Working on a setting

[Prime32]

Anyway, I was working on setting, though I'm not sure what I'd use it for - maybe an RP, maybe a story. It's a futuristic setting with magic, so I thought I'd post it here (There's no real "fluff" board, is there?). Here's the stuff on magic.

• The most common type of magic is based on water. Its power comes from flowing patterns of water, and it can be directed by a sufficiently complex network of electrical impulses (which include, but are not limited to, brains). The power of a human mage is held within their blood - the blood defines the limits of their body, and magic is easier in parts of the body that have the most blood flowing through them. Magic must be "awakened" in a special chamber - all children are awakened at a certain age. The capabilities of a specific mage vary based on the dissolved chemicals in their blood (or equivalent) and, to a lesser extent, the shape of their body. Special diets designed to improve certain types of magic are not unknown. When calling upon their magic, a mage's veins glow blue. Since it is based on water, this magic is more powerful if the user is submerged.
  
  • Advanced users of water magic study the four humours.
• The second type of magic is based on fire. This magic corresponds to electromagnetic radiation, and is used in magic items. One of the most common is a large device known as an ALIMAF (ALIgned Magic Ampilification Field) generator, which increases the strength of magic within a large radius. More developed planets possess a number of large ALIMAF generators in geosynchronous orbit over large population centres.
• These two types of magic can be positively or negatively charged. Magic is conventionally awakened as positive, and magic items created as negative, in order to allow easier flow of power between the two. There is no stigma associated with alternate charges, though it is unusual (and since it requires a custom chamber, expensive). Negative-charged mages have also reported headaches within negative ALIMAFs. Like-charged magical fields repel and opposites attract, making it extremely difficult for someone to use a magic item with the same as they have. Similarly, magic attacks aimed at someone of opposite alignment can pass through defences easily, and it may even be possible to absorb magic from a oppositely charged person.
• The final types of magic, earth and air, correspond to the force of gravity and are emitted by heavenly bodies such as quasars and black holes. The constant flow of power between the two creates "waves" of magic which allow rapid travel by spaceships equipped with magically generated sails. There are few other applications of these types of magic.
• While most magic is flowing, it is possible to create artificial "static magic". Static magic can pierce magical fields easily or be used as an extremely durable barrier. Military forces often use it to construct energy weapons, but so far, all attempts at created static-based projectiles have failed - static magic requires a skilled mage or a powerful generator to maintain, and must remain in contact with its creator or dissipate.
• A rarer technology is the Magic Dispersion Field, which spreads any magical power evenly throughout its area, making spellcasting impossible in all but the most saturated areas.

[Irthos Levethix]

Wow Prime, thats pretty cool.  I like how you took the basic elements and made a plausible idea of a setting for future weapons & magic.  Had your wheels turning on it for a while?

But I gotta say, when I read this:

The power of a human mage is held within their blood - the blood defines the limits of their body, and magic is easier in parts of the body that have the most blood flowing through them.

My first thoughts went something like this:
Wow, so does that mean my dick is magical?
Ha, its a magic wand with infinite charges.
Hey baby, got any ranks in UMD?

I'll stop there.

[Prime32]

Wow Prime, thats pretty cool.  I like how you took the basic elements and made a plausible idea of a setting for future weapons & magic.  Had your wheels turning on it for a while?

The whole thing popped into my head a few days ago. I'd been watching this show at the time, though. The "static magic" concept came from Gundam. And as for spaceships, I like the idea of
Captain: "More power to the shields!"
Other guy: *presses glowing hands harder against panel* "I'm-" *pant* "-giving it all the power I've got!"

But I gotta say, when I read this:

The power of a human mage is held within their blood - the blood defines the limits of their body, and magic is easier in parts of the body that have the most blood flowing through them.

My first thoughts went something like this:
Wow, so does that mean my dick is magical?
Ha, its a magic wand with infinite charges.
Hey baby, got any ranks in UMD?

I'll stop there.

. . . 
I put in "magic is easier in parts of the body that have the most blood flowing through them" at the last moment. I was definitely not thinking of that, though the idea of oppositely-charged couples did occur to me.

