Loved the ubiquitous magic. All these bits of information have made me realize that when reading I need to pay attention to and think About things like magic, type of games etc. when I read fantasy I’m aware of all these things but haven’t stopped to consider them and give some thought to it. I’m going to change my ‘way’ of reading.
By the logic of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" we do very much live in such a ubiquitous world. I've heard the argument that wizards are fantasy programmers more than a few times
Being able to hack the sourcecode of reality is truely powerful, not something that would ever become ubiquitous, even if the effects and benefits are. It is like having the licence to operate a nuclear powerplant.
This episode made me think about a book by Mary Gentle called "Grunts!". It's a fantasy satire where the hordes of evil have necromancers who can raise the fallen who then become elite snipers because they no longer have to worry about annoying biological stuff like breathing, having a heartbeat or needing to pee... but they also have to carry sewing kits to sew their fingers and other extremities back on when they drop off.
The satire authors appear to be masters of this art. I considered referencing the Disc World from Terry Pratchett but satire really deserves its own discussion, it’s such a different style of world to build.
This reminds me of the Kitty Norville series, which is kinda like True Blood in that Vampires are a known thing. There was a whole order of Vampire Catholic priests, blessed by the Pope and everything. The thought being that God gave them Vampirism to do his work after death. It was interesting.
I actually haven't seen that :D Vampires are not my favorite thing, but Vampire Catholic priests is a tempting read. I'll check out the first book at least.
thank you for another great video. there are a lot to comment, but I'll try to be clear and not to rave... not too much... utilities: how magic can impact everyday life is a challenge since it's hard (at least for me) to determine what is magical and what is not, and WHY do people have a magical version of something from the real world but they don't have a magical version of other thing. I allways fear to fall on an inconsistency of the type "if they have this, why don't they have that?", but I'll follow your advices to see what I come up with. also it's interesting to think how this magical means shape the world, for example how are the trials if you have potions that work like a truth serum or if a society has a spell like zone of truth from DnD (if they are accepted in trials to begin with). entertainment: the idea of a fictional sports does sound interesting, but I'm not a sport person myself. so I think a writer has to study and inmerse himself/herself in the spirit of the sport. Probending is an excellent example since it seems very grounded, Quiditch is famous and very well known but (I'm sorry if I'm missing something) seems too chaotic, exciting yeah but chaotic. I heard one time that if you want to make a professional sport you have to reduce the luck factor as much as you can and leave room for strategy as much as you can. and in Quiditch you can be knockdown by one of the flying-bouncing balls or catch the snitch if you happen to see it. exotic locations: yeah, I think my BIGGEST interest is... how magical means could impact engineering and architecture if magic is ubiquitous, because the visual media that I usually consume that is manga almost always show me a world full of magic but the buildings look old and obsolete because of the trope that "a magical world should look like medieval Europe". there are a lot of architecture styles that are exotic and full of culture. with magic that is ubiquitous the bulding should look even more exotic. as for books, I remember that in The Black Magician trilogy there were advances in this field thanks to magic, but it wasn't very common outside of the magic academy. and in the Black Prism the school made of the light magic was incredible, again I remember it wasn't very common. I think one should study a bit of exotic architecture around the world. I did have an introduction thanks to a youtuber called Asshur (the videos are in spanish but everyone can see the pictures and he explained many beautiful and exotic architectures styles from all over the world).
I've found attaching a price tag to magic tends to sharpen my view of how it would be used. Mages would presumably charge for their services, so even setting aside things like how long it might take the mages to recover or the number of mages available, having a price tag on magical services as an abstraction of both past and present effort of the mage helps decide what does and doesn't benefit from wizardry. Intern: Lets light the city with magic. No more nasty smoke smell. Mayor: Are you MAD?! We'd be bankrupt before the first dawn!
Loved the ubiquitous magic. All these bits of information have made me realize that when reading I need to pay attention to and think
About things like magic, type of games etc. when I read fantasy I’m aware of all these things but haven’t stopped to consider them and give some thought to it. I’m going to change my ‘way’ of reading.
