#magitech

[madcat-world]

Signals - RHADS

#Signals #RHADS #magitech #scenery #surrealism #digital art

[racefortheironthrone]

fantasy sometimes doesn't afford itself the ability to fantasize about a better world with many of the same problems of real life. thankfully ive found fantasy thatfantasize about things like gender roles, orientations, social status, etc. being more accepting, and the world kinder more often than not. question is, as hard as it is to find solid urban fantasy, are there anyworks you know of that use itself to imagine a optimal city for us urban nerds? magic public works, free dragon transit?

So there is a real problem in the fantasy and sci-fi genres that they often have a failure of revolutionary imagination, as I’ve termed it. We’re so used to not just the world as it is but also the public historical imagination of how change happens, that even in art that’s supposed to be about radically reimagining our world or new worlds, we often revert back to the familiar. (I find this tic particularly annoying in alternate history, which is supposed to be about imagining how the world could have evolved differently, but often reverts back to a retelling of (often bad) history with the numbers filed off.)

(A sadly rare counter-example.)

You raise a fascinating question about the potential for urbanist fantasy. This is often quite rare in urban fantasy, because often out of a desire to maintain the verisimilitude of urban life, they default to a masquerade scenario which renders it impossible to explore the impact of magic on transit, housing, and other aspects of urbanism because the central conceit is that people with magic are trying to hide and thus have no impact on the mundane world.

However, it does crop up sometimes in Magitech settings, because their central conceit is all about how magic would function in place of science and lead to new ways of organizing societies, urban and otherwise. For a popular example, look at how Arcane examines the social impacts of Hextech and Shimmer. My personal favorite example of urbanist fantasy is the plane of Ravnica from Magic the Gathering.

Ravnica is a ecumenopolis, a city-state that covers the whole planet. The city is governed by a guild council, each of whom are responsible for an aspect of the city’s physical and social infrastructure:

The Azorius Senate is responsible for running the courts and the legal system, and sometimes they run the police as well (although they have a jurisdictional dispute with the Boros Legion on that front).

House Dimir are couriers, messengers, journalists, private investigators, spies, assassins, thieves, and librarians, as well as the city’s clandestine intelligence service - if it deals with information in any way, the Dimir have a hand in it…or do they?

The Cult of Rakdos run the city’s entertainment, food service, retail, and labor recruitment (lots of shanghaing and press ganging goes on in Ravnica) - and they’re also a crazed juggalo bdsm blood cult who are responsible for keeping an ancient arch-demon entertained so he doesn’t try to destroy the city, again.

The Gruul Clans are an anarchist collective responsible for the planet’s wilderness areas, which they try to maximize by violent raids that tear down developed areas any chance they get - which also makes them Ravnica’s main demolition industry. The Boros Legion spends a lot of time defending built-up areas from Gruul rampages.

The Selesnya Conclave are a hippie nature cult commune who manage the city’s parks and other green spaces, as well as providing basic welfare services (food, “shelter,” clothing, etc.) to the city’s poor. They also use magic to do weird hivemind brainwashing in the name of harmony and unity, and they can raise giant Ent-Kaiju to defend the city in times of need.

The Orzhov Syndicate are a vampire banker mafia, and also one of the city’s biggest religions. They believe in debt on a spiritual level, and their religion fully embraces indulgences to their logical conclusion. The Orzhov preach that you can literally buy your way into heaven, and that debts to the (Catholic by way of Prosperity Gospel Evangelical) Church or its many front organizations and legitimate businesses will carry over into the next life; the Orzhov practice debt slavery on both living people and ghosts. And lest you think it’s all a cover for profit-making, they can summon dark angels to conduct rituals, lead services, and make war on their enemies. Something above is answering their prayers…

My personal favorite is the Izzet League, an institute of mad scientists and engineers and elementalist wizards who combine science and magic to research, build, and maintain the city’s infrastructure (as well as funding all tech R&D and theoretical and experimental research in physics, chemistry, and engineering) - the power grid, water and sewer systems, heating and gas lines, as well as the city’s mass transit and transportation/freight system, are all powered by their steam and fire and lightning and Magitech gadgets and robots and cyborgs made out of a magic metal named mizzium. Yes, a lot of their devices explode, and yes their golems and robots and elementals have a tendency to go rogue, but that’s the price of progress!

The Golgari Swarm are a subterranean necromantic cabal who run the city’s waste disposal, burial services, and do the bulk of the agricultural production for Ravnica’s hungry masses. All of Ravnica’s citizens are entitled to a food dole provided by the Golgari’s fungi farms as a form of basic income. Just don’t think too hard about what went into the compost heaps or what your rations might be made of…

The Boros Legion is Ravnica’s main police and military, led by a literal host of warrior angels. Imagine the combination of a police force entirely made up of noir detectives and loose cannon Dirty Harry-esque cops and an army with flying fortresses led by fiery angels who are all deeply dramatic lesbians. True believers one and all, the Boros are here to mete out justice and divine wroth upon evildoers wherever they hide. If they had their way, the Orzhov would all be in prison along with the Gruul and the Rakdos, but the damn bureaucrats in the Azorius Senate keep trying them up in knots with paperwork.

