Questions for a single-galaxy story

[Emissarius]

If I were you in this, I'd go full magic just in space. You seem to really want the magic system and you should write what makes you happy. That'll bleed through into the finished product and there's nothing wrong with going outside the common.

Maybe add a bit of sci-fi tech that seeks to copy the power of wizards or negate it in some way if you want it to mesh together a nit nicer though.

I'm an unpublished author, so going outside the common isn't ideal at the moment, not least because I'm seeking traditional publication. I want the magic system pretty badly, but I'm just so uncomfortable with wizards in space. Even as a reader, I like wizards in medieval castles, villages and forests, not in outer space. Same with dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns, which also happen to be part of my magic system! The Dragonriders of Pern series does have dragons in space, but Pern is not exactly a high-tech planet, at least not in the first books.

 

[.matthew.]

Then how about keeping the traditional magic, but losing the magical creatures?

 

[Emissarius]

I'm beginning to think part of my issue is a matter of aesthetics (not being able to imagine wizards with staffs boarding space ships as we know them in sci-fi). I'm wondering if anyone's come across a work where space travel is made through ships without computers or any other tech-elements. Like a primitive kind of ship that works with magic or through an obscure technology that's got nothing to do with electronics. If I can somehow get that part done, I may be able to retain my magic system and all the wizardry because then the story won't really feel like sci-fi. Think the early books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. They're classified as sci-fi only because the stories take place on a planet other than earth, but there's no technology or electronics involved. It's technically a fantasy within a planet other than earth. It'll be trickier in my case cause of all the space travel between star systems, but if I can somehow make the ships non-technological whatsoever, the aesthetic problem might be overcome.

 

[.matthew.]

I'd recommend having a read of Starship's Mage. Also Dune uses what is essentially magic to supplant computers.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar had characters flit about the universe on Dragons or through magical rifts - it's a hoary old trop, like most ideas

Star wars before the introduction of midichlorians was wizards in space. A position that many felt George should have left it at.

So, although it doesn't sound like my cup of tea, as they say, but there is nothing stopping you put Gandalf in a space freighter, it's been done lots of times.

On the other hand, sometimes you have to kill your babies. Just because you are proud of your creation and spent ages on it...doesn't mean it will work when you change some other aspect of it. Believe me, I wasted years trying to fit cool ideas around a developing story!

(Also personally I like setting to mean somthing, to introduce ideas to characters and plot. If you've changed your setting to 'space' but it really is just fancy cladding for 'trad. Fantasy' I'll see through it in an instant. There has to be something more that feeds back.)

As an aside I disagree with the view that Dune used 'essentially magic'. Frank Herbert extrapolated what he knew/believed from human capabilities, not magic, and turned the dial to 11. There is a logic there. Just that some of his beliefs were wrong - much like most/all of hard SF inevitably turns out to be wrong. The one trait that does seem the most mystical, prescience, turns out to be one that he believed he actually experienced, and therefore one he thinks all humans have innate! (See the interview from 1969 I posted in the Herbert subforum, it's near the end when he talks about the playing card incident.)

 

[.matthew.]

Weird fish men mutants using prescience to plot the course of starships seems like magic to me I think that the space folding 'technology' was only explained in the latter novels by his son as well, but I may be wrong about that one. It doesn't really matter what he 'intended' about the innate nature of man as magic is considered integral to humanity in most magic systems as well.

I was going to go into more here, but something hit me, maybe you're right and it's not magic, but it's definitely mutations that grant near magical abilities. So it's less magic and more x-men, with the Spice being the mutagen that gives humans all these not magical abilities... and yet, it is human computers, prescience, massive mutations into fish men and sandworms, extended life (like traditional wizards), enhanced reflexes, mind control using the voice, etc.

 

[hitmouse]

Maybe check out Jack Vance’s Alastor books. Set in a restricted set of star systems.

Vance is a prime example of a sf writer who uses space travel as a device for getting his characters from one fantastical environment to the next, without worrying unduly about the technicalities.

