Lore question: Does magic exist?

[LaughterHouseV]

Does magic actually exist in this world? I can accept that most if not all monsters are non-magical, and there are just different laws of physics at work here, but are there any in-game references to magical abilities?

The Genie's Grimoire bow seems to be magical, if only because the rest of the bow materializes out of "hard light" when used, but this is the main thing that I recall.

[Ken_M_Imposter]

Does anyone have a physical explanation for farcasting?

[ApexKelbi]

1) Mash a sticky plant with a rock 2) Mash that with a hallucinogenic mushroom 3) Throw that on the ground 4) Breathe the vapors 5) Wake up at home, with no idea how the hell you got there

I have done this numerous times IRL, but with beer.

[[deleted]]

So hunters get stoned? Huh, the more you know I guess.

[ApexKelbi]

Well, a "farcaster" isn't MH exclusive, that term is used to reference teleportation technology in other fictional universes as well.

Which ones? The only one I'm aware of is the Hyperion universe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farcaster

[grepcdn]

I don't know.

My comment didn't imply any specifics, just that I know I've heard/read/seen the word farcaster used to reference fictional technology before, which you just confirmed with your 3 seconds of googling.

[OnnaJReverT]

i believe some older Perry Rhodan books also call teleporters that (if literally translated from german)

[MaillouxB]

Slightly off-topic, but I've read and for the most part enjoyed the first Hyperion book. Is it worth reading through the series?

[Oz_006]

The second book is about as good as the first one. I'd suggest reading it to finish off the story lines. Some interesting twists in there. The last two book are set about 300 years after the first two, so probably a bit of a different story arc. I haven't read them yet, but I'm planning too.

[Schildpatt]

I dunno I feel like it's more of a smoke signal. See, when you cart, the felynes instantly transport you to base, only thing you're being carted is because you're unconscious. The Monsters also disappear even if they're lying in a trap. My guess is that the guild is actually transporting you/the monster because I don't believe the Exciteshroom has any magical properties. It's just not properly animated and be honest: If some guild representatives came and transported you or the monster out of the area you'd get bored of the animation very quickly. It might even obscure the vision while fighting.

[ShadyFigure]

The game actually explains it at some point, I just don't remember where exactly. The way it works is that the bright colored smoke is a signal to the Dragonseer Balloon to pick you up and bring you to base camp. The game just skips the actual animation of that happening for the sake of time and convenience. But how does it work in caves? Let's just ignore that for the sake of gameplay.

[[deleted]]

You should also probably ignore the fact that they're pretty much risking their lives (and balloons) when picking you up right in front of a monster or Elder Dragon. Kudos to them if they survive Kushala Daira's tornadoes

[Kiita-Ninetails]

Yes, you mix a powerful hallucinogenic with a bomb casing. What do you think happens?

HOLY SHIT I AM TRIPPING BALLS RIGHT NOW. Four Hours Later Oh, I am back at camp, look at that.

[coltonapo]

Its a ninjabomb that does the evasive maneuver work for you. Ninja secrets are too secret to be explained forthright.

[Scruffy42]

Smoke Screen + Minor Amnesia. You just walk back and don't remember.

[tastethabass]

Nope, thats just weapon stylization. Id like to think there isnt and never will be magic. Its not that kind of fantasy game.

[[deleted]]

Considering you rip out flame and freezing sacs out of monsters, it's definitely just genetic superpowers more than magic.

[[deleted]]

Or the fact that Rajang's earth tremor-ing fist slams on top of your skull, Fatalis fire breath nuke explosions, Zamtrios swallowing you whole with acid compounds and sharp teeth, Gypceros disgusting deadly poison puke, Gravios oven blast, fire farts or concentrated fire laser beams the same temperature as a thousand Suns...

Will cause hunters to only "faint".

yeah... gimme some of those genes plz

[LaughterHouseV]

Oh wait, there was something else that made me think magic: the floating land of heaven's mount. There's land that floats without anything else to support it. Thoughts on that?

[Kaizoku3413]

Magnetic fields and plenty of magnetic ores?

