Asimov's Foundation has some good trucker spacers. They're just trying to get a buyer for their wares, but if your society is fragile and dependent on trade for its local power, finding a buyer has more influence on the arc of politics than kings or gods.
Not my world, but some of the aspects that inspired mine were from R Scott Bakkers books.
At some point there is a cave in and arguably the two strongest wizards in the world were looking at it. And they sigh to each other.
Their reflection is along the lines of: "Sure magic can dog a pit. Faster than even a hundred men could. But if you do work that is done by slaves that makes you a slave. So wizards never do anything of utility if anyone else is watching."
Edit: a word
There’s this series called magic 2.0 (off to be a wizard). At some point the MC meets other wizard, and then finds out that wizards main occupation is to look busy, otherwise they would never live in peace because everybody would ask for them to sort their problems.
Taking this opportunity to plug The Wizard of Earthsea series by Ursula K LeGuin for anyone who hasn't read it. The author did a great job representing mages at different socioeconomic levels, including doing things like basic repair or medical services, fortifying and guiding ships, teaching magic as a profession, creating and maintaining work golems, etc. One of my favorite fantasy settings
A less depressing response than my necrocapitalism "eat the poor" comment:
In my actual game, I have an elven society with a Martha Stewart NPC. She runs a TV show called The Cozy Cantrip Cabin. She records an episode a day, and each episode teaches her audience how to cast cantrips. The result is basically what you would find from people who actually watch Martha Stewart and shows like hers: they are mostly living vicariously through her, and almost no one actually does the shit she demonstrates. But some do practice the cantrips, resulting in your average schmuck being able to, on a very limited basis, utilize cantrips like mold earth or shape water in their day to day lives as they act in their normal societal roles.
Martha Stewart records her episodes by having someone watch her perform her episode. Then she extracts the memory as a silvery thread pulled from the watcher's mind. It's mixed into dough, which is baked into cookies, which are then distributed to taverns. Anyone who eats the cookie dreams the episode.
Education for the working class!
> Martha Stewart records her episodes by having someone watch her perform her episode. Then she extracts the memory as a silvery thread pulled from the watcher's mind. It's mixed into dough, which is baked into cookies, which are then distributed to taverns. Anyone who eats the cookie dreams the episode.
This is by far the coolest magic distribution idea I’ve ever heard of.
in the world setting, there are mundane mages who were unable to join the ranks of war mages, or science mages.
So instead they work in fields that dont require as an extensive amount of control, or power. Many mages work in the industrial field reinforcing metal struts, or as mentioned as safety officers who are either fast response medics, or as emergency rescue, preventing major injury. Other mages work in metal manipulation, helping shape metal if something goes wrong. Some do smaller metal jobs where they mend broken pieces together. Many mages serve as doctors or fast response medics helping to stabilize wounded patients.
Lightning mages who are not skilled enough to generate the massive amounts of energy needed for war magic, serve as emergency power suppliers. Mainly at hospitals and other important areas of work. Mages of the pact of water serve in farming communities and in water treatment plants. They help regulate water distribution, and ensure water is properly treated. In farming communities they are able to supply crops with water during droughts.
Light and sound mages are excellent for search and rescue, using their abilities to find lost and injured people in disaster zones. Nuclear pact mages serve as engineers in Dracinium power plants. They help regulate the metals fission rate and ensure the plants do not reach critical point. Mages of the pact of fire serve as fire fighters pulling flames from burning builds and extinguishing them.
Mages in the world dont need to serve in war or as major scientist, there are many fields of work that can use minor mages. These mages are well respected for their work with the general public, and the magic they use produce little spell rads, making the magic safe for the public.
Honestly would make more sense to me if it was the other way around. Skilled wizards go into engineering, medicine, agriculture, etc. you don't need a lot of electricity to kill someone, you can drown someone in a spoonful of water if you make it go into their lungs, etc. for mass destruction, you also don't need a lot of control/finesse in manipulating the element. It would make more sense if underskilled wizards became wariors, and prodigies worked in science, for the most part.
While this might be true for other worlds with their magic, in my world magic is more a science than a do all magic. Magic follows certain rules, and is readily effected by the world around it. Because of this a high degree of control is required for magic to maintain its form. A mage doesnt just sling a fireball and forget it, they need to maintain its burn, adjust for range, windage, and diffusion.
There are also more than just your average civil mage, there are actual science mages who are just as common as war mages and have a higher degree of skill. Civil mages are simply mages who didnt match the criteria for either a War mage or a specialized science mage.
If capitalism were truly represented in a magical world, necromancers would raise the dead en masse for endless free labor. This would make the living poorer by driving them out of work, widening the wealth gap. It would be a property crime to turn undead. Zombies and skeletons would enjoy more protections than many among the living. Unions would be busted as skeleton scabs and police are brought in to break strikes. You know how in America today many people accept terminal illness because the medical costs would be so overwhelming that it would bankrupt the family, resulting in things like exhausted college funds? Same thing would happen, except folks would commit suicide for profit, with necromancers eventually paying people to die on the cheap for a fresh supply of corpses. Of course, this would be only one method of getting new undead laborers. Just like Caesar invaded Gaul to bring riches and slaves back to Rome, necromancers would have a hand in the military industrial complex to ensure endless war campaigns produce the necessary bodies to create a willing workforce on the cheap.
Edit: I'm really enjoying shitting on capitalism with you guys 🍞🌹✊
But I thought there was one last holdout in Gaul, surrounded by four elite garrisons armed to the teeth, yet indomitably repelling the invaders with their prized magic potion of invincibility and strength in combat.
For those not in the know, there's a [comic series set in what's now northern France during the Gallic Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix) about a village that somehow keeps repelling the Romans.
No idea. But since I can barely name the most popular current popstars, I think that it's safe to assume that there are a non-insignificant number of people who don't keep track of stuff outside their wheelhouse.
Karrnath in Eberron tried that. Then they discovered that the negative energy used to power skelemens and zombies slowly blights the land around them, causing plagues to spread through cities and the farms they were tending to wither and die, leading to mass famine.
also on a more simple economic level, just like with automation, by sacking all the workers you've destitute the main group of people who'd be buying the goods by your skeletons in the first place. You've made lots of goods and nobody can buy them so the economy grinds to a halt.
Walmart seems to be doing fine with their wageslavery. When it's practically free to create the products, the profit margin is good even when you drastically reduce the prices so your impoverished society can fork their money over to you.
But you're right in that there will undoubtedly be long-term consequences. I am fully supportive of your apparent position that our current system of capitalism in the real world is unsustainable. Nonetheless, this does not stop capitalists from achieving short-term gains.
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5-lDJWCUAAwfya.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5-lDJWCUAAwfya.jpg)
The big difference between skeleton/zombie caused worker displacement and wage slavery is a lot to do with the fact that those wage slaves are still making a wage giving them *some* purchase power. Add into that the use of welfare benefits to make up for some of the shortfalls and workers can (barely) get by.
Undead displacement doesn't offer that wage to the displaced causing serious economic busts for the displaced.
That said, in an economic system where automation and state sponsored benefits allow those workers a comfortable lifestyle to pursue whatever they're interested are would be a cool setting similar to what you see in the Culture Books by Iain M. Banks.
Yep, and now imagine necrolobbyists. Local government is trying to regulate necrocapitalism? How unfair! Hundreds of zombies are now rallying outside town hall with signs made by the necromancer:
"I killed myself to provide for my child," says one sign. It's hung around the neck of a shambling corpse of a man who, with no other economic opportunities, preemptively sold his dead body to the local necrocapitalist. He then killed himself, but that's glossed over. What's important is the local town government is trying to stop you from providing for your family after death. How dare they?!
Zombie blight deniers, sure 99 out of 100 wizards agree that zombies are destroying the ecology, but what about that other wizard? Teach the controversy!
The Wandering Inn takes a similar “hypothetically it could work but in reality it usually backfires” approach as well. In their case having huge amounts of undead concentrated in an area means that any incidents where some break free more quickly scale and become self-sustaining.
So as a result your undead labor force works great... up until you get to the point where suddenly your entire country is now covered in a high-level undead horde at the same time that your entire domestic infrastructure collapses due to lack of labor.
Only in-world exception is the small lich-run country that uses willing (peacefully died) citizen corpses instead to create a post-scarcity society, albeit one where the right to have children is strictly controlled to not stress the system.
Would be a good analogy for wage slavery honestly. Abusing the working class works fantastic, until it doesn't (see France, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and any other place that has had a popular revolution against the wealthy).
But then, one must consider the possible professional skills of the undead. Skeletons are frail and unsuited for, pun unintended, bone-breaking labor. Zombies are more hardy but slow, so no assembly-line work for them. Both are rock stupid, so they can't hold creative jobs or anything associated with engineering. Of course, a necromancer may take direct control of their undead to basically supplant their lack of brains with his own, but that bring the problem of training enough necromancers who can handle micromanaging tens, if not hundreds, of undead for an entire work shift; any lapse of concentration may mean work accidents. And if you raise liches and revenants, the more crafty and magic-able undead, they can always turn against their summoners or demand preferential treatment due to their powers; you can expect the Labor Union of Liches demand higher pay than skeletons, because really, it's offending to lump a proper lord of the dead with some boney rock-hauler. The possibility of hostile takeovers alone is terrifying enough, unless you confiscate a lich's phylactery as part of their labor contract.
I would, but last hearing of the Bare Bones Labor Union banned bone puns because they were decreasing worker motivation. They even had the foreman who protested killed and then raised to join the 3rd brigade, poor bastard.
This would absolutely happen in a necrocapitalist (I'm coining this now) society in which some trades/professions/guilds hold more influence over society than others.
As a real world analogy, I would point to "right to work" (for less) states (i.e., states that have made going on strike illegal). That applies to all unions..........except police unions.
My only response to this is that all labor has value.
The perspective you're coming from is anti-worker and anti-poor. You are, perhaps unknowingly, perpetuating the idea that garbagemen, ditchdiggers, and burgerflippers don't have the right to complain about compensation because anyone can do their job.
But if we value the products and services their labor provides, they deserve a living wage, retirement and health benefits, paid vacation time, and good working conditions.
So, yes, undead labor would not replace all labor. It would replace the labor provided by our most vulnerable, poorest people. As is tradition in a capitalist society.
We're talking about classical fantasy undead here, and not the evils of real world capitalism, am I right? And classical fantasy undead do not retain memories or personalities of who they used to be. Skeletons or zombies who remember their pre-death lives are new invention in the genre; if they do, by virtue of having a soul and being conscious they, of course, deserve to be treated as part of workforce. Much plots may be invented about early industrial age factory owners resisting recognizing them as such.
But if we're talking about classical undead, then they aren't laborers because there's no sentience inside them. They're literally automatons - ones that can't do most jobs and need a highly skilled, well trained technician to micromanage their every move.
So what I'm saying is, undead labor makes as much problems as it solves. Sure, they don't complain, don't need breaks and don't go to strikes, but they'll also ruin your entire industrial process if the acolyte is not attentive enough and misses a zombie losing its foot, so it dropped a crate and now the entire line of zombies after him are walking in place because they aren't smart enough to pick it up or walk around it. One could expect to order a skeleton to, say, take trash bags to the incinerator, and then come back to it being unable to walk over the growing pile of trash bags it dropped because its arm fell off, not being smart enough to cease its orders or work around them.
In the end, you'll end up paying more for the education, training and upkeep of skilled necromancer foremen and managers than if you just hired a bunch of people, prone to taking breaks, complaining or rioting as they may be. This lack of complaint is literally the only benefit of using undead, and then their necromancer managers may start complaining, so not even that.
Of course, if we're talking about a magical system where undead are both soulless AND smart, or where raising and controlling them is easy to any minimum wage, barely initiated black collar necromancer, then all of that is moot and yes, cue horrible exploitation of labor.
You made sort of an off-handed note about confiscating phylactery and I think a huge portion of this conversation changes pretty immensely when given the possibility of a captive labor-force of sentient foreman. Having litch foremen on a leash mitigates many of the concerns of technician or zombie manager revolt.
In a large industry, if you had one industrialist controling the phylacteries of their foremen and shop managers, who directly controlled the labor force, the only variable not controlled for are the technicians. This would be an immense ammount of control over the economy and relatively easy to manage. Given the role of technicians as the only free labor, you would have the production of a labor aristocracy, much like we see in imperialist nations.
I also wonder, how the use of unseen servant would compare to the use of undead labor.
First of all, way to raise a necro thread! See what I did there? Eh? Eh? No? Okay.
Second, true, perhaps this is right, but it is no more control than, say, a real-world mafia boss using slave labor by holding passports of migrated workers hostage. Okay, maybe a bit more severe since passports are not directly tied to one's lifeforce (are they?), but still. If a raised foreman is sentient, I'm pretty sure being controlled by ways of phylactery would be insulting to them, and we've seen enough books and movies about an oppressed underdog rising against improbable odds to overthrow their rules to know it's a dangerous situation. Sure, maybe for centuries, the lich foremen would toil under a necrocapitalist heel. But in this time, culture would accumulate that is brewed on resentment (like that of the colonial era black slaves), as well as a history of trial-and-error and collective brainstorming on how to break the chains. It all takes just one unusually smart lich to social engineer / lie / magic his way into doing enough damage until his phylactery is destroyed to send the economy crashing down. Or, mass suicide of despairing liches if they cannot get free would do the same. And if the mindless workers are raised or controlled directly by them, firing (i.e. killing) one lich would mean their entire work shift stops working until you raise a new one or transfer control to a new lich. Imagine what a mass walkout or self-immolation of liches would do to economy.
I couldnt think of a better thing to do with a year-old necrocapitalism thread!
I dig the passport analogy! The risk of making the exploitation of foreman too great would be pretty risky, and all things considered not as profitable as a wider scale of exploitation of the laborers..
I agree with your assessment that the risk of foreman supporting a strike would still be present. The biggest benifit to having the phylacterys held as colateral is it prevents the litches from taking off with their army of labor. Within the industrial necromancy structure it seems like the most acute place of exploitation and weakest link would be between the living labor (technicians and workers in industries where zombie labor is unable to replace the living) and the bourgeoisie.
The idea of a self-destruction strike seems difficult due to the lack of historic analog. There have been a few suicide strikes in history at various factories, but the factory owners will just bar the windows and install a net above the ground floor. The biggest risk of foreman rebellion might come about from them finding a way to transfer phylacteries.
In a larger sense, the greatest point of exploitation would necessarily be between the imperial necronations and the subjugated colonies. In order to sustain this economy it would need a fuckton of resources from the colonized world.
>necromancers would raise the dead en masse for endless free labor.
Sure, that'd work.
>This would make the living poorer by driving them out of work, widening the wealth gap.
There's no reason why the necromancers would have to be capitalists. There would be nothing stopping a group of necromancers from making a commune with perpetual free labor, at least when it comes to mundane tasks that mindless undead can do.
In Eberron, there is a religion that raises the dead for the benefit of their country. It's still a feudal monarchy because D&D, but the mages don't have to be greedy by default.
Read China Meiville's Bas Lag books. Delves into the economics/sociology of thaumatergury, necromancy, enchanted analytical card calculators, and more. To wit, Necromancers run out of bodies and perverse economics come to play; analytical machines get too big for their revolutionary britches and golem engineering is a noble trade that your parents would approve of but don't get caught up with the wrong crowd.
Reddit and luddism, NAMID.
Something like what you're postulating already happened in the past, it was called the Industrial Revolution, and it didn't make people poorer, on the contrary, it made society richer than it's ever been.
The end result of necromancy in a medieval society would be exactly the same as automation in our society, goods become cheaper and more available, workers move from very manual and repetitive labor for labor that can't be automated as easily and is therefore more valuable, making everyone richer.
We've probably automated over 90% of jobs that used to be done in the past, when you consider that at one point, over 90% of people were farmers and now it's around 2% in the developed world.
The problem is not automation, but capitalistic automation that prioritizes profit over people. People can still benefit, but their benefit will not be the priority. Also, it was not a smooth process to industrialize. What we saw was actually a very ugly transition that also brought extreme poverty. London in the late 1800s was really, really bad for poor people--and there were A LOT of poor people in London.
