Magitech

Written by Goldie and Drackzahn
With feedback help from Volt

Many people in the ancient Atlantis were either unable or uneducated in magic. Nevertheless, magical tools were a common thing that were used by even the lowest slaves on a daily level. Their understanding of magic and the flow of energy was far above what we know today. Their ancient Magitech works to this day.

— Professor of Magitech in Mani

Magitech is the combination of Magic and technology, mostly found on Bardor. It was mostly used in the old Theocracy of Atlantis and was one of the major reasons for their prosperity after the War of the Gods. After the fall of Atlantis 500 BC, nearly all knowledge about Magitech was lost. Only slowly, the inhabitants of Atlanesis are rediscovering the ancient craft to create new Magitech constructs and items. The most powerful magitech often is ancient and rediscovered in the ruins of the fallen Atlantean cities that are spread over the continent. A fully new path is taken in the Sylvan Lands. There, Magitech is a relatively young science that is researched without the legends of Atlantis and the ancient artifacts that can be re-engineered. Many say that the Magitech of the Sylvan lands more leans toward the magical aspect, while the one from Atlanesis leans towards the technological aspect of it.

Function

We understand all forms of the combination of magic with technology as Magitech. It does not matter if magic is used to infuse an item with magical essence, or if magic is only used as the fuel for the machinery. Often both is the case at the same time in complex magitech, as magic is used as the energy source, often in the form of Pinkerid or by the user's magic, while also using magical infused components to channel the mana and give it effect. Given that it relies on the flow of mana of the user (Generally also known as Soul energy) and pink mist energies, the machines can only work in areas with a significant presence of Pink Mist. Magitech has provided many opportunities that restricted machines and magic was believed not to accomplish, such as near-instantaneous long-distance communications.

Groups of Magitech

To group Magitech is as hard as grouping general technology. You can use many different aspects of the magitech items to categorize them and find fitting groups for them. The most common grouping methods are Age, Fuel, Complexity, Origin, and Size.

Age

Under age, we define in which period the magitech item was created. There are generally five big periods that we differ for magitech.

• War of the Gods - Before the War of the Gods, Magitech was raw and new for the humans of the empire later known as Atlantis. It was crude and often more experimental than useful. Magitech from this age is from between 19000 BC to 16000 BC. This first Magitech was used in the War of the Gods and made huge progress during that time. Most Magitech from the period was for military use.
• Ancient Atlantean - After the war, the Magitech was used more and more for civil aspects of life. It was the golden age of Magitech and the Theocracy of Atlantis. Magitech allowed a standard of life that even surpasses that of modern Earth with things like teleportation devices, near-infinite heating devices, building materials that allowed skyscrapers and much more. Magitech from this era was created between 16000 BC and 500 BC and is often traded for huge amounts. Many try to find such artifacts in the old ruins of the Atlantean Cities.
• Post Atlantean - After the fall of Atlantis, most ancient Magitech was destroyed or lost in time. The centuries that followed were a time of slow decay in magitech technology. During the first decades after the fall, there existed still knowledge about the craft and many were able to create new Magitech. But over time, fewer and fewer people were able to till it was fully lost around 200 AC, 700 years after the fall of Atlantis.
• Renaissance of Magitech - Around the year 1200, researchers began to rediscover Magitech, mostly by reverse engineering the artifacts they found in the ruins. Magitech of this age was often not durable and overused. There exist only very few still functioning magitech items of this age that lasted till 1800.
• Modern Magitech - We call all Magitech that was created after the year 1800 modern magitech. It is still not on the same level as the ancient Atlantean magitech, but progress is made in many different locations of the world. The exact level of magitech differs heavily from nation to nation, from guild to guild, and from craftsman to craftsman.

Fuel

Magitech needs some kind of magical fuel to work. There are different ways that magic can be inserted into the Magitech item and we can group them after these fuel sources.

• Pinkerid - Most complex machines are using Pinkerid as their fuel. The magical material can save a huge amount of magic in it and can be used as fuel for a long time depending on the consumption. Magitech that uses Pinkerid often allows the change of the material once it is depleted. Due to the pink mist absorbing properties of Pinkerid, such magitech when used near Pink Mist infused areas, can slowly regenerate itself. Some of these Pinkerid-driven magitech can work endlessly in certain regions due to the slow consumption compared to the automatical regeneration of energy by absorbing it from the environment.
• Engraved Magic - A typical enchantment of an item uses Engraved Magic as fuel. The magic is inserted once to create the Magitech item and slowly depletes. Once all engraved magic is depleted, the Magitech becomes functionless and returns to their former state as non-Magitech.
• User's Magic - Especially the Magitech used by Magic Wielders often uses the magic of the user. The user can often insert more magic to create stronger effects.

