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Magitek
alt title(s): Magitech
Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology
— Larry Niven's corollary to Clarke's Third Law.

The base chassis of the pistol is composed of a shaft of polished yew exactly six and one half inches in length, of square cross-section and width two inches, already prepared with the aforementioned clockwork action and barrel assembly. To the end opposite the barrel is attached by means of Joint Method II(a) a handle crafted from oak or yew to the ergonomics of the proposed wielder of the weapon, this part not being detrimental to the appearance of the salamander within the finished product.
— Broken Gears, Chaomancy

Advanced ubiquitous magic always seems to end up working just like technology. The car engine might be powered by a fire elemental, and the telephone may work through the principle of contagion, but this doesn't affect the man in the street. They just get in the car and drive away, or pick up the phone and talk — no special talent required, just as if the devices were technological.

Magitek (or 'magitech') often appears to combine magic with modern technology or at least something distinctively mechanical: traditional heat engine or even an electrical generator powered by or powering a magic spell, or a giant mecha that can inexplicably shoot ice from an empty hand.

When Magitek is combined with gritty realism, we get Dungeon Punk, but magitek is also common in comic fantasy. There are also some cases of technology based on sufficiently advanced magic, which is itself disguised sufficiently advanced technology.

The Ur Example is Robert A Heinlein's 1940 novella Magic, Inc., making this Older Than Television. The story is an alternate reality where the 1940 USA is just like it really is, except that magic is real. For example, your taxi is likely to be a flying carpet, but otherwise the same (cabbie, meter, so on).

Compare Clarke's Third Law.

Contrast with Magic From Technology. See also Harmony Versus Discipline and Fantastic Science.

Examples

Anime
  • In Vision of Escaflowne, fossilized dragon hearts are dug up and used as a power source for the planet's Humongous Mecha. And Lord Dornkirk's technological empire seems almost entirely comprised of Magitek machinery.
  • In Hayao Miyazaki's Howls Moving Castle, (and, to a lesser extent, Diana Wynne Jones' book of the same name on which it was loosely based) the structure is maintained by the wizard's magic. Moreover, the kingdoms of the world which the film takes place actively make use of witches and wizards to fight in wars over standard ammunition.
  • Ami "Sailor Mercury" Mizuno of Sailor Moon owns a literal Magical Computer — disguised as a compact, it vanishes when she doesn't need it and can detect all manner of magical and mundane phenomena.
  • The country/planet Autozahm from Magic Knight Rayearth is an entirely "mechanized" industrial power that runs on "Mental Energy" instead of electricity; which has screwed up their environment in addition to sending them into comas. So they've sent an invasion force made up of a spaceship and Humongous Mecha to take over the more classical magic system of Cephiro.
  • MAR has ÄRM's, magical jewelry with a variety of cool forms and abilities. Each ÄRM is a blueprint for a specific magical ability, such as summoning a giant guardian or shooting out huge beams of energy (in some cases, both), among others. Somewhat justified since this gimmick is incredibly convenient, meaning that weaker ÄRM's (basic weapons, etc) can be used by people with little to no magical power.
    • Actually, anyone can 'use' an ÄRM, but to use it correctly (and with actual power) they have to have magical power. When he was saving Snow, Ginta had little magical power, but still managed to use Bappo to some extent, but Loco asked him if he was going to use it correctly.
  • All over the damn place in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, though most notable in the third season where this is lampshaded by Fate giving an As You Know speech about how the TSAB's civilization literally discarded conventional technology because magic was more advanced and safer.
    • Similarly, the StrikerS antagonist's primary cannon fodder consists of Mecha Mooks that are unique in Mid-Childa due to their lacking any magical capabilities at all and actively projecting fields that dampen magic around them.
  • In Ah My Goddess, the magical system underlying existence is likened to computer code, and manipulated accordingly.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima technology seems to have been more or less fully integrated with magic. Magic Guns are considered antiques, The local Robot Girl runs partially on magic, and there's an entire Magic Internet that can be accessed by magic books or computers complete with program, hacking, and virus spells.
  • Both Washu and a later character in Magical Project S create and employ this.
    • In Washu's case it's justified by the fact that she's one of the creators of the fricking Universe
  • The seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were described as magical in Sonic X (and their effect on Sonic and Shadow could be said to be magic), yet were often used to power technology based equipment, such as Eggman’s robots, and the Sonic Driver.
  • The Caster Gun in Outlaw Star was created by wizards to allow people in an age of low mana to use spells. This is the most powerful weapon in both Gene Starwind and Ron [McDougall's] arsenal.
  • Full Metal Alchemist bring this trope and its corollary round full-circle. In FMA the magic is the tech, and the tech is the magic. Specifically, look at the first chapter/first episode:
    Al: "It's not magic, it's science!"
    • This follows a sub-troping principal that, as Magic becomes more and more understood and studied, it becomes more and more akin to science, gaining specific rules and methods, rather than just "duuuuur, MAGIC!"
  • Ultra Maniac featured witches using computers to create magic spells for them. This was apparently not the only way to do so, however - the main character, Nina, pretty much relies on this method because her magic skills are so poor.
  • Often shows up in works by Yoshiyuki Tomino, most obviously Aura Battler Dunbine. Even the original Mobile Suit Gundam, paragon of Real Robot-ness has it in the form of Psycommu weapons, though this may not technically qualify, as at the time it was made, many serious scientists were conducting research into Psychic Powers. But the fact that subsequent Gundam stories have continued to use the concept even after all the major psychic research was proved to be flawed or outright fraudulent places them firmly in Magitek territory.
  • In Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, the modern magic the series prides itself on draws heavily from this. Spells involve Matrix-like lines of code, but people like Yumiko still use a magic staff.
  • Because gasoline and computers wouldn't fit in to the world of Fairy Tail, mages can attach a tube to their wrist and us their magic to power anything from a large car to an out of place motorcycle, and one Hibiki's magic produce a keyboard and allows him to download info into Natsu's mind.
  • Present in varying degrees between the witches and warlocks of Tweeny Witches: the female witches tend to a more primitive steampunk-style of magitech while the technologically advanced male "warlocks" now use very little magic at all (there's only one "real" warlock left, and he's very old).

