In this story I'm writing right now, mages and other common men used to live in harmony. However, in the present magic is tabu all over the continent, and there had been a great mage hunt following something I called the War of Swords and Mages, in which a new Emperor took the throne and declared all forms of magic to be illegal, under the excuse of it giving an unfair advantage to mages over the other creatures of the world. How do I justify that the people didn't just rebel against this dictator? Maybe he created a whole equalization movement? This is a true stalemate for me...
Depends on circumstance. Creating a world of "equality" is best suited for recruiting masses in a society comprised largely of the underclass. Ie the typical fantasy world where there is a small percentage of nobles and royalty and LOTS of peasants. Or an industrializing world that sees the horrors of unrestrained advancement and the alienation is creates amongst the working class. If mages, for example, require breeding via arranged marriages to keep it in the blood then they are elevated above the common man. If it is something learned out of a book, then who is rich enough to own those books?
90% regular people, 10% Mages? New ways to control magic users to render them ineffective, balance the scales of power? Devious plot to round up mages and mass execute or render them impotent in some fashion? Dictators have typically been popular and elected by support from the people, its when they become too powerful when problems really occur. You'd probably want to look at possible support from the mages themselves, such as a clandestine power or special religious rite that allows them to be marginalized yet exist without more destructive methods. Mages could be priests or healers that work with old ways or even pure magic, but are supported by the Emperor and operate in such a manner that they are not referred to as 'mages' but 'diviners' or something to draw focus away from the past war. A return to peaceful existence could be as easy as that.
It's easier to turn public opinion against a segment of society than to get rid of such a prejudice. Create a horrific disaster that was either deliberately caused through magic, or appears to have been. Think of if the 9/11 attacks were carried out by sorcerers with annihilation spells.
What if I make it so that a group of sorcerers acted against the people, maybe by producing an event of catastrophical proportions, like Cogito suggested, and then went rogue. Then the "good" mages would also be against them and the Emperor would have a valid reason to want magic to be illegal, and the people could be controlled by information manipulation, making them support the emperor's initiative..
You can make it so the people have attempted to rebel, but the government won. That will create some interesting dynamics worth exploring.
I couldn't help but think of The Legend of Korra when the bit about magic being outlawed... But, I think you could probably answer your own question to that by considering what actually caused the War of Swords and Mages and what happened during the war and what called the mages to lose the war (I'm assuming they lost considering magic is now outlaw).
That was kind of where I got the idea for the revolution, although I didn't really like the series (Aang ftw )
The socioeconomic situation is problematic for some reason (war, corruption, weather, natural disaster) which causes suffering among the populace. The emperor needing to direct the anger away from himself blames the problems on the mages (scapegoat). This can take a number of forms and is expressed directly and through proxies ("They are creating the drought so we have to pay them to bring the rain.", "The mage's use of magic keeps honest citizens from getting jobs", etc). Once the populace is nice and angry at the mages for ruining the country, the emperor enacts some "common sense" measures to protect the people from the dirty mages. If the mages don't comply, well that's when the emperor will 'regretfully' have to send in the military further concealing the underlying economic issue. My history is a little weak but I believe this is in essence what Hitler did. This is a classic hearts and minds war. By the time the emperor deploys the first soldier it is already won.
I think that probably the easiest way to justify why the people let it happen could be fear. I mean, typically, fiction has taught us that the world would treat more powerful people as monsters (X-Men, Merlin, anything with super power) and thus if the Emperor said something like "We won't be slaves to these terrible men and their power!" or something, it could easily be that the people were like 'Yeah, magic is bad. Screw them'. It would be an easy case to make, though a bit harder to actually put down all the mages. Perhaps that was what the war was about? Something to throw out there Regards,
Use a kind of socialism twist. Make the mages wealthy (the happy few) and give the people (the masses) power of government (democracy). Then the people won't rebel almost as in real life, ha!
When that harmony is disturbed, the common men will start to reject mages. What matters for such humble and lesser people is their own security. When they see magic and mages pose a threat, they will turn to their protector to regain the safety and balance again. A sly and cunning ruler would use his people against such minority. This is one way. Another way is to fight magic with magic. I know it sounds odd, but here is the details. the dictator hires corrupted mages and commands them to wreck havoc in the realm. These mages forms an infamous brotherhood that becomes ill known. The dictator then turn to the public, addressing the world along with the 'good mages' about this rising terror and the immediate need to deal with it. The good mages vows to bring down these corrupted souls that brought shame to the stature of magic and mages. This is where the problem begins. Mages fighting mages = destruction. The fears of the common men rises; they turn to their king for protection; their king answers their calls. The kings wages a war against magic and all mages in the name of public demands. He even promises pardons for any mages that yields and cease using magic. Also he rewards those who provide any information about rogue mages. The dictator strikes two birds with one stone:1, the ban of magic;2, shining his image and gaining the support and gratitude of his people. Sorry if it was detailed, and I hope that helped. Really looking forward to read your story.
