History Main / MagicalUnderpinningsOfReality

* A truly bizarre example exists in TheHomewardBounders.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' has the Moddey-Dhoo mentioning that {{Psychopomp}}s' "clients" ensure that "[[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=358 the world continues to spin]]", though didn't clarify beyond this.

* ''OracleOfTao'' has the entire universe operate not through faeries, but through [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic mechanistic laws]] (for instance, fire magic runs on principles of thermodynamics, meteorological principles for thunder and cold magic, et cetera). The DarkWorld works also works, but on entropy rather than energy. But the reverse is true, that everything from electricity to magnetism relies on faith, strong will, or emotions. This would all be normal, except mundane things like cellphones and ATM machines also run on magic, and the former can [[FiveFiveFive literally call God]].

* In the ''MuneShinri'' (which the video game ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' is loosely based on), reality is run by scientific laws, as much of the empirical world accepts. But behind thoses laws, the people keeping them working are various spirits, and a group of beings called [[{{Shinigami}} Reapers]].

* In the ''MuneShinri'' (which the video game ''OracleOfTao'' is loosely based on), reality is run by scientific laws, as much of the empirical world accepts. But behind thoses laws, the people keeping them working are various spirits, and a group of beings called [[{{Shinigami}} Reapers]].

Then there's settings that take it UpToEleven. In a world where there are MagicalUnderpinningsOfReality, ''everything'' that happens in the world is attributable to a magical force, worker, artifact, or another explanation. Gravity? There's [[OddJobGod a gigantic god]] who is holding the world like a bucket and spinning to create centrifugal force. The stars? They're cute little lightbulb girls that are suspended on a gigantic scaffold. The changing of the seasons? TheFairFolk go about telling the plants to grow, bloom, or sleep. The sun? It's a giant lamp fueled by the laughter of good children, which is gathered by angels, so be good or the sun won't shine!

* In ''Nocturna'', the nighttime world invisible to humans, fey beings go about ensuring that everything necessary for a normal (not necessarily "good") night's sleep happens. There's a writing department for dreams (and a cadre of tiny women who deliver and read them to you as you sleep), hair mussers that mess up your hair as you sleep, "composers" of nighttime sounds, and all lights are actually living beings. Stars are immortal doll-like lightbulb women who are suspended from a giant scaffold held aloft by a lighthouse; street lights are firefly-like workers in mining gear.

* In ''The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns'', Trooping Fairies run nature worldwide, they manufacture leaves, make sure snow and spring and rain all take their due course, etc. But a war with the leprechauns distracts them from their duties, and so natural weather patterns worldwide collapse into chaos.

* ''GunnerkriggCourt'' has the Moddey-Dhoo mentioning that {{Psychopomp}}s' "clients" ensure that "[[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=358 the world continues to spin]]", though didn't clarify beyond this.

* {{Charmed}} is loaded with this trope to the nth degree.

----

* ''ChangelingTheLost'' has it so that this is how Arcadia works. Every thing is a sentient force that requires you to make a Contract with it in order to gain its benefits. For instance, you need to make a Contract with Water in order to quench your thirst, though it can still drown you even if you haven't signed on. [[TheFairFolk The Gentry]] gain most of their magic by forging these Contracts with the forces that technically hold the keys, and their changeling servants gain mastery of them by proxy.

* In ''Film/{{Stardust}}'', stars in the real world are the typical giant balls of gas (or meteorite), but on the ''other'' side of the wall they are immortal women who float in the sky and shine at night (unless someone hits them and knocks them down). A star crossing the wall turns into a lump of rock and metal.
* In ''The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns'', Trooping Fairies run nature worldwide, they manufacture leaves, make sure snow and spring and rain all take their due course, etc. But a war with the leprechauns distracts them from their duties, and so natural weather patterns worldwide collapse into chaos.

