History Webcomic / TheFarSideOfUtopia

* StuffBlowingUp: [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-december-17th-2018/ There is a category of magic]] known as '''Rupture''' that essentially amounts to this trope. It's a somewhat common offense-oriented technique, particularly for Central mages, that's used as a "generic trump card" as it's very effective against both physical and Eidos-reinforced defenses, though it's not perfect, as mages like [[TheAce Tyler]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction Rovak]] have avoided/survived it easily enough. In addition, according to TheRant [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-february-5th-2024/ on this]], rupture based magic has a somewhat limited range in comparison to other methods of combat magic, such as magically reinforcing projectiles such as bullets (like Ila frequently does) that allow for much greater range and precision.
** Kallisto has a specific variant of this called '''Dragonfire''', which has a different method of application by her dragon breathing out "fire" that can cover a very large area (in contrast to Rupture which explodes from a single point and has limited range) and is ''vastly'' more powerful; Rupture can destroy a room or kill a person, Dragonfire can level a ''battlefield''. Dragonfire is so powerful and fast that even Kor's World soldiers wouldn't survive a hit from it without measures to mitigate it or dodge, and even doing [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-february-5th-2024/ doesn't mean they'll get out of it unscathed]]. The only drawback of Dragonfire is that it seems to require Kally to have summoned her dragon first to be able to use it, [[FridgeLogic despite the fact that technically both the dragon and Dragonfire both come from Kally to begin with]]. Even in-universe there is a lot of debate about how Dragonfire works exactly (Kally, for her part, sees it as "Dragons breath fire, people don't").

* FunctionalMagic: As outlined on [[http://wiki.pastutopia.com/index.php?title=Magic_System this page,]] (which is a wiki that the [[WordOfGod author runs]] and it lines up with what's seen and told in the comic), magic is performed by altering the properties of an object on a metaphysical level (a.k.a. Eidos, as it's called in-universe) to cause changes in the physical world (e.g. lowering or raising the acceleration of an object in motion). The strength of a mage is determined by a combination how far their range of affect is (from personal to a battlefield) and the complexity of their "calculations" in Eidos (e.g. creating animate constructs, changing the density and substance of an object), though there are also outliers with abilities that are not yet fully understood such as [[spoiler:teleportation]]. Short version: mages can "hack" the physics engine of reality to alter its code or load their own "programs" like summoning constructs.

* StuffBlowingUp: [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-december-17th-2018/ There is a category of magic]] known as '''Rupture''' that essentially amounts to this trope. It's a somewhat common offense-oriented technique that's used as a "generic trump card" as it's very effective against both physical and Eidos-reinforced defenses (though it's not perfect, as mages like [[TheAce Tyler]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction Rovak]] have avoided/survived it easily enough).
** Kallisto has a specific variant of this called '''Dragonfire''', which has a different method of application by her dragon breathing out "fire" that can cover a large area (in contrast to Rupture which explodes from a single point) and is ''vastly'' more powerful; Rupture can destroy a room or kill a person, Dragonfire can level a ''battlefield''. The only drawback of Dragonfire is that it seems to require Kally to have summoned her dragon first to be able to use it, [[FridgeLogic despite the fact that technically both the dragon and Dragonfire both come from Kally to begin with]]. Even in-universe there is a lot of debate about how Dragonfire works exactly (Kally, for her part, sees it as "Dragons breath fire, people don't").

* AllInTheManual: A lot of the finer details about the universe of the comic (e.g. the magic system, how certain political systems like PACT work) aren't usually explained in the comic itself, due to the fact that most of the characters already know them. Instead, some of those details are stated in the fan wiki or by the author in the commentary for a comic page, or even in the comments if it won't act as a spoiler.

* ArtificialHuman: It's all but confirmed that [[spoiler: Mium]] and ILA are artificial humans of some sort. The rest of the people with strange haircolors may be.
** Turns out they are DesignerBabies; may or may not still count as ArtificialHumans.

** [[http://pastutopia.com/?comic=comic-for-friday-november-27th She has job satisfaction...]][[http://pastutopia.com/?comic=comic-for-wednesday-september-30th a lot...]]

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Part of the reason that the majority of the IDS or Central have not interfered with the situation in Malsa so far (besides from the complex politics surrounding it and the IDS members already involved) is that Malsa, and Palindra as a whole, are one of dozens, if not ''hundreds'', of worlds that the IDS are managing. As a result, most of Central don't see the conflict there as anything special by comparison.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: In regards to Eidos constructs (both animate and inanimate), there is a colour spectrum that goes from Blue -> Green -> Yellow -> Red, which denotes how "real" said construct is (i.e. how well they interact with reality and how stable they are), with Blue being the least real (with the exception of a hypothetical pink/violet construct, which would so unreal as to not exist or be able to affect anything in reality, as per an author comment on [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-9th-2023/ this page]]) and Red being the most real. Red "living" constructs in particular are noted to be very dangerous to face in a fight, as they can interact with physics much better than other constructs while still having the benefits of being a magical construct (e.g. losing a head may impede a red construct but it won't necessarily stop them). As a construct becomes more "real", it often (though not always) becomes stronger and more durable, though that comes with a bigger mana investment in creating them.

* CounterSpell: So far this, along with SuperToughness, are what we've seen Mium do.

* DescriptionCut: [[https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-october-13th-2019/ When Naomi recommends to Peter]] that he go talk to Kallisto (who is currently sitting on the roof of a skyscraper with Fluffy currently summoned) as Kallisto has had a bit of a rough day due to [[spoiler:learning her former mentor had gone insane ''and'' having to fight a Kor's World soldier]], Peter says Kallisto is probably more concerned with what to feed her dragon for dinner that night. Cut to Kallisto and Fluffy, discussing that very subject (specifically, Kallisto telling her dragon he ''can't eat a human'' just because Kurun made him curious about what one would taste like).
* DesignerBabies: Designer Children are exactly that, children who were genetically modified from birth (perhaps before) to have enhanced abilities. Most of these children are usually more physically fit or smarter than a regular child (though there is no guarantee of this), and some of them also have enhanced or specific magical abilities. Making a Designer Child is an expensive process, so often they are seen as a sign of wealth, status, or both, with the Families have a large population of Designer Children among their ranks. Not much about the laws regarding Designer Children is known except that they have to have [[WorldOfTechnicolorHair unusual hair color]] and [[CurtainsMatchTheWindows a matching eye color]] as a sign that they're Designer Children, and it's (probably) illegal for them to dye their hair a different color.

* FunctionalMagic: As outlined on [[http://wiki.pastutopia.com/index.php?title=Magic_System this page,]] (which is a wiki that the [[WordOfGod author runs]] and it lines up with what's seen and told in the comic), magic is performed by altering the properties of an object on a metaphysical level (a.k.a. Eidos, as it's called in-universe) to cause changes in the physical world (e.g. lowering or raising the acceleration of an object in motion). The strength of a mage is determined by a combination how far their range of affect is (from personal to a battlefield) and the complexity of their "calculations" in Eidos (e.g. creating animate constructs, changing the density and substance of an object), though there are also outliers with abilities that are not yet fully understood such as [[spoiler:teleportation]].

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: According to this [[https://pastutopia.com/qa-11-28-2022/ Q&A from the author]], demons don't come from a literal hell, but instead are entities made of data that mostly live in Eidos. They can accumulate data the longer they live, becoming stronger and smarter with age, but can also ''lose'' data if they're hit with the right weapon or attack (e.g. an attack from/using a red construct). They otherwise behave the same as traditional demons (i.e. murderous unless controlled or restrained in some way).