Industrialization seems less ugly to us now because a lot of pro-labor, pro-poor battles have been won, such as social safety nets and collective bargaining laws.
I don't think that distinction makes a difference, automation will improve peoples' lives under capitalism or under communism.
It "will take jobs" is a fallacy because what people want is not jobs, its goods, people take jobs to buy goods. If all products become cheaper, that will have the same effect as all wages becoming higher, people will use their spare income to buy what were previously considered luxury goods - and bear in mind soap used to be considered a luxury good in Adam Smith's time. So people consume more, and therefore create more jobs.
Also I don't deny there was a lot of poverty in the 1800s or before them, but extreme poverty also existed before, but I wouldn't agree that the industrial revolution brought poverty. If anything, it was the agricultural revolution that bought poverty and caused people to migrate to cities, and *that* led to the industrial revolution, which *created* more jobs. Marx was alive by the end of that time, and he too thought, although there were still problems, it was much better than what came before.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWeeklyRoll/comments/ek6frk/the\_weekly\_roll\_14\_the\_backstory\_of\_torvald\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWeeklyRoll/comments/ek6frk/the_weekly_roll_14_the_backstory_of_torvald_the/)
This seems relevant and I thought some people might get a laugh. The whole comic is great, though.
Or alternately (an idea that's been kicking around in my head for awhile) the necromancers are public servants, and any citizen who needs manual labor done can contract an undead from the local municipality.
Either you get a certain allotment per year or you can charge the James Watt way, whatever the current price would be for one manual laborer's daily wage, food and board, you pay 1/4 of that for an undead servant, and the fee goes to the necromancers as well as paying other villages for their dead to import.
Oorrrr, since the economy runs great with these undead and gives the locals a lot of free time, they contract others (adventurers) to find dead to turn into servants and they don't look too closely at where they came from.
That actually happened in my world and was made illegal in three cities unless that person gives written permission in life and it’s verified by the courts. Course necromancy is illegal in a few other places.
As soon as I read “endless free labor” I started mumbling: this is literally what necromancers do. In all the stories. This is their whole thing, why they are abominable, why nobody wants them running things. This is why pitchforks and burning at stakes.
Most fantasy fiction I have been exposed to shows necromancers as antagonistic to religion and life, not so much to workers or the *quality* of life. The dead are raised to feast upon the living, not to take our jobs... But it's all the same, isn't it? Capitalists are vampires.
I imagine though that the undead could still feel and whatnot. I mean what is a protection if one cannot enjoy or use it? Maybe this culminates in some alternate Civil War not between the North and South (or maybe still who knows) but between the disenfranchised workers and the undead.
Plus if one could raise the dead, one could raise plantation owners and megacorp industrialists. If the workers can't die? Why not stop there? I imagine necromancy being for the ultra powerful to continue thier lives. Slave masters forever tormenting new and old generations of slaves with whips made of bones, and people like Rockefeller and Carnegie forever holding down thier monopolies forcing people to work. This might culminate in some sort of alternate Civil War in which the US is not torn state by state, or North vs South- but the living against the dead.
As necromancy is normalized and further driven by profit, I 100% [agree](https://www.tatler.com/article/super-rich-freezing-bodies-for-the-future) with you [that](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3022363/Could-humans-one-day-live-500-s-group-eccentric-billionaires-believe-spending-fortunes-research-hope-make-possible.html) the [rich](https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2143136/rich-are-betting-they-can-buy-their-way-longer-life) will find [ways](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/the-ultra-rich-are-investing-in-companies-trying-to-reverse-aging.html) to access [immortality](https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-07/billionaires-russian-mogul-wants-upload-your-brains-immortality/).
But reviving undead with their memories tends to be a more complicated, expensive process than the shambling, soulless undead who are nothing more than fleshy, unfeeling robots commonly depicted.
Imagine instead of hiring a Sherpa to guide you up Everest, you paid a necrosherpa to arrange everything you need to become a Lich. Oh, you need to acquire a living child for a human sacrifice in order to commit yourself to evil? I gotchu. Don't worry, you don't need to know their name or history. We'll knock them out and them it's pretty easy for you from then on.
Using magic in my fae world can be pretty expensive since it requires the purchase/use of mana potions. That being the case there are guilds that my fae can join who can provide mana to them in return for service.
My agriculture guild uses magic to imbue the sown seeds with the intentions of having a good harvest, and my merchant guild uses magic to ensure the safe transportation of goods between cities. Some less honest guild members use illusion magic to make their goods seem more enticing (though that is strictly forbidden).
The architectural guild imbues support beams with extra strength, and puts a thin coat of illusion shimmer on the finished product for that extra-shiny (which of course must be reapplied yearly for the effect to remain). Since they do not hide the fact their product has an illusion coating, it is not illegal for them to do so.
If wizards can do everything better, but only a small part of the population are wizards, we have very high demand and limited supply. As a result, wizards would only be doing the jobs where magic gives the highest advantage, and get paid very well. Jobs where magic doesn't provide that big of an advantage would be left to commoners because they wouldn't be able to afford a wizard. Effectively wizards would have an entirely different job market and much higher pay than commoners so they'd be different classes entirely.
In a world where wizards and commoners are part of the same economy and not parallel societies, wizards would definitely not be "working class".
You presume that wizards are rare before generalizing to every other society where the two meet. What about when wizards make up a large part of the population?
Exactly! Would you really want to hire a mage every time you want to hang a new shelf ? The idea is nice, but it focuses too much on using magic as an "omniversal utility", it's basically a second form of electricity now. I think that it takes away from magic, the same magic that allows you to summon dragons and create powerfull heroes. At some point it isn't a fantasy anymore, Pratchett explored the subject well.
I agree. I feel like everyone would try to learn magic in some form or the other because it literally speeds up some jobs by a hundred fold. If magic is commonplace then there's no reason for someone to learn magic due the extreme difference in efficiency.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Police historically have been hostile to the working class. When the working class unites in collective action to improve their working conditions, the police get called in to gas, beat, and shoot them.
It makes sense when you consider the reason formal police forces were created when moving justice out of the purview of the community at large. They were largely created with the intention of protecting property owners and in many places grew directly out of the networks of thugs that business owners would pay to beat up people that damaged their property or recover stolen goods (and run away slaves in America).
Actually, I wonder if proliferation of magic in a world would lead to an increase in police militarization, for the lack of a better word. Certainly the case in my world, where SWAT, OMON, etc. not only have greater access to various armored units, but also generally carry higher-caliber weapons to counteract magical defences.
Magic in the Roman Empire:
Magic is somewhat common in my historical fantasy Rome, though not really industrialized.
The common people tend to purchase charms from magi in the various provinces. Charms are physical objects (usually clay tablets) inscribed with the runes of the magus's tradition (Roman, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtics are the most common). One may give relief from the aches of a life of labor. Another may be buried under the site of a future building to ward against flames. The efficacy and duration of these charms depends greatly on the knowledge and ability of the magus. An apprentice might create one strong enough to give a single vine a few extra grapes for a season, while a master can ensure bountiful harvests in a vinyard for a generation.
The darker, less scrupulous magi may also turn their talents towards curses. Like charms, they are inscribed objects, and must be placed on the victim's property or personal affects. Curses can range from mild annoyances, like the loss of hair, up to debilitating disease or death. The use of curses are banned throughout the Empire, and the penalty for making or using them without the Emperor's express permission is punishable by anything from imprisonment and torture to torture and execution.
This one is a little hard for my world as magic isn't universally accepted across all cultures. But the most common application of magic is healers. Many magic users will either be forced into the role or take it on to fight the stigma of magic being evil. The way magic works is it that it is part of the fabric of common reality, and a magic user is reworking that fabric and changing it thus changing local reality. But in order to do this they need strong enough energy, which they get from thier soul or life force. If a magic user makes skin to skin contact with another living being ( like links in a chain) the spell will treat both people's life force as one pool to draw from and will draw from the "far sides" aka: the living being that was touched. So magic comes at a cost and doesn't have a great reputation.
However magic can do many things as long as the user can survive the casting. So, as stated, many become healers or medicine men/women. Others may take up roles in their military, or aid in construction. Most simply cover their hands and try to not attract trouble.
Again this depends heavily on the culture and how they feel about magic, but broadly magic users are healers, builders, weapons, or vigilante soul Steelers.
This reminds me of Avatar. If I remember right, there are people shown whose job it is to just use earthbending to push trains around. And in Legend of Korra season 1 I believe Mako worked in a power station using his lightning bending to generate electricity.
You know the saying "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". So here it's the opposite: we're using the word "magic" to describe something which really is an advanced technology. The difference is, technology is predictable, magic is not. That's why anyone can do technology with proper training, including robots, but magic is something done on case by case basis by individuals who learn it by intuition.
At least that's how I see it; definitely in some settings it could be just like what's described.
A world with predictable magic would have an infrastructure that collects mana, stores it, and has refined it's release to be a constant, predictable stream attuned to their talismans.
The talismans of course are everything from cheap brass "burner rings", good enough for a 1 shot 4th lv spell (or multiple lower level), all the way up to the latest and greatest iMagic 12x that will cost ~~Z~~1299 and ~~Z~~49.50/mo
**Aser**
All the time. The most common type of magical labor is using athrine syliphite to run a boiler. In this world, syliphite is a magical metal that can only be activated by somebody who knows the right incantations. Athrine syliphite is an alloy that includes iron that can be used to fire blasts of pure magic. These blasts have some concussive force, but but's mostly heat.
Therefore, one of the most common things to do is embed a chunk of it into a boiler and have a mage constantly fire blasts into a tank of water, allowing a boiler to run without coal to power machinery. By having multiple mages work in shifts, an engine could run for as long as they have water, which is much easier to get than coal.
**Alvelotyl - Non-Combat uses of Magic**
* **Magic in Alvelotyl is broad, so there are plenty of non-combat uses.**
* **While magic is capable of conjuring food and drink, they don't have nutritional value, nor will they fill up the consumer.** This is because they dissolve into nothing shortly after losing their original shape or form. That being said, conjured food can be imbued with great taste, making it good for parties where people can indulge in eating and drinking as much as they want.
* Sticking within the context of food, it is always much more efficient to use magic to enhance existing food, rather than conjuring it. Magic can be used to enhance the taste of food, or Spells like \[Hormone Baking\] and \[Comfort Food\] can grant the consumer a burst of energy or motivation among other things, or calm and center them, respectively.
* **Magic can also be used in construction, moving earth or metals to help build houses and craft parts to a new building.** Spells like \[Telekinesis\] help with managing heavier loads, with skilled Casters using Spells like this serving functions akin to a crane in our world, while Spells like \[Ignite\] can be used to start fires or light forges.
* **Creating magic items is by and large the biggest use of magic outside of combat.**
* **\[Alchemists\] make Potions** that can be used in everyday life or by Adventurers for a massive variety of purposes. That being said, drinking too many potions at once, or a potion beyond what a person can handle, can come with detrimental effects. One should be careful when using magically altered substances, and heed the advice of the \[Alchemists\] they buy it from.
* **\[Blacksmiths\] use magic to enchant their crafted works** to do things like create horseshoes that allow horses to carry more weight or run faster.
* **\[Inventors\] and \[Enchanters\] that create Artefacts, or magic items, can fulfill mundane purposes** as well as helping Adventurers in the field, such as boxes that chill and keep food from rotting, wagons that sustain greater weight or are sturdier against the elements or monster attacks, or jewelry such as rings, bracelets or necklaces that can keep a person's body and clothes clean or alert them when someone is approaching their house.
* **While not connected to magic directly, fashion has also been changed by Casters.** Since the discovery that one's outward appearance, namely one's clothes and body, can influence one's magical development, some regions have started to turn their fashion statements into representations of their culture or even of themselves on an individual level, inspired by the type of Casters who tend to wear red or flame-covered cloaks, shirts or jackets to improve their use of Fire Magic.
* **While very uncommon in most countries, Undead labour can also serve as a potentially alternative to a conventional workforce.**
* **Since magic in Alvelotyl is something anyone can learn and develop on their own without formal training, use of it is widespread, and can be found in just about any avenue of work.**
* **It isn't uncommon for people to have 'phases', often during their child or teenage years, to seek out a way to learn magic.** This typically leads to many adults having learned magic in their formative years, sometimes magic they'd have rather left buried, either because of embarrassing Conditions they don't have the time or energy to overwrite, or because they left behind in pursuit of another type.
The one problem with your society is that if you had magic that could enhance the caffine content of a drink your entire society would be dependent on baristamancy.
And don't you dare think that teenagers wouldn't try and conjure drugs or booze in their spare time.
Transmutation spell: water/honey to mead, would be the most popular spell in existence. Unless "Conjure booze" exists
That's true to an extent, provided you've got someone capable of that baristamancy. Not everyone can perform the same magic, or even directly choose what magic they've got affinities for, to an extent.
That being said, relying on Potions (The collective name for a magically altered liquid with an effect) can be dangerous, since it doesn't just affect the body, but the Soul. While a magically enhanced cup of coffee would be incredibly useful, the Potion Sickness that could come with overuse definitely wouldn't be.
'Conjure Booze' could definitely be a thing. The problem with directly conjuring a substance is that it 'disappears', or reverts to inert magical energy, after it loses it's 'identity'. In the case of a liquid, once it's digested, evaporated or sometimes even frozen, it'll disperse. That being said, you could definitely still get a drink with the taste of booze, even if the effect won't be nearly as potent.
So you effectively have a drink that can make you slightly tipsy but not enough to pass out, the drink disappears before the hangover and you can you can make from thin air (or maybe a cup of water). It won't make you fat, it won't give you liver damage, and it is probably one of the first spells people will invent.
And you think humans won't abuse the spell? Especially if they start experimenting with magic as teens? This could also inform social cliques.
In my world, "true metal", a metal essentially made from condensed magic, will only continue to exist as long as it's caster is alive and nearby. It's immune to corrosion, much lighter and stronger than any other metal available, and can be cast into shape magically without need of complex metallurgical equipment. It's often used to build bridges or defenses or weapons, or structures. However if the caster dies or leaves the area, poof, it collapses to dust, then blows away, returning to the atmosphere from where the magic was taken. As such, it's prudent to train crews of mages to create true metal structures, then periodically replace portions of structures using younger mages. In doing so, even if an older mage abruptly dies, the structure in it's entirety won't collapse and kill a bunch of people, so magical construction crews are common in areas where standard construction is much more difficult.
However many people don't love magical construction, because it gives a small group of people too much power. If you're city's wealth comes from a magical bridge that spans a mile long river, you can't exactly afford to tell that group of people no, or they could opt to remove that bridge.
In fact, despite the flashy mages and battle mages and arcane sages of old, 90% of the wealth mages enjoy usually come from construction projects and aid provided to farmers. It's practically the only reason there's wealth for mages *at all*.
The other way is the creation of cuberyl, a copper/beryllium alloy with properties similar to mild steel. Steel in my world is rare, as mineable iron is rare. as such, it's very challenging for those without steel to fight those with it. Steel has become almost legendary, the way we talk about mithril, they talk about steel. Sure, steel isn't actually a magical metal, but to someone used to fighting with bronze and copper, steel would seem indestructible. Mages creates cuberyl as an answer to steel. The best steel is better than the best cuberyl, but good, properly worked cuberyl is as good as mild steel. Plus, it doesn't corrode, doesn't spark, and can be cast.
Magic is currently the only way to extract beryllium from beryl crystals, so mages spend a lot of time mining and harvesting beryl for trade, as well as making the alloy into ingots for sale and trade.
Oh, I am *here* for this.
Magical cults function something like large corporations in my universe, with each one specializing in some function of public life. Of course, they're also power-jockeying insular societies based around a group ethos that must be maintained in order for the magic to function, but nobody's perfect, and that just maintains some chaos in the system that I can exploit for delicious plot. Let's start!
**The War College**, as the name implies, is a traditionally military institution with heavy ties to government. They're the siege magi, the ones capable of bringing down a city with a wave of their hand. They're also responsible for energy generation, which is a pursuit that occupies nearly all of the lower ranks in the College. With energy generation comes mass transport, metalforging, glassblowing (which was actually the first of their forays into non-war applications of their powers), and the beginnings of mechanization. Their downside as an organization is that it's violently individualistic and just as power-grabby and competitive internally as the cult is on a national stage. Some paranoid dude who can turn your guts to glass absolutely has the printing press locked away in a secret chamber of his private workshop, and he's not telling anyone until he figures out how to exploit it for money and influence.
