1. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    Scientific formulas as magical Glyphs...what to use where?

    Discussion in 'Fantasy' started by naruzeldamaster, Oct 7, 2021.

    So my next project after my current WIP (I'm not counting my fanfic which I work on during 'breaks') takes place in a post apocalyptic environment. Within this environment (It's basically utopia like environments of varying biomes and levels of civilization) everything is simulated by science. Elves are the results of experiments to make humans live longer, Yokai are experiments to allow humans to live in more extreme environments (so you see stuff like Yuki Onna living in a tundra region) Angels are robotic versions of the scientists that created the grand illusion etc

    One of my ground rules is that the magic in this fantasy world is based on science. I had the fun idea to use scientific formulas as magical glyphs. (Bear in mind, the people of this illusionary world don't understand the glyphs like humans in our world would) Most weaker spells will be something silly, like a water jet spell would be something like Fish Symbol + Mass + acceleration. I want the more powerful stuff to be actual scientific formulas though.

    Again: I want to stress that the formulas themselves aren't super important, because the 'modern' humans don't understand them (they call it magic because it CAUSES magic) but I want the ones I use for particular things to you know, make sense. Like if I want a super powerful explosion I use the formula E=MC Squared for example.

    I don't know a lot about mathematics and formulas, maybe I'll use a bit of chemistry too. I'd like to bash out some ideas since this is a topic that if I researched it on my own I'd be totally lost haha.
     
  2. Chromewriter

    Chromewriter Contributor Contributor

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    I think it'd be jarring to have random scientific formulas by it self. Maybe obscure it in some way? Like you know how planet of the apes or the book of Eli presents past technology as mystical powers. So rather than having a e =mc^2, which would honestly get me to stop reading it with any seriousness, obscure the language of scientific explanation so it's similar but not.

    Talk about an individual who has mastered the power of transmuting material into its pure form of energy that he can harness. Or he picks up a green glowy wand (uranium like in the Simpson's even though it doesn't really do that) to cause massive destruction.

    Or speak about the theoretical concepts without explicitly showing formulas. Or mention the formulas but never explicitly show them or describe them.

    But if you really really want to go with this idea, the only ones you can use are immediately identifiable. Like the one for force or friction. The more complicated formulas aren't something you write down short hand and they have very obscure application that doesn't immediately make any sense in what you'd be trying to do as magic. They are more about proving quantifiable properties, like how can you get the value of x if x is a part of a gravity equation with some particular values available. It's not very interesting is it?

    But concepts are very interesting in physics or maths. Prime numbers. Pi. Schroedinger cat. Singularity. Infinity. Thermodynamics. They all tell a story about the fundamental rules of the world and would work quite well as a magical system if you ignore how the energy is put into the system.
     
  3. naruzeldamaster

    naruzeldamaster Senior Member

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    That's what I'm trying to work out, though the story itself isn't meant to be taken very seriously anyway. The guardians of the temples are either literary references (Hound of Baskerville for fire temple) or memes ( the water temple sub boss is a Narwhale and the actual boss is a 'giant enemy crab' and yes they do indeed flip it over to attack it's weakpoint for massive damage) It's also a story about Otakus (the non slang definition of the term, IE: someone who's "incredibly passionate" about a particular thing) saving the world from other Otakus who tried to end it. I mean one of the plot points is the use of meme songs (so Caremel Dancin, What is love, Crab Rave etc) to anger the elder gods enough that they come to the physical plane, sooo not a very serious story at all heh.

    I think if the story ever makes it into a visual medium I'll use the actual formulas more literally. But for the written format I'll work on something else to use.

    What about using the Table of Elements, would that work? After all that whole bloody thing is about taking parts of one thing and combining it into stuff to create other things.

    I think using something fundamentally 'simple' for something complex like magic would be cool, we even have the perfect excuse to use it this way, alchemy. The periodic table is easy enough to recognize but if you haven't taken a class on it you wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it. And on top of that, it's a fairly easy thing to research too heh.
     
  4. Chromewriter

    Chromewriter Contributor Contributor

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    I think the elements table is a fantastic idea! :)

    It's sort of within the acceptable range of including science into magic without it feeling tacked on.

    As to the seriousness of it, well if you are going for a much more parody approach. I guess it'd be fantastic to include formulas then! I'd probably take back everything I said about it. You could randomly pick up the most complex formula and attach it to something and call it powerful. The only problem with that is if you retain stuff like e=mc^2 and make it powerful then it would look like continuity errors if you parody a complex formula after. Or maybe mask everything so it sort of sounds correct but without being exactly correct.

    A science geek would find that shit funny if you say that a formula to work out x= whatever in gravity means a rune to control gravity. Like some sort of uncanny valley joke.
     

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