History Main / MagicalUnderpinningsOfReality

In {{fantasy}} settings magic and the mythic creatures are not abnormal, but a natural part of the world. It's normal to see wizards, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of love, and even weirder fare sit down every third Tuesday for tea and biscuits (baked by [[OurElvesAreBetter tree elves]], of course). Many things that are explained by physics in RealLife may even have completely different explanations in this world, such as TheGrimReaper going about ending lives ([[DontFearTheReaper not necessarily killing, mind you)]], that fires are actually small (or enormous) imp-like beings, or that there are {{Nature Spirit}}s that guide nature.

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* ''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. [[TricksterArchetype Coyote]] elaborates in Chapter 39: The Great Secret. [[spoiler: The minds of the dead affect how the world of ether works. The world the Moddey-Dhoo was referring to was his own. Mythical beings were myths first, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve then became real in the ether]] ([[TimeyWimeyBall Not necessarily in that order]]), though Coyote asserts that [[LogicBomb he does not actually exist]]]].

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': The loss of magic is an ecological disaster. When magic disappears for a day as an omen of Wyatt's birth, a warlock visits the sisters under conditions of truce to discuss the crisis and mentions that their garden hasn't died yet but soon will, since nymphs and gnomes are no longer tending nature.

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* ''{{Franchise/My Little Pony}}''

* {{Franchise/MyLittlePony}}

* ''WesternAnimation/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.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The ''WesternAnimation/{{Moondreamers}}'' segment was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them) who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws one means that they were single-handedly responsible for everything celestial (so yes they kept themselves quite busy). Each of them had different duties like bringing day and night to Earth, designing the stars and moving them to their ideal location, collecting thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They fueled their machines with energy created by positive feelings and called the resulting energy positrons.

** The ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting was based in "the Demiplane of Dread", a small pocket universe floating in the Ethereal Plane, apparently created and maintained by the mysterious [[BiggerBad "Dark Powers"]] as a holding pen for interesting evil beings. While some scientific laws are seemingly reliable, allowing for advancement up to roughly 18th Century technology in some Domains, these are always at the discretion of the Dark Powers, as is the behavior of magic.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The ''{{Moondreamers}}'' segment was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them) who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws one means that they were single-handedly responsible for everything celestial (so yes they kept themselves quite busy). Each of them had different duties like bringing day and night to Earth, designing the stars and moving them to their ideal location, collecting thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They fueled their machines with energy created by positive feelings and called the resulting energy positrons.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The ''WesternAnimation/Moondreamers'' segment was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them) who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws one means that they were single-handedly responsible for everything celestial (so yes they kept themselves quite busy). Each of them had different duties like bringing day and night to Earth, designing the stars and moving them to their ideal location, collecting thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They fueled their machines with energy created by positive feelings and they called the energy that was created positrons.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The segment Moondreamers was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them) who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws we mean everything. Their biggest duties were to create stars and collect thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They used energy sources as well, they powered their machines by good feelings and those sources were called positrons.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': The loss of magic is an ecological disaster. When magic disappears for a day as an omen of Wyatt's birth, a warlock visits the sisters under conditions of truce to discuss the crisis and mentions that their garden hasn't died yet but soon will, since the flower fairies are no longer tending nature.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': the loss of magic is an ecological disaster.

* Done to Tartarus and back in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' and its subsequent sequel series. Because AllMythsAreTrue (so far, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse religions are all confirmed to exist and are real, and there's a reference to Jesus Christ as a real mythological being as well), there's a good chance you can point to anything and it was created by a god or through magic. Even historical figures aren't exempt, as many of them were either demigods or magicians.

* In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', many natural phenomena are caused not by physics, but by spren. For example, windspren accompany wind, gravityspren are responsible for bringing things down (or sideways, if you can control them), an ancient spren called Stormfather sends forth the highstorms and [[spoiler:the hatespren can create an Everstorm.]]

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* In ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' Burn dreams'existence into reality and her body seems to literally be the world the characters live on. Consequences of her being hurt can be felt across the entire planet, such as earthquakes wich are referred to as ''Burn's Pain''.

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' has this in spades. Time? Really only exists in the normal world, and even then it gets screwy because it's actually a ''god''. Space? Same thing, really. The Sun? Instead of balls of gas and plasma, it and the other stars are white holes leading to the realm of magic, created when one god and its followers bailed on creation. The planets are dead gods instead of balls of rock and gas while the moons are the ''pieces'' of a god after the others tore him apart. Gravity, the seasons, and other earthly properties? Caused by the will of the dead spirits that make up the mortal world.

* ''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.
** [[TricksterArchetype Coyote]] has elaborated in Chapter 39: The Great Secret. [[spoiler: The minds of the dead affect how the world of ether works. The world the Moddey-Dhoo was referring to was his own. Mythical beings were myths first, [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve then became real in the ether]] ([[TimeyWimeyBall Not necessarily in that order]]), though Coyote asserts that [[LogicBomb he does not actually exist]]]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'' has the BackgroundMagicField of the Khert, ostensibly the divinely created architecture by which the Gods maintain reality. It enables the FormulaicMagic system of pymary; collects and archives the memories of the dead, ostensibly to cleanse their souls for {{reincarnation}}; and reabsorbs rogue memories that have transformed into ghosts and snuck into the world. The fact that people can sail beyond the influence of the Khert, and that some elements of reality appear to be beyond the khert's ability to affect, is theologically dangerous ground.

* Done to Tartarus and back in ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' and its subsequent sequel series. Because AllMythsAreReal (so far, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse religions are all confirmed to exist and are real, and there's a reference to Jesus Christ as a real mythological being as well), there's a good chance you can point to anything and it was created by a god or through magic. Even historical figures aren't exempt, as many of them were either demigods or magicians.

* ''Literature/CiaphasCain'', THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, once mentioned the GodEmperor as keeping the galaxy spinning. Though it was a joke, there're probably Imperial cults out there that believe it.

In {{fantasy}} settings magic and the mythic creatures are not abnormal, but a natural part of the world. It's normal to see wizards, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of love, and even weirder fare sit down every third tuesday for tea and biscuits (baked by [[OurElvesAreBetter tree elves]], of course). Many things that are explained by physics in RealLife may even have completely different explanations in this world, such as TheGrimReaper going about ending lives ([[DontFearTheReaper not necessarily killing, mind you)]], that fires are actually small (or enormous) imp-like beings, or that there are {{Nature Spirit}}s that guide nature.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': The segment Moondreamers was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them)who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws we mean everything. Their biggest duties were to create stars and collect thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They used energy sources as well, they powered their machines by good feelings and those sources were called positrons.

* 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 (Actually Iax, a long dead Namer, and purportedly the greatest of them all at the time.) learned the moon's name and partially trapped it in a box, hence the JustSoStory of why the moon waxes and wanes.

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* ''VideoGame/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]].

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* MyLittlePonyAndFriends: The segment Moondreamers was about little space people (perhaps elves would be the best way to describe them)who were taught how to control the natural laws of the universe by the gods and by laws we mean everything. Their biggest duties were to create stars and collect thoughts from the ocean of unconsciousness and perfect them in order to give children good dreams. They used energy sources as well, they powered their machines by good feelings and those sources were called positrons.