Comic Books
  • Planetary's The Drummer is a machine telepath that can sense magic; his explanation is that magic is "cheat codes" that manipulate the mechanics of existence.
  • Mr. Fantastic considers magic a science that simply works with a different set of rules (albeit rules he can't quite comprehend, so he might be totally wrong.) Dr. Doom has occasionally integrated the talent for sorcery he inherited from his mother into his inventions and schemes.
  • The miniseries 'Battlegods: Warriors of the Chaak' by Dark Horse has a futuristic Mayan take on this, such as cloned priests with their minds linked together to form a magical computer.
  • Abra Kadabra, a villain who battles the Flash waves around a magic wand, turning people into puppets, summoning giants out of thin air, aging people from 20 to 80 in seconds, etc. The trick? He's from the 64th Century and his technology is so advanced that he uses it to make people think he's a magician.
  • The Sonic the Hedgehog comic gives us the Iron Queen, a Technomage who can control the electrical impulses found in all active electronics and send him out at will. As you can imagine, she's quite dangerous to opponents who are part or completely robotic.

Film
  • The Jedi are sort of within spitting distance of this, although they're more a matter of magic coexisting with a technological world than of magic displacing technology.
    • In the Expanded Universe, attempts to design technology that use the Force are mostly the province of the Dark Side for some reason. But it's been done.
  • The Harry Potter movies had a little switch on this one. The first two movies were Lighter And Fluffier and Magic was amazing and special. The third started the trend into Darker And Edgier and the magic was very casual, more in tone with the books. Example: A man twirling his finger to stir his drink without watching it (or touching, obviously) while the camera scrolls by.