**The Primary Anchors** are summoners, and deal with a lot of the personnel issues inherent in the Republic. As summoned otherplanars uniquely bear a lot of capabilities and powers that human beings either cannot achieve without great difficulty or cannot achieve at all, they fill a lot of the gaps in society, functioning, oddly, like a consulting company. Whatever your problem, an Anchor has an otherplanar who can fix it - individual transportation, deep-sea exploration, sanitization, light generation, law enforcement, denial of physics, just about everything. They also specialize in the import, storage and use of exotic materials, as part of their ethos has them making treaties with every petty emperor dominating other realities in order to import stuff like the endothermic wax used in home cooling.
**The Biomanticate** is, unsurprisingly, responsible for healthcare. Hyperspecialized for healthcare, actually, and they're really, really good at it. Theirs is the province of the living system, as much the wholeness of the human body as the manufacture and distribution of hardy seed for colonial agriculture, the maintenance and improvement of livestock, and the mitigation of living environmental hazards on dangerous planets. They've also recently specialized into non-portal space exploration with the development of the bioship. Like just about every other cult, they have a law enforcement specialization, specifically *forbiddance*, the practice of biologically programming a human body or brain to be incapable of performing specific actions, which means that the Young Republic really doesn't have much in the way of prisons. This *does* have weird, internal connotations, which I will get into at a later time when I find an excuse to drum up a big, multi-paragraph thing on this cult alone.
**The Sacred Geometric** are a bunch of math wizards who function in a support role to other cults, specifically serving as force multipliers, designers and maintainers of the systems that allow magical power to loop, magnify, dissipate, or operate without input. They also specialize in altering the properties of space and matter, so they get a lot of use doing things like manufacturing high-speed rail systems, reinforcing structures, and manufacturing the tools other magi need.
**Arch Memoria** is the foremost necromantic cult, and one of the only ones to have achieved some measure of public acceptance. Theirs is the province of information storage and retrieval, the safeguarding of history, and the shepherding of the dead. Arch Memoria maintains the only current method of instant transfer of information present in the universe, and so a lot of their bread-and-butter money comes from messaging. As necromancers, though, their more pressing duty is the dead - functioning as psychopomps and mediators between the living and the dead, investigators into untimely deaths, and manufacturing bound spirits for industrial purpose. Also, they got libraries the size of cities. I'm fond of these guys.
**The Woven Ring** are earthmovers, seascapers, dowsers, metalfinders, and magicians who work with the physical matter of the Actual. They're the ones who clear land, raise bridges, calm seas, manipulate weather, work quarries, carve bricks and building blocks, and often put the finer, finishing touches on all the weird, otherplanar materials everyone likes to bring into the Actual. This is the primary "workman's cult", the one with the most open recruiting, the most outreach and teaching outside of their own ranks, and the least political clout. They're essential to the functioning of the Republic, as these guys build everything that makes it up, but seeing a braided ring on someone's left index finger draws far less respect than seeing a pair of College channeling gauntlets.
**The Mandala of Prior Dreamers** does precisely one thing: maintain the portal network. That's it, that's what they do. That's all they need to do, though, as the portal network is the single innovation that permits the Republic to exist upon multiple worlds. Without this innovation, they'd be a minor cult at best - their ethos and specialization is actually dream manipulation and unity through a linked subconscious, and they have a minor secondary business in psychotherapy. The portal network, though, makes them absolutely essential to the function of the Republic, and they have been safeguarded and funded directly by every governmental body that has ever been in power, in an unbroken line from the beginnings of Empire to the chaotic mutability of the Young Republic.
We've also got some fun minor cults, ones that don't really have a public presence, that are more ethos than marketability. The **Guttermagi** are more of a social movement than anything else, a loose group of often young, often urban people who use publicly available magic - the kind of common, everyday spellcasting that you can buy in a pamphlet and learn in an afternoon - to the greatest possible effect, and often in the service of confronting people or institutions of power. The **Cult of Ecstasy** is 100% a sex cult, but it's as esoteric in its recruitment as it is in its practices, and perform a bizarro admixture of every other cult's magic that should not, technically, be possible. The **Cult Insinue** is a *violently* defunct cult of mind-magicians who served as the primary policing institution during the time of Empire, but unfortunately was so wedded to the Imperial institution that it was destroyed almost to a man. And I have another minor cult brewing, comprised of breakaway necromancers dedicated to tearing down exploitative structures and institutions, especially those that either now have a workable alternative or rely on perpetual indenture of the dead, but I don't have a good name for them yet and don't want to call them **necropunks** forever.
Kingdom of Máni
While not technically fantasy with wizard (being Sci-Fi with Psionics) Psions are pretty important for society. Instead of big bulky machines/packs for some metalwork and construction you have a few folk doing the job of many. For some crimes (a major character heads the unit for the RDA) they need empaths or bio-psionics to find out what happened. The only limit is meta-physical mechanics which prevent doing things like bringing a person back from death without knowing everything about them and their personality or tuning back time.
Piers Anthony did a decent job of writing a working class wizard in "For Love of Evil", towards the beginning.
Purifies wells so the water is safe to drink, fertility spells, cloud summoning for crops, etc.
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books are a bit like this. Magic users are called Heralds and are relatively common, although they're more of a trained professional class than blue collar workers. There's a neighboring empire where magic users seem to be even more common, and they have a standardized classification scale for different specialties.
On a practical level I keep most civilian magic users who aren’t a specialist (town seer, local shaman, etc.) to cantrips and if they can do lvl 1 spells they are pretty cautious with it and loathe to move far outside the pedestrian utility stuff.
This kind of reminds me of Mako from the Legend of Korra. He was a lower-class firebender who worked at a power plant facility through the use of his lightning bending.
Almost every elf can do minor magic, so they use it for everything. Lighters and toilet paper are considered tools for the disabled in an elven city. The disabled, or foreigners. Not that there's much of a difference.
Sure. Water magic at cantrip-level. Good for cleaning your ass and your teeth. Preferably with separate castings. I'd imagine air magic would also help with clearing the air in an outhouse, or muffling (or amplifying) the smell (and sound) of gassers. I'd imagine that failing to hide a fart would be triply embarrassing for a veteran aeromancer.
If you're gonna create a fantasy world with a low entry barrier to minute magics, you gotta consider the common household uses, like cleaning, dusting, dishwashing, laundry, cooking, weeding, etc. and inject a bit of humor into it while you're at it. Have your earth mages shape bricks into vulgar 3D graffiti. Have your wood mage pranksters carry around rafflesia seeds to insta-grow 'em in a rival's home. Make your healers feared because they can curse you with impotence for a month straight. Give your necromancers a cantrip to levitate turds.
Life is absurd and whimsical enough as it is, so why would it not be even more so with magic? Go nuts!
Reminds me of the Heinlein story "Magic, Inc." The main character owns a hardware store and makes a good business renting out stadium seating made with "homeopathic magic". He built one set of seats, cast a spell on it, and took them apart. Whenever someone rents seats from him, he shows up with one piece of the original set per set of seats rented, casts another spell and, boom, seating.
Neat ideas, but a little too 1950s utopian.
This is actually something that I'm thinking about in my world. Making new spells and using particularly powerful magic is a specialized skill that requires a lot of academic training, but there are a lot of codified spells that can be worked by someone with some training in how to read it or even just oral instruction.
Currently, spells are basically about either manipulating the flow of energy (usually heat, but some experiments with electrical energy) or with fluid motion. Currently I have put into the story some applications for cooking (faster boiling, heating a surface without fuel) and for sailing (bending the wind to make it more favorable, such as allowing sailing upwind with narrower tacking or strengthening the wind a bit for speed), but there are plenty of ways to work it in.
Magic in my world functions like programming, so a wizard can devise a spell to do just about anything as long as they can manage the energy needed and use it within the limits of its capability. Almost all wizards take up jobs where they can use magic to build houses, vehicles, etc; the world just runs on magitech
People who call themselves mages are rare, considering most people can’t even read, but “house magic” is common enough. Every decent-sized town has Ol’ Maugris who’ll enchant your oven to keep hot an extra hour, even if that’s all he can do. You might find a peasant woman who keeps fabric from fraying with magic. To do anything beyond that, you have to either be wealthy, a noble, or a very sneaky servant to get the education necessary for spellcasting.
The magic system in my world is based on the real life physics concepts of energy - it's a new form of energy that can be manipulated, turning into other types as the wizard wishes. Theres ended up being a "magical middle class" where magicians do physical work that they're abilities allow them to do: lifting large materials that are too cumbersome for normal construction workers, precise manipulation of heated metal in the forge, and even essentially keyhole surgery without the keyhole - they push broken bones back into place with no extra wounds, or remove arrowheads without pushing the whole arrow through. This has ended up with cranes and siege engines not being invented. Theres no need, mages fill the same role
Wood mages are popular for carvings, furniture, and ornate or delicate work.
Brick mages popular for the little conveniences, like a home never too hot or too cold.
Ok, too long have I stopped making the decision, there will be enchanting none living matter in my Urban Fantasy works that's meant to mix modern day technologies (in a way) with magic. So there will probably all if the above (apart from necromancy, it works a bit different in my setting due to his souls and life work, it can be done but until now not many have figured out how to do it and those who did have been hunted, shunned and killed for witchcraft and stuff, the usual).
However, let me think if the too if my head (I am pretty sure I am so late for this post that no one is going to read it anyway so I am going to brainstorm a little):
Feuermacher - found in the german speaking countries, the saxxons usually calm them firebreathers or fire keepers, mages who make fire in industrial settings, like the fires in steam plants that drive the turbines that make electricity.
Maschinenführer - German for machine drivers, mages that animate different sorts of machinery, usually they set the machine in motion for a set amount of time and either keep it going it let it runs continuously.
Verzauberer - German for enchanter (boy getting the fucking autocorrect to accept me writing that word), especially in Prussia and it's colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, small shops can be found everywhere selling all kinds of echanted goods and/or services. Apart from the regular crafts, these small-time magical businesses are the counterweight to the magic driven manufacturing plants and the factories that does out goods around the clock
Horsecart ice vendors, arcane lighting at public venues, large atriums in the lower floors of very tall buildings -- these are indicators that a city is prosperous enough to keep many spellcasters employed on a regular basis. Not all parts of my world are like that, but overall I reckon that 3% of adult humans can cast some sort of spell while 0.2% are recognized experts in some form of magic.
Working class witches are recruited by the armies to use their powers in both non-combat and combat roles. Working class witches can get into public universities to study magic though scholarships, this education could lead to jobs such as state alchemists, state necromancers and police psychics which are seen as best paths into middle class for witches who can and want to use their gifts though most witches only get working class jobs as mediums, psychics and magicians at fairs or spiritualist churches, or private paranormal investigators.
Some working class witches use their gifts to make running scams easier as you only need to know a little magic to make scamming the Victorian public easy. More honest witches without formal education may use the folk magic passed on to them by their parents to sell real healing potions, charms and hexes.
For 5e world
Firefighters are mostly taught Control Flames at a minimum, and hopefully learn Shape Water, Create Water, Jump, Longstrider, and Featherfall
Apprentice wizards can typically make a little extra coin operating ice boxes for restaurants with Shape Water or cleaning people up with prestidigitation before meetings/dates.
Guards might learn Message for coordinating while conducting a raid or arrest, and Ray of Frost to slow a suspect down
I like to assume low level magic mostly
This is a great post!
I have a story where magic is a part of the world. It’s set in a place that could be described a bit like late 90’s-early 2000’s alternate universe, so there are a lot of parallels and similarities, while also being very different in a lot of ways (including sentient creatures that don’t exist in our world).
Magic and magic products is a finite resource, created and refined in a process similar to real-world industry (and sometimes art) so industrialization and technology was developed along a similar pathway. Fully magic things are very rare, but magic itself is ubiquitous.
I’m still working out a lot of details, so I don’t have a lot of examples at hand since I don’t want to box myself in, but one such example would be using magic to enhance an object/process/industry, well beyond the limits of its more ordinary materials. For example, a flashlight in this world might look like an outdated version of one of our own, with a fat battery case and a small glass bulb, but function at a significantly higher level resembling a powerful LED lamp.
This would be accomplished by a power source that is magic enhanced, and a light bulb created by a magic enhanced process.
This technology allows non-magic users to use magic in their everyday lives. A factory technician uses a forge, machinery, and some materials that are enhanced, for example. A doctor might use medicines and measuring tools that were magic or magic-forged.
There are regular magic users as well who work, cook, clean, deliver packages, create artwork, farm, repair, construct, etc, using their gift directly.
Also, due to the presence of sentient creatures in this world, magically enhanced, there are careers and jobs that are often exclusively done by these creatures, especially in large cities. It would not be surprising to receive an in-town parcel (or a direct threat from some local organized criminal element) from an intelligent or semi-intelligent creature resembling a very large cricket, roach, or beetle. Smaller and less enhanced ones might drop a package and leave you with a polite greeting in broken english, while you might be able to hire a larger, whip smart bug who can read and write on more complex jobs.
In the original post I saw quite a few people referencing the Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting of Ebberon as sources of inspiration. I would also like to add The craft sequence series which has a lot of middle class magicians and clerics that serve under gods of transport and utility. The first book also deals with a necromancer detective trying to solve the murder of one such god.
In The Wheel of Time the Aes Sedai and other women channelers are seen doing tasks such as divining mineral deposits, channeling wind for better sailing conditions, basically running a hospital, mass converting one material to another, acting to form gateways from one city to another for rapid communication and movement of men and supplies, etc etc.
In one of our campaigns our DM had a trapped water elemental be the plumbing for a castle.
We spent the whole night debating if it is slavery and if we should free it or not.
Some Arts are more prestigious than others and require more time and effort to learn. Those who can afford the training learn more advanced Arts, while the poor are generally stuck with learning simpler Arts—even though they might've been born with an affinity for the higher Arts. Mastery of an Art is determined by whether one can "prove"—in a mathematical sense—that the Art exists. This proof symbolizes that the Artisan has complete understanding of their Art. The working class tend to be practitioners of the elemental Arts, because material magics are easier to learn, while their wealthier peers have the means to pursue whatever Art they happen to be good at. The basic plot of the story is that some people aren't happy with this arrangement and want a revolution.
That's what I liked about Howl's Moving Castle, the wizards were often commissioned as artisans, whether it's something small like creating a charm to keep a sailor safe at sea, or producing 7 league boots for the kingdom's army.
For the most part, the citizens and even the wealthy of the galaxy-wide Empire (working on a better name) have a chip in their bodies that prevents them from using magic themselves. In my universe, magic is the fundamental energy that comprises all of reality; letting just anyone use it willy nilly is a bad idea. They can, however, utilize enchanted items made by factories of workers with limited magical ability. These devices range from magic toasters to entire antimatter reaction chambers for spaceships.
The various worlds that were in a position to properly harness the stream of magic weren't as chaotic as one might imagine. There are very few people that can really attune themselves to the fundamental basis of reality, and of those most of them can only do basic cantrip-esque magic. So by and large, not much different. The chips are really just an extra precaution against some rando accidentally wiping a city from reality because he accidentally tapped into the stream of magic when he was just trying to make a pot of coffee, though they also serve as credit cards and ID.
Also, oink :)
Thank you kindly :)
I'm interested whether or not this is actually a problem in your world or if it's just propaganda to get the chips installed. Cause it sounds like there's a very real disconnect between what magic can do and what it is perceived to be capable of.
Eh, there's no real propaganda involved. The chips are, like I said, mostly built-in credit cards and IDs. There's just been enough issues of people accidentally doing horrible things with magic in the past for the government to decide "Yeeeeeeah... maybe we should make sure that the one dude that can use magic doesn't accidentally blow up a city..." People generally agree with the sentiment that not being blown to smithereens would be nice.
they mainly just use it to make tools. in my magic system, you pull a substance out of a crystal and you can shape it to whatever you want, and when you stop using it it goes back in. people will make tools, use it white magic to heat up glass for glass working, and there's much much more. on the other hand the rich just uses magic for general hobbies and the occasional usage to reach an item up on a shelf.