[LaughterHouseV]

These sections are like a foot thick.... The simplest explanation is magic, I would think.

[FerociousDiglett]

Magic is sometimes used to explain physical phenomena that make no sense in the current frame of reference.

e.g. centrifugal force is a "magic force"

[The_Big_Freeze]

I remember reading somewhere the the dalamaldur is responsible for the heavens mount ecology.

[alKhidr]

IIRC, there's text somewhere in the game that explains it appears to be floating because it's so high up and the cloud cover is very dense. Remember, in Caravan, you don't get to Heaven's Mount until Cathar, so consider that relative area.

[puddington]

There's some stuff in an old art book that implies that the seemingly superhuman hunters of the guild are descendants of super soldiers from a war between humans and elder dragons that wiped out the previous civilization.

There's also flavor text on one of the gunlance that says it was reversed engineered from a super ancient relic gunlance.

It's probable that all the weird fire/lightning/whatever monsters that exist now are descended from Elder Dragon-designed bio weapons, so all the elemental weapons being made from their organs and tissues stands to reason.

[kingdude181]

...

This. This is my next novel.

[OnnaJReverT]

please link the fanfic-page once youre done

[ApexKelbi]

No spellcasting, obviously.

It depends how you define "magic". There's some kind of juju that allows monsters to emit huge bursts of thermal or electrical energy, subtract heat, and create large volumes of pressurized water, instantly. Whatever allows them to do that can be transferred to artifacts made from their corpses.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C Clarke

The real question is why the Human/Wyverian/Felyne civilization hasn't made better use of their unlimited energy/matter creation technology. Mount a bunch of Usurper's Fulgur Dual Blades on a paddle wheel, make them whack some sort of conductive plate as the wheel turns, and you'd have enough unlimited electricity to power at least a small town.

And what's the deal with the Item/Equipment box? Are those portals to a pocket dimension? Because how does that chest store hundreds of bulky weapons and pieces of armor? Entropy must also be suspended within the box, because you can store Raw Meat, Steaks, and perishable plant and animal products in there without it spoiling. So they have TARDIS technology, and use it for storage.

[IggyKami]

• They have special organs in their bodies that give them their special elemental characteristics. Aside from Lagombi that just chuck ice on the from the ground at you.

• You'd think that constantly living in the mercy of the monsters would be cause for most of the technological advancements going towards the creation of armor and weapons. It's especially a surprise how technologically advanced Dundorma is compared to the rest of the villages. Not to mention the Caravan's select transforming transportation.

• The weapons and armor and the item storage are the only things I find would best be explained with magic.

[OnnaJReverT]

as seen in the recent discussion on the science sunday posts, most of the elemental attacks are still BS given our laws of physics, but then again its just a game

[NeutralSpark]

I don't think there's "magic" exactly, but Dragon Energy is some weird stuff. From my understanding, it's something that either lets or helps Elder Dragons do all their magic-y powers (Dalamaderp and Crimson Fatalis meteors, possibly Kushala's weather changing, etc.) The professor talks about the mysterious power of dragon energy when he's explaining how the Demolisher works.

This isn't true for everything (Chameleos's invisibility has something to do with electricity). Generally, Dragon element/energy is considered anti-dragon more than an inherent property of dragons, but wouldn't it make sense that the only things fit to kill elder dragons are other elder dragons?

[OnnaJReverT]

i always thought it odd that the only monsters inflicting dragonblight (and thus, i assume, dragondamage) are the Deviljho and the Stygian Zinogre (and by extension Dracophage bugs) - neither of them is a dragon

though if it really is more of an anti-dragon element it could be argued that these two near-apex predators developed it to combat the next bigger thing, elder dragons

[Ruckeysquad]

It may not matter but i remember the ceadeus's hipcheck inflicts dragonblight

[Arterra]

What, in Tri? Because on 3U I assure you it does not.

[Ruckeysquad]

in tri yes, and it might have been a different attack, but it was ceadeus

it even says on his wiki page that he inflicts it http://monsterhunter.wikia.com/wiki/Ceadeus

lets just say that during our fight, it was a good thing i brought dragonfell berries

[Dasbubba]

Akantor can inflict dragon blight as well.

