The Winds of Magic

As modern humans we take it for granted that the fantasy world operates according to real world physics with magic added to let us cheat. Unifying magic and nature requires detailed explanations about how physics in the fantasy world is fundamentally different from our own reality.

Magical Forces

The real world functions based on the four fundamental forces of electromagnetism, gravity, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. The fantasy world turns according to the motions of twelve invisible magical fields. Without these fields birds could not fly, trees could not grow, and wizards could not throw lightning. These fields are known poetically as ley lines, dragon lines, "winds of magic," and "the force." (cf. Nephilim, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Wars)

© Plot Device

These twelve fields form six complementary pairs: life and death, pattern/organization and disorder/entropy, nature and artifice, divine and mundane, energy/passion and thought, function and form. The pairs define each other and neither could exist without the other. When seen using mystical sight, each field has a unique color: yellow and purple, blue and orange, green and brown, white and black, red and indigo cyan, chrome (rainbow) and grey. (cf. Colours of Magic series by Plot Device)

All living things are tied to these fields, but intelligent beings are unique in that their thoughts and emotions are focused enough to create ripples in the fields. They can change reality by sheer force of will, intentionally or otherwise. There are four broad classifications of deliberate manipulation of the fields, variously known as mystic arts, occult sciences, traditions, training regimes and so forth. These are arcane, divine, psychic and martial: corresponding loosely to the world, the spirit, the mind, and the body. (cf. Players Guide to Skybourne)

Magical Physics

This world is the logical opposite of Amethyst or Dragonstar and more liked Exalted's Creation or RuneQuest's Glorantha. There are no separate physics for "magic" and "non-magic": all scientific knowledge is based on observing and analyzing the interactions of the fields. While not all magic-users are scientists, since some rely on mysticism or invocation, all scientists are magic-users. It is impossible to build technology that doesn't rely on the winds of magic, and magic-users invariably use or build technological devices for simple convenience.

There isn't a concept of all-purpose "anti-magic" either. If you tried to create a hypothetical field of anti-magic, in practice you would create a sphere of annihilation. Anything that could be described as anti-magic would be anti-reality. If magic-users want to counter or reverse another magic-user's spell, then they cast another spell that creates the opposite effect.

(One distinction that most closely resembles the magic/tech divide is a matter of efficiency: one may make due with the reality that already exists or one may reject that reality and substitute it with a more convenient one. This neatly explains why a highly advanced magical civilization might outwardly resemble the Amish or something.)

Medicine operates completely different from, but superficially identical to, our own Earth. Living creatures are composed of four elemental humors which interact to produce metabolism. Malnutrition is the result of failing to make proper sacrifices to one's humors. Diseases are literally evil spirits which cause and feed on sickness.

The winds are also responsible for the spontaneous generation of spirits and fleshy life, often in response to other environmental conditions created by spirits or mortals. Weather and natural disasters are the result of elemental spirits, born out of and living within the magical fields, interacting with and affecting the physical world. Even things as simple as morning dew and the frost on window panes are painted by tiny invisible spirits. Leaving meat out to rot attracts spirits of rot, who will rot the meat and produce maggots that metamorphose into flies that lay eggs which hatch into more maggots. Unattended grain attracts rodent spirits, who will consume the grain and transmute it into fleshy rodents who will in turn give birth to more rodents. Children's fear will attract or create impotent monsters under the bed and in the closet that will terrify them harmlessly... unless something has gone drastically wrong.

Magical Thinking

The mortal world is two sides of a coin: the physical and the spiritual. Everything has a soul or spirit, not just mortals: animals, trees, rocks, rivers, even moonlight and morning dew (cf. Encyclopaedia Divine: Shamans). Both sides are dependent on one another and if one sickens the other will follow.

Intelligent beings like humans are unique in that their souls exist exclusively within their fleshy bodies. Perhaps for this reason or another, mortal emotions are an unlimited source of free energy that create ripples in reality. Accidental distortions in the fields, or "magical thinking," are extremely pervasive. Peasants whisper fearfully of the evil eye, whereby malicious thoughts may cause bad luck to others even if the thinker would never act on these thoughts. Sometimes wandering motes of emotion and creativity stabilize into ephemeral spirits that seek out and feast upon emotions or pursue specific desires to the exclusion of all else. The stronger the emotion or desire is, the more likely this is to happen. (cf. "Manifestations" in Relics & Rituals: Excalibur)

More to come...