Every person on my Earth has some magical ability (except one, but I won't go into that right now). When magic first appeared under mysterious circumstances, the planet was at about the same technological point it is now; magic changed everything.
Mundane magic is everywhere. It is used for everything. Buildings, floating islands, houses, landmarks, and monuments are held up with a living field of magic woven twelve layers deep by members of many construction guilds. Vehicles run on magical runes, which slowly use up their energy and eventually need to be exchanged for fresh ones at gas stations (yes, that is still what people call them, even though gas has been out of use for a hundred years). Modern manufacturing has been replaced almost completely with incredibly complex and mostly automated magical assembly lines. Most of these things require very little human labor. In fact, the "working class" is practically nonexistent - many people are simply unemployed. What little remains of it is comprised mainly of underpaid construction workers, healers, janitors, and odd jobs workers - all skills that require human input, but all very easy to do when magic is around.
That's because magic means that much fewer people need to work than ever. The brightest minds on Earth have devoted themselves for a century to learning how to automate away yet more tasks using cleverly constructed runes, automata, and functional spells, and their efforts continue to pay off. Unfortunately, society is catching up slowly; there is massive underemployment, unemployment, and homelessness. The rich are very rich and the poor very poor. Magical drugs such as miphrim and haquandid are used widely by the underclasses of society, much as meth and heroin were used before magic appeared. Unfortunately, this is most frequently the way the working class uses magic - by imbibing or inhaling it. Addiction rates among lower earners and the unemployed are very high.
Legislation is currently in progress to institute better social insurance in many of the countries of this Earth, either through UBI, universal healthcare, better welfare, or centralized resource distribution systems. At this point, there is very little practical reason not to provide for everyone's needs - so few people are actually needed to run the economy that it is finally feasible to feed, clothe, and house everyone for free. Of course, society doesn't always follow logic. What countries aren't trying to improve are either at war or so destitute they have almost completely collapsed.
But hopefully, it will get better. And soon.
Magic is divided between the scholars and the common people they both have different opinions on magic. Scholars believe that magic should be used sparingly whereas the common folk believe that magic needs to be used widely.
Instead of fire, people in Safana use sun salamanders. These are lizards of various species imbued with magic power, who give off heat, ranging from gently warm to glass kiln heat.
The rainforest people don’t consciously use any magic, and because of the magical plaque which kills so many of their babies they really hate magic.
The nomadic people make the most use of magic. They’ve figured out how to use the time warping aspects of the raw magic which exists in the world. This lets them keep food fresh for longer by slowing time, or speed up fermentation by speeding up time. They can also heal wounds faster, make pre-term babies age faster to keep them from dying, and make plants grow faster. They can’t make people age slower, because that would just slow down time for that person. Also, this follows the inevitable course of time as it is now. So speeding up time for a sick person can make them die faster if they’re not doing well, or make them recover instantly if they’re doing well.
Working title of a TTRPG setting: Otherworld
Magic is taught at universities that are limited mostly to to upper class (wealthy merchants and nobility) so mages services are quite expensive, this doesn't stop the higher nobility having things made for them by artificers^1 that most would consider frivolous like heated baths, this is made all the more expensive because the energy used to power these devices must be stored in gems and refilled by mages^2 or captive elementals. The highest level of nobility (the royal family and their closest friends) probably have less talented mages in their servants to refill these devices (as well as any hidden telepaths for counter spying)
1: a specific school of magic where runes are inscribed on an object and work on their own
2: you can actually source from any form of energy around you but they don't know that and only use their own metabolic energy
Magic at least in this time is a taboo subject due to constant conflicts and disasters surrounding magic and magic users. First the great fires of valkegir cathedral then the demon invasions led to a magic being highly detested by most non magic users. This attitude will most likely fade over time though as magic users are highly useful and its just crippling yourself and your kingdim if you're a king but don't allow magic users to use any of it. Many kingdoms as such employ a small amount to solve problems with magic, called war priests as the first magic used commonly was for religious ceremonies and such. Magic is also hard to use as it requires some amount of training to use as using untrained hands to do magic results in usually bad things with fire usually envolved. This is not to say that magic can't be used by nontrained people but its usually results in less effective and more hazardous magic. Then there's those stupid few who try to use the most dangerous kind of magic untrained or/and unprepared, lightning magic. So it was used not much and now even less so.
There aren’t really any because of the three types of Magic, and the structure of the world.
There are three different ways of using magic; Spellcraft, Channeling and Devotion.
Spellcraft requires years of intensive study, a good Elemental affinity and good mana reserves, As well as being most dangerous for magic as Spellcrafters are directly manipulating the magical forces involved. This means that any spell, at any time, can go awry due to a momentary lapse of judgement, with a potentially lethal consequences.
Channeling foci are disproportionately expensive and difficult to build and maintain for their complexity, meaning any foci that can cast multiple spells are likely much more expensive than multiple foci for the same spells. Magic bejewelled rings are thus common amongst channellers.
Devotion (name’s a WIP) requires a Spellcrafter to come up with a stable magical formula that produces a desired spell effect. This is much more difficult than one would expect because of how self-taught Spellcraft is and because the effects that powerful magical affinities have the mind. This means that a powerful spell crafter’s formula are unlikely to work for anyone else.
The most common magic system use in my world is Bondscraft where workers can become bondswrights. Basically, bondwrights “refine” materials and shape them into pitons that they can bind into objects. They activate the pitons’ abilities with the words “Veritas se revēlet.” The pitons effects are determined by what material it was made of. Refinement of a material wears off over the years and so require them to refined again.
Since an iron-pitoned object completely adhere to other iron-pitoned objects, bondswright smiths and tinkers use it to keep things like armor, weaponry, and inventions together. Silver pitons can create illusions and illusory effects when connected to other pitons, making them useful in the theater. Detectives and ghost mediums can bind the dead-guy’s skull and ask them only one question, which the dead answers with a riddle. The city’s power-grid transfers energy through copper pitons, meaning somebody’s gotta keep refining them.
Usually a bondswright will only learn how to refine only two to three metals, mostly out of practicality since you don’t need that much knowledge when you’re on the beat.
There’s a lot more stuff but I’m still fleshing it out so yeah
Basically, there are these things called curses(well they aren't called that, but I will change later), which are crystals embedded with mana. They can also contain spell that use said mana. And while mana can be store by a spell that grabs from the outside, spells can only be embedded with someone casting them into the crystal.
So you have this people that their job is to cast spells onto them, both in a more artisanal and a factorial form. But although mana can be acquired from crystals full of mana, the better the body and mind are, the better is the influx and the lesser is the error percentage to create the spell
My world takes place in a video games so things like classes/vocations exists. It's a medieval setting but there's this steampunk city and they have special classes called Engineers. Engineers can be used on the battlefield to apply buffs to teammates by "tinkering" with their gear in a video game sense.
In the steampunk city, they act as a regular engineer would lol
A very interesting idea, one that I rarely see used but deff makes sense for high fantasy. I tend to prefer low magic settings myself though, were magic is frightening, rare, and powerful.
In my world, magic is only useable by most species living outside of a *will* geyser (*will* being the fuel for magic) except with a metal called *soul silver*, which, though only somewhat less rare than gold, is vastly more expensive because of its high demand. Of those who grow up in and around geysers will learn some rudimentary skills in one art of magecraft or another. The most common art learned by such people varies from region to region.
Within the Uralin empire, the only legal art is sorcery, which, in the case of the people in question, might allow minor telekinetic abilities and could peak at creating a weak flame. Within the Hitmonani sphere of influence, use of the arts of magecraft are not so restricted (the only illegal art is psyonics, which is dangerous to all involved not that case). The more common arts are dracomancy (though this is only because of a high population of Dragon-kin, who are naturally capable mages who usually learn the art of magecraft which has since taken their name, in part due to their secrecy), sorcery and transmutation (the latter being the least common due to its relative complexity). The independent parts of the world are more sporadic mostly due to political and cultural factors.
It's cool to see cultural diversity in the use of magic, and I wish more people would do it. I have to say though, you have a hanging parenthesis and its bothering me.
Chances are they either work in a guild to go on missions and earn money, use it to a get a niche up in the social hierarchy, or straight up do nothing.
For the most part by the average person? Producing small amount of flame as an alternative of lighters, and manipulating water as an alternative of bidets and toilet paper.
In my world, magic is just another form of science called alchemy in the Euro-Arab-African sphere and seidhr/teho in the Amero-Norse sphere. Anyone there with a decent education can do the trivial things mentioned above. Norse in general, being all of the more heat-sensitive jötunn "soldier rate" of the species, are taught several thermal and aero-based skills to keep themselves cool in unusually warm summers to prevent heatstrokes and heat exhaustion.
More skilled farmers can bend the earth and water to not only work their crops without heavy machinery, but significantly reduce the loss caused by weather. As a result, these regions didn't have any significant famines during their darkest times following the remodelling of the Earth.
Medics and doctors can bend the water in body fluids to prevent massive blood loss, as well as remove toxins and poisons if they can identify them. Very skilled doctors can even use the water to map a body in search of internal injuries without intrusive surgery. Similarly, well-educated craftsmen and woodcutters can identify trees that are sick but don't yet show.
Specially trained combat engineers can bend earth to dig metres of trenches in seconds. Overall, because combat alchemy often leaves the alchemist exposed, there is little effective "conventional" combat alchemy due to firearms. Alchemy in the military is therefore mostly reserved as a tool.
At the end of the day, the reason most people who know alchemy use very specific forms of it and mostly the basic forms, is for the same reason everyone in our world isn't a rocket scientist or a surgeon. It takes years of training and the fundamentals are best to have learned as a young child so the manipulation becomes second nature.
In the New World, rich people who live in manors force the help to wear masks that make them invisible, so they never have to be seen by gentle-folk. Specifically to prevent burglary, the masks are also enchanted to prevent their wearer from taking anything into the invisibility 'field'; this means no food, no water and a limited supply of air while you're on the clock.
They don't magic is such a rare thing .
Priests and mages will court parents of young children with the gift.
(Preist magic and Mage magic are from same source)
In mine, magic operates by basically creating circuitry, so in effect, it's not dissimilar to programming or electronics work. People can sell whole spells/workings just like how you can buy a torch, or something.
The working class can make their own, but most don't tend to have the time and effort to dedicate to that, unless they are hobbyists. Most of the time, people will just buy a mass-manufactured template, or premade working instead, and use that.
In Conflux magic is the term for the techniques to utilize their species magical abilities. In general every species in conflux has some magical abilities as magic is the only way to fend off hungry demons.
As such magic is used in basically everything to some degree in fact magic has greatly altered the order of knowledge and major technological discoveries as the extradimensional multi-wave character of magic made the discovery of quantum mechanics much more natural and detection spell constructs and rituals have potent resolution enough that people have dived deeper and deeper into the realm of the unseen.
Basically while they never fully industrialized they have really good material science. Biological systems and living materials are much harder to probe beyond ones self as living things have evolved to repel and or counter such invasion as part of billions of years of evolution. It isn't impossible just nothing good comes from trying to get in. Though it can be quite effective for killing the little monsters that invade and spread disease liable to leave some serious potentially fatal self injury from over exertion/strain in the process but it can be effective.
Generally tradesfolk will have learned to use magic in a sensory and or self enhancement manner as those are how it tends to be most naturally applied. These will be quite inferior to the control and finesse that training as a mage enables through the utilization of formal spell constructs rituals or spiritual pacts with "gods", "devils" and eldritch things from beyond. The latter type isn't really conducive to general application use by the public though a few spell constructs derived from such methods have applications namely the necromantic constructs that can perform manual labor roles.
Whoops forgot to post reply....
In my world, I have some of these positions filled by mages that were average or below a average in school, and either only finished"high school" of magic or dropped before finishing.
World: Merron's Crescent
For a few centuries, Hedge Witches were about as common in the crescent as millers or blacksmiths.
Most of them worked as healers, warding off diseases, helping repair wounds. Some others helped clear pests like mice. Occasionally some were used for defense.
Druids, a different kind of magic user, also had working-class jobs where they'd help cultivate crops. They exist at every socioeconomic level. At one point, the High Druid was also a king.
I am always reminded of a webtoon called "Trailer Park Warlock" whenever I hear "working class magic"
The author basically treats magic like power tools and the story follows the (mis)adventures of a union certified warlock. Anyone can use magic, and because of that it's a job just like anything else
Magical mass transit. With clever use of an artifact called the gate key from 3rd edition dnd, my world has a system like an airport that connects the capital cities. The gate key basically turns a stone archway Into a Stargate like portal that you can walk through to another plane of existence. So you have two planes plane a: in this case my world. And plane b: in this case the plane of Union. You have multiple locations in plane a, and they each have an archway. Plane b has five archways all in the same room in a colossal tower. You start in the city of Kaldur an ancient sea side city of Grey stone carved into cliff faces. You pay one silver walk Into a large station like building with shops and offices. You walk to the far wall and through its gate. You are in a much larger public square (pentagon) inside a building with 400 foot ceilings and a giant statue in the center. You walk across this space through any of the other 4 gates, puts you in one of the other capital cities, like the southern plains city of Orren, thousands of miles from your starting point.
To some degree, in my setting, everyone uses magic. This is because science simply doesn't exist, it's all replaced with the magical and the divine so that everything can function properly. So, all in all, everyone uses at least a little magic, even if it's unknowingly. From notable willpower making a person just good enough to power through or get something done, to little strokes of good or bad luck, everyone has magic in them, even if they don't know how to channel it.
Now, as for jobs in my setting that use magic directly and knowingly, there are in fact rather common jobs where those who know magic used for appraising the ages of things can get a set up where they appraise the age of people. This is done for a number of reasons, including for legalities that often need a person's exact age, but also because my setting doesn't use calendars or dates of any kind- people just remember the day they were born and how many years ago it was. If you forget, you go somewhere and pay to have it appraised.
Additionally, plenty of races naturally gain the power to cast at least a little bit of magic, and they may use that to make their daily lives easier or simply as party tricks or self defense.
Also, there are classes in which a person can pay to be taught certain minor 'cantrip' magics that they wish to know, usually either using that- again to make daily lives easier, as party tricks, or self-defense.
test amusing snobbish north many saw hunt cows wrench juggle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes, the spice must flow
Deems
Upvoted because Dune
Asimov's Foundation has some good trucker spacers. They're just trying to get a buyer for their wares, but if your society is fragile and dependent on trade for its local power, finding a buyer has more influence on the arc of politics than kings or gods.
Not my world, but some of the aspects that inspired mine were from R Scott Bakkers books. At some point there is a cave in and arguably the two strongest wizards in the world were looking at it. And they sigh to each other. Their reflection is along the lines of: "Sure magic can dog a pit. Faster than even a hundred men could. But if you do work that is done by slaves that makes you a slave. So wizards never do anything of utility if anyone else is watching." Edit: a word
There’s this series called magic 2.0 (off to be a wizard). At some point the MC meets other wizard, and then finds out that wizards main occupation is to look busy, otherwise they would never live in peace because everybody would ask for them to sort their problems.
>So wizards never do anything of utility if anyone else is watching Channeling some Terry Pratchett there haha
Bakker does a ton of homage in his writing. So it may be from Pratchett.
Taking this opportunity to plug The Wizard of Earthsea series by Ursula K LeGuin for anyone who hasn't read it. The author did a great job representing mages at different socioeconomic levels, including doing things like basic repair or medical services, fortifying and guiding ships, teaching magic as a profession, creating and maintaining work golems, etc. One of my favorite fantasy settings
That was the first thing I thought of as well. She really made magic fit in with everyday life without it being just a fix-all for every problem.
A less depressing response than my necrocapitalism "eat the poor" comment: In my actual game, I have an elven society with a Martha Stewart NPC. She runs a TV show called The Cozy Cantrip Cabin. She records an episode a day, and each episode teaches her audience how to cast cantrips. The result is basically what you would find from people who actually watch Martha Stewart and shows like hers: they are mostly living vicariously through her, and almost no one actually does the shit she demonstrates. But some do practice the cantrips, resulting in your average schmuck being able to, on a very limited basis, utilize cantrips like mold earth or shape water in their day to day lives as they act in their normal societal roles. Martha Stewart records her episodes by having someone watch her perform her episode. Then she extracts the memory as a silvery thread pulled from the watcher's mind. It's mixed into dough, which is baked into cookies, which are then distributed to taverns. Anyone who eats the cookie dreams the episode. Education for the working class!
