Light, Darkness.
Empyreal Elements: Altered States of Matter, Altered States of Energy.
In order to use these powers there are three main classifications and four derived of them of possible equivalent exchanges:
As it can be seen, it is corrected according to modern understanding of physics and chemistry regarding the secondary natures. During the story several different cultures, schools of thought and individuals have their own interpretations and give their own name to the concepts stated.
Character Sheet
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