Literature
  • The Atrocity Archives features a group of computer geeks who became ascended computer geeks when they learned how to make NP=P. The end result is such inventions as hands used to make 'hands of glory' which bend light, and if properly aligned can make lasers. Also video cameras that can convert carbon to silicon (Gorgon's stare), which tends to make things explode. Please note that while special skills that anyone can learn are needed to construct these devices and the accurate aiming and firing of a hand of glory/laser is described as taking some experience all the gorgon's stare requires is to look through a pair of special lenses and the press of a button.
  • David Weber has a tendency to treat magic as just another form of technology in his books. Witness the Hells Gate series which has the magical equivalent of computers and genetic engineering; which is used to create dragons of course.
    • Especially since in the Barzhell series' background. The old empire that fell 1,000 years before was explicitly magitek. Dwarfs are championed by the author due to his hatred of the anti-technology stance of much of fantasy. The old way of making steel depended on the support of wizards. The new one uses Bessemer Converters. Steam engines are being discovered and shock absorbers are now being used on wagons.
  • Over the course of the books, the Discworld moves more and more toward this. We have inventions from cameras powered by a tiny imp painting a picture, all the way up to the High Energy Magic Building at Unseen University, where Hex, a magical AI, lives.
    • This is also subverted in Interesting Times, where one character assumes that the watches are powered by demons, when in reality they just use clockwork.
    • Additionally, Leonard of Quirm, a genius inventor, seems to be pushing up the non-magical technological level of the world, in a Steam Punk-esque (or rather Clockpunk-esque) manner.
    • Non-magical technology is being increasingly used independently of Leonard of Quirm, notably the establishment of the "clacks towers" - a continent-wide network of semaphore towers that is often used to parody telephones and the internet. Explored in detail in The Fifth Elephant and Going Postal.
    • Lampshaded by resident wizard-nerd Ponder Stibbons at one point, explicitly referencing the quote at the top of the page - when he can't explain the technology behind his latest invention to another wizard, he chalks it up to "sufficiently advanced magic."
  • Possibly the example that beats all others goes to JK Rowling's Harry Potter franchise. Especially noticeable within the realm of the live-action films. This is used to the point where technology is referred to as a Muggle substitute for magic (in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix).
    • Hardly. Magic in that series is hardly ever used in a technological sense, and more rather as a hand wave to explain away anything that J.K. can't sufficiently explain using her writing talent.
      • Most things that require modern technology are simply absent, for example there is no equivalent of a word processor (a self-writing quill was used once, although it was unclear if it was interpreting what it copied down to it's masters wishes or was editorializing by itself). The only exception seems to be plumbing, which is modern at least in it's effect even in the thousand-year-old Hogwarts castle. It is hand waved early on that electronics at least simply don't work in a magic-rich environment.
      • Examples of magic being used as technology don't occur much in the story itself, but it is clear from the dialogue that this is how it is used in the larger world the books take place in. Wizards don't seem to understand the Muggle concepts of "light bulbs" or "telephones" for example.
    • There are plenty of Magitek examples though. The self-writing quills (as mentioned above) are implied to suit personal tastes & writing style of the writer; see Rita Skeeter's acid quill for that one. Then there are self-stirring cauldrons, sneakoscopes (alarms), wireless radios, broomsticks, floo network & flying carpets (transportation); the Hogwarts Express itself (a magical imitation of a steam train), the Portrait Galleries that often act like a vast, sentient internet for anyone that happen to be able to persuade them. And oh, Lovegood's antique printing press - if Quibbler has it, why not Daily Prophet and every wizarding publisher in existence?
      • In the case of the Hogwarts Express I think it is a normal steam engine, albeit one that's hidden from Muggle eyes by Magical means. In general the Wizard World seems to be stuck technologically around the mid-19th Century so Steam yes, Electricity no.
  • Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality is based on a society much like our own, only Fate, Time and Death (among others) are incarnated in humans (sometimes against the will of said humans), magic is real, and in the future timeline technology and magic merge to a large degree. (Justified in that "magic" is said to be based on a "fifth fundamental force", making it essentially an application of physics in that universe).
    • The best example would be a demon summoning controlled by computers.
      • No, the best example would be a demon that is a computer.