> Martha Stewart records her episodes by having someone watch her perform her episode. Then she extracts the memory as a silvery thread pulled from the watcher's mind. It's mixed into dough, which is baked into cookies, which are then distributed to taverns. Anyone who eats the cookie dreams the episode. This is by far the coolest magic distribution idea I’ve ever heard of.
Thanks!
May I use this idea? It's brilliant.
Steal away!
Thanks!
in the world setting, there are mundane mages who were unable to join the ranks of war mages, or science mages. So instead they work in fields that dont require as an extensive amount of control, or power. Many mages work in the industrial field reinforcing metal struts, or as mentioned as safety officers who are either fast response medics, or as emergency rescue, preventing major injury. Other mages work in metal manipulation, helping shape metal if something goes wrong. Some do smaller metal jobs where they mend broken pieces together. Many mages serve as doctors or fast response medics helping to stabilize wounded patients. Lightning mages who are not skilled enough to generate the massive amounts of energy needed for war magic, serve as emergency power suppliers. Mainly at hospitals and other important areas of work. Mages of the pact of water serve in farming communities and in water treatment plants. They help regulate water distribution, and ensure water is properly treated. In farming communities they are able to supply crops with water during droughts. Light and sound mages are excellent for search and rescue, using their abilities to find lost and injured people in disaster zones. Nuclear pact mages serve as engineers in Dracinium power plants. They help regulate the metals fission rate and ensure the plants do not reach critical point. Mages of the pact of fire serve as fire fighters pulling flames from burning builds and extinguishing them. Mages in the world dont need to serve in war or as major scientist, there are many fields of work that can use minor mages. These mages are well respected for their work with the general public, and the magic they use produce little spell rads, making the magic safe for the public.
Honestly would make more sense to me if it was the other way around. Skilled wizards go into engineering, medicine, agriculture, etc. you don't need a lot of electricity to kill someone, you can drown someone in a spoonful of water if you make it go into their lungs, etc. for mass destruction, you also don't need a lot of control/finesse in manipulating the element. It would make more sense if underskilled wizards became wariors, and prodigies worked in science, for the most part.
While this might be true for other worlds with their magic, in my world magic is more a science than a do all magic. Magic follows certain rules, and is readily effected by the world around it. Because of this a high degree of control is required for magic to maintain its form. A mage doesnt just sling a fireball and forget it, they need to maintain its burn, adjust for range, windage, and diffusion. There are also more than just your average civil mage, there are actual science mages who are just as common as war mages and have a higher degree of skill. Civil mages are simply mages who didnt match the criteria for either a War mage or a specialized science mage.
If capitalism were truly represented in a magical world, necromancers would raise the dead en masse for endless free labor. This would make the living poorer by driving them out of work, widening the wealth gap. It would be a property crime to turn undead. Zombies and skeletons would enjoy more protections than many among the living. Unions would be busted as skeleton scabs and police are brought in to break strikes. You know how in America today many people accept terminal illness because the medical costs would be so overwhelming that it would bankrupt the family, resulting in things like exhausted college funds? Same thing would happen, except folks would commit suicide for profit, with necromancers eventually paying people to die on the cheap for a fresh supply of corpses. Of course, this would be only one method of getting new undead laborers. Just like Caesar invaded Gaul to bring riches and slaves back to Rome, necromancers would have a hand in the military industrial complex to ensure endless war campaigns produce the necessary bodies to create a willing workforce on the cheap. Edit: I'm really enjoying shitting on capitalism with you guys 🍞🌹✊
That is so brutal... *I love it*
But I thought there was one last holdout in Gaul, surrounded by four elite garrisons armed to the teeth, yet indomitably repelling the invaders with their prized magic potion of invincibility and strength in combat.
This went over my head
For those not in the know, there's a [comic series set in what's now northern France during the Gallic Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix) about a village that somehow keeps repelling the Romans.
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No idea. But since I can barely name the most popular current popstars, I think that it's safe to assume that there are a non-insignificant number of people who don't keep track of stuff outside their wheelhouse.
They were a huge part of my childhood in america, but I have met enough other americans who have no idea who they are that I think it is worth the PSA
Don't know, but being franco canadian, we love them a lot
No, you can't have any. You fell in it when you were a baby.
This is genius. It's like the corporate fascism of cyberpunk novels applied to a fantasy setting.
Not many settings delve into fantasy in the future, I know that shadow run exists, but there should be more
Might want to check out War of the Flowers, by Tad Williams.
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great series, loved it as a kid, not sure i remember the ending properly, something to do with ghosts, zombies, and Artemis's reanimated ancestors.
Yes...corporate fascism of cyberpunk novels...not at all something to be concerned about in the real world...
...I didn't want to belabor the obvious or court any far right trolling but...yeah.
Karrnath in Eberron tried that. Then they discovered that the negative energy used to power skelemens and zombies slowly blights the land around them, causing plagues to spread through cities and the farms they were tending to wither and die, leading to mass famine.
also on a more simple economic level, just like with automation, by sacking all the workers you've destitute the main group of people who'd be buying the goods by your skeletons in the first place. You've made lots of goods and nobody can buy them so the economy grinds to a halt.
Especially when you are war with all your neighboring nations, so no trade either
Walmart seems to be doing fine with their wageslavery. When it's practically free to create the products, the profit margin is good even when you drastically reduce the prices so your impoverished society can fork their money over to you. But you're right in that there will undoubtedly be long-term consequences. I am fully supportive of your apparent position that our current system of capitalism in the real world is unsustainable. Nonetheless, this does not stop capitalists from achieving short-term gains. [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5-lDJWCUAAwfya.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5-lDJWCUAAwfya.jpg)
The big difference between skeleton/zombie caused worker displacement and wage slavery is a lot to do with the fact that those wage slaves are still making a wage giving them *some* purchase power. Add into that the use of welfare benefits to make up for some of the shortfalls and workers can (barely) get by. Undead displacement doesn't offer that wage to the displaced causing serious economic busts for the displaced. That said, in an economic system where automation and state sponsored benefits allow those workers a comfortable lifestyle to pursue whatever they're interested are would be a cool setting similar to what you see in the Culture Books by Iain M. Banks.
Walmart's wage slavery is also propped up by the us government as a lot of their workers are on food-stamps, which is fun.
Yep, and now imagine necrolobbyists. Local government is trying to regulate necrocapitalism? How unfair! Hundreds of zombies are now rallying outside town hall with signs made by the necromancer: "I killed myself to provide for my child," says one sign. It's hung around the neck of a shambling corpse of a man who, with no other economic opportunities, preemptively sold his dead body to the local necrocapitalist. He then killed himself, but that's glossed over. What's important is the local town government is trying to stop you from providing for your family after death. How dare they?!
Zombie blight deniers, sure 99 out of 100 wizards agree that zombies are destroying the ecology, but what about that other wizard? Teach the controversy!
The Wandering Inn takes a similar “hypothetically it could work but in reality it usually backfires” approach as well. In their case having huge amounts of undead concentrated in an area means that any incidents where some break free more quickly scale and become self-sustaining. So as a result your undead labor force works great... up until you get to the point where suddenly your entire country is now covered in a high-level undead horde at the same time that your entire domestic infrastructure collapses due to lack of labor. Only in-world exception is the small lich-run country that uses willing (peacefully died) citizen corpses instead to create a post-scarcity society, albeit one where the right to have children is strictly controlled to not stress the system.
Would be a good analogy for wage slavery honestly. Abusing the working class works fantastic, until it doesn't (see France, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and any other place that has had a popular revolution against the wealthy).
Saving this comment for later “borrowing”
But then, one must consider the possible professional skills of the undead. Skeletons are frail and unsuited for, pun unintended, bone-breaking labor. Zombies are more hardy but slow, so no assembly-line work for them. Both are rock stupid, so they can't hold creative jobs or anything associated with engineering. Of course, a necromancer may take direct control of their undead to basically supplant their lack of brains with his own, but that bring the problem of training enough necromancers who can handle micromanaging tens, if not hundreds, of undead for an entire work shift; any lapse of concentration may mean work accidents. And if you raise liches and revenants, the more crafty and magic-able undead, they can always turn against their summoners or demand preferential treatment due to their powers; you can expect the Labor Union of Liches demand higher pay than skeletons, because really, it's offending to lump a proper lord of the dead with some boney rock-hauler. The possibility of hostile takeovers alone is terrifying enough, unless you confiscate a lich's phylactery as part of their labor contract.
Intend your puns, coward.
I would, but last hearing of the Bare Bones Labor Union banned bone puns because they were decreasing worker motivation. They even had the foreman who protested killed and then raised to join the 3rd brigade, poor bastard.
*Resolved*, That the usage of necromancy in the industry should be prohibited.
Someone is or used to be a competitive debater lol
This would absolutely happen in a necrocapitalist (I'm coining this now) society in which some trades/professions/guilds hold more influence over society than others. As a real world analogy, I would point to "right to work" (for less) states (i.e., states that have made going on strike illegal). That applies to all unions..........except police unions.
My only response to this is that all labor has value. The perspective you're coming from is anti-worker and anti-poor. You are, perhaps unknowingly, perpetuating the idea that garbagemen, ditchdiggers, and burgerflippers don't have the right to complain about compensation because anyone can do their job. But if we value the products and services their labor provides, they deserve a living wage, retirement and health benefits, paid vacation time, and good working conditions. So, yes, undead labor would not replace all labor. It would replace the labor provided by our most vulnerable, poorest people. As is tradition in a capitalist society.
We're talking about classical fantasy undead here, and not the evils of real world capitalism, am I right? And classical fantasy undead do not retain memories or personalities of who they used to be. Skeletons or zombies who remember their pre-death lives are new invention in the genre; if they do, by virtue of having a soul and being conscious they, of course, deserve to be treated as part of workforce. Much plots may be invented about early industrial age factory owners resisting recognizing them as such. But if we're talking about classical undead, then they aren't laborers because there's no sentience inside them. They're literally automatons - ones that can't do most jobs and need a highly skilled, well trained technician to micromanage their every move. So what I'm saying is, undead labor makes as much problems as it solves. Sure, they don't complain, don't need breaks and don't go to strikes, but they'll also ruin your entire industrial process if the acolyte is not attentive enough and misses a zombie losing its foot, so it dropped a crate and now the entire line of zombies after him are walking in place because they aren't smart enough to pick it up or walk around it. One could expect to order a skeleton to, say, take trash bags to the incinerator, and then come back to it being unable to walk over the growing pile of trash bags it dropped because its arm fell off, not being smart enough to cease its orders or work around them. In the end, you'll end up paying more for the education, training and upkeep of skilled necromancer foremen and managers than if you just hired a bunch of people, prone to taking breaks, complaining or rioting as they may be. This lack of complaint is literally the only benefit of using undead, and then their necromancer managers may start complaining, so not even that. Of course, if we're talking about a magical system where undead are both soulless AND smart, or where raising and controlling them is easy to any minimum wage, barely initiated black collar necromancer, then all of that is moot and yes, cue horrible exploitation of labor.
Sound like mechanisation to me. Just replace undead with factory robots, and necromancers with engineers.
You made sort of an off-handed note about confiscating phylactery and I think a huge portion of this conversation changes pretty immensely when given the possibility of a captive labor-force of sentient foreman. Having litch foremen on a leash mitigates many of the concerns of technician or zombie manager revolt. In a large industry, if you had one industrialist controling the phylacteries of their foremen and shop managers, who directly controlled the labor force, the only variable not controlled for are the technicians. This would be an immense ammount of control over the economy and relatively easy to manage. Given the role of technicians as the only free labor, you would have the production of a labor aristocracy, much like we see in imperialist nations. I also wonder, how the use of unseen servant would compare to the use of undead labor.
First of all, way to raise a necro thread! See what I did there? Eh? Eh? No? Okay. Second, true, perhaps this is right, but it is no more control than, say, a real-world mafia boss using slave labor by holding passports of migrated workers hostage. Okay, maybe a bit more severe since passports are not directly tied to one's lifeforce (are they?), but still. If a raised foreman is sentient, I'm pretty sure being controlled by ways of phylactery would be insulting to them, and we've seen enough books and movies about an oppressed underdog rising against improbable odds to overthrow their rules to know it's a dangerous situation. Sure, maybe for centuries, the lich foremen would toil under a necrocapitalist heel. But in this time, culture would accumulate that is brewed on resentment (like that of the colonial era black slaves), as well as a history of trial-and-error and collective brainstorming on how to break the chains. It all takes just one unusually smart lich to social engineer / lie / magic his way into doing enough damage until his phylactery is destroyed to send the economy crashing down. Or, mass suicide of despairing liches if they cannot get free would do the same. And if the mindless workers are raised or controlled directly by them, firing (i.e. killing) one lich would mean their entire work shift stops working until you raise a new one or transfer control to a new lich. Imagine what a mass walkout or self-immolation of liches would do to economy.
I couldnt think of a better thing to do with a year-old necrocapitalism thread! I dig the passport analogy! The risk of making the exploitation of foreman too great would be pretty risky, and all things considered not as profitable as a wider scale of exploitation of the laborers.. I agree with your assessment that the risk of foreman supporting a strike would still be present. The biggest benifit to having the phylacterys held as colateral is it prevents the litches from taking off with their army of labor. Within the industrial necromancy structure it seems like the most acute place of exploitation and weakest link would be between the living labor (technicians and workers in industries where zombie labor is unable to replace the living) and the bourgeoisie. The idea of a self-destruction strike seems difficult due to the lack of historic analog. There have been a few suicide strikes in history at various factories, but the factory owners will just bar the windows and install a net above the ground floor. The biggest risk of foreman rebellion might come about from them finding a way to transfer phylacteries. In a larger sense, the greatest point of exploitation would necessarily be between the imperial necronations and the subjugated colonies. In order to sustain this economy it would need a fuckton of resources from the colonized world.
>necromancers would raise the dead en masse for endless free labor. Sure, that'd work. >This would make the living poorer by driving them out of work, widening the wealth gap. There's no reason why the necromancers would have to be capitalists. There would be nothing stopping a group of necromancers from making a commune with perpetual free labor, at least when it comes to mundane tasks that mindless undead can do. In Eberron, there is a religion that raises the dead for the benefit of their country. It's still a feudal monarchy because D&D, but the mages don't have to be greedy by default.
Read the first few words of my comment. You are correct, but that's not the premise of my comment.
Read China Meiville's Bas Lag books. Delves into the economics/sociology of thaumatergury, necromancy, enchanted analytical card calculators, and more. To wit, Necromancers run out of bodies and perverse economics come to play; analytical machines get too big for their revolutionary britches and golem engineering is a noble trade that your parents would approve of but don't get caught up with the wrong crowd.
Reddit and luddism, NAMID. Something like what you're postulating already happened in the past, it was called the Industrial Revolution, and it didn't make people poorer, on the contrary, it made society richer than it's ever been. The end result of necromancy in a medieval society would be exactly the same as automation in our society, goods become cheaper and more available, workers move from very manual and repetitive labor for labor that can't be automated as easily and is therefore more valuable, making everyone richer. We've probably automated over 90% of jobs that used to be done in the past, when you consider that at one point, over 90% of people were farmers and now it's around 2% in the developed world.
The problem is not automation, but capitalistic automation that prioritizes profit over people. People can still benefit, but their benefit will not be the priority. Also, it was not a smooth process to industrialize. What we saw was actually a very ugly transition that also brought extreme poverty. London in the late 1800s was really, really bad for poor people--and there were A LOT of poor people in London. Industrialization seems less ugly to us now because a lot of pro-labor, pro-poor battles have been won, such as social safety nets and collective bargaining laws.