[Irthos Levethix]

Wait... I thought the spaceships ran on earth and air... Humans can harness these types of energy as well?  For some reason I thought it was something that had to be artificially channeled.  Hmm.  Beam me up, Scotty.

I hadn't thought of the oppositely charged couples, although thats interesting too.  Guess that gives you an idea of how the D&D designers must have felt when the CO guys get ahold of one of their new books, eh? 

You know, the whole body fluid magic thing is a cool idea.  I don't think its new, per se, but I like the futuristic spin you've put on it.  Would a mage be able to say, spit in his hand, to increase magical effects, or use it as a focus of some sort?  If spit works, how much more potent would blood be, or semen?  Sorry to get graphic, but you gotta admit, semen requires more work to attain than saliva.

[Prime32]

Wait... I thought the spaceships ran on earth and air... Humans can harness these types of energy as well?  For some reason I thought it was something that had to be artificially channeled.  Hmm.  Beam me up, Scotty.

The "waves" are made of earth and air magic, and the sails, shields, etc. are generated by a combination of fire and water magic.

You know, the whole body fluid magic thing is a cool idea.  I don't think its new, per se, but I like the futuristic spin you've put on it.  Would a mage be able to say, spit in his hand, to increase magical effects, or use it as a focus of some sort?

No, that wouldn't have any noticable effect. He doesn't have "magic blood" per se - most of the power comes from the flowing. Being underwater would provide a power boost of up to 20%, though if the water was flowing, it could interfere (constructively or destructively) with his magic.
[spoiler]Note that the earth itself is covered in flowing water, and has plenty of electrical activity...[/spoiler]

If spit works, how much more potent would blood be, or semen?  Sorry to get graphic, but you gotta admit, semen requires more work to attain than saliva.

Blood magic brings forth dark and powerful imagery. Semen magic? Erm... I think I'll leave it people getting a "magical feeling".

Come to think of it, I could incorporate the four humours into this "fluid magic", though they would probably be only studied by advanced mages or healers.

[Irthos Levethix]

Ahh, I hadn't read about the four humours.  Now I know where they got the idea for those Imps in some Dragon Magazine I read.

The spit blood and semen thing I got from a Clive Barker book, Imajica.  In it, the protaganist has a form of "magic" that he used instinctually.  He spit in the palm of his hand, exhaled through his fist, and shot some dude's head off.  After he did that the first time, he mused about how much more powerful his blood might be, or his other fluids.  (Barker has a very odd imagination, and he's gay, and British.  They're strange)  The word he used was "pnuema", which means soul.  That always intrigued me, which is why I brought it up.

So, how do guns/lasers/etc work?  Are there crystals that harness the powers that be, or some other sort of storing/channeling device?  Do they require a mage to build and/or power?  Does gunpowder exist at all?
What about time travel?  In a world where machines function through magic, it doesn't seem unreasonable that a mage that knows Time Stop could create a device that can bend time backwards.

[veekie]

Depends, as long as the mage in question can't actually reverse time, you could probably make a machine that locally accelerates or stop time, going backwards would require overcoming paradoxes that reverses the time travel process itself and renders it ineffective.

It would seem that if you built a skyscraper sized complex, supported by air and earth magic, and then established an entire water cycle (self contained electrical heating powering turbines that keeps the electricity flowing, with the heat driving the water to the top and it condenses, powering other turbines)in it, you could get a hell of a lotta power, and the means to direct it. Well, technically, store a lot of power, it'd be like a giant magic capacitor.

You could have citizens required to pay their taxes in energy. Heck, base the entire economy on that device, it provides all the work and power you'd ever need in exchange for a tithe of power from every one. Not to mention in times of war, it'd make one hell of a magic laser.

[Gods_Trick]

  What are the laws concerning bodymods? In this world I'd add a water turbine to my back to have a larger storage of water and more scope for complex flows. Also, is water or body fluids more potent? Is fire magic a product of technology or are individuals able to use this magic by boosting their electromagnetic field?