  • The Young Wizards teens' series by Diane Duane has magic users receive wizarding manuals customized in form to their preferences. This has increasingly meant computers (specifically, Apples — ever tried porting magic to XP?) instead of the traditional books. Early starters get desktop machines while the recent arrivals can brandish iPods◊ that draw their power from the nearest star, automatically receive updates, come with the iSpell feature for keeping track of your magic and play good music.
  • A perfect example is The Death Gate Cycle, a series of seven fantasy novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (who co-wrote the original D&D Dragonlance novels). It features flying ships powered by Rune Magic and elven civilisations using magic for everything from enchanting armor and weapons technology to household appliances.
    • Bonus points for that most of the Magitek of the elves seems to be sentient, no matter how pointless it is - for example an enchanted arrow that loudly protests when it's fired at a dragon.
  • The Wiz Biz series of novels by Rick Cook (comprised of Wizard's Bane; The Wizardry Compiled; The Wizardry Cursed; The Wizardry Consulted), about a Silicon Valley programmer transported into a world where magic exists and where reality, he finds out, is programmable.
  • Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series is a great example of this trope. In this world, magic is studied with as much emphasis on higher math and theory as any science. The stories are murder mysteries, with Lord Darcy and Master Sean O Lochlainn solving crimes using the former's deductive abilities, and the latter's expertise in forensic magic. Fortunately, Master Sean likes explaining how his forensic techniques work.
  • Harry Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump is the very definition of this trope, an alternate-history twentieth-century Earth that functions exactly like our own, except all the technology is magical.
    • He also wrote a series following the course of a World War Two analogue with behemoths in the place of tanks, dragons instead of planes, enchanted "sticks" that worked a lot like guns, a magical Manhattan Project, and so on.
  • Jack L. Chalker's Dancing Gods trilogy had its characters Trapped In Another World where magic was real, but followed very specific rules and mathematically precise patterns, such that every high-ranking wizard also had to be a genius mathematician. One of the major subplots follows how much this system is screwed up by the introduction of technology smuggled from Earth; even a pocket calculator could turn a mediocre magician into a powerhouse, and more powerful computers can be programmed to work out new spells at high speeds.
  • In addition Magic, Inc., Robert A Heinlein's 1963 novel Glory Road, where magic is treated like Real Life treats technology.
    • Although walking the Glory Road actually takes you in to parallel universes with slightly different laws. Some you can't stop in for more than a short time with out dying.
  • Somewhere between a Shout Out and a Homage to Magic, Inc. is Poul Anderson's 1971 novel Operation Chaos and its sequel Operation Luna.
  • Simon Hawke's The Wizard of 4th Street and its sequels have a 22nd Century where magic has been reawakened and revolutionized technology and society; electrical generators powered by renewable magic, levitating cars with "thaumaturgic batteries", and sentient animated objects of all kinds.
  • Masamune Shirow's Orion has this, with a Buddhist/Hinduist design style and a computing basis, such as talismans and seals for wake-up alarms, and reality-altering 'dharmaquations', a mixture of computer program and mandala.
  • Charles Stross's The Atrocity Archive and The Jennifer Morgue meld computing and magic like this, such that mathemagicians such as the protagonist can summon demons using algorithmic NP-complete problems and quantum uncertainty handwaving.
  • The Wheel Of Time series has artifacts from the Age of Legends called ter'angreal which each use the One Power to do a specific thing, including changing the weather, storing a library, and what is implied to be some sort of sex toy. A great many require a channeler to work, but a few do not. In the Age of Legends, something called "standing flows" allowed even the former to be usable by Muggles.
  • In the later books in the Old Kingdom series, Prince Sameth is finding workarounds for the 'technology fails in presence of magic' problem by creating magical versions of nifty Ancelstierran technology.
  • The Dresden Files doesn't play too much with it, as magic and technology don't interact well. However there's plenty of loopholes and Wizards use what they can. Badass Normals using the right ammo can be deadly to most magical foes. One of the best examples might be using magic to grab an old Soviet Satellite and doing a Colony Drop.
  • Dragaera uses this like crazy. One of the main side-effects of the Interregnum was that the Imperial Orb was changed to make magic a lot more powerful. This jarred Dragaeran society out of its artificially-imposed Medieval Stasis as sorcerers had a field day figuring out all the new things they could do. In particular, teleportation completely changed the dynamics of trade and travel, psychic communication is used in a way reminiscent of cell phones, magical genetic tests are possible to do quickly and covertly, and magical lighting is the norm. Additionally, it became possible to revive someone recently-killed from the dead if their central nervous system is still intact, meaning that often, Death Is Cheap.
  • Melissa Scott's Silence Leigh trilogy has starships powered by alchemy and guded by astrology.

