this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Absolutely, there are lots of examples, but the first that comes to mind is Warhammer 40k, they have super advanced technology and magic coexisting and sometimes intermingling.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

This was super common in the 1960s and 70s when hippies where the ones writing sci fi and the thought was that technological advancement would also come along with spiritual advancement to the point of supernatural powers. Star Wars, Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many others freely blend the supernatural with the technological. Sure it's not D&D magic with fireballs and shit but it's still magic. Further, if you want to look at a modern IP with this vibe look at World of Warcraft, where there are aliens from space with spaceships and shit with one of the most stereotypical fantasy settings you can imagine.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Artemis Fowl is a classic example of this. The fantasy world of fairies relies on super advanced technology in their world.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

MCU does a good job. Iron Man is supposed to be science based, and Thor is a Norse god.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think a better example than Thor would be Dr. Strange. Thor is just an alien, and his people have advanced technology, not actually magic.

Dr. Strange literally uses magic magic.

[–] southsamurai 8 points 1 week ago

There's a ton of examples, so yeah.

My home brew ttrpg setting is exactly that

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The black ocean series does a good job if blending the two together. But it sort of sets them in opposition to each other. Interstellar travel is made possible on futuristic spaceships by using magic to plunge the ship partially into another dimension, shortening the relative distance between stars. But unless the it is specially shielded against it, magic ruins and destroys technology.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A sequel to Arcanum that moves the timeline forward into the information age?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

God I wish we had gotten more than one Arcanum game...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

With out Tim it would never be the same even if the rights were not in limbo

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Sure, there are books like that and Shadowrun.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Yes. It's worked very well in the recent Zelda games

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Yes and it sounds cool as hell

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Definitely, although I think it's most interesting if the advanced technology is based on the magic.

Like, let's say there is a world where there are magic plants that can heal you, people who can magically scry nearby locations if they meditate deeply, and stones that levitate in the moonlight.

And there's an evil empire that exploits the fuck out of this by industrially farming the plants to create a highly concentrated serum, removing people's brains and hooking them up to computers for magical sensing abilities, and attaching fragments of moon rocks to the levitating stones to create antigravity. Creating invulnerable flying supersoldiers with impossibly good radar powered by brain backpacks.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I always liked the Dresden Files take on technology and magic. It's not that they can't exist in the same universe, it's that magic causes absolute haywire with circuitry. So you can use technology, or you can use magic, but not both.

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[–] agamemnonymous 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sure. Maybe the advanced tech is powered by magic, maybe the "magic" is just lost advanced technology.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Like most things by Philip K. Dick, the man who has more movies based on his writing than any other author?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Starship mage also did it well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

In Attack on Titan, magic (titan powers) had historically an edge over humanity, but the story is in part about how Humanity's technology has advanced to almost surpass those magical powers and shift the power balance.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

-Arthur C. Clarke

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

— Pratchett, maybe..?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Iron man and other Marvel movies started being very science. Oriented, but quickly combined magic or turned to magic

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

In any other setting, when we take specific, tiny stones and carve patterns into them until they can perform tasks for us, we call it magic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In dungeons and dragons there is a type of hybrid character you can play called an Artificer who treats magic more like technology, and there are a ton of examples in popular media that others have mentioned. I do think you have to determine how and if you'll keep them distinct if that's important to your plot, but if they developed alongside eachother maybe the technology of that world relies on magic to work.

Or maybe your magic relies on elder gods that don't like the mortal hubris of critiquing the gods works so attempts to unravel magic gets you cursed or worse.

I think they can go together and the way you fit them can even become a plot point!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Yes.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35420518

The Starship’s Mage books do this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

That's prevalent in the Might and Magic series. But (probably depending on the game) the high technology is often hidden from the common folk.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

You are going after two different nerd groups, so if you are able to keep them both happy... sure

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Yes. Do a time travel story and new tech will be seen as miraculous magic by those pesky Elizabethans.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/68872/dungeon-planet-the-healer-always-leaves-alive

Found that little gem a few weeks ago and I believe it fits your ask pretty well 1:1

Honestly almost as good as my other favorite the past few years, https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/63759/super-supportive, but the latter seems to be more active than the former.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The Psalms of Isaak series did this very well at the beginning -- starts off with a magic fantasy land but as you read you realize that there were forebearers with immense science and technology, and weaves a conflict between the two.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psalms_of_Isaak

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