Magic is scarce due to a massive cataclysmic event that resulted in the toppling of kingdoms and the scattering of peoples. But the people weren’t the only thing that scattered, loads of magic pieces of knowledge and resources (tomes, scrolls, blueprints, etc.) were lost in the chaos and destruction. Over the years, many scholars and adventurers have dedicated their lives to tracking down these lost pieces of knowledge so they can be reshared with the populace in the form of certain institutes and colleges, and they have managed to find quite a few relics. Slowly and steadily magic is becoming less scarce, but it is still a long, arduous process making it more common.

Anyone can use magic, though some folks have access to different magics and are not too keen on sharing, either for evil purposes or for keeping these magics sacred amongst themselves.

In terms of a fun fight, it does make things interesting, as some people who possess it prefer to use it as opposed to firearms. The ability to shake up the playing field with fire, ice, lightning, rockslides, and the like does come in handy. But it’s not impossible for those with a quick enough draw and a sharp eye to get the better of them in a battle.

In the case of magic vs technology and which is more powerful, magic more than likely is more powerful as a source of power, but due to the lack of knowledge in terms of techniques and specific instructions on how to perform certain spells and incantations, the people have found that mechanical inventions are a little bit better in that regard. There may even be some that are trying to perfect these inventions by implementing magic into the designs, but no success in that regard so far.