Live Action TV

Tabletop Games
  • In the original World Of Darkness Gothic Punk game setting (especially Mage: The Ascension), the rules of reality were created largely by the force of belief. Not only was the Hypertech of the Technocratic Union and the Traditionalist technomancers genuinely magical, all science and technology worked primarily because the Technocrats had convinced the masses to believe it did, and advancing technology was not a result of scientific advance so much as the increasing public acceptance of what was possible.
    • In the new World Of Darkness, this mantle has been largely taken up by the Free Council (although the Seer Ministry of Pantechnion is a bit into it, using magically created robots). The Free Council is devoted to the integration of Sleeper technology with Awakened magic, as well as approaching magic with a more scientific mindset. Partially as a result of these innovations, the Council has managed to devise never before seen spells. The practice as a whole is referred to as the "Ars Nova".
  • Wizards Of The Coast's latest Dungeons And Dragons RPG world setting, Eberron, which features a Pulp Adventure setting influenced by Indiana Jones movies, mixed with Dungeon Punk, in a faux-19th century world making use of arcane technology and magic for infrastructure, travel and everyday life.
    • The Net Wizard's Handbook categorized fantasy settings by "Controllability of magic". Highest state was "Magic is a Science", i.e. lack of fundamental difference between teaching engineers how to work with electrical forces and teaching wizards how to work with magical forces.
    • Netheril was extensively magical setting where creation of most magic items was cheap. So aside of typical AD&D trinkets there were Water Pipe (permanent fissure into the Elemental Plane of Water), Ice Box (conduit to the Paraelemental Plane of Ice), Stoker’s pit (fissure to the Elemental Plane of Fire), Music box, roomlights, skimmers (boats propelled by air elementals), netherpelters (telekinesis-powered small arms, with magical ammo), and so on.
    • Also from the Forgotten Realms, the wizard-ruled kingdom of Halruaa, one of Netheril's successor states, has less advanced but still very useful Magitek, mostly revolving around providing comfort for its citizens (air conditioning, heating, things like that).
  • Some Magic The Gathering settings are like this — especially the Brothers' War and the Ravnica block.
    • Which would be not to mention Mirrodin—a plane created by a golem planeswalker where sentient life is almost entirely comprised of animated artifacts.
    • Or the later plane of Esper in Shards of Alara, a techno-magical blue-aligned plane where all forms of life are infused with the mystic metal Etherium.
  • Palladium Games's Rifts RPG features Techno-Wizards, spellcaster-mechanics whose focus is on building machines and weapons powered by Magic. They can make a jeep that can ride in midair and turn invisible, then make and mount on it a cannons that shoots ice blasts or rains meteorites on the enemy.
    • Also in Rifts and Palladium's Heroes Unlimited is Telemechanics, a psionic ability that lets the user either intuitively understand how a piece of machinery works and operate it, or in the case of AIs communicate with them directly.
  • Exalted has First Age technology, from a time when the Solar Exalted could study the interplay of Essence and science and create true wonders (before the insanity, of course — but then again, they probably produced some fun stuff after the insanity took hold). It is explicitly called magitech in the books and setting. Examples range from power armor to airships to artificial limbs to dinosaurs that eat poppies and pee heroin (like I said).
  • The Iron Kingdoms has Mechanika, which is mostly technology fueled by Magic. In the WARMACHINE games, this normally comes in the form of various weapons.
  • Feng Shui's 2056 juncture uses a creepy fusion of magic and science known as arcanotech. Most of it is used by the Buro military and elite agents, offering a power boost in exchange for bent magic getting sent into your system like a virus whenever you use it. Use it too much, and you start mutating into something horrific and run the risk of becoming an abomination, one of the altered demons that the Buro uses to fight its wars.
  • The Skaven of Warhammer are perhaps the most technologically-advanced race thanks to their embrace of Warpstone. They use it as a powerful mutagen, ammunition, Death Ray energy source, component of giant hamster wheels that shoot lightning, or as part of the setting equivalent of a nuclear bomb. Their Clan Skryre is a blend of dark wizards and mad scientists known as Warplock Engineers.
  • Eldar gear in Warhammer 40000 is a unique blend of highly-advanced technology and psychic "sorcery" - their robots, for example, are well-crafted frames animated by the spirit of a fallen warrior held in a crystal. Chaos forces in the same setting use black magitech to create their most powerful works, such as daemonically-possessed tanks or Humongous Mecha..
    • Imperial technology does not use this, but everyone thinks it does. Tech-priest rituals involve a lot of chanting and sacred oils before they finally flip the "On" switch.
      • On the gripping hand, it's hinted that sometimes a Tech Priest's devotion does cause a machine which shouldn't be working to do so when he finally gets to that last part. The 40K universe tends to bend to belief...
      • The orks have even more of that: by all rights and sanity their technology shouldn't work, but it ends up working anyway because the orks [i]expect[/i] it to work. So in effect, [i]all[/i] their technology is Magitek, because all of it works in large part because of the magical effects of orkish confidence. Used to justify having a bunch of barbarian thugs be a threat to an interstellar civilization.
  • In the tabletop game Cthulhu Tech, the line between technology and magic is so thin as to be almost completely arbitrary. One wonders why there is any distinction at all, other than the fact that the Lovecraftian forces used by magic and magitek are, to say the least, rather dangerous.
    • To expand, sorcery is taught as a science in universities, while there is mandatory registration for parapsychics. Almost all modern technology in the setting is powered by the D-Engine, which drives you crazy if you look too closely at it.
  • Shadowrun is what you get when you merge cyberpunk and D&D together. As such, it's usually in the case of defense systems of corporations or weaponry. Except that mundanes can't use "magictech" (no magic wands, etc), though the Dunkelzahn did leave a reward in his Will if someone could create things like that.
  • Broken Gears, as "A game of animistic steampunk" is made of it. There firearms must be oiled to feed salamanders (see an article quote) and are tested with thermal ink, and Devil-powered possessed Analytical Machine designed by Charles Babbage and enhanced by Alan Turing "helped" to finish World War II and immediately started WW III.

