When the real world and D&D magic collide.

[roseembolism]

In a recent discussion thread the question was brought up: visualize a modern world where D&D magic was developed in the middle ages. After considering what D&D magic is capable of, my personal view is that it would resemble nothing like either our world or the standard D&D world. For example, consider the effects of:


1431: Roun France
Joan of Arc: "You. Are going to burn. Me. Me. Do you want fire? Here's some fire- FIRE STORM! And while we're at it (summon) Talk to the Arcon about God and heresy."

(High level clerical spells and summonings could easily start, or end a crusade, and have really strange effects on religion.)


1512: Italy
Machiavelli: (hand gesture) "You will stop supporting the Medici's attack against Florence."
Pope Julius II: "I will stop supporting the Medici's attack against Florence."
Machiavelli: (hand gesture) "You will appoint me as your personal adviser."
Pope Julius II: "I will appoint you as my personal adviser."

(The effects of Dominate, Charm Person and similar spells can't be understated in completely warping he political state of the world. Just consider how many events in history could have been changed if a single ruler had decided other than he did.)


1540; Germany
Martin Luthor: "How DARE the Papists monopolize Healing Altars and Hero's Feasts for the wealthy! My Healing Altars and Hero's Feast Altars will serve everyone for free!"

(The ability to create magical devices will have the greatest effect on the world. It's possible in 3.X to create immobile chargeless at-will devices for spells up to True Resurrection. Sure they would be expensive, but the ability to bring back any deceased with no ill effect would massively change warfare, and the costs could be amortized over thousands of people. Similar devices for curing diseases could render plagues irrelevant, and at-will Heroes' Feasts devices could render most agriculture redundant.)


1505: Florence
Leonardo de Vinci: "And so we see by guiding the stream of water from the Decanter of Endless Water against the vanes of the screw, we have a source of motive power for pumps, cranes, carriages and an endless assortment of other devices. In fact, I am now working on a self-propelled balloon which will..."

(I've mentioned before that medieval and Renaissance engineers were very talented and ingenious in their own right, and their main limitations in construction were materials and power. Magic eliminates those restraints. Spells like Fabrication and Wall of Stone could revolutionize construction and engineering.)


In other words, very shortly the world will look nothing at all like history. We're talking about a Renaissance Singularity where the major limitations of the era are eliminated, and the political landscape subject to shifting at the whim of people with the right spells. And I think that considering what powerful magic could do to change pre-industrial Europe may be useful in thinking about creating unique fantasy worlds, and making them look more unique than a faux-medieval Europe.

So does anyone have any ideas of what bizarre things do you think could come out of a D&D/Historical Renaissance?

Comments

[seawasp]

Again, though, depends on the frequency of magical capability, and is looking on the positive without remembering the negative.

On my world of Zarathan (my main FRPG setting and part of my main writing world, mentioned once in Digital Knight and the central location in my partially completed "Balanced Sword" trilogy, which I hope to see published one day), there are or were things like flying ships (airplanes), teleport gates, etc., but a lot of these get balanced out or negated by opposing magicians and gods. Teleportation is ... REASONABLY safe, but it's less so for major characters/beings because their attempts to bend space and time will be subject to a lot more attention. Just a LITTLE interference with a teleport can have Bad Effects.

There are still farmers, etc., but what they DO have are charms which are as good or better than our best fertilizers, etc., enabling them to produce a lot more, reliably, on less ground.

However, what you DON'T have are countries as we know them. "Countries" like the State of Elbon Nomicon or the Empire of the Mountain are, in actuality, a long string of cities with islands of relative safety and stability around them, connected by roads that are enchanted and well defended, but mostly with what amounts to variable wildernesses between them. The largest city on Zarathan is probably Zarathanton (the human name; the Ancient Sauran/Dragon name for it is Fanalam' T' ameris' a' u' Zahr-a-Thana T'ikon), and it's probably got between 150,000 to 200,000 people in it. Possibly as much as twice that, but no more.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

The rarity and power of magic will indeed be key. One reason I picked D&D magic (besides the familiarity) is it's both common (anyone with an above-average Int can apparently learn it) and extremely powerful for magic systems. Something like Gloranthan magic would have a very widespread, but much less drastic effect, and Ars MAgica style magic would probably disappear. ;')

And I do want to read your Balanced Sward trilogy one day. It sounds interesting.

[seawasp]

Well, how COMMON it is in D&D is actually GM's choice. A *PC* can choose to be a mage, but then, it's assuming that the PC has the talent, period, and that spell selection is the only constraint guided by INT. You've got to be bright enough to cast it no matter what your talent.

However, a GM could (and I do) rule that in the GENERAL population the percentage with the talent to become a full-blown wizard (as opposed to learning simple cleaning cantrips) is very, very low.

Similarly, how many people the gods choose to actually bestow their powers upon could be very small.

The Balanced Sword trilogy begins with "Fall of Saints" -- I have that one done. I posted some sections of it in my LJ some time ago.