* ''OracleOfTao'' has the entire universe operate not through faeries, but through [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic mechanistic laws]] (for instance, fire magic runs on principles of thermodynamics, meteorological principles for thunder and cold magic, et cetera). The DarkWorld works also works, but on entropy rather than energy. Everything from electricity to magnetism relies on faith, strong will, or emotions. This would all be normal, except things like cellphones and ATM machines also run on magic, and the former can [[FiveFiveFive literally call God]].

* ''OracleOfTao'' has the entire universe operate not through faeries, but through [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic mechanistic laws]] (for instance, fire magic runs on principles of thermodynamics, meteorological principles for thunder and cold magic, et cetera). The DarkWorld works also works, but on entropy rather than energy. This would all be normal, except things like cellphones and ATM machines run on magic, and the former can [[FiveFiveFive literally call God]].

* In ''{{Stardust}}'', stars in the real world are the typical giant balls of gas (or meteorite), but on the ''other'' side of the wall they are immortal women who float in the sky and shine at night (unless someone hits them and knocks them down). A star crossing the wall turns into a lump of rock and metal.

* ''{{Exalted}}'' has everything -- ''everything'' -- in Creation made out of [[{{Mana}} Essence]], to the point that motonic theory (referring to "motes," the basic unit of Essence) is the setting's equivalent of atomic theory. Sorcery is the setting's equivalent of understanding physics to the point where you can tell them to sit down and shut up. In addition to that, everything in reality, from a single grain of rice to the sun itself, has a god that represents it.

** Being made forcibly aware of these magical underpinnings tends to drive mortals '''insane''' -- ''Earth itself'' couldn't deal with the knowledge of a world in which the capricious whim of a god can wipe out the dominant lifeforms on the planet or transport rabbits from their peaceful undersea homes to the world of land, so it's not surprising that mere mortals can't, either. In 3e, the Locust Court allows victims to forget this knowledge and regain their sanity, if they can find it. Otherwise, they're pretty much doomed.

** Being made forcibly aware of these magical underpinnings tends to drive people and animals '''insane''' -- ''Earth itself'' couldn't deal with the knowledge of a world in which the capricious whim of a god can wipe out the dominant lifeforms on the planet or transport rabbits from their peaceful undersea homes to the world of land, so it's not surprising that mere mortals can't, either. In 3e, the Locust Court allows victims to forget this knowledge and regain their sanity, if they can find it. Otherwise, they're pretty much doomed.

** Being made forcibly aware of these magical underpinnings tends to drive people and animals '''insane''' -- ''Earth itself'' couldn't deal with the knowledge of a world in which the capricious whim of a god can wipe out the dominant lifeforms on the planet or transport rabbits from their peaceful undersea homes to the world of land, so it's not surprising that mere mortals can't, either. In 3e, the Locust Court allows people to forget this knowledge and regain their sanity, if they can find it. Otherwise, they're pretty much doomed.

* In ''TheKingkillerChronicle'', the moon disappearing from the sky isn't caused by the moon being between the sun and the Earth, it's because when it's not in the sky, the moon is actually elsewhere, serving as the moon of Fae. This phenomenon may have been caused when a boy named Jax ([[EpilepticTrees or possibly]] [[DarkLord a man named Haliax?]]) learned the moon's name and partially trapped it in a box, hence the JustSoStory of why the moon waxes and wanes.

* This is how Mythic Reality works in ''{{Nobilis}}''. Everything has an anthropomorphic spirit. ''Everything''. Your car, the chair you're sitting in, your teeth, etc. Mythic Reality is not "how things really work" so much as an alternative way of understanding the universe to "Prosaic Reality," the world of bound by laws of physics that we normally perceive.

* ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': The ponies on that world do everything - wrap up the winter, wake up the animals, move the clouds to make rain, produce the rainbows and snow, make the autumn leaves fall - and their [[GodEmperor God Empresses]] are responsible for raising the sun, the moon, and the stars in general. In fact, the [[TheLostWoods Everfree Forest]] is considered an unnatural site precisely because nature takes care of itself there.

Compare FantasyKitchenSink. See also PlanetEris. To populate this world usually requires authors make liberal use of CrossoverCosmology.