Video Games
  • Final Fantasy VI. The story revolves around an empire (or two) increasingly built upon it. The Powered Armor used by the Imperial army is known as Magitek Armor — the Trope Namer.
    • Later Final Fantasy games use similar systems, most notably Mako in Final Fantasy VII. These usually are Powered By A Forsaken Child— as is the original.
    • The Mirage Tower and Sky Castle/Floating Fortress from the original Final Fantasy seem to be this.
    • The Steamship and Lonka Ruins of Final Fantasy V were powered by the Fire and Earth crystals, respectively. Didn't do the crystals much good to be used that way.
    • Para-Magic in Final Fantasy VIII can be extracted by technological means, and put to use in further technology. For instance, the Junction Machine Ellone, which uses a very special kind of Time Travel magic to send one's consciousness back through time, and allowed the Big Bad to initiate her conquest. The high-tech Gardens, built by the long-lost Centra civilization and maintained by SeeD, are magical flying fortresses. There are also some aspects of Esthar that seem to use magical technology, such as Lunatic Pandora and Tears' Point
    • The Temple Cloisters of Final Fantasy X, but most noticeable in the Temple of Djose (powered by magical lightning) and the Temple of Bevelle (with magical pathways, lifts, and teleporters.) Legend has it that the nation of Bevelle also used Magi Tek extensively in its war with the mostly-magical Zanarkand a thousand years ago. In Final Fantasy X 2, this is expanded upon with the ancient Vegnagun, and the Machine Faction of the Al Bhed use (or unearth) magically-powered machina.
    • After Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XII has probably the most extensive, yet subtle use of Magi Tek out of the franchise. Mist-rich Skystones and magicite keep airships aloft (except in places with high concentrations of Mist, like the jagds,) nearly all machinery and even public lighting use Mist as a power source, the Moogling magically warps people across Rabanastre, and magically-charged Nethicite—either handed down by the Gods themselves or manufactured manufacted by Man— is carefully examined by scientists for use in great flying armadas (however briefly.)
  • Breath Of Fire III: Has chrysm energy, which parallels both fossil fuel and magic. Chrysm ore is the fossilised remains of dragons, and gives off a magical radiation used to power everything, among other plot-related abilities.
  • Everything in Skies Of Arcadia is run on Moon Stones, it seems, except the few water- or windmills.
  • Parodied in Kingdom Of Loathing with the MagiMechTech MechaMech, a robot "powered by a sinister blend of magic and technology. Since sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, though, you're not sure in what proportion."
  • The Pkunk, space gypsy toucans from the Star Control series, embrace a life of so much spiritualism that their space ships seem to run on it—their batteries recharge with aggressive energy when they insult people over the comm, and destroyed ships have a 50% chance of inscrutably reincarnating on the spot.
  • While Escape Velocity Nova is otherwise a totally by-the-books high-tech space opera setting (as are the other two games), the Vell-Os are a faction of psychic Hindu mystics whose "spaceships" are revealed to actually be giant telekinetic projections the size of a star destroyer created (and manned) by one Vell-Os.
  • In Tales of Eternia, the entire land of Celestia is run by captured Craymels or minor spirits. In fact, the only reason Inferia, the starting world, is still in a Middle Ages setting is because of their moral refusal to capture Craymels (although they view it more as desecration).
  • In Lost Odyssey, the world is in the throes of the Magic-Industial Revolution - magitek is everywhere, and major kingdoms are rapidly developing Magi Tek Weapons Of Mass Destruction. In a similar vein to the idea behind Fantastic Racism, the game portrays the pros and cons of technological advancement through the safely distancing lens of magitek...
  • A critical plot point in Tales Of Phantasia, and, consequentially, the prequel Tales Of Symphonia. Between those two games and their respective backstories, mankind manages to shoot itself in the metaphorical foot fairly often with a magitech Wave Motion Gun, causing no at least four And Man Grew Proud moments over the course of an 8000 year period.
  • Tales Of Vesperia has technology known as Blastia that does everything from control drinking water to power lights to create gigantic barriers.
  • The GBA remake of Shining Force has its magic coming from hyper-advanced Kill Sats in orbit around the world. In fact, one of the main hero's abilities is to fire down an ion cannon blast.
  • In World Of Warcraft, Naaru and Ethereal constructs. Titan technology could be either this, or just sufficiently advanced.
    • Also, Gnomish and Goblin technology. It might seem to be merely highly advanced gadgets, but the more advanced devices generally require some sort of magical reagents to build.
      • Gnomish and Goblin technology is explicitly stated to be non-magical in the World of Warcraft RPG sourcebooks
  • The "Maso Kishin"(Cybuster, etc...) sub-storyline of Super Robot Wars features magic-powered Humongous Mecha. The main mech of the group, Cybuster, is actually blessed and powered by a God of wind.
  • In Okami, Waka seems to have access to some sort of Magitek (the lightsaber flute suggests as much, at least), but it suggests that Science Is Bad in that The God of Darkness is suggested to be the source of all technology.
  • The highest sort of technology in Chrono Trigger, and its sequel, Chrono Cross, is intimately tied with magic —being capable of extracting it, producing it, and using it as a power source or ordnance. It gets to the point where FATE, the governing intelligence of El Nido, was able to split apart an inherently magical creature and assume control over the six magical Elements that make up the world.
  • The Hack and Slay MMORPG Phantasy Star Online features 'normal' highly advanced technology as well as so called disks, which can be used to learn magic
  • The Piece of Eden from Assassin's Creed might qualify under this.
  • While never specifically described as such, many of Shion's attacks in the first Xeno Saga game come across as Magitek
  • The 11th Touhou game, Subterranean Animism, features the hell raven Utsuho Reiuji, who has been given the powers of the mythological Yatagarasu, or more exactly, appears to have been fed the spirit of Yatagarasu itself, and since then, she's acquired the ability to manipulate nuclear fusion and fission, which she uses to rekindle the flames of the former hell. It's revealed later, that the person who gave the Yatagarasu to her was the 10th game's final boss, goddess Kanako Yasaka who've recently arrived from the outside, contemporary world where humans live. Kanako aimed for revolutionizing the currently obsolete energy sources of the Kappa facilities near the base of her mountain, expecting that this would bring her more followers, and then used Utsuho as a literal thermonuclear power source, who's excess powers created geysers that would then be used to power the Kappa facilities
    • The series has other examples, such as lunar veils made of zero-mass fabric, antimatter veils, quantum seals, use of phantasmal mushrooms with a miniature of the Hakkero furnace to create lasers or prepare tea, use of Japanese Kami (as a main ingredient) to make a wooden rocket travel from the Earth to the moon, and co-protagonist Marisa Kirisame magically summoning a hot spring vein underneath her house to serve as a floor-heating device.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor uses portable electronic devices called COMPS to automatically perform the complex magical ritual of summoning demons into the moral world. Finding the Magi Tek demon-summoning server controlling this is a major plot-point.
  • Jade Empire's flying machines are constructed along Magitek lines.

