Magitech

♛ What is Magitech?

Any personal item that is crafted to perform a standard spell or ability that would otherwise be achieved by a spell-caster or enchanted item. Magitech ranges from artisanal creations such as magical weapons and equipment, to standardized house-hold items such as mana-powered lights and heaters. At its largest, Magitech has produced leyline-fed Generators capable of powering entire Kingdoms and magical barriers able to withstand dragons. 

Magitech lives where the lines blur between magic and science.

♛ Advantages of Magitech

Properly designed Magitech is accessible and can easily be utilized by most people: regardless of their own abilities in magic. Magitech can effectively be batch produced, making it the economical choice for higher volume orders and larger scale projects such as city infrastructure. Whilst an enchanted item may be stripped of its magic by spells such as “Dispel Magic”, Magitech is engineered and will thus retain its mechanical function. Instead, any attempt to remove the magic will drain or deplete the mana-suspending battery and temporarily render the item ineffective. This can quickly be remedied by swapping the battery for another. 

♛ How it works

Magical energy is drawn from the laylines with a poorly understood device known as a 'generator'.  These generators distribute unstable magical energy to devices directly to power them, or in to storage containers known as 'mana batteries' to be used by devices at a later time.  These batteries look like glass vessels, sometimes in the design of hour glasses.

During the crafting process, magical spells are imbued in to an item to be triggered by the user when a charged mana battery is present.

♛ Magitech versus Enchantments

Arguments can be made regarding the similarities between Magitech and Enchantments, though there are key differences that separate the two from one another. Traditionally speaking, an enchantment is the act of imbuing magical properties onto an item: during or after creation. Meanwhile, Magitech is the art of engineering items to make use of mana to perform specific magical functions. The key differences are methodology and utilization.

An enchanted sword may be imbued with fire, summoning flames when drawn and wielded in an attack. A Magitech sword may be engineered to spark and ignite the blade when charged with mana, bursting into flames on command. Functionally, these two examples are very similar and result in a similar outcome: a weapon, enhanced by magic.

Magitech devices can typically be recharged by a layman with minimal training, where enchanted items, if they can be recharged at all, require specialist knowledge.

♛ Limitations and Dangers

Drawing up too much magical energy from the laylines can cause imbalances across the continent.  A worst case scenario is a cataclysm, which has claimed two previous iterations of Helheim in the past.  Magitech generators have been worshipped as gods in the past, causing an amount of sentience and loss of control.  Authorities in Helheim now keep an eye out for cataclysmic build ups, abuse of magic and over reliance on magitech.

♛ Personal Technology

Typically powered by small mana batteries.

♛ Infrastructure

Typically powered by small generators, or in some cases, larger mana batteries.

♛ Lost Technologies

Some prototypes and designs are known about but the designs either lost or incomplete, a lack of knowledge of the design, or an inability to produce them economically

♛ The Helheim Magical Grid

At one point, all of Helheim was planned to be linked with a grid of magic-carrying wires.  Construction was well under way when the last cataclysm hit resulting from the melt down and loss of the generator.  Infrastructure is once more being built with this grid in mind and it is beginning to be realised once more.

♛ Style Guide

A common misconception with Magitech in Sincadere is basing it visually on Steampunk. This is not appropriate to the technology level of the world and thus should be avoided. Please remember that in Sincadere, magic is a prominent source of energy. There has simply been no need for an Industrial Revolution. Steam engines and combustion engines do not exist as they have never been necessary. Instead, lean into the concept of applying magic and science, whilst using facilities and resources available in the setting. Wood is a versatile material to work with. Metal is still forged and shaped by Blacksmiths. Gems and crystals make excellent conduits. 

Think less about the Victorian era, and instead take inspiration from Renaissance Technology. 

Seek out a member of sim staff or ask in the various threads about the appropriateness of the technology you are considering

Whilst Magitech is primarily found in Helheim, if you'd like to create something not on the pre approved list then please reach out to your Faction Lead. 

♛ Metrics

In writings of old, standardised units are specified and used in patents of the age.  These units were used to turn conventional sorcery in to a precise and measurable science.

♛ Manavolts

For the purposes of quantifying magical energy, the proportion of power required to transmutate lead to gold is used due to it's high energy requirements.

1 manavolt (Mv) is equal to the amount of energy required to transmute 1 kilogram of lead to gold

Velocity may be measured by the speed of transduction of mana from the conduit to the sources in Mv/hr