I'm so glad you find the content engaging!
By the logic of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" we do very much live in such a ubiquitous world. I've heard the argument that wizards are fantasy programmers more than a few times
Heh. Being a wizard doesn’t feel that great then 😂🤪
Being able to hack the sourcecode of reality is truely powerful, not something that would ever become ubiquitous, even if the effects and benefits are. It is like having the licence to operate a nuclear powerplant.
This episode made me think about a book by Mary Gentle called "Grunts!". It's a fantasy satire where the hordes of evil have necromancers who can raise the fallen who then become elite snipers because they no longer have to worry about annoying biological stuff like breathing, having a heartbeat or needing to pee... but they also have to carry sewing kits to sew their fingers and other extremities back on when they drop off.
The satire authors appear to be masters of this art. I considered referencing the Disc World from Terry Pratchett but satire really deserves its own discussion, it’s such a different style of world to build.
Coming up with punishment for mages in a LARP was particularly challenging as we still wanted players to enjoy their weekend!
This reminds me of the Kitty Norville series, which is kinda like True Blood in that Vampires are a known thing. There was a whole order of Vampire Catholic priests, blessed by the Pope and everything. The thought being that God gave them Vampirism to do his work after death. It was interesting.
I actually haven't seen that :D Vampires are not my favorite thing, but Vampire Catholic priests is a tempting read. I'll check out the first book at least.
One thought I have about ubiquitous magic is that it would stifle non-magical technology.
It might very well do that. It could also drive technology if it was very elitist. I could make an argument either way 😝😀
Technology is the great equalizer, it grants magic-like conveniences to magicless peasants.
thank you for another great video. there are a lot to comment, but I'll try to be clear and not to rave... not too much...
utilities: how magic can impact everyday life is a challenge since it's hard (at least for me) to determine what is magical and what is not, and WHY do people have a magical version of something from the real world but they don't have a magical version of other thing. I allways fear to fall on an inconsistency of the type "if they have this, why don't they have that?", but I'll follow your advices to see what I come up with. also it's interesting to think how this magical means shape the world, for example how are the trials if you have potions that work like a truth serum or if a society has a spell like zone of truth from DnD (if they are accepted in trials to begin with).
entertainment: the idea of a fictional sports does sound interesting, but I'm not a sport person myself. so I think a writer has to study and inmerse himself/herself in the spirit of the sport. Probending is an excellent example since it seems very grounded, Quiditch is famous and very well known but (I'm sorry if I'm missing something) seems too chaotic, exciting yeah but chaotic. I heard one time that if you want to make a professional sport you have to reduce the luck factor as much as you can and leave room for strategy as much as you can. and in Quiditch you can be knockdown by one of the flying-bouncing balls or catch the snitch if you happen to see it.
exotic locations: yeah, I think my BIGGEST interest is... how magical means could impact engineering and architecture if magic is ubiquitous, because the visual media that I usually consume that is manga almost always show me a world full of magic but the buildings look old and obsolete because of the trope that "a magical world should look like medieval Europe". there are a lot of architecture styles that are exotic and full of culture. with magic that is ubiquitous the bulding should look even more exotic. as for books, I remember that in The Black Magician trilogy there were advances in this field thanks to magic, but it wasn't very common outside of the magic academy. and in the Black Prism the school made of the light magic was incredible, again I remember it wasn't very common. I think one should study a bit of exotic architecture around the world. I did have an introduction thanks to a youtuber called Asshur (the videos are in spanish but everyone can see the pictures and he explained many beautiful and exotic architectures styles from all over the world).
: )
I've found attaching a price tag to magic tends to sharpen my view of how it would be used. Mages would presumably charge for their services, so even setting aside things like how long it might take the mages to recover or the number of mages available, having a price tag on magical services as an abstraction of both past and present effort of the mage helps decide what does and doesn't benefit from wizardry.
Intern: Lets light the city with magic. No more nasty smoke smell.
Mayor: Are you MAD?! We'd be bankrupt before the first dawn!
Money does tend to bring grandiose ideas down to earth!