Webcomics
  • The world of Dominic Deegan abounds with this sort of thing. Some examples include:
    • Using crystals (which may or may not be of the "ball" archetype) to communicate like telephones.
    • Small crystals enchanted with a "Voice of the Titans" spell to make microphones.
    • Creating lamps/light bulbs out of something carrying an illumination spell.
    • Taking musical instruments, e.g. guitars, and adding a healthy dose of electrical magic to create electric guitars.
  • In Gunnerkrigg Court, at least one robot is powered by magic: No power source or drive system whatsoever, but as soon as you insert a Personality Chip he starts moving around on his own.
    • Also, Mrs. Donlan has a computer that includes "just enough etheric technology" to allow it to perform its task.
    • However, despite its preponderance, the Court at large apparently frowns on Magitek as cheating.
  • In a subscription-only section of the Drowtales website, there's an on-going story arc about the Drow society 100 000 years in the future (from the main story's point), Space Age, where mana powers and controls EVERYTHING (including but not limited to spaceship flight, weapons, wormhole travel, faster-than-light communications, their internet...), to the point where their first encounter with "Earth humans" goes undetected because their traditional sensors are incapable of detecting objects that are not infused with mana, although one of the characters eventually creates bio-signature dectectors to good effect.
  • Broken Space features technology powered by a combination of gears, steam, and mystical glyphs.
  • From this Girl Genius: "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!"
  • From this Keychain Of Creation: "Misho, how is this cart bigger on the inside than the outside?" "I know magic science."
  • Discussed/Lampshaded in this Order of the Stick when Vaarsuvius comments on how Cliffport looks anachronistic for a "presumed medieval time period". Also quotes Niven's corollary when trying to rationalize Durkon's response of "It be magic."
    • Also seen in various magical luxuries like Xykon's widescreen crystal ball and "Teevo" magical video recorder.
  • In 8-Bit Theater, the visible Sky Castle is described as being an "ancient flying techno-magic castle".