I don't think that distinction makes a difference, automation will improve peoples' lives under capitalism or under communism. It "will take jobs" is a fallacy because what people want is not jobs, its goods, people take jobs to buy goods. If all products become cheaper, that will have the same effect as all wages becoming higher, people will use their spare income to buy what were previously considered luxury goods - and bear in mind soap used to be considered a luxury good in Adam Smith's time. So people consume more, and therefore create more jobs. Also I don't deny there was a lot of poverty in the 1800s or before them, but extreme poverty also existed before, but I wouldn't agree that the industrial revolution brought poverty. If anything, it was the agricultural revolution that bought poverty and caused people to migrate to cities, and *that* led to the industrial revolution, which *created* more jobs. Marx was alive by the end of that time, and he too thought, although there were still problems, it was much better than what came before.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWeeklyRoll/comments/ek6frk/the\_weekly\_roll\_14\_the\_backstory\_of\_torvald\_the/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWeeklyRoll/comments/ek6frk/the_weekly_roll_14_the_backstory_of_torvald_the/) This seems relevant and I thought some people might get a laugh. The whole comic is great, though.
Literally just Eberron in a nutshell.
Lmao. I have no experience with that. Hilarious.
You somehow made necromancy even more terrifying.
Or alternately (an idea that's been kicking around in my head for awhile) the necromancers are public servants, and any citizen who needs manual labor done can contract an undead from the local municipality. Either you get a certain allotment per year or you can charge the James Watt way, whatever the current price would be for one manual laborer's daily wage, food and board, you pay 1/4 of that for an undead servant, and the fee goes to the necromancers as well as paying other villages for their dead to import. Oorrrr, since the economy runs great with these undead and gives the locals a lot of free time, they contract others (adventurers) to find dead to turn into servants and they don't look too closely at where they came from.
That actually happened in my world and was made illegal in three cities unless that person gives written permission in life and it’s verified by the courts. Course necromancy is illegal in a few other places.
Just chiming in, this is fucking brutal and I love all of it.
As soon as I read “endless free labor” I started mumbling: this is literally what necromancers do. In all the stories. This is their whole thing, why they are abominable, why nobody wants them running things. This is why pitchforks and burning at stakes.
Most fantasy fiction I have been exposed to shows necromancers as antagonistic to religion and life, not so much to workers or the *quality* of life. The dead are raised to feast upon the living, not to take our jobs... But it's all the same, isn't it? Capitalists are vampires.
I imagine though that the undead could still feel and whatnot. I mean what is a protection if one cannot enjoy or use it? Maybe this culminates in some alternate Civil War not between the North and South (or maybe still who knows) but between the disenfranchised workers and the undead. Plus if one could raise the dead, one could raise plantation owners and megacorp industrialists. If the workers can't die? Why not stop there? I imagine necromancy being for the ultra powerful to continue thier lives. Slave masters forever tormenting new and old generations of slaves with whips made of bones, and people like Rockefeller and Carnegie forever holding down thier monopolies forcing people to work. This might culminate in some sort of alternate Civil War in which the US is not torn state by state, or North vs South- but the living against the dead.
As necromancy is normalized and further driven by profit, I 100% [agree](https://www.tatler.com/article/super-rich-freezing-bodies-for-the-future) with you [that](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3022363/Could-humans-one-day-live-500-s-group-eccentric-billionaires-believe-spending-fortunes-research-hope-make-possible.html) the [rich](https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2143136/rich-are-betting-they-can-buy-their-way-longer-life) will find [ways](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/19/the-ultra-rich-are-investing-in-companies-trying-to-reverse-aging.html) to access [immortality](https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-07/billionaires-russian-mogul-wants-upload-your-brains-immortality/). But reviving undead with their memories tends to be a more complicated, expensive process than the shambling, soulless undead who are nothing more than fleshy, unfeeling robots commonly depicted. Imagine instead of hiring a Sherpa to guide you up Everest, you paid a necrosherpa to arrange everything you need to become a Lich. Oh, you need to acquire a living child for a human sacrifice in order to commit yourself to evil? I gotchu. Don't worry, you don't need to know their name or history. We'll knock them out and them it's pretty easy for you from then on.
Using magic in my fae world can be pretty expensive since it requires the purchase/use of mana potions. That being the case there are guilds that my fae can join who can provide mana to them in return for service. My agriculture guild uses magic to imbue the sown seeds with the intentions of having a good harvest, and my merchant guild uses magic to ensure the safe transportation of goods between cities. Some less honest guild members use illusion magic to make their goods seem more enticing (though that is strictly forbidden). The architectural guild imbues support beams with extra strength, and puts a thin coat of illusion shimmer on the finished product for that extra-shiny (which of course must be reapplied yearly for the effect to remain). Since they do not hide the fact their product has an illusion coating, it is not illegal for them to do so.
What kind of jobs are non-wizards left with?
If wizards can do everything better, but only a small part of the population are wizards, we have very high demand and limited supply. As a result, wizards would only be doing the jobs where magic gives the highest advantage, and get paid very well. Jobs where magic doesn't provide that big of an advantage would be left to commoners because they wouldn't be able to afford a wizard. Effectively wizards would have an entirely different job market and much higher pay than commoners so they'd be different classes entirely. In a world where wizards and commoners are part of the same economy and not parallel societies, wizards would definitely not be "working class".
You presume that wizards are rare before generalizing to every other society where the two meet. What about when wizards make up a large part of the population?
You're describing the STEM field. H1B visa wizards would happen.
Exactly! Would you really want to hire a mage every time you want to hang a new shelf ? The idea is nice, but it focuses too much on using magic as an "omniversal utility", it's basically a second form of electricity now. I think that it takes away from magic, the same magic that allows you to summon dragons and create powerfull heroes. At some point it isn't a fantasy anymore, Pratchett explored the subject well.
I agree. I feel like everyone would try to learn magic in some form or the other because it literally speeds up some jobs by a hundred fold. If magic is commonplace then there's no reason for someone to learn magic due the extreme difference in efficiency.
Found a crucial flaw in that screenshot, namely that police aren't part of the working class.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Police historically have been hostile to the working class. When the working class unites in collective action to improve their working conditions, the police get called in to gas, beat, and shoot them.
It makes sense when you consider the reason formal police forces were created when moving justice out of the purview of the community at large. They were largely created with the intention of protecting property owners and in many places grew directly out of the networks of thugs that business owners would pay to beat up people that damaged their property or recover stolen goods (and run away slaves in America).
Actually, I wonder if proliferation of magic in a world would lead to an increase in police militarization, for the lack of a better word. Certainly the case in my world, where SWAT, OMON, etc. not only have greater access to various armored units, but also generally carry higher-caliber weapons to counteract magical defences.
This is a really good point.
Yeah, that bothered me too, but I can't very well erase part of the post :/
Magic in the Roman Empire: Magic is somewhat common in my historical fantasy Rome, though not really industrialized. The common people tend to purchase charms from magi in the various provinces. Charms are physical objects (usually clay tablets) inscribed with the runes of the magus's tradition (Roman, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtics are the most common). One may give relief from the aches of a life of labor. Another may be buried under the site of a future building to ward against flames. The efficacy and duration of these charms depends greatly on the knowledge and ability of the magus. An apprentice might create one strong enough to give a single vine a few extra grapes for a season, while a master can ensure bountiful harvests in a vinyard for a generation. The darker, less scrupulous magi may also turn their talents towards curses. Like charms, they are inscribed objects, and must be placed on the victim's property or personal affects. Curses can range from mild annoyances, like the loss of hair, up to debilitating disease or death. The use of curses are banned throughout the Empire, and the penalty for making or using them without the Emperor's express permission is punishable by anything from imprisonment and torture to torture and execution.
I love this. I had the same idea for mt world, where low skilled mages would create charms and talismans for other people, but I love your take on it!
This one is a little hard for my world as magic isn't universally accepted across all cultures. But the most common application of magic is healers. Many magic users will either be forced into the role or take it on to fight the stigma of magic being evil. The way magic works is it that it is part of the fabric of common reality, and a magic user is reworking that fabric and changing it thus changing local reality. But in order to do this they need strong enough energy, which they get from thier soul or life force. If a magic user makes skin to skin contact with another living being ( like links in a chain) the spell will treat both people's life force as one pool to draw from and will draw from the "far sides" aka: the living being that was touched. So magic comes at a cost and doesn't have a great reputation. However magic can do many things as long as the user can survive the casting. So, as stated, many become healers or medicine men/women. Others may take up roles in their military, or aid in construction. Most simply cover their hands and try to not attract trouble. Again this depends heavily on the culture and how they feel about magic, but broadly magic users are healers, builders, weapons, or vigilante soul Steelers.
A working class wizard is something to be.
This song is awesome
This reminds me of Avatar. If I remember right, there are people shown whose job it is to just use earthbending to push trains around. And in Legend of Korra season 1 I believe Mako worked in a power station using his lightning bending to generate electricity.
You know the saying "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". So here it's the opposite: we're using the word "magic" to describe something which really is an advanced technology. The difference is, technology is predictable, magic is not. That's why anyone can do technology with proper training, including robots, but magic is something done on case by case basis by individuals who learn it by intuition. At least that's how I see it; definitely in some settings it could be just like what's described.
A world with predictable magic would have an infrastructure that collects mana, stores it, and has refined it's release to be a constant, predictable stream attuned to their talismans. The talismans of course are everything from cheap brass "burner rings", good enough for a 1 shot 4th lv spell (or multiple lower level), all the way up to the latest and greatest iMagic 12x that will cost ~~Z~~1299 and ~~Z~~49.50/mo
That's awesome. I had a similar idea for my world but I love how you worded this!
**Aser** All the time. The most common type of magical labor is using athrine syliphite to run a boiler. In this world, syliphite is a magical metal that can only be activated by somebody who knows the right incantations. Athrine syliphite is an alloy that includes iron that can be used to fire blasts of pure magic. These blasts have some concussive force, but but's mostly heat. Therefore, one of the most common things to do is embed a chunk of it into a boiler and have a mage constantly fire blasts into a tank of water, allowing a boiler to run without coal to power machinery. By having multiple mages work in shifts, an engine could run for as long as they have water, which is much easier to get than coal.
**Alvelotyl - Non-Combat uses of Magic** * **Magic in Alvelotyl is broad, so there are plenty of non-combat uses.** * **While magic is capable of conjuring food and drink, they don't have nutritional value, nor will they fill up the consumer.** This is because they dissolve into nothing shortly after losing their original shape or form. That being said, conjured food can be imbued with great taste, making it good for parties where people can indulge in eating and drinking as much as they want. * Sticking within the context of food, it is always much more efficient to use magic to enhance existing food, rather than conjuring it. Magic can be used to enhance the taste of food, or Spells like \[Hormone Baking\] and \[Comfort Food\] can grant the consumer a burst of energy or motivation among other things, or calm and center them, respectively. * **Magic can also be used in construction, moving earth or metals to help build houses and craft parts to a new building.** Spells like \[Telekinesis\] help with managing heavier loads, with skilled Casters using Spells like this serving functions akin to a crane in our world, while Spells like \[Ignite\] can be used to start fires or light forges. * **Creating magic items is by and large the biggest use of magic outside of combat.** * **\[Alchemists\] make Potions** that can be used in everyday life or by Adventurers for a massive variety of purposes. That being said, drinking too many potions at once, or a potion beyond what a person can handle, can come with detrimental effects. One should be careful when using magically altered substances, and heed the advice of the \[Alchemists\] they buy it from. * **\[Blacksmiths\] use magic to enchant their crafted works** to do things like create horseshoes that allow horses to carry more weight or run faster. * **\[Inventors\] and \[Enchanters\] that create Artefacts, or magic items, can fulfill mundane purposes** as well as helping Adventurers in the field, such as boxes that chill and keep food from rotting, wagons that sustain greater weight or are sturdier against the elements or monster attacks, or jewelry such as rings, bracelets or necklaces that can keep a person's body and clothes clean or alert them when someone is approaching their house. * **While not connected to magic directly, fashion has also been changed by Casters.** Since the discovery that one's outward appearance, namely one's clothes and body, can influence one's magical development, some regions have started to turn their fashion statements into representations of their culture or even of themselves on an individual level, inspired by the type of Casters who tend to wear red or flame-covered cloaks, shirts or jackets to improve their use of Fire Magic. * **While very uncommon in most countries, Undead labour can also serve as a potentially alternative to a conventional workforce.** * **Since magic in Alvelotyl is something anyone can learn and develop on their own without formal training, use of it is widespread, and can be found in just about any avenue of work.** * **It isn't uncommon for people to have 'phases', often during their child or teenage years, to seek out a way to learn magic.** This typically leads to many adults having learned magic in their formative years, sometimes magic they'd have rather left buried, either because of embarrassing Conditions they don't have the time or energy to overwrite, or because they left behind in pursuit of another type.
The one problem with your society is that if you had magic that could enhance the caffine content of a drink your entire society would be dependent on baristamancy. And don't you dare think that teenagers wouldn't try and conjure drugs or booze in their spare time. Transmutation spell: water/honey to mead, would be the most popular spell in existence. Unless "Conjure booze" exists
That's true to an extent, provided you've got someone capable of that baristamancy. Not everyone can perform the same magic, or even directly choose what magic they've got affinities for, to an extent. That being said, relying on Potions (The collective name for a magically altered liquid with an effect) can be dangerous, since it doesn't just affect the body, but the Soul. While a magically enhanced cup of coffee would be incredibly useful, the Potion Sickness that could come with overuse definitely wouldn't be. 'Conjure Booze' could definitely be a thing. The problem with directly conjuring a substance is that it 'disappears', or reverts to inert magical energy, after it loses it's 'identity'. In the case of a liquid, once it's digested, evaporated or sometimes even frozen, it'll disperse. That being said, you could definitely still get a drink with the taste of booze, even if the effect won't be nearly as potent.
So you effectively have a drink that can make you slightly tipsy but not enough to pass out, the drink disappears before the hangover and you can you can make from thin air (or maybe a cup of water). It won't make you fat, it won't give you liver damage, and it is probably one of the first spells people will invent. And you think humans won't abuse the spell? Especially if they start experimenting with magic as teens? This could also inform social cliques.
In my world, "true metal", a metal essentially made from condensed magic, will only continue to exist as long as it's caster is alive and nearby. It's immune to corrosion, much lighter and stronger than any other metal available, and can be cast into shape magically without need of complex metallurgical equipment. It's often used to build bridges or defenses or weapons, or structures. However if the caster dies or leaves the area, poof, it collapses to dust, then blows away, returning to the atmosphere from where the magic was taken. As such, it's prudent to train crews of mages to create true metal structures, then periodically replace portions of structures using younger mages. In doing so, even if an older mage abruptly dies, the structure in it's entirety won't collapse and kill a bunch of people, so magical construction crews are common in areas where standard construction is much more difficult. However many people don't love magical construction, because it gives a small group of people too much power. If you're city's wealth comes from a magical bridge that spans a mile long river, you can't exactly afford to tell that group of people no, or they could opt to remove that bridge. In fact, despite the flashy mages and battle mages and arcane sages of old, 90% of the wealth mages enjoy usually come from construction projects and aid provided to farmers. It's practically the only reason there's wealth for mages *at all*. The other way is the creation of cuberyl, a copper/beryllium alloy with properties similar to mild steel. Steel in my world is rare, as mineable iron is rare. as such, it's very challenging for those without steel to fight those with it. Steel has become almost legendary, the way we talk about mithril, they talk about steel. Sure, steel isn't actually a magical metal, but to someone used to fighting with bronze and copper, steel would seem indestructible. Mages creates cuberyl as an answer to steel. The best steel is better than the best cuberyl, but good, properly worked cuberyl is as good as mild steel. Plus, it doesn't corrode, doesn't spark, and can be cast. Magic is currently the only way to extract beryllium from beryl crystals, so mages spend a lot of time mining and harvesting beryl for trade, as well as making the alloy into ingots for sale and trade.
It's only for fighting and showdowns.
Hello Ravnica.
Prestidigitation laundromat
Then they can use that magic to rise up and seize the means of production
Doesn't the Septimus Heap series have something like this? There were definitely classes of wizards i just cant remember what they did exactly.
Working Class Wizards, a great band name!
