Write something about your setting, and the rest of us will help you develop it

The first half or so of the story takes place in New Seattle in 2051. Old Seattle was destroyed by "the big one of 2021" and was promptly rebuilt. Steadily increasing automation, a failing infrastructure, worsening climate change hitting the coast and gulf states hard, and the wealthy residing in heavily guarded areas in the scattered areas of the country, if not leaving the country altogether for the EAC (dubbed "The Great Cash Withdrawl") have left most of America in decay. My main character leaves America to settle personal disputes, landing her first in the faltering EU (due to an influx of immigrants, the worsening climate, and political conflicts with the countries who side with left and right ideologies, the latter who all threaten to secede), then to the Arabian Territory (being those who live in the Middle East and in North Africa that didn't die due to the constant wars and worsening climate change) dominated and ruled by Suadi Arabia and finally to The East Asian Collective, nicknamed the "EU of the Far East." The EAC is a collection of all the East Asian countries with China, Japan and Korea (now one country again) being the strongest members. The EAC quickly took over the United States and Europe as the new superpower in the world, controlling most of the wealth, military and political influence. The better standards of living, lavish lifestyle and improved technology and infrastructure tells it all.

 

1. Is there discontent brewing in the US then?

2. Pardon my French, but how the fuck was EAC formed? Considering those countries you listed hate each other.

 

Race-related issues brought about by everyone terrible's living conditions.

Brought about by survival, both politically and environmentally. Essentially they're united by the "stronger together than apart" mentality than anything. That's my idea so far. I'm still on the outline, I'm not entirely sure on this point.

 

My main issue with that is that Japan and South Korea have significantly stronger ties with the US than with China or North Korea. The only thing I can think of is that China went to war with the others, installing puppet Goverments.

 

I mean that the birthrate among them is comparable to the rise of intelligent races in timescale. Hundreds of years. And the world is very big.

Not really. Magic is common and rural villages aren't exactly associated with innovation.

I've already pointed out that my magic is fundamentally non-economical. There is no way to exploit it for industrialization. I'd like some help in fleshing out why this is, which is why I'm posting here.

Whoa whoa whoa. Saudi Arabia is the leader of the Middle East? The tribal kingdom that buys western armaments with oil money? Not Turkey, not Iran?

 

Okay, so lets so you start with two breeding pairs, and every two hundred years, a child is produced for each pair. Year 200 you have 6, year 400 you have 9, then 13, 19, 28,42, 63, 94, 141, within nine generations, you have over twenty times the initial population. The best solution would be to make your race rather young, otherwise, they would eventually overrun the world, though this could actually be a reason to hunt them down and kill them. For further context, after 10,000 there would be two billion five hundred fifty million four hundred eighty-six thousand of them by my rough calculation (formula of 4*1.5^y with y being generation).

They are in terms of things like farming developments, knowledge of local herbs and medicinal plants, and the things that allow them to become cities, like roads and trade.

If it provides some benefit, then it is economical and can and will be exploited by humans. In the example you gave of people sacrificing slaves to stay healthy, if that then works on other people, then you will essentially have an equivalent of doctors who go to those who are wealthy, but without magic, say "oh, the ingredients to keep you alive cost this much, and then my fee is (your currency here), they would then go and buy some slaves, and then do the sacrificing and ask for a bill. If that ritual only works on themselves, then there's suddenly a demand for slaves, meaning that tools for catching people and transporting them against their will is needed, likely meaning cages or rope, one of which gives metalwork, which requires permanent settlement and by extension farming, the other requiring farming of either animals or plants. Without there being some sort of greater being or conspiracy, societies will establish a base level that they can operate on, normally substance farming, that they do not dip below.

 

Modern fantasy based in Christian "mythology" but incorporating other faiths/ myths/ legends. Takes place primarily in the United States.

Angels protect humans against the various monsters/ demons that also inhabit the earth. They do this primarily through the work of nephilim- human appearing half angels. Monsters used to roam the earth freely (hence all the legends/ myths surrounding them) but were hunted and forced into hiding when the angels took up guardianship of mankind. They now reside mostly in the remote wilderness, underground societies, or right under the noses of humans. There's relative peace because the monsters tend to obey the angels' rule (no touchy the humans) and those who step out of line are quickly dispatched by nephilim.

The only notable culture difference between the world in our story and the one in which we live is a sharp spike in religious fanaticism following claims that the Antichrist is risen and the apocalypse has begun.

 

1. Incidentally, I did consider something along those lines. That's why, to keep the magical conflicts toned-down and to a minimum (for the sake of it being a fantasy murder mystery of course) I was toying with some ideas so to what would happen to their parents when an Arcane child reaches their Age of Accountability so to not only prevent large-scale family-wide magical conflicts, but also to allow even a notably powerful Arcane to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, giving impetus to commit crimes in secret rather than outright slaughtering people in broad daylight. I've been toying with a few ideas, though I'm not yet sure, though I'm one I'm leaning towards is that when the Arcane child reaches their Age of Accountability and gains access to their family's Grimoire, the parent no longer maintains their link to the Grimoire for some reason, allowing familial relations to potentially also become a part of mysteries. Not sure yet how siblings factor into this.

