History Literature / TheMagicGoesAway

* WhatAnIdiot: On a city-wide scale. Atlantis falls into the sea pretty much only because the ruler of the city and the wizards who support him are unwilling to admit that mana is finite, and no one had the brains, spine, or guts to contradict them, and the magic gets used up on an absurdly mana-intensive project that quickly becomes the magical version of a money-sink. Given that this is a city that only floats because of magic, the end result was obvious to anyone with a brain. Sadly, brains were lacking in Atlantis...

** The ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' spell ''spell engine'' works in a similar manner (although Niven's name isn't mentioned, the wheel is intangible, and it ''can'' be destroyed with the touch of a magical item or via one of several high-level spells).

* GoneHorriblyRight: Athens' conquest of Atlantis. Athens had been jealous of the far more advanced Atlantis' wealth, and launch an invasion which kills the dynasty of sorcerer-kings that had been secretly keeping the island tectonically stable via magic. After several days of happy looting and pillaging, the Athenians (and Atlantis survivors) are rudely surprised by Atlantis sinking and killing everyone.

* SkunkStripe: The witch Mirandee's hair has one, which is a sign her youth spell is failing from lack of mana. It gets bigger and smaller depending on the mana in the area. In mana-rich areas, it's small or not there at all. In dead zones, her hair goes completely white.

** It's dangerous in a relatively mundane sense too, during the short time it's in operation. When the barbarian wielding Glindree (or vice versa) tries to strike it, the demon-sword stops the swing, as by that point the rim of the disc is moving fast enough to tear his arm off if he made contact.

* ''The Magic Goes Away'' (1976, expanded into a novlet in 1978).

* AwesomeButImpractical: Old-style magical feats, like flying dream-castles made of clouds, are considered both tacky and terrifyingly wasteful compared to modern spellcasting, which emphasizes efficiency.

* BookEnds: The first story in the 'verse, "Not Long Before the End," starts by mentioning that swordsmen and wizards often fight, and usually the wizards smear the swordsmen across the map, thusly improving the human race by removing an idiot (And rarely, the wizard loses, and that's a net improvement too. A wizard that can't beat a swordsman is a poor wizard.) The story ends with the page quote, a sad reflection that the swordsmen are ultimately the winners, being unconstrained by the loss of magic.

--> Warlock: "A dagger always works."

The device that first proves this effect, and later becomes the most dangerous weapon in the world, is the "Warlock's Wheel", a simple copper disk with two spells on it: one that makes it spin ever faster without limit, and a second spell that makes the disc indestructible so long as there is magic available. Small versions of the device can be used to block scrying by making a wall of magic-free areas around a fortification, but a sufficiently large one could ruin an entire nation. In later books, the Warlock's Wheel becomes a sort of MemeticBadass, as a mage refuses to even draw a picture of one because even a drawing of one would suck all the magic out of him.

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Orolandes the Athenean soldier, fighting Roze-Kattee, God of Love and Madness. Roze-Kattee stretches upward, tall enough to grab the moon and attempts to slam it into the Earth. Orolandes, having nothing more helpful to do, stabs Roze Kattee in the foot. This actually works out pretty well.

** Glirendree stops hostile magic from reaching its wielder, which is part of what makes it so effective. Yannow, until it kills you.

* AwesomeAndPractical: Wavyhill uses what looks like an old-style feat, creating his houses on hills shaped like a breaking wave, hence his name. It turns out this isn't just showing off; when the mana in an area runs out (Say, during a wizard's battle), the hill will collapse and hide the evidence of his necromancy work and kill anyone inside.

* UncannyValley: Mentioned in passing in "The Wishing Game". A djinn recalls past wishing games, including a woman who wished to be beautiful, so he gave her the eerie beauty of a djinn... and she had shied away from men anyway.

* ''The Burning City'' (2000) with Jerry Pournelle

* ''Burning Tower'' (2005) with Jerry Pournelle

** Glirendree stops hostile magic from reaching it's wielder, which is part of what makes it so effective. Yannow, until it kills you.

LarryNiven's ''The Magic Goes Away'' stories tell of an ancient civilization based on FunctionalMagic powered by "Mana", but there's only a finite amount present on Earth. That nobody seems to be aware of or acknowledge this fact causes the magi, magical creatures and gods that use mana to eventually "go mythical" (a [[WriterOnboard very obvious allegory]] aimed at modern civilization's reliance on fixed resources).

* ArtifactOfDoom / Clingy MacGuffin: Glirendree the demon sword. Using it is a ''bad idea''. On one hand, you're nigh-unstoppable and mostly immune to magic. On the other hand, you'll drop dead in a year or two, and you can't let go of it. Warlock reverts it to it's demon form and feeds it to the Wheel.

** The device is terribly simple: A simple copper disc with a pair of enchantments on it. One protects the disc from heat and damage caused by wind resistance. The other makes the disc spin at ever increasing speeds. There is no upper limit on the speed. The disc spins non-stop, constantly accelerating to the point that it would ordinarily melt away and beyond, until all usable magic in an area that stretches for miles is used up.

* {{Mana}}: A mostly-finite resource in these stories. When all the mana in an area is used up, no more magic can occur there. There are ways to generate mana, but [[BlackMagic they're blackly dangerous and generally bad ideas]].

** MagicTheGathering made [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=212637 Nevinyrral's Disk]] based on the Warlock Wheel. Both things accomplish the same task, and Nevinyrral is an anagram of Larry Niven.

* AntiMagic: The Warlock Wheel. It's a simple bronze wheel with two spells on it; one to make it spin faster, accelerating without limit. The other spell prevents it from destroying itself. This wheel rapidly eats all the mana in the area, turning it into a dead zone where magic no longer functions at all.