The way I do it, is that Tideborn goes around, searching for ancient ruins. Most of them had some sort of "magic" that they could use. Tide simply records the data he finds, and, when he has the time, attempts to re-create the "magic" by recreating he technology behind it. For all he knows, it could be a relic from the distant future, lost in time and displaced to the distant past. Regardless, the device that allows him to use "magic", the Manadrive, is usable by certain people. Tide doesn't exactly know what it is that allows people to us it, but he's decent at picking out those who can. The manadrive includes a psychic implant, that allows you to know how much energy you have stored in it, and a type of memory bank that stores all the techniques one learns with it. The manadrive itself is more along the line of thousands of nanobots with minor amounts of energy-manipulation technology. The energy itself comes from your own metabolism, mostly. It slightly raises your metabolism (or greatly does, depending on the need), and stores the excess cellular energy inside the core, near your heart. When the Manadrive is used, it releases the energy and sends out the nanobots. The nanobots coalesce within whatever is to be manipulated, trapping small amounts of it in a magnetic field that can be moved with the chip in the head. It can also draw from gemstones, through metabolizing the trapped energy of light and heat that was used to create it, or by basically ripping the molecules to shreds to take the nuclear energy from it. It can also be "upgraded" by assimilating various artifacts from the ruins, once they are converted to a format that it can actually use. Thus, Tideborn is always on the look for new tech to use. As for risks, the Manadrive has been known to cause the users to hallucinate. To hear voices, or to imagine that they see things. Hence the fact that Tideborn seems to hold conversations with people that are not really there. It can also cause insanity when overused, as Tideborn does. Therefore, many people are wary of using it. That, and since the Manadrive itself is often forgotten, the people tend to think that they truly can use magic. As well as the fact that you can overdraw your metabolism and energy storage, thus sending your body into shock, or that you can kill your mind by doing too much, too quickly. One cannot simply take the Manadrive and use it instantly. It takes rigorous training in order to be able to do so, hence the fact that Tideborn has a "school of magic". It's more of a training camp where Tide teaches people the necessary focus and rigor to use it without killing oneself. The explanation itself is just a rough draft. I'm still finalizing the explanation, adding details... but this is the main concept.
Hnnng. At this rate, this whole thing is giving me a really bad headache. Just leave it up to the mods to decide whether this is okay or not. Personally I want nothing to do with it. Been there, done that, played FF6.
I have mixed feelings on the matter. If it can somehow be explained, and if it isnt a game-changer kind've thing, I mean you won't be destroying planets with it or anything I'm okay with it. I just wouldn't want a lot of it.
What you are describing is an omni-tool. One example is Batman's Utility Belt, where he can just pull out that exact thing he needs when he needs it. Now it was "there" the whole time, but when he needs to freeze water-he has a thingy, sonar-batarang: got it. Omni-tools are great for superheroes because it grants a pool of power that truly makes them fantastical. However, we are trying to move away from that in a reality grounded universe. I want to address some things individually, hopefully it helps. This is the impression you gave me, so take it with a grain of salt. First section: There was a society that was entirely based around this Manadrive, so much so that there are random "things" that are compatible with it. One can take these "things" and get them to make the Manadrive do "things". Also midiclorians. -Now, I am actually almost okay with this. Basically it is a computer. The fact that one can manage to figure out how to install a new magic from a disk is a bit much. I don't like to reference Mass Effect, but the very beginning Ash or Carth Onasi casually turns on the beacon and Shepard breaks it. The trend continues that you never really learn anything about how Prothean things really work until they either activate themselves, or someone breaks it. I could see if Tide could figure out how to put a CD in the chamber, but when it asks him if he wants to install you are just as likely to delete bloody everything. (Idea is cool, but IC has too much understanding). Second section: Again, a cool concept. Who figured out it was a neural implant? Throw a ballpoint pen at Shakespeare, and eventually after trial and error he will figure out how it works and it will stop being magic. However, with the power of this device it is more like throwing a pen at an illiterate peasant. They are much more likely to try and eat it or something. What I am implying is that somehow managing to install and figure out how to make the device do things is already a lot of power. Third section: Same sort of deal here. So let's say that somehow you randomly figure out what bit of the brain to stab this thing into. Now it is stimulating metabolism, which is indeed a thing. The storing energy near the heart is kind of silly because there isn't exactly anything to hold it. "Energy" in the human body is still matter, but parts of your body break it down to do specific tasks (if you aren't familiar with mitochondria, it might help you understand). The being able to eat gemstones bit is silly, to be frank. It is a completely different process, and only serves to make the concept scattered. You are trying to do too many things with it. I realized this is getting way too long, so I will wrap the last bit together. I want you to try and take a step back and just look at this specific device. Ask yourself questions like these. Who made this device? Why would someone make it? What discoveries were necessary for this device to exist? How important was this device to their culture? What is its intended and practical purpose? How would they teach people to use this device? Would they explain it using tech that is also beyond our current understanding? Compare the computer twenty years ago to the ones we have today. Technology does not exist in a vacuum, and your device sounds like it would be the product of a very long line of development. The beginning of which hasn't even been touched by IC modern society.
