I was recently thinking about a variety of fantasy settings and stories in terms of how magic is treated. It seemed to me that most of the time, the most powerful and cataclysmic magic was seen as the product of the distant past, the magic of the here and now somehow considered weaker and diluted. Along with this presumption is a focus on the ‘ancients’, usually referring to ancient beings of great power who commanded great power beyond the reach of any current beings.
I was wondering if anyone had thought of a setting where the magic of the present is more powerful than what has come before. By this I mean that magic, just like anything else, has developed and been refined over the ages, without resorting to the discovery of ‘lost’ lore. Building upon thousands of years of magical knowledge, the mystics and loremasters of today have gone far beyond what was possible in the distant past. A setting like this would have to discard the presumption that magic becomes weaker as the body of standard knowledge increases (non-mystical sciences). I’m not necessarily implying a setting where high-technology co-exists with sorcery (you could still have factors that inhibit technological development), but primarily a focus on expanding magical knowledge over the ages. Instead of wizards marvelling at the power of elder and forgotten races, they could be reading ancient manuscripts and mocking the ignorance of the earliest spellcasters.
Any thoughts?
I was wondering if anyone had thought of a setting where the magic of the present is more powerful than what has come before. By this I mean that magic, just like anything else, has developed and been refined over the ages, without resorting to the discovery of ‘lost’ lore. Building upon thousands of years of magical knowledge, the mystics and loremasters of today have gone far beyond what was possible in the distant past. A setting like this would have to discard the presumption that magic becomes weaker as the body of standard knowledge increases (non-mystical sciences). I’m not necessarily implying a setting where high-technology co-exists with sorcery (you could still have factors that inhibit technological development), but primarily a focus on expanding magical knowledge over the ages. Instead of wizards marvelling at the power of elder and forgotten races, they could be reading ancient manuscripts and mocking the ignorance of the earliest spellcasters.
Any thoughts?