A world that has a kind of middle ground between magic and reality, between magic and science/invention.
- You can achieve a lot of things that would be Fantasy, done through magic and spells in other stories.
- But then you must first, with blood and tears, invent a device for that specific purpose and build it.
- In that same way, you can get a lot of power and magic by being able to buy these devices from other wizard inventors. (Lots of money, lots of connections, knowing the right people.)
This is inspired by the idea of fabrials in Brandon Sanderon’s Stormlight Archive.
The plot/story could be something like:
- One character is a student trying to learn from their master and invent their own machine. (But the master is understandably secretive and paranoid.)
- One character who works in a kind of “underground machine shop”. It’s illegal, but they have lots of clients buying their magic devices, and they’re quite rich and powerful in that way.
- One character who is clearly abusing this power. (Or legends say he cracked the “magimachine code” and made a machine that can invent other magical machines on its own => infinite power glitch)
- One character who is desperately looking for a specific magic machine (to heal their sick parents, to pull off a bank heist, whatever is important to them)
We could combine this with that idea from The Last Wish (movie).
- Everyone knows a superduper important object (plant/animal/stone/whatever) exploded away once upon a time and landed in a dark forest far away.
- Could be an accident, a spell, a curse, a consequence of some historic event, it does not matter.
- The point is: everyone wants that thing. It’s common knowledge that it exists and it allows creating lots of magic, but …
- The dark forest is dangerous. Everyone keeps organizing missions going into the dark forest, trying to get inside in different ways (underground tunnel, dropped from a plane, etc) But nobody returns alive. Or they return … “changed”.
It’s a simple way to both have a clear goal and get a lot of mystery and tension for free.
A world that has a kind of middle ground between magic and reality, between magic and science/invention.
* You _can_ achieve a lot of things that would be Fantasy, done through magic and spells in other stories.
* But then you must first, with blood and tears, invent a **device** for that specific purpose and build it.
* In that same way, you can get a lot of power and magic by being able to _buy_ these devices from other wizard inventors. (Lots of money, lots of connections, knowing the right people.)
This is inspired by the idea of **fabrials** in Brandon Sanderon's _Stormlight Archive_.
The plot/story could be something like:
* One character is a _student_ trying to learn from their master and invent their own machine. (But the master is understandably secretive and paranoid.)
* One character who works in a kind of "underground machine shop". It's illegal, but they have lots of clients buying their magic devices, and they're quite rich and powerful in that way.
* One character who is clearly abusing this power. (Or legends say he cracked the "magimachine code" and made a machine that can invent other magical machines on its own => infinite power glitch)
* One character who is desperately _looking_ for a specific magic machine (to heal their sick parents, to pull off a bank heist, whatever is important to them)
We could **combine** this with that idea from _The Last Wish_ (movie).
* Everyone knows a superduper important object (plant/animal/stone/whatever) exploded away once upon a time and landed in a dark forest far away.
* Could be an accident, a spell, a curse, a consequence of some historic event, it does not matter.
* The point is: **everyone wants that thing**. It's common knowledge that _it exists_ and it _allows creating lots of magic_, but ...
* The dark forest is dangerous. Everyone keeps organizing missions going into the dark forest, trying to get inside in different ways (underground tunnel, dropped from a plane, etc) But nobody returns alive. Or they return ... "changed".
It's a simple way to both have a clear goal _and_ get a lot of mystery and tension for free.