Tech in Magic- A History and Discussion

[5colorsrainbow]

More modern technology is a debated thing in Magic's setting so lets look at the history and evolution of it.

Weatherlight/Pre-Weatherlight - I'm don't know about Weatherlight era and back enough to break all down, thought we did have some of Magic doing tech/scifi elements with Urza, the Thran and Phyrexia and with Maro having said the Weatherlight was based on Star Trek and Star Wars and Karns story arc.

Mirrodin- The first kind step in scifi by having a metal world and all the artifact creatures and machines. Also links back to phyrexia as Mirrodin was made in mind to be where phyrexia would come back from.

Ravnica- Being a giant city that means more modern then something like Greece or other ancient cities with stuff like plumbing, cafes and roads ect. and the Izzets having elements of steampunk.

Alara- Esper takes notes from Mirrodin/ Phyrexia by using prosthetics made from the magical mental etherium.

Innistrad- Leaning on the one of the more modern eras, as Flisch noted there seems to have been a bit of a shift. In terms of technology I remeber people really not really liking how they didn't have silver bullets and chains saws but silver arrows/ bolts and helix swords, which I think started creative down a path we will talk about in Ixalan. We also saw some steampunk elements with the Frankenstein elements that where used.

Vyrn- We don't have a lot info on the world but the big focus are the magical technology of the mage rings that fill the lands.

Kaladesh- The first big push of magic into modern/scifi tech by doing a steampunk/aetherpunk setting, and the first idea of Magic setting could have more modern/scifi tech as long as it was magical/powered by magic, this case aether. I do know with Kaladesh they also have it as a rule that the machines should lean as much as not being workable in real life to help add the magical elemental and I believe also carries with other sets.

Ixalan- Of note Ixalan was when we saw guns start entering Magic settings. As noted with Innistrad, creative had decided that if a genre/trope space they wanna use has guns they will have guns but similar to the rule on other technology with Kaladesh the guns will be magical and fire spells or non-bullet ammo. For Ixalans in case the had them for the pirates and they used hand sized canons that fire out spells as well as harpoon guns (mostly used to show them swinging around by them). The return also introduced Oltec and Fomari tech with the Oltec tech powered by Cosmium.

Strixhaven- Of note Lorehold student use scrolls to fire out magic blasts like guns.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty- The first time Magic went more harder to sci-fi techonogy when talking the cyberpunk genre vs aether/steampunk. The tech is powered here by Kami spirit power.

New Capenna- Currently the most current to the present setting (with Duskmourn coming up to claim that title), we saw a number of tech as well as gun, maybe that look like tommy guys while other are built into instruments. All of this is powered by Halo. The cars are also kinda bug-like.

Thunder Junction- The plane has trains and other tech that would be in theme to the plane. They also have Thunder Rifles which are guns that shoot out the magic of the plane Thunder. I'm asssuming the other tech runs on Thunder and/or power sources from the techs play of origin.

[void_nothing]

Great breakdown. Once upon a time, any technology that smacked of sci-fi was completely taboo in Magic art and story, so clearly the situation is different now. Note that Space: the Convergence was at one point an April Fools' joke, and now we have confirmation of a "space opera" styled set (albeit probably with Magic's existing trappings: Outer space being replaced by the Blind Eternities or maybe some sort of, let's say less hostile extraplanar space, and with "alien" looking goblins and kor playing the role of some of the alien races, that sort of thing).

Guns still seem to be the last frontier other than the complete weirdness that was the art of Portal: Second Age. Even in settings where the stereotypical stories of the inspo would heavily use guns (New Capenna/tommy guns and Thunder Junction/revolvers), we got at most an analogue in TJ's handheld Thunder launchers. This amusingly enough means that the the obscure Jamuraan island of Caliman is the only known place in the multiverse that has gunpowder weaponry resembling the kind used in the historical real world and there is no reason to think that will ever change.