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Science Fiction Urban Fantasy setting and problems....

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dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#1: May 13th 2011 at 6:45:57 AM

How do I put this. Before the questions, here's the basic outline of my verse.

My story is set in 2030 society where magic is very scientifically incorporated into technology, like being used in encasing anti matter, and is more or less part of modern technology.

The problem is that while I initially wanted to make a simple Urban Fantasy but because I just wanted to have mecha fights and Modern Warfare-ish military operations and somewhat futuristic settings (simply because it looks more pleasing to me), I started to put more and more science fiction elements....

Sci-fi elements started to overtake fantasy elements.

Oh, sorry should've elaborated more.

John Hansen (or Jang Hyun-soo in case I decides to change the setting to Korea) has the mark of Akasha, which is the very reality itself, which allows him to access Akashic Records, albeit with EXTREMELY HEAVY damage to his body and soul, which more or less makes him potentially the strongest human(noid) being ever born.

The sci-fi elements goes out of control when Martians from future (around 24th century?) sends an expedition team to observe him. Also, there's an Eldritch Abomination size of a small galaxy that occasionally sends of magical energy wave (really, I need a name that isn't stupid) that amplifies darker emotions of any sentient being and turned them into monsters.

Earth is fairly frequently, like once in two weeks, affected by this wave and everytime it does, it only appears in the main character's city because of the effect that his power has around his environment. The magical society, which has even bigger power than the UN, classifies it as demons and after realizing that the city is targeted a lot, sends a group of magicians there to investigate.

I'm getting tired so I will resume later on, but in sum, I'm having trouble balancing sci=fi and fantasy elements.

Is there anything that I should keep in my mind in dealing with such setting?

edited 13th May '11 6:57:10 AM by dRoy

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#2: May 13th 2011 at 4:38:38 PM

Internal consistency.

Once you get that nailed, you can get away with anything.

There's no law that says "magic" cannot be logical, scientifically quantifiable, measurable, testable, predictable and repeatable so there's no reason it can't be used alongside science and technology.

It could, as you suggest, prop up the science by allowing advancements that could not be done technologically within the next 18 years (such as your magical containment for antimatter) and, given that in your 'verse magic has always been around and [developing alongside/interacting with] technology, leading to technological advancements far in advance of what we would (in this reality) expect to have by 2030.

"Science" is a mode of thought. If magic exists and is consistent enough (and it would need to be in order to be reliably and consistently used to enhance technology), scientific thought and research could be applied to it and it could be developed.

Part of your challenge is to work out how magic works in your 'verse and what it is based on - mana, The Force, whatever - and that (or they - there could be more than one magical "force" at play) will exist alongside the 5 scientific forces (gravity, magnetism etc) and used accordingly.

The force(s) may or may not be fully understood - "we know we can manipulate it by doing this, we don't know why" - and there may be some forces that are in play that have not been discovered. The Unified Theory quest may well be to come up with a Unified theory that "unifies the n magical and scientific forces into one 'easy' equation".

In all seriousness, in a world such as you describe, with magical means of enhancing technology, I would expect that 2011 would be far more advanced than we know it and 2030 would have even more.

Just some thoughts, anyway.

edited 13th May '11 5:11:12 PM by Wolf1066

dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#3: May 13th 2011 at 6:23:59 PM

[up] Thanks, it has been very helpful.

Another thing just came to me: If magic has been interacting with technology for centuries (in my draft, magic and technology really started to interact/compliment with each other thanks to the growing practice of alchemy), it should have had much more sociological effect through history, doesn't it?

I'm thinking of making a slighy Alternative History, the most noticeable change being the church from middle age a lot more tolerant. Speaking of which, I'm still not sure how religious society would see magic as. Would it be plausible for Chistianity to see magic as a visible display of God's power, in the same vein as they see Jesus' miracle?