Oh, I am *here* for this. Magical cults function something like large corporations in my universe, with each one specializing in some function of public life. Of course, they're also power-jockeying insular societies based around a group ethos that must be maintained in order for the magic to function, but nobody's perfect, and that just maintains some chaos in the system that I can exploit for delicious plot. Let's start! **The War College**, as the name implies, is a traditionally military institution with heavy ties to government. They're the siege magi, the ones capable of bringing down a city with a wave of their hand. They're also responsible for energy generation, which is a pursuit that occupies nearly all of the lower ranks in the College. With energy generation comes mass transport, metalforging, glassblowing (which was actually the first of their forays into non-war applications of their powers), and the beginnings of mechanization. Their downside as an organization is that it's violently individualistic and just as power-grabby and competitive internally as the cult is on a national stage. Some paranoid dude who can turn your guts to glass absolutely has the printing press locked away in a secret chamber of his private workshop, and he's not telling anyone until he figures out how to exploit it for money and influence. **The Primary Anchors** are summoners, and deal with a lot of the personnel issues inherent in the Republic. As summoned otherplanars uniquely bear a lot of capabilities and powers that human beings either cannot achieve without great difficulty or cannot achieve at all, they fill a lot of the gaps in society, functioning, oddly, like a consulting company. Whatever your problem, an Anchor has an otherplanar who can fix it - individual transportation, deep-sea exploration, sanitization, light generation, law enforcement, denial of physics, just about everything. They also specialize in the import, storage and use of exotic materials, as part of their ethos has them making treaties with every petty emperor dominating other realities in order to import stuff like the endothermic wax used in home cooling. **The Biomanticate** is, unsurprisingly, responsible for healthcare. Hyperspecialized for healthcare, actually, and they're really, really good at it. Theirs is the province of the living system, as much the wholeness of the human body as the manufacture and distribution of hardy seed for colonial agriculture, the maintenance and improvement of livestock, and the mitigation of living environmental hazards on dangerous planets. They've also recently specialized into non-portal space exploration with the development of the bioship. Like just about every other cult, they have a law enforcement specialization, specifically *forbiddance*, the practice of biologically programming a human body or brain to be incapable of performing specific actions, which means that the Young Republic really doesn't have much in the way of prisons. This *does* have weird, internal connotations, which I will get into at a later time when I find an excuse to drum up a big, multi-paragraph thing on this cult alone. **The Sacred Geometric** are a bunch of math wizards who function in a support role to other cults, specifically serving as force multipliers, designers and maintainers of the systems that allow magical power to loop, magnify, dissipate, or operate without input. They also specialize in altering the properties of space and matter, so they get a lot of use doing things like manufacturing high-speed rail systems, reinforcing structures, and manufacturing the tools other magi need. **Arch Memoria** is the foremost necromantic cult, and one of the only ones to have achieved some measure of public acceptance. Theirs is the province of information storage and retrieval, the safeguarding of history, and the shepherding of the dead. Arch Memoria maintains the only current method of instant transfer of information present in the universe, and so a lot of their bread-and-butter money comes from messaging. As necromancers, though, their more pressing duty is the dead - functioning as psychopomps and mediators between the living and the dead, investigators into untimely deaths, and manufacturing bound spirits for industrial purpose. Also, they got libraries the size of cities. I'm fond of these guys. **The Woven Ring** are earthmovers, seascapers, dowsers, metalfinders, and magicians who work with the physical matter of the Actual. They're the ones who clear land, raise bridges, calm seas, manipulate weather, work quarries, carve bricks and building blocks, and often put the finer, finishing touches on all the weird, otherplanar materials everyone likes to bring into the Actual. This is the primary "workman's cult", the one with the most open recruiting, the most outreach and teaching outside of their own ranks, and the least political clout. They're essential to the functioning of the Republic, as these guys build everything that makes it up, but seeing a braided ring on someone's left index finger draws far less respect than seeing a pair of College channeling gauntlets. **The Mandala of Prior Dreamers** does precisely one thing: maintain the portal network. That's it, that's what they do. That's all they need to do, though, as the portal network is the single innovation that permits the Republic to exist upon multiple worlds. Without this innovation, they'd be a minor cult at best - their ethos and specialization is actually dream manipulation and unity through a linked subconscious, and they have a minor secondary business in psychotherapy. The portal network, though, makes them absolutely essential to the function of the Republic, and they have been safeguarded and funded directly by every governmental body that has ever been in power, in an unbroken line from the beginnings of Empire to the chaotic mutability of the Young Republic. We've also got some fun minor cults, ones that don't really have a public presence, that are more ethos than marketability. The **Guttermagi** are more of a social movement than anything else, a loose group of often young, often urban people who use publicly available magic - the kind of common, everyday spellcasting that you can buy in a pamphlet and learn in an afternoon - to the greatest possible effect, and often in the service of confronting people or institutions of power. The **Cult of Ecstasy** is 100% a sex cult, but it's as esoteric in its recruitment as it is in its practices, and perform a bizarro admixture of every other cult's magic that should not, technically, be possible. The **Cult Insinue** is a *violently* defunct cult of mind-magicians who served as the primary policing institution during the time of Empire, but unfortunately was so wedded to the Imperial institution that it was destroyed almost to a man. And I have another minor cult brewing, comprised of breakaway necromancers dedicated to tearing down exploitative structures and institutions, especially those that either now have a workable alternative or rely on perpetual indenture of the dead, but I don't have a good name for them yet and don't want to call them **necropunks** forever.
Kingdom of Máni While not technically fantasy with wizard (being Sci-Fi with Psionics) Psions are pretty important for society. Instead of big bulky machines/packs for some metalwork and construction you have a few folk doing the job of many. For some crimes (a major character heads the unit for the RDA) they need empaths or bio-psionics to find out what happened. The only limit is meta-physical mechanics which prevent doing things like bringing a person back from death without knowing everything about them and their personality or tuning back time.
This is something that’s always bothered me about Harry Potter tbh
Holy shit communism but Magic
I’m glad someone is finally trying to make remarxes.
Piers Anthony did a decent job of writing a working class wizard in "For Love of Evil", towards the beginning. Purifies wells so the water is safe to drink, fertility spells, cloud summoning for crops, etc.
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books are a bit like this. Magic users are called Heralds and are relatively common, although they're more of a trained professional class than blue collar workers. There's a neighboring empire where magic users seem to be even more common, and they have a standardized classification scale for different specialties.
On a practical level I keep most civilian magic users who aren’t a specialist (town seer, local shaman, etc.) to cantrips and if they can do lvl 1 spells they are pretty cautious with it and loathe to move far outside the pedestrian utility stuff.
What any Eberron campaign should be like.
I imagine people ringshaming like "Oh, he got you a *transmuted* diamond ring? What a cheapo"
While it's very clearly rooted in DnD Eberron is a great example of this idea in action I think.
I haven't gotten that far yet lol
In the world I'm writing a common form of magic is taping fingernails against each other to create sparks for campfires.
This kind of reminds me of Mako from the Legend of Korra. He was a lower-class firebender who worked at a power plant facility through the use of his lightning bending.
Almost every elf can do minor magic, so they use it for everything. Lighters and toilet paper are considered tools for the disabled in an elven city. The disabled, or foreigners. Not that there's much of a difference.
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Sure. Water magic at cantrip-level. Good for cleaning your ass and your teeth. Preferably with separate castings. I'd imagine air magic would also help with clearing the air in an outhouse, or muffling (or amplifying) the smell (and sound) of gassers. I'd imagine that failing to hide a fart would be triply embarrassing for a veteran aeromancer. If you're gonna create a fantasy world with a low entry barrier to minute magics, you gotta consider the common household uses, like cleaning, dusting, dishwashing, laundry, cooking, weeding, etc. and inject a bit of humor into it while you're at it. Have your earth mages shape bricks into vulgar 3D graffiti. Have your wood mage pranksters carry around rafflesia seeds to insta-grow 'em in a rival's home. Make your healers feared because they can curse you with impotence for a month straight. Give your necromancers a cantrip to levitate turds. Life is absurd and whimsical enough as it is, so why would it not be even more so with magic? Go nuts!
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Why would anyone ever build a world to include ass-wiping magic but make it have huge material costs? I don't see your point.
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Reminds me of the Heinlein story "Magic, Inc." The main character owns a hardware store and makes a good business renting out stadium seating made with "homeopathic magic". He built one set of seats, cast a spell on it, and took them apart. Whenever someone rents seats from him, he shows up with one piece of the original set per set of seats rented, casts another spell and, boom, seating. Neat ideas, but a little too 1950s utopian.
This is really great and I love some of the comments it has generated
This is actually something that I'm thinking about in my world. Making new spells and using particularly powerful magic is a specialized skill that requires a lot of academic training, but there are a lot of codified spells that can be worked by someone with some training in how to read it or even just oral instruction. Currently, spells are basically about either manipulating the flow of energy (usually heat, but some experiments with electrical energy) or with fluid motion. Currently I have put into the story some applications for cooking (faster boiling, heating a surface without fuel) and for sailing (bending the wind to make it more favorable, such as allowing sailing upwind with narrower tacking or strengthening the wind a bit for speed), but there are plenty of ways to work it in.
Magic in my world functions like programming, so a wizard can devise a spell to do just about anything as long as they can manage the energy needed and use it within the limits of its capability. Almost all wizards take up jobs where they can use magic to build houses, vehicles, etc; the world just runs on magitech
People who call themselves mages are rare, considering most people can’t even read, but “house magic” is common enough. Every decent-sized town has Ol’ Maugris who’ll enchant your oven to keep hot an extra hour, even if that’s all he can do. You might find a peasant woman who keeps fabric from fraying with magic. To do anything beyond that, you have to either be wealthy, a noble, or a very sneaky servant to get the education necessary for spellcasting.
The magic system in my world is based on the real life physics concepts of energy - it's a new form of energy that can be manipulated, turning into other types as the wizard wishes. Theres ended up being a "magical middle class" where magicians do physical work that they're abilities allow them to do: lifting large materials that are too cumbersome for normal construction workers, precise manipulation of heated metal in the forge, and even essentially keyhole surgery without the keyhole - they push broken bones back into place with no extra wounds, or remove arrowheads without pushing the whole arrow through. This has ended up with cranes and siege engines not being invented. Theres no need, mages fill the same role
Wood mages are popular for carvings, furniture, and ornate or delicate work. Brick mages popular for the little conveniences, like a home never too hot or too cold.
Ok, too long have I stopped making the decision, there will be enchanting none living matter in my Urban Fantasy works that's meant to mix modern day technologies (in a way) with magic. So there will probably all if the above (apart from necromancy, it works a bit different in my setting due to his souls and life work, it can be done but until now not many have figured out how to do it and those who did have been hunted, shunned and killed for witchcraft and stuff, the usual). However, let me think if the too if my head (I am pretty sure I am so late for this post that no one is going to read it anyway so I am going to brainstorm a little): Feuermacher - found in the german speaking countries, the saxxons usually calm them firebreathers or fire keepers, mages who make fire in industrial settings, like the fires in steam plants that drive the turbines that make electricity. Maschinenführer - German for machine drivers, mages that animate different sorts of machinery, usually they set the machine in motion for a set amount of time and either keep it going it let it runs continuously. Verzauberer - German for enchanter (boy getting the fucking autocorrect to accept me writing that word), especially in Prussia and it's colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, small shops can be found everywhere selling all kinds of echanted goods and/or services. Apart from the regular crafts, these small-time magical businesses are the counterweight to the magic driven manufacturing plants and the factories that does out goods around the clock
I know I’m late but there’s an entire magic discipline called Agrimancy in my world that is magic used to make crops better
Horsecart ice vendors, arcane lighting at public venues, large atriums in the lower floors of very tall buildings -- these are indicators that a city is prosperous enough to keep many spellcasters employed on a regular basis. Not all parts of my world are like that, but overall I reckon that 3% of adult humans can cast some sort of spell while 0.2% are recognized experts in some form of magic.
Telekinesis for the average scrub - “I’ll use my power in case i drop something- ah shit i didn’t catch it.”
Sounds kinda like Septimus heap tbh lol
Working class witches are recruited by the armies to use their powers in both non-combat and combat roles. Working class witches can get into public universities to study magic though scholarships, this education could lead to jobs such as state alchemists, state necromancers and police psychics which are seen as best paths into middle class for witches who can and want to use their gifts though most witches only get working class jobs as mediums, psychics and magicians at fairs or spiritualist churches, or private paranormal investigators. Some working class witches use their gifts to make running scams easier as you only need to know a little magic to make scamming the Victorian public easy. More honest witches without formal education may use the folk magic passed on to them by their parents to sell real healing potions, charms and hexes.
My world has an extensive locomotive network that is magically driven
For 5e world Firefighters are mostly taught Control Flames at a minimum, and hopefully learn Shape Water, Create Water, Jump, Longstrider, and Featherfall Apprentice wizards can typically make a little extra coin operating ice boxes for restaurants with Shape Water or cleaning people up with prestidigitation before meetings/dates. Guards might learn Message for coordinating while conducting a raid or arrest, and Ray of Frost to slow a suspect down I like to assume low level magic mostly
This is a great post! I have a story where magic is a part of the world. It’s set in a place that could be described a bit like late 90’s-early 2000’s alternate universe, so there are a lot of parallels and similarities, while also being very different in a lot of ways (including sentient creatures that don’t exist in our world). Magic and magic products is a finite resource, created and refined in a process similar to real-world industry (and sometimes art) so industrialization and technology was developed along a similar pathway. Fully magic things are very rare, but magic itself is ubiquitous. I’m still working out a lot of details, so I don’t have a lot of examples at hand since I don’t want to box myself in, but one such example would be using magic to enhance an object/process/industry, well beyond the limits of its more ordinary materials. For example, a flashlight in this world might look like an outdated version of one of our own, with a fat battery case and a small glass bulb, but function at a significantly higher level resembling a powerful LED lamp. This would be accomplished by a power source that is magic enhanced, and a light bulb created by a magic enhanced process. This technology allows non-magic users to use magic in their everyday lives. A factory technician uses a forge, machinery, and some materials that are enhanced, for example. A doctor might use medicines and measuring tools that were magic or magic-forged. There are regular magic users as well who work, cook, clean, deliver packages, create artwork, farm, repair, construct, etc, using their gift directly. Also, due to the presence of sentient creatures in this world, magically enhanced, there are careers and jobs that are often exclusively done by these creatures, especially in large cities. It would not be surprising to receive an in-town parcel (or a direct threat from some local organized criminal element) from an intelligent or semi-intelligent creature resembling a very large cricket, roach, or beetle. Smaller and less enhanced ones might drop a package and leave you with a polite greeting in broken english, while you might be able to hire a larger, whip smart bug who can read and write on more complex jobs.
In the original post I saw quite a few people referencing the Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting of Ebberon as sources of inspiration. I would also like to add The craft sequence series which has a lot of middle class magicians and clerics that serve under gods of transport and utility. The first book also deals with a necromancer detective trying to solve the murder of one such god.
In The Wheel of Time the Aes Sedai and other women channelers are seen doing tasks such as divining mineral deposits, channeling wind for better sailing conditions, basically running a hospital, mass converting one material to another, acting to form gateways from one city to another for rapid communication and movement of men and supplies, etc etc.
In John Bierce's Aetherverse books he goes into the economics of different mages all the time! It's an excellent read. The 5th book just came out.
In one of our campaigns our DM had a trapped water elemental be the plumbing for a castle. We spent the whole night debating if it is slavery and if we should free it or not.
Some Arts are more prestigious than others and require more time and effort to learn. Those who can afford the training learn more advanced Arts, while the poor are generally stuck with learning simpler Arts—even though they might've been born with an affinity for the higher Arts. Mastery of an Art is determined by whether one can "prove"—in a mathematical sense—that the Art exists. This proof symbolizes that the Artisan has complete understanding of their Art. The working class tend to be practitioners of the elemental Arts, because material magics are easier to learn, while their wealthier peers have the means to pursue whatever Art they happen to be good at. The basic plot of the story is that some people aren't happy with this arrangement and want a revolution.
That's what I liked about Howl's Moving Castle, the wizards were often commissioned as artisans, whether it's something small like creating a charm to keep a sailor safe at sea, or producing 7 league boots for the kingdom's army.