 

[Emissarius]

It seems I'll go with the space opera option where all the magic has a technological explanation. If u consider the Tessaract in Avengers/ Thor. It equally provides technological and magical elements to the story.

On sectors/ quadrants, I'm still not sure how best to employ them in my four star-system story. Should each star system be located in one sector/ quadrant of the galaxy? Or should each star system consist of its own sectors/ quadrants with the planets distributed among them? A few suggestions on this would be really appreciated!

 

[Parson]

On sectors/ quadrants, I'm still not sure how best to employ them in my four star-system story. Should each star system be located in one sector/ quadrant of the galaxy? Or should each star system consist of its own sectors/ quadrants with the planets distributed among them? A few suggestions on this would be really appreciated!

I don't think that there's a wrong choice here. Whatever you feel is in the best interest of your story.

 

[.matthew.]

On sectors/ quadrants, I'm still not sure how best to employ them in my four star-system story. Should each star system be located in one sector/ quadrant of the galaxy? Or should each star system consist of its own sectors/ quadrants with the planets distributed among them? A few suggestions on this would be really appreciated!

I think I'd go for 16? star systems, with say 4 in each sector close by each other for plot, with the continents being other sectors of systems further away. This way you get the most amount of realism from goldilocks zones.

Edit: Plus you get to describe a totally awesome skyline in each sector if they're far enough away to be in cool places

 

[Ori Vandewalle]

I know this isn't exactly what you're asking, but in a hundred billion years or so all galaxies will have moved beyond our cosmological horizon and will effectively not be around anymore. So you can certainly only have one galaxy if you want.

 

[Tavis Newsome]

As an aside I disagree with the view that Dune used 'essentially magic'. Frank Herbert extrapolated what he knew/believed from human capabilities, not magic, and turned the dial to 11. There is a logic there

I think "there is a logic there" is a good starting point.

Rather than try to second guess what the reader wants, write a system that, in of itself, is consistent. As long as you establish the boundaries, capabilities and limitations of your system, people will follow (presuming it's well written).

Hard science sci-fi demands some physics consistency, but people read space operas for the characters within the setting, not to dissect the implausibility of the sci-fi being written.

Arguably one of the failures of Star Wars Prequels was to try and explain the Force. The movies established what their space wizards could do, placed limits on the extent of their power, and then largely adhered to these restrictions.

As long as you determine a system whose inherent capabilities are applied consistently, you don't need to justify every decision. What people hate is a book or movie that establishes an internal power (or magic) system, that either has no limitations, or get broken in inconsistent or uninteresting or implausible ways. The good thing is that you get to set the plausibility levels and guide the audience into accepting the state of the world (or universe).

 

[CupofJoe]

All your responses have given me great writing prompts! I appreciate it.

Another issue I'm grappling with is what to do with the eleborate magic system that I've developed for the original fantasy story. I certaintly can't have wizards hurling around spells anymore! I've seen it done in some older SF works like The Silent Tower and Darkover Landfall, but those works aren't the best examples to model your magic system after, especially in outer space.


Yes, and it having only one season is imo the biggest crime in television history. Could u refresh my memory as to whether Serenity's travels was: all within a single solar system? Or multiple systems in one galaxy? Or multiple galaxies?

It varies abit as time goes on but the 'Verse in Firefly and Serenity seems to be a complex [binary, ternary, quaternary, or even quinary] system. And it seems to be very isolated from other systems beyond it.

 

[.matthew.]

It varies abit as time goes on but the 'Verse in Firefly and Serenity seems to be a complex [binary, ternary, quaternary, or even quinary] system. And it seems to be very isolated from other systems beyond it.

I always assumed that it was a whole bunch of systems. There were too many planets to be in a single system and while they didn't bother with explaining anything at all (Joss Whedon does pulp, not details), if they were in one system, then the whole Reaver debacle would have been obvious from anyone with a telescope (plus they had that nebula or whatever it was bit).