The Dawn of Magic: Another Way to Look at Magic's Effect on Society

[Speaker]

I've seen quite a few threads dealing with magic in society, and how things would change, how technology would be affected, how there could be healing and food for all, and so on and so forth. Brilliant discussion, with startling insights on the part of several posters.

Here's another way to look at things.

What if magic appeared tomorrow? We're looking at a typical European society that D&D seems focused so heavily on. Witch-hunts exist, but have no basis. Superstitions rule daily life. Peasants have no rights to speak of, disease is wide spread, food can get scarce from time to time, and life spans are short.

Then one day, beginning like any other, men and women throughout the world awake brimming with something completely alien and unexplainable. Strange words and visions blaze into the minds of intellectuals who write them down, creating the first of spell books. A Shepard boy blasts an attacking wolf with a fan of fire, and the sorcerer class is born. Pious clerics of faiths long forgotten feel the touch of their gods for the first time.

In the wilderness a man of the woods is beset by a wild cat, and borne to the ground. Seconds before the killing strike, the new-come magic reaches into their souls and forges between them the first bond of wild nature and humankind--the ranger. An old women in the depths of a forest, who habitually talks to the trees about her as if they are people, is surprised when they begin to move and talk back in response--the druid.

Psionics, magic, divine power. A wave of the fantastic has caught an unprepared world by surprise.

What happens next?

For the moment, let us ignore unnatural monsters (they don't exist... yet). Focus on the life of Joe Peasant who found himself capable of wielding great power that has not been seen before. Would these men and women survive the nigh inevitable confrontations with the superstitious people of the time? How soon would magic begin to effect humanity on a grand scale?

What would happen?

 

[Drawmack]

Interesting Questions.

"Would these men and women survive the nigh inevitable confrontations with the superstitious people of the time?"
Better yet what happens when some of those superstitious or religious zealots find themselves with the abilities to cast spells. I would think that in the begining many would die as a result of inquisition and witchhunt like tortures however overtime I would think that this would ebb drastically as more people understood their powers and became better at implementing them.

" How soon would magic begin to effect humanity on a grand scale?" Taking that you would probably have a good cross section of people becoming sorcerers society would be turned on it's ear. All of a sudden you'd have peasants that could take down armies. I'm thinking that this would garner a bit more respect for all people in general. However, you do have wizards learning through study and who has access to those books can be restricted. However, who would restrict it - my guess would be that the scolars themselves would control who obtained their new found power. Also the men of religion all of a sudden being able to work miracles would turn the christian based societies of mideival europe on their ears.

 

[Tonguez]

The Current Church will declare all such magic to be manifestations of the worlds Devil-figure and launch a purge against all arcane and non-official divine casters wiping them out of exisitence.

They will encourage the superstitious peasantry to hand over suspected demon-possessed, and tainted children

All and any possibility of magic outside the church will be suppressed and destroyed until only a small cabal in the Churches inner sanctum know anything of the Art

They will institute a new codified system called science which they will claim is based on rational logic and with no hint of magic involved.

Perhaps a few isolated enclaves will survive, but their history will be trivialised by the powers that be and declared to be 'fairystories'. Later as the influence of the Church begins to falter under the onslaught of science and Rational humanism idle libertines will find snippets of the old magic and apply their own weird theories to create a new-age tradition or else start calling themselves pyscics

At leasts thats what happened on Earth

 

[Justinian]

This doesn't directly address D&D magic, but the coming of magic in general. Lawrence Watt-Evans's book Night of Madness is about what happens when the power of warlockry (basically telekinesis and other psychic powers) suddenly appears in a world.

Some people go mad with power, some use it to commit crimes, some use it to do good. I think that's pretty close to what would happen in any worldview similar to ours.

As for what happens on a grand scale, the world quickly becomes aware of what occurred, but people are sharply divided on how to react. Should the new warlocks be exiled, or killed? Or should they be made part of society? Re Drawmack's comment about peasants being able to take down armies, that is one of the main causes of alarm. The rulers are afraid of the new warlock's power. I think fear would be a common reaction.

It's a good book. Well worth reading, as are the other Ethshar novels.

 

[Zappo]

Something similar was the basis for my campaign setting submission. Except that I had magic appear relatively suddenly (not overnight, though) in a highly technological society, while at the same time technology ceases working with no apparent cause. My conclusion was: terror, strife, widespread destruction. The campaign starts about 300 years later.

 

[barsoomcore]

Hello? Shadowrun?

Wasn't that the basis of EVERYTHING in Shadowrun? One day Mt. Fuji erupts, a dragon smokes an airliner, Plains Indians hold a Spirit Dance that destroys the US and badda boom!