The Simic Combine are responsible for the city’s environmental quality, ensuring biodiversity and sustainability in a global metropolis; they are also the city’s universal health care providers. All Ravnicans have access to free health care, as long as they consent to the Combine’s biomantic research. See, the Simic are the other group of mad scientists/mages in the city, except they went into genetics, environmental science, and (marine) biology and they believe in individual and societal evolution through the use of augmentation, cloning, and splicing. After all, why stop at curing someone’s respiratory illness when you could also give them gills? Or giant crab claws? Or tentacles?

I love the world-building and the attention to urban systems and infrastructure in Ravnica. More than most, they’ve thought about what urban life needs to function and made it magical.

#fantasy genre #urban fantasy #revolutionary imagination #genre fiction #urbanism #alternate history #city-states #guilds #ravnica #mtg #arcane #magitech

[moxpunk-art]

Tinkering Project: A.R.C. Grenades

My half-dragon, Rirolee, has been hit with a bunch of inspiration lately, and has decided to turn her dragon-breath into grenades! She can toss whatever spell she knows into these babies for rapid-deployment!

#mox art #world of warcraft #gadgets #magitech

[ironfey-42]

Based on this tweet

#ironfeyworks #ironstrange #fanwork #strange family #ideas/concepts #iron man #tony stark #marvel cinematic universe #doctor strange #stephen strange #magitech #strangeiron

[zabe-books]

You might like my book about hot sad men who turn into dragons!

Koré is a male courtesan in a matriarchal society whose dad is a complete and total (also beautiful) asshole. He’s out to ruin his dad’s political career when he runs across the ghost of a dead god (while getting screwed) in the basement of a ruined temple. 

She chooses him as her herald, giving him the ability to transform into one of her sacred dragons and breathe life back into their dying world. Which is a massive problem because a) he’ll be stripped of his hard-won agency and turned into state property if discovered and b) he sees himself as inherently worthless and bad and can’t fucking process the idea of anyone choosing him for anything

(art by Therese Waricka)

Enter Ria, a young scholar and adventurer eager to make her mark by uncovering the dead gods’ secrets, and Faziz, an outlaw and assassin who’s running an underground low-cost housing scheme. Both have their own reasons for meddling in Koré’s life. Neither expects to fall in love with him.

And love is a problem. Because they love him for him, which means his secret, scaled side keeps appearing whenever they’re nearby. he’s nearby. Try as he might, he can’t erect emotional barriers to keep them out. With a war against the undead looming and a royal succession crisis brewing, Koré must embrace the creature he truly is--and fight for his city and his own place within it.

(art by Nicole Deal) 

You might like SILK FIRE if you like: sad traumatized men with daddy issues, epic fantasy with heroes as likely to flirt as to fight, sci-fi that plays with gender roles, giant buildings and palaces that can fly, women who light stuff on fire and who are adored for it, morally-grey characters, and, of course, dragons. It’s available here (Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org) and the hardcover comes with shiny gold foil that makes it a great gift. You can also follow me here where I talk about it all the time!

#fantasy #silk fire #epic fantasy #books #hardcover #shiny #romance #polyamory #dragons #magitech #science fantasy

[trash-sidhe]

So I got inspired to make a steampunk au of my THSC selfship au and I got all the important ones done except Dr vin and I did some doodles too

With my own version of "humans" that are somehwhere between Homestuck humans and thsc sticks and can have animal/fantasy parts like tails ears wings and even limbs

They're very comfort to me now and tomorrow when my new pen comes I'm probably gonna make a little comic with them I might even make a long form thing I'm just gonna go ham on and not try to write a good story for like the rest of my projects just to try to tell something while I whittle away at the Chaosmic plane

#thsc henry stickmin #the henry stickmin collection #henry stickmin au #the henry stickmin collection au #thsc ellie rose #thsc charles calvin #thsc au #thsc fanart #thsc oc #thsc #charles calvin #ellie rose #henry stickmin #steampunk #steampunk au #magitech #selfship #self insert #canon divergent au #canon divergence #lantern fantasy #fae

[a-doll]

Tick. 116294398

Tock. 116294399

Tick. 116294400

1346 days since the draft for the war.. Twenty years of near non stop conflict in the Sol system rendered several nations without soldiers, and so they turned to the various autonomous stations and orbiters around the system for recruitment, rather, they ordered the dolls and drones to battle.. And the last doll has been left alone since. It was the primary cleaner for the station, and its superiors decided it should still remain, as it knew the vessel best.