Complexity

Magitech has a huge range of complexity and can be grouped by it. It is mostly how difficult it is to produce and how much knowledge it requires as well as resources. Most Magitech is built in a way to is user-friendly after all.

• Archaic - Combining a sword with a crude pinkerid stone may create a flame sword, but it has no protection, no safety measures, and will most likely only work a few times before something goes wrong. Such archaic magitech items are often created by people who either have very limited time or near no knowledge about proper magitech craftsmanship.
• Simple - Most magitech items are simple in their complexity with only a few parts working together to allow them to function and do their job. Such an item may be a cooking-heating platform, a cooling array to preserve food, or a more refined weapon with elemental support.
• Complex - With more knowledge and resources, more complex magitech becomes possible. Expert craftsmen can craft these. They often have many magically infused parts working together, with added safety measurements and control for the user. Such an item could be a magical gun, a flamethrower, a pocked-dimension bag, or a fully automatic door.
• Circuit-Based - Only the old Atlanteans were able to construct circuit-based magitech. It is the peak of engineering to create complex machines similar to computers of Earth. With them, the most powerful magitech construct become possible, like long-range communication, teleportation platforms, automatic temperature-controlled rooms, or weapons of massive construction.

Origin

The design and working patterns of magitech can hugely differ depending on which craftsmen created it and from which cultural background they came. We can group the origin based on the biggest magitech makers. All minor or irrelevant ones can be put into the last remaining group together, as they have no big impact on the market or produce such low amounts that it's near impossible to get your hands on one of their magitech. Nearly every nation with Magic Wielders or good craftsmen in their nation has at least an archaic production or usage of magitech. Few nations have such a high production, or uniqueness, that they can export their goods, or they are recognized easily by their original way of construction.

• Old-Atlantean - The gold standard of magitech origin is the ones from the fallen Atlantis. They have a near sci-fi aesthetic and are the most complex ones available in the world of Bardor. Most can be found in old ruins or in cities that were built on top of such an old Atlantean ruin. The biggest source is the massive ruins of Atlantis itself. There is no production left of these magitech and most of the knowledge about the construction methods is lost in time.
• Mani - The Arcanacracy of Mani is a magic-focussed nation. Their Magitech mostly resolves around magically enchanted items and is often fueled by their magic instead of using pinkerid or complex parts. For most Magic Wielders of the nation, creating their own Magitech is part of their pride as a mage of Mani. The designs are often simple and are function over design-based.
• Runa - The Artifitiocracy of Runa focusses mostly around Golems but is also known for its rune-based magitech. They mostly engrave magic into items by drawing runes of Pinkerid over the surface of the components that are combined into the magitech. Most magitech used in Runa is either for military use or to improve the life of the higher craftsmen of the nation.
• Almira - The Harems of Almira are the Bottle Genie nation and known for their pure magical designs of magitech. They often use their pure magic force to enchant a simple item into a magitech one. Often these magitech are made to either help their people with daily life or simply for fun activities like creating huge magical bubbles. Magitech from Almira is often well-designed.
• Cylana - The The Bone Empire of Cylana is the only nation in the Sylvan Lands that produces magitech on a noteable scale. Especially their queen Terra Byte is known as a magitech craftsman. Their design is more functional and uses the high Pink Mist infusion of the waters around their nation to create their magitech.
• Westby - The craftsmen from the Flow of Westby are proud on their industrial magitech. The Westbian Magitech has a slick feeling and uses diverse alloys of metal that can mostly be found there. It is known for its bright, nearly white colors used for their designs. Most magitech weapons they create are based on raw power, and while being big and clunky, they are powerful enough to protect the nation against the various monsters of the deserts around the nation.
• Others - All other producers of magitech is simply too less known or not spread enough to form their group in this selection. Some notable mentions could be the Atlantean nations of Free Cities of Lia and Republics of Atlantis for their tries to replicate old Atlantean magitech, as well as the Earldom of Arana Neos that combine their nature magic with technology to create their magical forest in the desert.

Size

The size of a magitech tells little about its power or function, but it is nevertheless a good grouping method for magitech items. Often, the especially tiny or extremely big magitech constructs are the most valuable and known in the world, while most magitech is in the golden middle.

• Tiny - Tiny magitech are hard to make and are of sizes smaller than the palm of most human hands. They often come in the form of accessories like earrings or amulets.
• Hand-sized - Everything that can be lifted by a normal human is called hand-sized. These are most often tools for daily usage or weapons.
• Big - If you can't carry it anymore as a normal human, you may call it big magitech. These are often bigger constructs like automatic doors, moveable platforms, heating devices, or engines for transport devices.
• Massive - Most of the massive magitech constructs can be found in the ruins of the cities of the ancient Theocracy of Atlantis. These constructs are often bigger than houses or even span whole cities with their networks and engines. One of the most well-known ones are the magical train network in Atlantis and the magical water production machine under the ancient ruins of Old Aqui that produces a non-stop flow of water to this day in the middle of the desert.