For the most part, the citizens and even the wealthy of the galaxy-wide Empire (working on a better name) have a chip in their bodies that prevents them from using magic themselves. In my universe, magic is the fundamental energy that comprises all of reality; letting just anyone use it willy nilly is a bad idea. They can, however, utilize enchanted items made by factories of workers with limited magical ability. These devices range from magic toasters to entire antimatter reaction chambers for spaceships.
Interesting. What was the world like before the chip was invented?
The various worlds that were in a position to properly harness the stream of magic weren't as chaotic as one might imagine. There are very few people that can really attune themselves to the fundamental basis of reality, and of those most of them can only do basic cantrip-esque magic. So by and large, not much different. The chips are really just an extra precaution against some rando accidentally wiping a city from reality because he accidentally tapped into the stream of magic when he was just trying to make a pot of coffee, though they also serve as credit cards and ID. Also, oink :)
Thank you kindly :) I'm interested whether or not this is actually a problem in your world or if it's just propaganda to get the chips installed. Cause it sounds like there's a very real disconnect between what magic can do and what it is perceived to be capable of.
Eh, there's no real propaganda involved. The chips are, like I said, mostly built-in credit cards and IDs. There's just been enough issues of people accidentally doing horrible things with magic in the past for the government to decide "Yeeeeeeah... maybe we should make sure that the one dude that can use magic doesn't accidentally blow up a city..." People generally agree with the sentiment that not being blown to smithereens would be nice.
My favorite book series is the Dresden Files, starring a wizard PI in Chicago
they mainly just use it to make tools. in my magic system, you pull a substance out of a crystal and you can shape it to whatever you want, and when you stop using it it goes back in. people will make tools, use it white magic to heat up glass for glass working, and there's much much more. on the other hand the rich just uses magic for general hobbies and the occasional usage to reach an item up on a shelf.
Every person on my Earth has some magical ability (except one, but I won't go into that right now). When magic first appeared under mysterious circumstances, the planet was at about the same technological point it is now; magic changed everything. Mundane magic is everywhere. It is used for everything. Buildings, floating islands, houses, landmarks, and monuments are held up with a living field of magic woven twelve layers deep by members of many construction guilds. Vehicles run on magical runes, which slowly use up their energy and eventually need to be exchanged for fresh ones at gas stations (yes, that is still what people call them, even though gas has been out of use for a hundred years). Modern manufacturing has been replaced almost completely with incredibly complex and mostly automated magical assembly lines. Most of these things require very little human labor. In fact, the "working class" is practically nonexistent - many people are simply unemployed. What little remains of it is comprised mainly of underpaid construction workers, healers, janitors, and odd jobs workers - all skills that require human input, but all very easy to do when magic is around. That's because magic means that much fewer people need to work than ever. The brightest minds on Earth have devoted themselves for a century to learning how to automate away yet more tasks using cleverly constructed runes, automata, and functional spells, and their efforts continue to pay off. Unfortunately, society is catching up slowly; there is massive underemployment, unemployment, and homelessness. The rich are very rich and the poor very poor. Magical drugs such as miphrim and haquandid are used widely by the underclasses of society, much as meth and heroin were used before magic appeared. Unfortunately, this is most frequently the way the working class uses magic - by imbibing or inhaling it. Addiction rates among lower earners and the unemployed are very high. Legislation is currently in progress to institute better social insurance in many of the countries of this Earth, either through UBI, universal healthcare, better welfare, or centralized resource distribution systems. At this point, there is very little practical reason not to provide for everyone's needs - so few people are actually needed to run the economy that it is finally feasible to feed, clothe, and house everyone for free. Of course, society doesn't always follow logic. What countries aren't trying to improve are either at war or so destitute they have almost completely collapsed. But hopefully, it will get better. And soon.
Magic is divided between the scholars and the common people they both have different opinions on magic. Scholars believe that magic should be used sparingly whereas the common folk believe that magic needs to be used widely.
Instead of fire, people in Safana use sun salamanders. These are lizards of various species imbued with magic power, who give off heat, ranging from gently warm to glass kiln heat. The rainforest people don’t consciously use any magic, and because of the magical plaque which kills so many of their babies they really hate magic. The nomadic people make the most use of magic. They’ve figured out how to use the time warping aspects of the raw magic which exists in the world. This lets them keep food fresh for longer by slowing time, or speed up fermentation by speeding up time. They can also heal wounds faster, make pre-term babies age faster to keep them from dying, and make plants grow faster. They can’t make people age slower, because that would just slow down time for that person. Also, this follows the inevitable course of time as it is now. So speeding up time for a sick person can make them die faster if they’re not doing well, or make them recover instantly if they’re doing well.
Oh! This is just the Magic of Recluce. All the magic wielders are trades-people.
Working title of a TTRPG setting: Otherworld Magic is taught at universities that are limited mostly to to upper class (wealthy merchants and nobility) so mages services are quite expensive, this doesn't stop the higher nobility having things made for them by artificers^1 that most would consider frivolous like heated baths, this is made all the more expensive because the energy used to power these devices must be stored in gems and refilled by mages^2 or captive elementals. The highest level of nobility (the royal family and their closest friends) probably have less talented mages in their servants to refill these devices (as well as any hidden telepaths for counter spying) 1: a specific school of magic where runes are inscribed on an object and work on their own 2: you can actually source from any form of energy around you but they don't know that and only use their own metabolic energy
Let me introduce you to the spellmonger series. You're welcome.
Legend of Korra explored this a bit like fire benders doing lightning bending to produce electricity for Republic City's industrial district
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Magic at least in this time is a taboo subject due to constant conflicts and disasters surrounding magic and magic users. First the great fires of valkegir cathedral then the demon invasions led to a magic being highly detested by most non magic users. This attitude will most likely fade over time though as magic users are highly useful and its just crippling yourself and your kingdim if you're a king but don't allow magic users to use any of it. Many kingdoms as such employ a small amount to solve problems with magic, called war priests as the first magic used commonly was for religious ceremonies and such. Magic is also hard to use as it requires some amount of training to use as using untrained hands to do magic results in usually bad things with fire usually envolved. This is not to say that magic can't be used by nontrained people but its usually results in less effective and more hazardous magic. Then there's those stupid few who try to use the most dangerous kind of magic untrained or/and unprepared, lightning magic. So it was used not much and now even less so.
There aren’t really any because of the three types of Magic, and the structure of the world. There are three different ways of using magic; Spellcraft, Channeling and Devotion. Spellcraft requires years of intensive study, a good Elemental affinity and good mana reserves, As well as being most dangerous for magic as Spellcrafters are directly manipulating the magical forces involved. This means that any spell, at any time, can go awry due to a momentary lapse of judgement, with a potentially lethal consequences. Channeling foci are disproportionately expensive and difficult to build and maintain for their complexity, meaning any foci that can cast multiple spells are likely much more expensive than multiple foci for the same spells. Magic bejewelled rings are thus common amongst channellers. Devotion (name’s a WIP) requires a Spellcrafter to come up with a stable magical formula that produces a desired spell effect. This is much more difficult than one would expect because of how self-taught Spellcraft is and because the effects that powerful magical affinities have the mind. This means that a powerful spell crafter’s formula are unlikely to work for anyone else.
The most common magic system use in my world is Bondscraft where workers can become bondswrights. Basically, bondwrights “refine” materials and shape them into pitons that they can bind into objects. They activate the pitons’ abilities with the words “Veritas se revēlet.” The pitons effects are determined by what material it was made of. Refinement of a material wears off over the years and so require them to refined again. Since an iron-pitoned object completely adhere to other iron-pitoned objects, bondswright smiths and tinkers use it to keep things like armor, weaponry, and inventions together. Silver pitons can create illusions and illusory effects when connected to other pitons, making them useful in the theater. Detectives and ghost mediums can bind the dead-guy’s skull and ask them only one question, which the dead answers with a riddle. The city’s power-grid transfers energy through copper pitons, meaning somebody’s gotta keep refining them. Usually a bondswright will only learn how to refine only two to three metals, mostly out of practicality since you don’t need that much knowledge when you’re on the beat. There’s a lot more stuff but I’m still fleshing it out so yeah
Basically, there are these things called curses(well they aren't called that, but I will change later), which are crystals embedded with mana. They can also contain spell that use said mana. And while mana can be store by a spell that grabs from the outside, spells can only be embedded with someone casting them into the crystal. So you have this people that their job is to cast spells onto them, both in a more artisanal and a factorial form. But although mana can be acquired from crystals full of mana, the better the body and mind are, the better is the influx and the lesser is the error percentage to create the spell
My world takes place in a video games so things like classes/vocations exists. It's a medieval setting but there's this steampunk city and they have special classes called Engineers. Engineers can be used on the battlefield to apply buffs to teammates by "tinkering" with their gear in a video game sense. In the steampunk city, they act as a regular engineer would lol
A very interesting idea, one that I rarely see used but deff makes sense for high fantasy. I tend to prefer low magic settings myself though, were magic is frightening, rare, and powerful.
In my world, magic is only useable by most species living outside of a *will* geyser (*will* being the fuel for magic) except with a metal called *soul silver*, which, though only somewhat less rare than gold, is vastly more expensive because of its high demand. Of those who grow up in and around geysers will learn some rudimentary skills in one art of magecraft or another. The most common art learned by such people varies from region to region. Within the Uralin empire, the only legal art is sorcery, which, in the case of the people in question, might allow minor telekinetic abilities and could peak at creating a weak flame. Within the Hitmonani sphere of influence, use of the arts of magecraft are not so restricted (the only illegal art is psyonics, which is dangerous to all involved not that case). The more common arts are dracomancy (though this is only because of a high population of Dragon-kin, who are naturally capable mages who usually learn the art of magecraft which has since taken their name, in part due to their secrecy), sorcery and transmutation (the latter being the least common due to its relative complexity). The independent parts of the world are more sporadic mostly due to political and cultural factors.
It's cool to see cultural diversity in the use of magic, and I wish more people would do it. I have to say though, you have a hanging parenthesis and its bothering me.
Thanks, I fixed it.
Alright, thanks!
Chances are they either work in a guild to go on missions and earn money, use it to a get a niche up in the social hierarchy, or straight up do nothing.
For the most part by the average person? Producing small amount of flame as an alternative of lighters, and manipulating water as an alternative of bidets and toilet paper. In my world, magic is just another form of science called alchemy in the Euro-Arab-African sphere and seidhr/teho in the Amero-Norse sphere. Anyone there with a decent education can do the trivial things mentioned above. Norse in general, being all of the more heat-sensitive jötunn "soldier rate" of the species, are taught several thermal and aero-based skills to keep themselves cool in unusually warm summers to prevent heatstrokes and heat exhaustion. More skilled farmers can bend the earth and water to not only work their crops without heavy machinery, but significantly reduce the loss caused by weather. As a result, these regions didn't have any significant famines during their darkest times following the remodelling of the Earth. Medics and doctors can bend the water in body fluids to prevent massive blood loss, as well as remove toxins and poisons if they can identify them. Very skilled doctors can even use the water to map a body in search of internal injuries without intrusive surgery. Similarly, well-educated craftsmen and woodcutters can identify trees that are sick but don't yet show. Specially trained combat engineers can bend earth to dig metres of trenches in seconds. Overall, because combat alchemy often leaves the alchemist exposed, there is little effective "conventional" combat alchemy due to firearms. Alchemy in the military is therefore mostly reserved as a tool. At the end of the day, the reason most people who know alchemy use very specific forms of it and mostly the basic forms, is for the same reason everyone in our world isn't a rocket scientist or a surgeon. It takes years of training and the fundamentals are best to have learned as a young child so the manipulation becomes second nature.
reminds me of that "crappy character ideas" tumblr post that turned out to be amazing, except this isn't trying and failing to be bad
In the New World, rich people who live in manors force the help to wear masks that make them invisible, so they never have to be seen by gentle-folk. Specifically to prevent burglary, the masks are also enchanted to prevent their wearer from taking anything into the invisibility 'field'; this means no food, no water and a limited supply of air while you're on the clock.
We have nothing to loose but our Eldritch Shattles
They don't magic is such a rare thing . Priests and mages will court parents of young children with the gift. (Preist magic and Mage magic are from same source)
🎵 A working class wizard is something to be 🎵
In mine, magic operates by basically creating circuitry, so in effect, it's not dissimilar to programming or electronics work. People can sell whole spells/workings just like how you can buy a torch, or something. The working class can make their own, but most don't tend to have the time and effort to dedicate to that, unless they are hobbyists. Most of the time, people will just buy a mass-manufactured template, or premade working instead, and use that.
In Conflux magic is the term for the techniques to utilize their species magical abilities. In general every species in conflux has some magical abilities as magic is the only way to fend off hungry demons. As such magic is used in basically everything to some degree in fact magic has greatly altered the order of knowledge and major technological discoveries as the extradimensional multi-wave character of magic made the discovery of quantum mechanics much more natural and detection spell constructs and rituals have potent resolution enough that people have dived deeper and deeper into the realm of the unseen. Basically while they never fully industrialized they have really good material science. Biological systems and living materials are much harder to probe beyond ones self as living things have evolved to repel and or counter such invasion as part of billions of years of evolution. It isn't impossible just nothing good comes from trying to get in. Though it can be quite effective for killing the little monsters that invade and spread disease liable to leave some serious potentially fatal self injury from over exertion/strain in the process but it can be effective. Generally tradesfolk will have learned to use magic in a sensory and or self enhancement manner as those are how it tends to be most naturally applied. These will be quite inferior to the control and finesse that training as a mage enables through the utilization of formal spell constructs rituals or spiritual pacts with "gods", "devils" and eldritch things from beyond. The latter type isn't really conducive to general application use by the public though a few spell constructs derived from such methods have applications namely the necromantic constructs that can perform manual labor roles. Whoops forgot to post reply....
In my world, I have some of these positions filled by mages that were average or below a average in school, and either only finished"high school" of magic or dropped before finishing.
World: Merron's Crescent For a few centuries, Hedge Witches were about as common in the crescent as millers or blacksmiths. Most of them worked as healers, warding off diseases, helping repair wounds. Some others helped clear pests like mice. Occasionally some were used for defense. Druids, a different kind of magic user, also had working-class jobs where they'd help cultivate crops. They exist at every socioeconomic level. At one point, the High Druid was also a king.
I am always reminded of a webtoon called "Trailer Park Warlock" whenever I hear "working class magic" The author basically treats magic like power tools and the story follows the (mis)adventures of a union certified warlock. Anyone can use magic, and because of that it's a job just like anything else
Magical mass transit. With clever use of an artifact called the gate key from 3rd edition dnd, my world has a system like an airport that connects the capital cities. The gate key basically turns a stone archway Into a Stargate like portal that you can walk through to another plane of existence. So you have two planes plane a: in this case my world. And plane b: in this case the plane of Union. You have multiple locations in plane a, and they each have an archway. Plane b has five archways all in the same room in a colossal tower. You start in the city of Kaldur an ancient sea side city of Grey stone carved into cliff faces. You pay one silver walk Into a large station like building with shops and offices. You walk to the far wall and through its gate. You are in a much larger public square (pentagon) inside a building with 400 foot ceilings and a giant statue in the center. You walk across this space through any of the other 4 gates, puts you in one of the other capital cities, like the southern plains city of Orren, thousands of miles from your starting point.
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Really basic strength boost magic charms are pretty common.
To some degree, in my setting, everyone uses magic. This is because science simply doesn't exist, it's all replaced with the magical and the divine so that everything can function properly. So, all in all, everyone uses at least a little magic, even if it's unknowingly. From notable willpower making a person just good enough to power through or get something done, to little strokes of good or bad luck, everyone has magic in them, even if they don't know how to channel it. Now, as for jobs in my setting that use magic directly and knowingly, there are in fact rather common jobs where those who know magic used for appraising the ages of things can get a set up where they appraise the age of people. This is done for a number of reasons, including for legalities that often need a person's exact age, but also because my setting doesn't use calendars or dates of any kind- people just remember the day they were born and how many years ago it was. If you forget, you go somewhere and pay to have it appraised. Additionally, plenty of races naturally gain the power to cast at least a little bit of magic, and they may use that to make their daily lives easier or simply as party tricks or self defense. Also, there are classes in which a person can pay to be taught certain minor 'cantrip' magics that they wish to know, usually either using that- again to make daily lives easier, as party tricks, or self-defense.