Web Originals
  • The Online RPG Adventurequest features a lizard/human race called the Drakel. They use incredible knowledge of both Magic and Science to create armor and weaponry that is implausible even on our scale. They ignore this trope by calling the system "Magiscience".

Western Animation
  • Avatar The Last Airbender: The four kingdoms rely heavily on this in the form of a particular "physical magic," to the point where their technology parallels our own.
    • Earthbenders run complicated metro transit and postal systems by "bending" the cargo across stone tracks.
    • Airbenders travel with the help of gliders supported by airbending.
    • Waterbenders, among other things, have totally overwritten the need for traditional medicine. Then of course that canal lock system used for their capital city.
      • They also had waterbending-propelled submarines.
    • Firebenders create all manner of steam powered and industrial machines using their innate comprehension of combustion and metallurgy.
      • In addition, non-magical complex devices are referred to as "fake bending" (example: explosives = fake firebending).
  • Dave The Barbarian, especially the Crystal Ball that functions like the internet.
  • He Man And The Masters Of The Universe was full of this, especially the 2002 series. Flying discs, steampunky mecha-dragons, energy shields - Practically every bit of technology was combined with magic. There were also technological devices using or enhancing magical artefacts, like a belt powered by rare magical water which punished the wearer with an electrical shock as soon as he tried to do evil.
  • A lot of the magic in Disney's Atlantis works by application of their Power Crystals. Lamps are lit by touching the crystal to it something like a match, and perhaps most egregiously, the stone fish-shaped vehicles have a mystical enough activation process of sticking the crystal in a hole, turning it halfway around, and then a quarter turn back, which is basically the motion of turning a key in a car's ignition.
  • A lot of ghost-related gear in Danny Phantom comes off as magitek, both in terms of technology used by ghosts (such as Skulker's suit) and technology used by ghost-hunters, such as all the Fenton technology.
  • The evil wizards in Thundarr The Barbarian are just as likely to employ giant robots and war machines as magic spells.
  • The Magic School Bus's various abilities are powered by devices such as the "shrinkerscope" and "mesmerglobber", which occasionally go on the fritz and even require a trip to a mechanic at one point.
  • Coldfire in Gargoyles - a cyborg created using Xanatos' technology, brought to life by Demona's magic.

Made Of Phlebotinum
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