2. This is also a bit of an uncertain area, but I imagine that the humans would outlaw the art of developing new spells and abilities, so only the boldest of magical lineages would dare exercise such an art and likely in secret. They couldn't stop the flow of knowledge from parent to child without wiping out every Arcane on the planet, and not only would a full-scale holocaust be time and resource-consuming but it'd also be foolhardy as the humans are aware the Arcane are a generally integral part of the society, as many do utilize their abilities to assist the humans when they can, so the next best option to keep the Arcane from being able to overpower them would be to outlaw the ability to develop any new abilities not extrapolated from the family's "moveset" so to speak.

3. Perhaps the one I'm most unsure about. Potentially, in such a case, it could be that despite them both being direct descendants of the same two parents, they'd still maintain two distinct family Grimoires, the child inheriting a Grimoire from the parent who shares their gender. Fathers to sons and mothers to daughters, should two Arcanes interbreed I suppose?

 

Well, they do die on occasion... and I think that the breeding time should be more arbitrary. It depends on the alignment of the stars or something. So maybe 200 to 1,000 years.

And then they fall into stagnation once they hit a certain level of magical knowledge. What's so hard to accept about that?

Yeah. They just don't advance. And the magic doesn't allow for healthy social cohesion.

Think of polygamy in history. It deprived a large portion of the male population of wives, creating rootlessness and violence. One man would have dozens of children and couldn't focus on them all, creating the equivalent of single-parent households. And women were far more valuable, leading to bride prices, child marriage, and sex slavery. I want a system in which magic, similarly, always comes at the expense of someone's fellows. Do you have ideas?

 

Then how is it the most efficient method and how will it stop advancement?

 

Technology is something that can be built upon, while magic has very strict limitations. It's the most efficient from someone's perspective, but not from everyone's.

 

Because that's not how civilisations work without an outside force affecting them, which there apparently isn't in this world. When Rome fell we didn't forget how to make iron tools. When the bronze age collapse happened, people didn't forget how to build.

 

Just remember that a smaller, armed group is able to control a much larger population. Doubly so in this case if the humans are reliant on arcanes.

See above.

That would be a way around it, though it could mean in certain geographical areas, gender roles and stereotypes could be built around the powers of the arcanes.

 

Both of those were events. Integrated systems falling apart like dominoes. If you don't understand the difference than I honestly don't think you're going to help me here.

 

I am using those as examples of what happens when civilisations collapse, events that apparently happen quite often in your world.

 

They don't necessarily have Rome-style 'collapses.' They just stagnate for long periods of time while being outcompeted by younger races.

 

You mean like how the Roman empire stagnated and slowly receded due to being beaten by various groups that claimed land over a period of several hundred years?

 

Or 1177 BC. But yes, the slow decline of Rome was also a contingent event.

 

Is the decline and fall of Rome/the Roman empire a suitable analogy to what happens in your world?

 

Heck no. The former was even caused by human advancement - formerly irrelevant tribes growing in strength and numbers and disrupting the whole political order. My idea is a decline on a fundamental level.

 

How are you defining out-competed here? Because at the moment, it sounds like formerly irrelevant groups growing in strength, unless the empire somehow becomes so stagnant to be weaker than the less developed groups and then collapsing, before the less developed groups have a chance to respond.

 

Any way you like. Fallen magical races might have lower birthrates, they might be incapable of uniting for a common goal, they might be addicted to magically-enhanced pleasures, they might be collectively bound by a curse. I'm looking for suggestions.

Also, it isn't so much a matter of "empires" as species. Cro-Magnons did outcompete Neanderthals, but it wasn't through a war of genocide.

 

There is actually quite a bit of evidence that early humans did actually kill off the Neanderthals, or interbred with them. Okay, I think I've finally cottoned on and what's basically happening is that magic essentially causes The Great Filter to be lowered massively, that suddenly makes much more sense and is understandle and could be made totally logical. However, the drop of intelligence doesn't really make sense overall without there being some sort of magic, conspiracy, or some very, very specific reasoning and twisting of logic. Not to mention that, if civilisations find evidence of the past, they might start trying to avoid such things.

 

I'm not really sure what that means, but let's go with it.

What drop of intelligence?

Sure, but it's hard to stop. Banning magical practices would work about as well as banning the internet today.

 

The great filter is basically a point that civilisations have to pass, otherwise, they die due to stagnation or not being able to deal with natural events.

Me misinterpreting stuff.

Terrible example as you picked something that could be taken apart if you removed the infrastructure for it e.g slice the fibre optic cables beneath the ocean, not to mention that the primary reason for keeping the internet running is economic, which you said you didn't want involved with your magic. People would likely make smaller versions of it, but nothing on the same scale. The better metaphor would be regulating drugs/firearms, and, once again, it is rather easy to do. Even in feudal societies like post waring states Japan, it was illegal f0r peasants to have weapons, and it was enforced, or they attempted to at least.