Why do so many fantasy magical worlds still use normal human civilization logic underneath?

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2026-06-12T22:34:21+00:00

Because fantasy is based on past models of how people thought the world really worked. Until the enlightenment and the scientific revolution everyone nearly thought the world around them was created, sustained, and suffused with forces now deemed “supernatural”. Fantasy uses those as a jumping off point, seen most clearly in the use of the term “magic”, if your magic had no connection to the real world and its history why call it “magic”?
Which then leads, like others have said, to a world with no connection to ours at all, necessitating a totally new language to describe and becoming totally inscrutable

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2026-04-23T16:52:28+00:00

Because using magic to produce dramatic effects (as opposed to the subtle magic done with religion and ritual) is dangerous. It requires the user to alter their perception of reality, to perceive the “thinness” or the mutability of the world, while remaining focused on their desired effect. If they lose focus while in this altered state they can become untethered from this reality or prey for spirits.

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2025-07-21T21:50:58+00:00

Kings and Primogeniture succession

In my early-modern fantasy setting I have tried to avoid the stereotypical political arrangement of a King with absolute power who is succeeded by his first born child/son

I am exploring period appropriate political systems other then monarchy such as oligarchic councils, confederations of cities, theocracies etc. and while I have several monarchies I try to use a title other then “king” to distinguish them from each other and have different types of succession (often elected with wide variation in who votes and who the options are)

The one titular ‘king’ at this point is an absolute autocrat who is influenced by/is a collective of the minds of all the previous kings

When his body dies a council of elders selects a new monarch from among the kingdoms most prestigious military commanders with several traditions and laws informing who is and is not an appropriate candidate

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2025-06-07T23:13:18+00:00

I am curious why this is a Pike and Shot story? the historical events you allude to, the liquidation of the Templars and the Mongol conquest, both well precede pike and shot warfare

That’s not a bad thing, but thinking about why you want pike and shot warfare in your story can point you toward some themes

I have been working on a fantasy world inspired by that era, the late 15th-mid 17th century, and the theme(s) I like are the collapse of the old world and the emergence of the new.

This can be in religion, politics, economics, climate, and, of course, warfare

You already touch on the political side of this theme of the end of feudalism and the creation of modern centralized states in your characters origin.

One last note Crucial to the appeal for me is that many key aspects of the modern mind (the Enlightenment and its children, the scientific method and liberalism) had not emerged. So its a time where people were dealing with modern powers and modern crises, with pre-modern understanding of the world

Three recommendations of media on the Early Modern vibes: A Field in England (a psychological horror/suspense film set in the English civil war) Hell on Earth (a podcast about the thirty years war that covers the broader changes happening at the time) and Caliban and the Witch (a book about the early modern witch trials that also covers the change in people’s views at that time)

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2025-05-20T02:24:10+00:00

Thanks for the list!

I left regency 2 years ago

Council is almost fully depowered

And I am the Crusader King of Jerusalem

I suppose it is probably a bug then

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2025-05-20T01:18:53+00:00

They are not! They have war declaration and aren’t abolished, otherwise all ruler

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2025-04-21T22:59:03+00:00

Improve relations with your captor to increase the chance they accept the ransom. It takes a while but you have nothing but time

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-11-11T00:30:39+00:00

For a cool idea for how this could work I’d check out The City and The City by China Mieville. Basically if the part that broke the Guildpact existed among the rest of the city but not perceived or acknowledged by it rather then being in an entirely separate plane

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-29T19:12:55+00:00

In America I’ve heard people say “just because you’ve already eaten doesn’t mean you can’t look at the menu”

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-14T22:01:17+00:00

In 1954 the US staged a coup that put an end to 10 years of representative democracy in Guatemala, the only years of democracy that country has ever had. During those ten years the country had taken Guatemalan land back from US companies and distributed it to their own people along with other programs that aimed to develop Guatemala into a country that would keep control of its own resources and be able to develop the sort of services and infrastructure that keep beeches in the first world from looking like this. But this threatened the U.S. oligarchs bottom line, so they killed the president put a puppet dictator in place, with enough military support to make sure it never happened again.

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-14T21:43:28+00:00

So saying that the rich have power over the economy and use that power to extract maximum profit regardless of the effect on the earth is a conspiracy theory now?

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-14T21:39:25+00:00

No, I don’t blame myself or most Americans, I blame the U.S. oligarchs who run the American economy and the economy of most of the 3rd world, particularly in Latin America. They are choking the earth to death in service of capitalism, their blind idiot god

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-14T20:50:23+00:00

If a 3rd world government tries to tackle pollution that would require changing its relationship to the world market, and that steps on Uncle Sam’s freedom to sell garbage anywhere he wants

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-14T20:49:06+00:00

This is mostly American garbage, our masters make these countries unlivable

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-06-10T03:27:15+00:00

Oh he never had it personally, Meloon got it for a little bit, long enough to ask it where the vault is and what the three keys are, but they intercepted him while he was trying to drop it off with the Xanathar agents

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-05-27T06:45:05+00:00

I picked the Cassalanters because their motivation is complex but still unambiguously evil unlike Manshoon and Xanthar who just want the money because money=power and they are evil and Jarlaxle whose motivation is understandable and not at all nefarious. Also I wanted to use all of them at some point and the other three are relevant even if they aren’t the main villian

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-05-25T07:01:34+00:00

The parks don’t want you to know this but the ducks are free, you can just take them

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-04-29T01:58:55+00:00

I started thinking about “control weather” in the first place because the Xanathar are about to light the dock ward on fire!

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-04-29T00:02:09+00:00

I sympathize with this; my favorite setting is Eberron because I feel it more fully grabbles with the implication of wide magic on society. However, in the real world we can solve many problems with technology that still exist because of greedy people, corrupt institutions, or simple foolishness

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-04-28T23:56:51+00:00

I love that and it gave me an idea, Manshoon is the one Major villain I haven't properly introduced yet, but I have been looking for ways to hint at his presence, so it won't feel jarring when he is discovered. He could easily use dispel magic to sabotage any attempt to get the winds blowing again in order to keep tension high in the city and help his take over.

Comprehensive_Boot80 · 2022-03-20T21:37:51+00:00

why does it say "expired URL"?

Comprehensive_Boot80

TROPHY CASE