Like reflections in the glass!
I can see several angles.
- Clarketech: The magic is actually the result of technology so ancient and forgotten that its comprehensible to the setting's current denizens. (though this might clash with the hardness a bit, as any such tech is rather impractical at best under known physics. At least if you're aiming on the suual use of magic such as Elemental Powers and such.)
- that said it can work if you eschew traditional depiction of magic and instead use technology from the present. A peasant from þe olden days will have a different reaction to a TV or smartphone than you and I would. Even a king would have a different perspective from ours on such devices.
- A superhero-comic-book style Cosmic Retcon involving a fight with higher powers that reshaped reality as a result. Likely causing a Pyrrhic Victory as the victorious side ended up nerfed as a result. (would necessitate Eldritch Abominations in some form)
- A breach into a dimension where physics is different, the clash in physics would then results in magic.
I had a WIP setting is in hiatus due to a more recent writing project, but in it I have dabbled in all the alien species being the result of human experimentation (as a hand wave for why they resemble humans so much granted) a similar trick can work here. And also has some precedence (see...the Alalgan Empire's chimerical legacy on the Source). It would be trivial to have the more fantastic species be evolved from test subjects born in labs, basically. (Convergent) evolution would then handle the rest.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 2nd 2023 at 4:14:55 AM
None of the above. It's more like they caused a Reality-Breaking Paradox that rebooted the universe.
Fun Fact: These guys would eventually go on to become The Fair Folk in this story
Edited by Drakath51 on Dec 2nd 2023 at 5:26:12 AM
Like reflections in the glass!
I'm certain the latter two of my suggestions would include Reality-Breaking Paradox though. Flashpoint can attest to that and chances are having a second dimension with weirder physics invade the first would itself result in such a paradox.
Just saying.
As for the context of them becoming fae. That makes some sense.
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Dec 3rd 2023 at 10:58:57 AM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Do you mind telling me why you think it makes some sense?
Like reflections in the glass!
First from an evolutionary standpoint it is as possible for fairys to be genetic descendants than any other being. And the nature of the fae would mean that there is an aura of mystery around them that would match with the advanced tech and the emergence of magic in their wake. Though divinities would usually be people's first choice with those.
Furthermore if they were responsible for whatever caused magic to emerge then they would be the first ones to master it and be the eldest among thsoe that cna use it. Espeially it is turned out to be Clarketech.
That being say the process of they became fae would be a topic better left to one more versed in speculative biology than I, but from a flavor perspective it is a valid take.
Yeah, Fae technology is a combination of Clarketech and Magitek. Also, it's implied that this is what became of humanity in this setting with all of the very humanlike fae running around in a setting where the closest things to humanity are anthropomorphic animal people.
Edited by Drakath51 on Dec 3rd 2023 at 2:03:50 AM
I have decided that in the ancient past of my setting the Abusive Precursors did something that changed how the universe works. Whatever happened changed how the laws of physics worked and gave way to magic. What do you guys think happened?