History Literature / Magic20

* TheAgeless: One of the first things all magic-users do is freeze their biological age. They also make themselves impervious to physical damage (although pain is still present). However, attempts to make a person not require food, water, or air had some nasty results. Thus, a magic-user can still be killed by drowning or suffocation. In book 6, Martin and Gwen have restarted their aging processes in order to avoid looking like {{Supernaturally Young Parent}}s, while their kids age normally. However, they did slow down the process by 50%, as they'd rather avoid being in their [=40s=] for all eternity. The plan is to re-freeze the age once their kids know the truth.

** In the second novel, Martin devises an interesting method of teleporting without setting up coordinates. He carries a special beanbag which he throws and then teleports to it with the word "Bamf", complete with [[Franchise/{{XMen}} Nightcrawler]]'s teleportation visual effects.

* MenInBlack: In 2018, [[spoiler:Brit the Much Elder]] runs a special Justice Department task force investigating supposed cases of magic, time travel, and other unexplained phenomena. [[SarcasmMode For some reason]], the agency has yet to find any concrete evidence of anything abnormal.

* CrystalBall: One is present in Phillip's "office" in order to impress the locals who pay him a visit. In fact, when Phillip is sitting in his chair, he sees the monitor of his UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} through the ball, which is hidden under the table (the keyboard typing sounds only add to the mystery). The visitors are awed by the crystal ball changing colors (projected by the monitor). Phillip's dial-up modem sounds make the locals think that demons are in the room.

* OlderIsBetter: No matter what, Phillip loves his UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}} and is incredulous of anyone using a powerful computing device as a phone. After Martin buys him a 2012-era computer made to look like a Commodore 64, Phillip uses it but only through a Commodore 64 emulator. Martin suspects Phillip only does this to annoy him. On the other hand, Phillip initially refuses Martin's offer, as he claims he wouldn't know how to use a 2012 laptop.

** On the other hand, Phillip likes to jab at wizards from a few years before him who are using even older machines, such as [[UsefulNotes/VIC20 Commodore VIC-20]].

** Brit the Elder explains to Phillip that, when she looks at Brit the Younger, she sees a younger, inexperienced version of herself. She remembers the consequences of what Brit the Younger says and does, frequently making her cringe inside of the "stupid" things her younger self says.

* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Jimmy secretly attempts to turn England into Tolkien's Middle Earth by turning various villages into elves, hobbits, and dwarves. He also turns a number of guards into orcs. However, this ends badly, as modifying the human body (even a virtual one) is extremely tricky. In fact, one of the big no-nos of the wizards is to change someone's physical parameters. In the fourth novel, Jeff does this by accident, when the training dragons he creates end up going out of control and spreading out to all the British Isles. While the dragons are largely harmless on their own (he made them unable to deal direct damage to people), people's frightened reactions might result in them harming themselves.

* TimeTravel: By editing one's temporal coordinates, a person can travel to the past. However, the reality/program prevents a person from traveling to any time in his or her future. Thus, Phillip, whose native time period is 1984 is unable to visit Martin's time period of 2012. Traveling to any time and place in the past is fair game, however. Martin assumes it's possible for someone else to bring a wizard from an earlier time to that wizard's future, but no one ever does that.

** In sixth novel, Gwen gives Mattie and Brewster necklaces with a stylized wizard's hat pendant and tells them to break them ''only'' if they're in actual danger. When they do, they teleport home, several minutes before they left.

* BroughtDownToNormal: While in Todd's game, all of wizard powers (including invulnerability) are taken away. This also applies to sorceresses, even though their method of using the file is different, and Todd could not have anticipated sorceresses appearing in the game. Near the end, Todd reveals that he has set up some sort of "dampening field" on any person entering the game that prevents him or her from accessing the file. This not only keeps the wizards from accessing the shell, but also sorceresses from accessing their Interface, and also Jimmy, who reveals to have set up a secret shell of his own.

* AuthorAppeal: In ''An Unwelcome Quest'' the other wizards note that unlike every other element of the game that was clearly thrown together from cliches with no research done the smithing segment is ''excrutiatingly'' detailed and beyond the parts where an NPC is doing all the work and it skips ahead meticulously accurate. They conclude that it must be this to Todd.
* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: In book 5, Gwen tells Martin that, eventually, she wants to have kids. So does he. But there's a problem. She doesn't want their kids growing up in a world, where their every whim can be satisfied with magic, which can only result in {{Spoiled Brat}}s. Thus, they can't raise them either in Medieval England (Gwen wouldn't want to anyway) or in Atlantis. They'd have to go back to the 21st century and be a normal family, at least until their kids are 21 and the secret of the file can be explained to them. At that point, Martin and Gwen would be free to return to the past and become magic-users again, while their kids would be able to join them if they wished. She realizes what she's asking Martin to give up (i.e. a life of freedom and leisure and not having to worry about paying bills) and gives him plenty of time to decide for himself.

Shortly after Martin's training is complete and he gains full shell access (instead of being sent back to his own time naked and hogtied with his file access cut off), him and several other wizards receive a visit by Gwen to directs them to a village that appears to have been completely wiped out by magical means. Seeing the short, shoe-less forms of the dead villages, Martin realizes that a wizard has been attempting to create {{Hobbits}}, thus violating all three of the wizarding taboos (experimenting on non-wizards, experimenting on people without their permission, and changing someone's physical parameters). Martin and two other wizards are captured by a group of local thugs but are rescued by Gwen, who turns out to be a witch herself. The wizards learn that the culprit is Jimmy/Merlin and teleport to London/Camelot to confront him. Jimmy tries to explain that he has been attempting to turn England into a mini-version of [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Middle-Earth]]. When the rest of the wizards refuse to accept his "genius", he tricks them, takes away their shell access (i.e. de-powers them) and sends his army of orcs to kill them. Wizards with portable devices (including Martin and Gwen) are able to access the file directly to escape. Martin teleports into Camelot and challenges Jimmy to a duel. While they fight (with Jimmy mostly beating up Martin), Phillip sneaks in and knocks Jimmy out. Jimmy is then sent back to his own and altered to have a strong magnetic field ([[WalkingTechbane thus preventing him from using electronics to access the file]]). Martin says goodbye to Gwen, who decides to time travel to {{Atlantis}}, the only time period where female magic-users can feel safe from the BurnTheWitch attitude of most of history.