Tricky Question

I what talk to you today about how magic works in this Universe, and some practical consequences of it. Since this is a State City with a Mage University, and since that University has mages dedicated to initiate followers in the Enchanting Way of magic, you all are already better familiarized with the subject that the average Sharitarne would be. Even those educated in high caste literacy. Still, being Earthlings perhaps you have lost some important details, and a lot important information may have slid through the dead corners of you attention frame. We say “magical weapons, and other objects, only work in the hands of those who have magic potential awaken; for everyone else they are only as good as their non-magical versions”. For most part that is true, or at least there is some true in that, but is not hard to see the flaw in that statement. Since magical items of half-decent quality are, to all practical purposes, unbreakable by non-magical means. A sword that “just” cannot be broken, and never looses its edge, is not only as good as any non-magical sword made from similar material and technique! And for items of armour “just unbreakable” is even more obviously not equivalent to “normal”. Even if no more magic is added on top of that, and you cannot even find out what is the spell in this breast plate, or which are they, know that it will stop anything that is not magical without bend or brake kind of matters. Not in small measure because it allows you to have your magical armours made from lighter materials, and not too thick. Sharitarnes dislike that sort of thing, they prefer their armours to be made of the same materials regardless if they are magical or not. Want them to “look like armour!” for a matter of Historical reasons, pride, and other reasons. Which I can tell you, since we are among iis here, are stupid to the core: every single one of them. They have laws here that restrict the use of armour to just some few castes, even! In fact, what they restrict is the use of things that LOOK LIKE armour. So get yourself a comfortable matching of trouser, shirt and overcoat, if you can, all with the cheapest possible enchantment. No one will stop you for being “wearing armour”! Do not forget a hat too! I would be in trouble if I carried the simplest shield around. Instead I got my backpack enchanted with something that will never work for me, because I am neither a mage, nor a sigraxe, nor an alchemist. Therefore my backpack will stop about anything that is not magical, way better than any non-magical shield. It is “tacky” and to think that way. Warrior Castes would consider shameful, perhaps, however, I am not a Red Caste. Here I am a Builder, and in my home planet I was an engineer: so, not an architect. Much less a fancy gallery artist. “If it work, use it” is my personal code. And I see nothing in the Caste Code of Builder Caste that must contradict this principle. Weapons and armours are obvious enough application for our magical durability. They are not the most interesting options. Think about ropes, for a moment. What difference makes if a rope “just” don’t broke, no matter how much weight you put on it? If in addition to that it also do not burn on fire, or became rotten after decades exposed to rain and changes in temperature? Nothing less than magic will cut it. What could you do with such a rope, let’s say for instance, in the structure of bridges? How about buildings ? Would you say it is “just” as good as the next non-magical rope? Magic is expensive, and even the cheapest spell take time to be made. About any magic user formed in this city learns the basic of Enchantment and will be able to make an enchantment in a few hours, for a few dozen meters of rope, but that will only last between hours and a few days. For something that will last millennials you need an Enchanter sigrax, which will cost you more. Because of that you will hardly want to have enchanted bricks for your walls, even if that would allow you to have them made from the lighter and cheaper material easy to shape that you could find. Which, by the way, in this market happens to be a sort of wood. Instead, what you want enchanted are your support columns. As large as possible. Structural elements where you will put all the weight you have to put somewhere. Ropes. Surfaces to distribute all that weight where you need to have it sitting on some non-magical ground. And goes without saying, if you can avoid that completely by having your building tied to some magical structure already build, just do that! Don’t let all those public buildings made millions of years ago remain as waisted opportunities to anchor your new constructions. Remember that for the moment this logic is “out of fashion”. Hide your structural solutions in a way that only trained Builder Caste eyes will be able to see the magic in them. Those who know what you are doing will value your work more for that. _Instructor! _a student raises his hand. _Yes? _What about anti-magic spells? _As far as I know there is no professors teaching Anti-Magic Way in our Magic University. But I am no Mage Caste. You should visit the Mage Tower and ask there, if you are curious about the subject! Thank you. After some additional examples, and an explanation about ships, the encounter ended. Before everyone had left the instructor called the young Earthling who had made that question. _I couldn’t answer you properly, because it is too specific, and the point of those encounters is more to help newly arrived iis to get by. Pass that hard faze when Sharitarn feels more like a nightmare than like a place where one can live. There are ways to protect magically enchanted items against anti-magic spells. They are based in anti-magic spells. Our team has three Enchanter sigraxes who know their way around anti-magic and one Anti-mage sigrax as regular consultant for the most important stuff. I would not advice anyone to use the ideas I suggested here in any building that may be preferential military target in a invasion, however. _So, there is danger. _There is always danger! All safety measures can fail, and eventually will fail, good enchantments are said to last billions of years, and supposedly they can last trillions and more than that. Still, it is just some more time than what non-magical things last. And only remains true until the magical things in question are tested against more powerful magic. _Sounds depressing. _You can say that. On the other hand, how is that different from what you used to have in your home Universe?