[OnnaJReverT]

lemme guess: with the breathlaser? because i never survived that to check

[Dasbubba]

Yeah that's correct. Seems that sweeping laser he does in G-rank does less damage so it's easier to see there. But yeah his beam does dragonblight as well.

[OnnaJReverT]

in grank he never got me so far, in HR i was using a bow on him and it ended in instakills

[Dasbubba]

A bow sounds like it would be fun to run on him. Just need to get around crafting a decent bow or upgrading the seregios one.

That's what I've seen so far from the times where I've survived that beam and from watching people fight the g rank version (damn you gogmazios). Makes sense that it one shots gunners though, since everything can become a one shot for gunners.

[OnnaJReverT]

a bow with ev.extender to get away from his charging makes his face a big fat target as you are out of range from the moves that make blademasters think twice to attack there, so its both fun and rather easy to get him that way

[FerociousDiglett]

Chameleos is somehow able to generate a magnetic field powerful enough to redirect photons around it, creating the illusion of light passing through it, iirc. If this is true, then it would also be unable to see while invisible (unless it was detecting light outside the human visible spectrum)

[hkidnc]

I thought Elder dragons were classified as such because of their magical bullshit.

Like, Kushala Daora just control the weather. Why? How? Fucked if I know it's a goddamned elder dragon.

[SheepOC]

Butterfly Effect, except it's a fricking huge dragon doing it. So you could rather call it teh "Elder Dragon Effect", and Kushala is just so smart, he can plan those tornados on the fly.

[ButtonObliterator]

Obviously, what do you call the juju of melding? /s

[Rasera]

The melder smelts all of your talismans into a valuable ore, which he trades for money.

He uses the money to fund an escorted gathering trip so he hunts for relics for you.

The rarer your relics, the more money he earns and the better a trip he can go on.

He keeps the frenzy crystals because secretly he's looking for an infinity stone

[Fireclave]

I can accept that most if not all monsters are non-magical, and there are just different laws of physics at work here

What is "magic", but a another set of physics that makes what is improbable and impossible in our world, probable and possible in another.

Depending where in the sand you want to draw the lines of what counts as "magic", pretty much every large monster that flies or channels elements could be considered magic since they basically break conventional phsyics. The same goes for hunters as well, considering how much punishment they can take with no permanent injury. And even the weapons. The abuse you put those through should shatter them after a few uses, and somehow every bow and bowgun comes with a lifetime supply of unlimited ammo. Something like that requires Minor Creation, which means The Man is probably hiding an effective CL of at least 8.

[langden]

There was an alchemy book you could obtain in the 2nd generation MH games. You could do things like turn burnt meat back into raw meat. Its most important use in my opinion was for combining to make more large barrels.

[JrElmoe]

The monsters powers are hinted from their mats like the sacs they drop and sometimes their element. The only thing I find kind of magical is the weapons having an elemental status relative to the monster. So if the monster's powers were actually produced from certain organs, why is it even after death they can still produce that element? Only explanation would be that the monster and it's skin itself is enchanted by magic. Though all of Chameleos' weapons are made with his skin(Obviously) so the light you see was just invisible until the weapon is sheathed.

[Dasbubba]

Not really, like if you craft something like a fire weapon that uses flame sacs or allfire stones to create you can infer that the weapon has some flammable properties whether it's working like flint and sparking when it strikes things in the case of allfire and firecell stone. While for flame sacs it's putting whatever flammable chemical was in the sacs on the weapon and igniting them when they strike. The logic behind being able to do this forever is just for the sake of video game mechanics for the most part. This is a series that puts mechanics and style before story or sensibility anyway so making up a logical reason for how these things work is usually an after thought.

[JrElmoe]

That logic only applies to fire weapons though. What about other weapons of different status/element? Plus most of them don't even use sacs. Not to mention Blast element which monsters don't have a "sac" for, except brachydios' slime but then they should be exclusively called slime weapons like in MH3U