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Listen, in high fantasy settings you typically get a cod-mediaeval society coexisting beside starships'n'deathray-equivalent magic, right?

So there's got to be a REASON why the folks plodding along behind the mule don't have any truck with flying carpets etc.

My money is on: magic is like software; so you get an integer overflow and your flying carpet turns into a fungal network that eats you alive.

And have you ever MET a wizard? Would YOU use an enchanted broom That Guy created as an MVP?

@cstross could be different reasons: Maybe magic is scare or a non renewable resource or a wizard can only do so much magic per day.

StaringAtClouds has moved

@sbamueller @cstross Re magic as a finite resource idea

Have a read of "The Magic Goes Away" by Larry Niven

That explores the idea

@staringatclouds @sbamueller Shockingly, I might have read that back in the late 1970s …

@staringatclouds @sbamueller @cstross

“wizard can only do so much magic per day” is usual in many RPG systems – you only have so many mana points or however it is called, or it’s tied to stamina like fighting.

@fiee @sbamueller @cstross Niven's idea was that the power source for magic was environmental & could be used up permanently

@staringatclouds @sbamueller @cstross

”magic draws from the environment, and ambient magic is different between AUs” is always a good reason why magic doesn’t work in technical worlds, or why one world developed magic while others developed technology.

“The Wall Around the World” (1953) by Theodore R. Cogswell (1918–1987) is about an enclave where magix is taught and developed while technology is prohibited, apparently setup as an experiment.