Sermane. I believe I'm going to follow you. You've done nothing on this thread, except to help me find and fix the flaws in my concept. And for that, I thank you profusely. Keep the criticism comin'!
When I first saw this thread, I -really- disliked the idea of magic in Starbound. ... and I still do, don't get me wrong. I want nothing to do with it, but that's me and my personal tastes; me not liking it shouldn't stop your character. If Xenos were to continue workshopping this with the *alot-more-patient-than-me-with-magic* Sermane, I would be actually, pretty okay with this... For Xenos's character; he seems to have a good heart, and Sermane, has good ideals, but this is an -incredibly- fragile thing... Very easy to screw up... And I think I realize -why-. It's that same groan as, in any sci-fi RP, a new/lazy person just says "I'm gonna be a smuggler." That groan, exists in fantasy RP, with "I'm gonna be a wizard." Great things have been done with these two archetypes; that's why they're popular choices. But, everyone and their RPing Gramma has seen enough first-time Mary Sues in these veins that they get the shakes thinking about it. (in summary; I think that's the reason alot of people *including me* shot this idea the second we saw the header, and are still wary about it.) I'm nit-picky about stuff like this; any statement that makes something clear-cut-no-other-way gets my fingers going. (this is less argument's sake and more me wanting to play around with the Bone Dragon theory) Bones in themselves are, from our point of view, something entirely terrestrial; we've never found bones anywhere but Earth. This deals with how the human mind works; hold onto your butts kids... We, humans, categorize -everything- by easy to identify labels; it's how the brain works. You don't remember the red automobile, license number X7JY239, going down Main South with a mother and her two kids. You remember a red car; even the make and model, if that's something your brain's equipped to notice. (work/admire cars) The "red" and "car" are labels, it's tricky to explain; we label and categorize everything we encounter, people places events; otherwise, our brains would explode when we walked outside as it tried to memorize every unique, individual, thing. SO! "bones" is a label. That's half the battle, now dragon... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia This one's a bit easier; it deals with what was mentioned above, but a little branch. When the brain sees something new, it categorizes and applies a label. Seeing this thing, the human mind would say "dragon, bone" http://starbounder.org/mediawiki/images/b/bd/Dragon_King_small.gif But... Let's throw an idea out here... Looking at that, with an analytical point of view, I immediately though "All of it's organ's must be situated in it's head" So, that, in reality, is a torso; so what are the spindly bits and bites for? Well... The "ribs" Could be acting as a wind-tunnel, from an air-control bladder expelling, propelling the creature around. The "spine" gives it motor control of the wind-tunnel, allowing it to make minor steering, the wings acting as the main directional-rudders. The feet... Those grey, shiny talons look a -bit- like eggs... Eggs evolutionarily made to be thrust into prey... And it does go after immobilized prey, such as tied princesses... Ridley Scott and H.R. Geiger are calling; they're suing the fuck out of me.
See, I always just played it off as mechanical. Some taxidermy chimera wired together out of bits of other animals and Fiji-mermaided into existence. Probably by penguin pirates (Dreadwing tried to be a Glitch in "The Would-Be King" before, why not fake a dragon?). With Aissa's brief brush with seeing magic, she's also tried to rationalize it as smoke-and-mirrors parlor tricks and will most likely continue to do so if it comes up again.
I'm not really sure what that has to do with other people offering the IC/OOC theories and justifications they've used for a "supernatural" phenomenon, but okay.
DON'T YOU OKAY ME. I AM THE GODDESS OF THE EASTERN SAUSAGE. I was just kidding, by the way. I'm not good with jokes, so sorry about that.
It's cool. Some people get hell of defensive for some reason, and it is hard to tell through text. I was just trying to say that from the perspective of a character who's actually had brushes with magic IC, it's still kind doable to just rationalize it as some guy with mirrors in his socks and a bunch of rabbits in his pants. Well, 'til combat or something happens, but you gotta burn that bridge when you come to it, I guess...
