Does my setting need magic?

Or rather the 8th century BCE. Aeneas supposedly left Troy having been a hero in the Illiad and founded Rome at that time after all, and comparisons with the Greeks were essential from the beginning. Tarquin was raping Lucretia and Rome was turning into a Republic by the end of the 6th century!

 

As far as anything supernatural or mystical, you should have that if you want a story that's even part fantasy, but magic as a particular phenomenon of human powers not so much. Putting magic in solely for the sake of genre requirements would not be a good idea. I would think genre should always be the secondary thought, not unimportant by any means, but not the priority. Stories can always blur genre boundaries after all. It's more important that you make your own interesting story. Arguably, the more magic is expected the more reason it might actually be interesting not to include it.

 

Now less than before; but the "Legion" theme in the warcraft universe tends to rub bad with those who'd prefer the old RTS-era "pure" fantasy world as compared to the science fiction / magitech themes introduced in some expansions / games. This is an ongoing discussion in the fandom and there's a lot of of roleplaying groups who actively avoid those themes.

EG, the time-and-space-travelling demon spaceships powered by an alien planet's core barraging the land with lasers while assimilating alien species as demon-tainted war machines. Led by the ascended & twisted leaders of a utopistic magitech species whose pure remnants were forced to flee their home planet on a crystal spaceship and crash-landed on the orc home planet.

These elements definitely leans more towards science fiction / a space opera than fantasy; yet it remains one of the most "beloved" modern fantasy worlds.

Not saying that Warcraft isn't a fantasy universe; the contrary. What I wish to phrase here is that a lot of weird stuff can be featured and even more omitted - if the general atmosphere of the world remains fantastic, it will remain a fantasy.

To the topic at hand; it also must stated that the Warcraft universe started out with a seeming lack of "magic system" which over time evolved into a complex system of cosmology & rules. The reason behind that (or so I think) is that the original RTS games required nothing firm than the "mana = spells, demon blood + mana = evil spells" theory whereas the MMORPG and the dozens of novels published needed more straight answers and cohesion.

 

@Lazaares So if I understand you, Warcraft introduced a considerable amount of Science Fantasy into what was once their late Middle Age, High Fantasy setting, and that started a debate amongst the franchise's fanbase as to what genre its current iteration is?


Okay. That does clear things up for me. I will say though, even with all that in mind your claim "The Warcraft universe can hardly be regarded as fantasy by original and modern standards..." is worded a little too strongly for me to get behind. I would think something like "The Warcraft universe has arguably moved beyond High Fantasy" is a more tenable position.

 

My very personal and subjective thoughts are that the less magic, the better.

In my opinion stories with lots of magic takes away from the struggle of the characters since they can use, well, magic to solve problems rather than having to think or fight out a solution where they have to find knowledge, develop more character, gain a deeper understand of the world or just work up their bodies for a hard fight in the hard way through lots of training and practice. Magic does in my opinion offer shortcuts that takes away from what the protagonists investing into being able to rise to the challenge and solve the problem presented before them.

 

Not necessarily. If magic is an inherently evil force (a.k.a. requires a pact with the Devil), then availability of magic would increase the struggle of the characters: and not just physically in the way of adding more obstacles, but also psychologically (do I take an easy route, or a moral route)?

 

I agree, and I would go further to say that magic needn't be "an inherently evil force" to increase a story's struggle/conflict. That could be done (and has been done) with all sorts of sorcery. Virtually all of the great fantasy books that I've read used magic to push the emotional stakes, pose philosophical questions, or both. Often both.

 

Truth be told, I'd like to see what a fantasy story would be without magic. How exactly would that work? Fantasy means that which is unreal or dreamed up, so you'd have to do something to make it weird. Like dragons are a thing, but they are basically flying lizards with no magic. Or maybe it's abstract, and odd things just happen because "nature" -- like flowers are metal, so people can literally grow their own chainmail.

But if you decide to go with magic, think about the different mental interpretations of it.
- Witches' brew: words and certain odd ingredients create magic.
- Science brew: ingredients in extremely exact portions do as they are made to do, with mistakes resulting in useless things rather than evil or unexpected things. Also, magic has no morality.
- Genetic: magic is something certain races are born with, and is not manipulatible by anyone not born of said race -- or else two different races have two different magics.
- Satanic: magic is only obtainable through evil vows.
- Divine: magic is only obtainable through service to deities. Only used for good or neutral causes.
- Environmental: magic is grown, and spells can only be farmed, not created.
- Asteroid: magic from outer spaaaaaace.
- Animalian: magic is harvested from animals like cattle and the animal must be killed to obtain it. The better the animal is treated in life, the more magic you get.