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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Baron Opal II" data-source="post: 8914565" data-attributes="member: 6794067">Well, that was an awful, no-good, terrible day.Magic is using chaos to shape the world according to your will.Technology is using law to shape the world according to your will.Law provides us with the natural laws. Through experimentation we can figure out how to exploit systems to do work for us. For example, channeling water over a wheel, turning an axle, performing some work. Chaos provides us with randomness and disruptive change. Through experimentation we can figure out how to change systems to do work for us. With the previous example, instead of water we animate some skeletons to turn the wheel. There are rules to the manipulation of chaos, but a person of sufficient will can sometime override them. Regardless of the amount of will a person has, they can not change natural law. Because of this there are some things that can be achieved with magic that can not be achieved by technology, and vice versa.When communicating with various entities, it might seem at first that calling B'Melekek of Gotropos IV on the holovid and summoning the Tailor in Scales of the Azurine Drifts in a special circle are the same despite superficial differences. The first principle difference is that B'Melekek is a physical being and the Tailor is spiritual. B'Melekek has a physical body, a metabolism requiring food or sustenance of some manner, and will ultimately die from trauma or old age. The Tailor is a spiritual being. Their substance is ultimately immaterial and only minimally affected by physical means or forces. When summoned the magic provides a physical body for the Tailor, which takes an appearance based on the Tailor's personality. This body is incomplete; there are sufficient muscles, bones, integument, &c. for the Tailor to productively interact with others. But, it requires no physical sustenance, and besides a primitive lungs and GI track, it has no organs besides a heart which is there for mythic reasons.But, if you are looking for lost treasure and they both have a map, is there still a difference? Aside from the means of contact, still the answer would be yes in the area of payment and enforcement. If you try to cheat the Tailor, you might find yourself in a summoning circle specially made for you. If you cheat B'Melekek, they're not able to instantly affect you three systems away, but you will have some bounty hunters sent after you.Another difference between magic and technology is ease of use. You need an engineer to design and build a rifle*, you need a wizard to design and build a wand of magic missiles. Once the engineer has the raw materials and tools, they can make the rifle whenever they wish. The wizard has to rely on a number of astrological correspondences, special woods known for their affinity for weaponry, and perhaps a sacrifice to Sagittarius for permission and aid in the endeavor. Whatever makes the gathering, infusion, and stabilization of chaos into this item. Once the item is made they can use it. The engineer can then give the plans and the rifle itself to someone else and they can build it or use it. Since the rifle relies on natural law, anyone can use it. For the wand, only someone at least minimally proficient in the managing of chaos can harness the ability. Technology allows for mass production, magic is by necessity artisinal.Going back to the OP, a lever opening a cleverly disguised portion of the wall is to me obviously an application of law, of technology. It might require some maintenance, but for narrative purposes everything looking worn or making creaking noises (if the mechanism would be percieved) when it activates would be enough.Later, super science vs. high magic.*Not wholly, but work with me for a bit.</blockquote>

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