They gave it new capabilities, but little else.

They said this vessel is important, but they never told it why.

They said this vessel is a neutral zone... It isn't sure what that means.

The war has been raging for over 23 years.

The Vetra is empty, her last doll has only had her clockwork heart to keep it company.

#doll posting #scifi #magitech #empty spaces #This one hopes the story counts as empty spaces #this-one's

[iamthespineofmybook]

I think it'd be interesting to see a story where they have what's effectively modern technology, but the methodology of how the people of that world acheived it is with various types of magic instead of science and engineering.

So, for example, instead of mobile phones, they have communication stones, with the various stages of phone evolution being different sizes and types of stone, with the smart phone equivalent being something like a plate of obsidian or something.

I think the most fascinating thing for the whole concept is coming up with the equivalencies and then backtracking their development with how our world developed them.

Their version wouldn't even havr to look like ours, such as their commercial airlines using merely flying box instead of an entire airplane.

#speculative fiction #magitech #alternate world #science vs magic #world building

[maimbutt]

some robob

#arcane construct #monster #dragon #robot #magitech #art #my art

[vyriadurav]

Chapter 12 of Forged in the Light of New Stars is now live on Patreon for 1 dollar and up patrons! Follow Gwen as she struggles with her feelings of helplessness in the face of the Tearathian attack. Learn more about her and Brian's shared past! And, finally, see what mysteries await them both on Tellara! Forged is a t4t lesbian isekai taking place in a magitech world just as advanced as our own. Powerful creatures, fantastical wonders, and a civilization that embraces queer joy fully and completely, all this awaits on Tellara!

#Forged in the Light of New Stars #trans author #trans lesbian #isekai #original fiction #Magitech #tgtf #t4t wlw

[madcat-world]

Lady and Unicorn - Unita-N

#Lady and Unicorn #Unita-N #Unita N #prosthetics #cyborg #robots #unicorn #Skyway artbook #futuristic #magitech #fantasy art #digital art

[ironstrangehaven]

IronStrange Winter Holidays Gift Exchange

Hello everyone!!!!

Guess What!!!???

The IronStrange Winter Holidays Gift Exchange of 2023!!

This exchange will be a Secret Santa Event; the gifters will be unknown until they share their gift with their giftees during the posting time. You will find the schedule below.

The gifts that can be given are - fanfiction, fanart, gifsets, playlists, video edits, and photo edits.

Schedule

November 5th - Signups open November 12th - Signups close November 13/14th - Matches sent out December 25th - Posting the gifts begins Jan. 7th, 2024 - Final deadline for posting

Minimum Requirements

Fic - 900 words Fanart - Finished piece, no matter how small Photo edit - Finished piece, no matter how small Video edit - 20 seconds Playlist - 10 songs Gifset - 3 gifs

If you have any questions, DM us on tumblr or on the server in the ⁠#questions-suggestions, and we will answer to the best of our abilities. (The fastest way is through the server.)

Small Reminders

If you have any questions, DM us here on tumblr or the server. (the invite link to the server will be pinned to the top of the blog)

You can do a polyship as long as IronStrange is part of said polyship

YOU CAN DROP OUT ANYTIME, BUT PLEASE DM A MOD/ADMIN SO THAT WE CAN ASSIGN A PINCH-HITTER FOR YOUR PERSON

Sign Up Form

#ironstrange #tony stark #stephen strange #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #iron man #doctor strange #magitech #marvel comics

[methysis-art]

wanted to do a quick thing and it turned into this

#methysis art #magitech #art #upper body #elf #flat color #once again boleros have a stranglehold on my fashion choices #l

[voidshaker]

my artificer: Sir that's my emotional support robo-familiar

#dnd #dnd art #art #my art #voidshaker #familiar #robot #robot cat #cat #magitech #sketchy fake schematics are my life

[ironfey-42]

Incorrect IronStrange

Tony: my king, would you die for me? Stephen: no Tony: what? Stephen: i'd live for you. my whole life i'd been willing to die, but for you? i'm living just for you. you're my life Tony, in tears: i thought you were going to say that you'd die for fun

Based on this tweet Tony as Persephone and Stephen as Hades or vice versa. But mostly Tony as Persephone cuz I’ve read fics with Tony as Persephone.

#ironstrange #iron man #tony stark #marvel cinematic universe #doctor strange #stephen strange #magitech #strangeiron #incorrect ironstrange

[blogfanreborn777]

Artisans by Matt Cowdery

#fantasy art #fantasy #concept art #digital art #art #sci fi #science fiction #sci fi art #science fiction art #sf #sf art #manufacturing #industrial #magic #magitech #steampunk #solar punk #factory #horses #matt cowdery