Discovery

Over time, Magitech was invented and discovered 3 times on Bardor.

Old Atlantis

The humans of the Theocracy of Atlantis discovered Magitech first on Bardor around the year 18000 BC and made it fully operable during the War of the Gods. It was one of their reasons for victory in the war and the main reason for the total dominance of their empire over all others in the following millennia. The exact people who discovered Magitech first and the development stages are lost in time. Near to all documentation about it was lost in the centuries that followed the destruction of Atlantis in 500 BC.

Rediscovery in Atlanesis

Since around the year 1200, the newly found nations of Atlanesis began to rediscover the ancient craftsmanship of Magitech by re-engineering the old artifacts found in the ruins of the Atlantean cities. Today, many nations have developed their unique form of Magitech.

Invention in Sylvan Lands

When the exploratory fleet from The Bone Empire of Cylana crashed on the Sylvan Lands they found their machines no longer functioned and could not discover the reason for malfunctions. For months, the humans worked to try and diagnose the issues and fix the machines to no avail. Eventually, pink mist covered the wreckage of the ships for several days. When it finally cleared and the humans returned to their ships to continue their work, they found several machines would start to work, however not as intended, vents spewed bubbles, and shocks caused transformations. Confounded the Cylanian sought advice from the magically inclined allies, to find the machines infused in an unseen way. The study of Magitech was born at this moment.

Dangers

There is a lot of complexity to Magitech, given the various restrictions on the technology. Depending on the exact used fuel, the most notable issue is that of Pink Mist energy and the often used Pinkerid. The chaotic energy adds a lot of variables and doesn't always guarantee the desired result. A machine intended to power a ship's engine with wind energy could spew water or slimy blobs that clutter the mechanizations. This can be mitigated by using skilled mages to infuse items and trying not to utilize components infused by the pink mist. Even still once in a while, a machine can act unpredictably. Craftsman that fully denies the use of pink mist and pinkerid for their magitech construction fully depends on their own magical Soul energy, which can be a heavy burden for them. Using Pinkerid is the most common, but also most dangerous way.

Utility

Magitech includes a huge range of utilities and domains of application. It can provide various solutions to daily problems, or even transform whole regions into agricultural land. It can mechanize and simplify processes and reduce the amount of manual labor required. Magitech has a similar, if not bigger impact, than the technologies of industrialization on Earth. While humans are the main users and producers of ancient and modern Magitech, it slowly becomes more available for other species and nations as well. This is widely popular among humans in the Sylvan Lands due to it allowing them to be a more respected part of the The Sylvan Queendoms. On Atlanesis, Magitech is seen as an ancient craftsmanship that may bring back the old golden age of Atlantis or offers new possibilities for the non-magic wielders.

Social Impact

Guys, I was shopping! I bought myself this magical sword that can produce a hot flame. The seller told me that with enough training, I could use it to shoot small fire projectiles. Also, I bought us a pocked-dimension bag. This should allow us to bring more reserves with us on our adventures.

— Young noble adventurer from the Free Cities of Lia

The social impact of Magitech can hardly be overvalued. It is one of the main reasons for the human victory in the War of the Gods and can change the future of a whole nation easily. Especially more complex magitech machines can reduce the required amount of manual labor by the user and allow solutions to problems that were hard to achieve without it. In daily life, Magitech can be used for cooking, transport, communication, and much more, while in military usage, it can create powerful weapons able to penetrate most armor or create armor that is near impossible to penetrate as long as enough magical fuel is provided into the magitech.

Sylvan Lands

Magitech has allowed humans to be more competitive in the wider world of the The Sylvan Queendoms and improve their reputations. Combining the mechanical skills from The Bone Empire of Cylana with the Magical skills of The Sylvan Queendoms has greatly improved the lives of both sides and tackling some problems both have, such communicating over the Sylvan Lands and providing some opportunities to emulate magic.

Access & Availability

The availability is heavily different from region to region, as well as from nation to nation. Depending on the origin and power, it can be rare to get your hands on a magitech construct.

• Accessable by exploring ancient Atlantea Ruins
• Nearly a common good in Almira, Mani and Runa
• By Imports, many nations of Atlanesis have limited access
• In the Sylvan lands, it heavily relies on pink mist energies. The technology is slowly spreading through the land by the Cylanian Royal Researchers and BubbleTech Industries.

Discovery

• Empire of Atlantis: ca 18000 BC
• Nations of Atlanesis: ca 1200 AC
• Sylvan Lands: ca 1500 AC

Related Materials

• Pinkerid

Related Species

• Human