Also, I think it would be good idea to make a fictional genocide which is based on real life genocide, but primarily deals with magic, like a country massacreing (is that the word?) every magicians because some of the more liberal and humanistic minds that opposed the more oppressive government have a lot of magicians included, angering the global magicain population and the UN and the council of magicians taking actions...

All in all, should I be aware of the sociological effect the widespread of magic would/should have to the society?

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#4: May 14th 2011 at 1:41:45 AM

It is possible that the Christians of such a world would view magic as a manifestation of God's power, a "gift" from the Creator - and possibly as "proof" that God exists as well. The viewpoint could have been different over the years (e.g. the schism that split the Protestants from the Catholics in that world could well be over whether or not magic is of Divine Origin).

It's possible that the clergy, as learned people, are quite adept at magic - so perhaps the Protestant Uprising was because Martin Luther et al. thought magic should be available to all while the Mother Church wanted it limited to the Church hierarchy.

You could put any spin on it that you wished, really, and still make it work.

You could have another schism at any time of your choosing between those who deem it holy and those who deem it evil or merely "earthly" and have some Christians who are for it and some who are agin it.

Which would make things interesting if they rely on magically-enhanced tech.

Sociological differences would indeed abound and history would take quite a different tack in many areas - though you could have a lot remain the same as we know it but for different reasons and motives.

In Gail Carriger's "Parasol Protectorate" series (Victorian Era Steampunk with vampires, ghosts and werewolves) the existence of immortal vampires and werewolves has had its effect on the growth of technology. In addition to this, events that we know from history (Renaissance, French Revolution, Independence of the USA etc) and fashions and fads have been reinterpreted in terms of these immortals and their long-term plans.

dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#5: May 14th 2011 at 7:24:59 AM

The thing is, I'm not good at history. At all. Even then, I cannot just accept the fact that all those centuries of interaction with magic had no sociological effect in human history.

Speaking of religion, I was also thinking about making multiple factions regarding magic:

  • Religious people, I'll go with Christians and Catholic because those are the only ones I know, who see magic as "Proof of God" and actively research and practice it.
  • Religious people who see it as act of heresy and while not actively persecuting those who practice it, shows apathy and dislike toward it.
  • Scientists who believe that it's a mere branch of science that follows same universal scientific law that is either above of or different from conventional science but nevertheless still is science.
  • People who questions its reliability as a means to help humanity.

I wonder what Vatican would see magic as.

What makes things hard is that...I never read any sci-fi novel before and therefore does not know how to describe complex scientific stuffs, like machines and all.

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#6: May 15th 2011 at 7:40:55 PM

It's not going to be easy for you, I warrant - but nothing of value ever is.

You could have it that magic, like technology, has taken a long time to develop reliably from the early days so a lot of our known history would not have changed a lot - the magic was not reliable enough as the early practitioners hadn't learned to use it properly.

You could have it that it was known that it was real (rather than just superstitions and wishful thinking) way back as far as the Early Middle Ages or even earlier but not have it start to flourish until the Renaissance or later and not becoming very practical until the late 19th Century.

Just a suggestion, of course, you're the one with the vision for your world - I'm just throwing suggestions for how to get by some of the hurdles.

You could have it very limited in the past - only magicians, clergy and other learned people closely guarding its secrets (pretty much how the guilds guarded technological secrets) - and not opened up for the world and its dog to experiment with and innovate until much later.

dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#7: May 16th 2011 at 1:31:43 AM

Sounds like a good idea. Although, in that way, I will inevitably cause a lot of examples of Beethoven Was an Alien Spy, especially Leonardo Da Vinci. Seriously, imagine him with his hands on magic. The world will never change....

Since I am now straightly going for Alternate History, what do you suppose I could do with people who contributed to science, like Newton, Pascal, Curie, and of course, Einstein? Magic most certainly would have influenced their theories.

Darn, I think I'll need to visit my Physics and Chemistry textbook. There's no way I could write my story without a complicated Minovsky Particle. DX

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
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