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Worldbuilding Wednesday #1: Magic and Anti-Magic
🕑 Added 2016-11-09 16:55:54 +0000 UTC On this first volume of Worldbuilding Wednesday, I'll be discussing the nature of Magic in detail. Some of this information will reappear in the plot itself, but following WW updates or other supplementary info is not crucial to understanding Poppy as a whole. I will also not be giving any information that will obviously spoil future plot points.On Flora, "magic" is a form of radiation that causes distortions in reality. Beneath the perceivable plane of existence is the magical plane, comprised entirely of raw, unstable energy. Every instance of magic in the "real" world, be it as pure energy, or as a more focused manipulation like a spell, is a fleeting tear between those two planes, in which the the radiation is filtered to produce a wavelength achieving the desired effect. It can be loosely compared to editing the source code of a computer program.
For most people, that tear manipulation is totally unconscious. As creatures that developed and further evolved alongside magic from the beginning, they have a small part of the brain that acts as an antenna, which connects to their personal leaf on their tree of life in a manner not unlike quantum entanglement as often used in science fiction. The Tree of Life contains and processes that person's personal magical signal, and transmits it to the antenna, telling the body what wavelength of magic to produce. That signal transfers through the body and is emitted via the heartbeat, meaning people with stronger hearts have naturally wider "areas of effects". Everyone has a very specific range of effects that their signals can produce, that is locked in from their leaf's first exposure to magic and cannot be changed. This is where Lucky Stars come into play.
Technically speaking, there is no major difference between Flora's "Sun" and all of the other thousands of stars that exist in Flora's sky, beyond simple proximity and size. The Sun's orbit is 80% closer and 30% larger than every other star, meaning it's heat and light rays are stronger, and its orbit is much, much smaller and more consistently elliptical around Flora. Unlike our own stars, these are not masses of plasma producing energy via thermonuclear fusion, but enormous, stabilized holes in space that directly filter and radiate magical energy. The varying wavelengths of this radiation means that each star's radiation produces a different effect when processed by a living creature. The Sun has a neutral wavelength, meaning it simply grants people access to raw magical energy with no added effects. Sometimes, however, a Lucky Star will flare up and overpower the Sun's radiation for a brief period, locking in a newborn with special magical powers, like Valente's flames, Boris' ego-based transformations, and Kit's atomic interaction vision. These effects can also be artificially reproduced in part by skilled witches, but that will be a topic for another week.
With the basics of magic established, we can discuss the nature of anti-magic, the radiation that the opossums emit. Like the magical species, the opossums have an antenna that connects to their leaves on their tree of life, however, since most of their tree has been detached and reconnected outside of Didelphi's pouch, the signal is highly corrupted from the barrier between it. The signal neutralizes the magic in the opossum's body entirely, and furthermore, attempts to absorb all magical radiation within its field's range into the opossum's mass so it can neutralize it as well. Only about 1-5% of the absorbed magical radiation is usually lost entirely, however, as the neutralization process is imperfect, and the energy will slowly return to its original source if possible. No one knows what actually happens to the lost energy, but there are theories that it is absorbed into the opossum tree itself for unknown purposes. Short tailed opossums are unusual in that their brains can produced mixed signals of varying strength, making them capable of both using and neutralizing magic, depending on their level of understanding.
On a related note, if a person's magical leaf is somehow severed from its connection to the tree of life entirely (a task in of itself, as the trees are seemingly invulnerable all around), They will simply lose the ability to use magic for a period, not neutralize/become immune to it, like opossums. Over the course of several years, their leaf would also regrow, although this has not been tested in-universe for obvious reasons.
And that's it for this week's update. Next week, I'll be talking about Witches and the three branches of Magical studies. $10 patrons can also submit topics to be discussed in future updates, so long as they won't brush against spoiler territory. Thanks for supporting the comic.
Comments
Steven MacKnight
So it's theorized that the absorbed magic might go to the opossum tree. You know, fighting off all those gods might get a bit tiring for Didelphi. Would make sense if she uses her children to siphon magic from the world to "recharge", It would also make sense for the gods to tell their children that the opossums are something to be feared, or that they're not better than animals. You know, so their numbers are limited and Didelphi can't get as much magic from the world, so the gods would eventually win against her. Just speculating here. I have a feeling I'm gonna LOVE these worldbuilding updates.
Scribbleykins
Nice write-up! I'll pitch in with the first 10$ topic request: History hour! Tell us more about Floran history in general. If you want me to be more specific, then tell us about Kit's kingdom's history. How did a sheeple nation come to be under a foxy administration?