It's magic...

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Anarchy would reign for a quite a while, once people learned to use their powers. If you think about it, pretty extreme personalities would be in the possession of the greatest powers. To use D&D magic system, Average Joe wouldn't be lucky to handle better than 2nd, maybe 3rd level spells. Great sorcerous powers would be in the hands of high charisma people. Think about high charisma people who gain a form of power (Hitler, Bill Clinton, Johnny Depp, etc.). Not really the kind of people you want slinging 8th and 9th level spells around (albeit for very different reasons in each case), but that's who would have access to them.

As for wizards, today you would find the highest concentration of them in universities as academics. As an academic myself, I can tell you that we wouldn't be the first to rush out and stop evil. We like to think that we're active, conscientious citizens, but the fact is that we DO tend to lock ourselves up in Ivory Towers. Of course, once we had access to magic, we probably would make ourselves ivory towers and then gather together to sip coffee or wine and laugh at the deliberate irony of our spiffy new towers (totally ignoring the true irony of the situation). Some few would probably become rapidly corrupted by their powers and go on a mission to punish the jocks of the world who used to give them wedgies in the locker room. But I think most of the truly powerful wizards would be holed up somewhere continuing their research in their previous field with magical help or simply studying magic instead. The compulsion to do research is strong in many. Plus, most academics would want to talk things out rather than act. I can't imagine that the intelligensia of the time would be very different. A lot of them would be in monasteries or in the direct employ of the church or kingdom (scribes, bookkeeper/accountant types, etc.). It might take a generation or two to get scholars who actually want to DO something with their magic.

Clerics would be luck of the draw. Most of the exceptionally wise people I know (or know of) would probably be monks or druids, but your average priest/pastor/rabbi/etc. could potentially be capable of 4th or 5th level spells (of course, some traditions put more emphasis on book-learning/intelligence than wisdom, which skews the whole thing). Some churches would want to use their powerful cleric types to convert the world by the sword, and we can't assume that a Wisdom-19 cleric would realize how unwise that is (they don't in D&D, after all).

Ultimately, it would come down to a) who was gifted and how; and b) how do we define wisdom. A guy like Bill Clinton becomes a sorceror, and he spends all his spell slots on Mass Charm: "Come to Bubba..." A guy like Hitler (who we have to admit had impressive charisma) becomes a sorceror and chaos insues. Would the intelligent and wise of monastic orders become wizards, clerics, or monks? Historically speaking, I think a lot of the more famous monks would have an aptitude for druidic, wizardly, or monkly powers rather than clerical ones.

To the wisdom question... is it possible for a dogmatic demagogue to have high wisdom? If so, the world would very quickly get wrapped up in the holy war to end all holy wars as powerful clerics of differing religions (or sects within a religion) start trying to convert the "heretics."

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Re: Hello? Shadowrun?

Wasn't that the basis of EVERYTHING in Shadowrun? One day Mt. Fuji erupts, a dragon smokes an airliner, Plains Indians hold a Spirit Dance that destroys the US and badda boom!

It's magic...

Let's not forget GURPS Technomancer, either.

In this setting, Oppenheimer unwittingly completes a necromantic ritual when he utters the "I am death..." quote during the Trinity explosion. As a result, the nuclear explosion becomes a so-called "Hellstorm" and showers much of Mexico and the USA with mana-active radiation and allows the USA to become a magical superpower.

They even win the Vietnam War with the help of trained dragons and lots of zombies...

 

[mythusmage]

As Good a Place as Any

Okay, magic arises in a medieval society. Here's a few things to think about.

What sort of medieval society are we talking about? Early, late. Western Europe or Central Europe? Is it the England of the War of the Roses, or the Germany of the 15th century?

What are conditions like? Is it settled? Or are things in turmoil?

How does magic manifest itself? What is it capable of doing? What are people capable of doing with it?

Your answers to the above can go a long way to determining how magic is received in the world. A society going through a period of peace, where things are in their place and all's right with the world, will handle the appearance of magic much differently than one where things are unsettled, plague runs riot, and society is being overturned on a daily basis. Contrast the Central Europe of the 12th century with the same place in the 16th century.

A few things to think about.

 

[Dark Helmet]

Something similar was the basis for my campaign setting submission. Except that I had magic appear relatively suddenly (not overnight, though) in a highly technological society, while at the same time technology ceases working with no apparent cause. My conclusion was: terror, strife, widespread destruction. The campaign starts about 300 years later.

Thundaar the Barbarian D20