Arcanium steam boats

Game Discussion
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I think the easiest solution to the idea of magi-tech is a different type of mana-conductor. The problem with arcanium is its inefficiency as a conductor, unless you’re constantly infusing it with magic it just reverts to its inert state. Devourer metal (which I call hecatite) could be a solution to this, but due to its long development time as well as its inherent instability, so while it’s able to carry more energy it will ineligibility overload so it’s not viable as a true conductor.

The best solution would be an alloy of infused (calling them infused because irradiated is technically too advanced a word for the period of AO) salts and a naturally conductive metal. Now if only there was a metal that we constantly use to move electricity around in the real world and we know exists in AO … Oh hey look copper.

An alloy of copper and infused-salt would work marvelously for our purposes of creating magi-tech. It would just switch its natural electric conductivity into magic conductivity. Holding the mana longer than arcanium but at a lower power compared to the steel like metal. This gives it no combative use, but in utility would make it a more practical choice for power generation. I would expect that you’d only need a small crew of mages to be able to power a city for a week. So you just have said crew on the pay-roll to weekly recharge the grid. This way the mages aren’t being inconvenienced by having to power the place, but it still requires some work to get going.

Now this would make the steam boat a bit harder to do due to the timed nature of this alloy. However, I imagine no captain worth his galleons would neglect hiring a mage for any expedition on these dangerous seas. Especially after the discovery of this metal and its use in sailing, having a mage able to keep the boat running would be essential. At least until people learn how to generate mana without a human mind. Perhaps infused-salts or even enchantment scrolls could work as natural mana repositories?

Overall this alloy would allow for more advanced technologies to be produced, while still keeping mages relevant in society. I also think this is more likely than the War Seas discovering electricity given their hyperfixation on magic and its power. I don’t have a name for this alloy yet, but I’d love to y’all’s thoughts.

Final note: I do however have a term for this form of mana: Fulguricity.

2 Likes
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DAYUM you cooked, I really like this concept and I really wish this is the type of stuff we could’ve seen in world of magic given they had 1000 years to advance :sob:

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Bro this is not DnD :skull:
None of this would work dawg, AO doesn’t use a “mana” system it uses a system entirely based off of godly intervention and chaos :sob:

The only way to make a steam-boat is called engineering, which is made more efficient when you have people who can make metal and fire at their finger tips

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Arcanium can infinitely hold magic wym??
Examples:
Morock’s Sword. Self Imbued Weapons. That one staff taken by the chief of Doom Island.

Again, wouldn’t work, but there is a solution…
It’s called burning fossil fuels :skull:
Oil. As in the thing used for energy irl.

Bro is actively making things up :sob:
Magic doesn’t need a Mind, and it wouldn’t run energy for a civilization effectively. The closest thing we’ve had to this is neutral circles from WoM, and even those were not “energy producers” they simply kept up sky islands :sob:

(or you could just manifest magic through the presence of chaos, which is seen various times)

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A reminder that magic tends to disappear a few moments after it was casted, meaning you are absolutely going to need the real thing if you’re planning on using it for something long-term (example being galleons, you can try making some with gold variant of metal magic but it’ll eventually end up disappearing)

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Mana is an universally recognized term for any sort of magical power. I was using it as an easier to type alternative to magical energy.

Also on the second part of this quote (not pictured above.) You state that steam engines could only be built with engineering. What I am talking about is engineering, technology and magic are not mutually exclusive. There’s a myriad of ways of mixing the two fields. Remember any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic, and any sufficiently understood magic is indistinguishable from science.

While this is technically true, the process of creating permanent infusion is far too time consuming for the purposes of industrialization. The only examples of standard permanent infusion we have are the sunken set and Theos’ staff Apotheosis. The sunken set has been underwater for centuries and Theos has been infusing his staff for at least 7 centuries. Morock’s sword is an outlier as he possessed the Promethean Fire Curse, the most powerful of the G.F.Cs allowing a much faster permanent infusion. He should not be considered for discussions of standard permanent infusion.

Oil is used in combustion engines used more often for transportation rather than powering a city. Which while more on topic still doesn’t refute my idea of using magical energy as a power source.

If magical energy is able to be conducted and stored, then it can be used as an energy source.

Yes I am making things up, that’s the fun of writing. However, what I have written given the laws and rules of the AU is entirely plausible. Magic requires a sapient host to channel it, see the fact that only humans and humanoid (sirens, Olympians, ect.) are able to cast any form of spell.

Secondly, how would magic not be able to power a city? Magic energy has the potential to reduce mountains to rubble, and even novice practitioners are able to produce power comparable to dynamite. With a small team of experienced mages and a network of Orichalcum wires and storage units, you could absolutely power a city if not a kingdom. Mana is one of the most energy dense forces in the AU capable of creating matter from itself, that transition requires massive amounts of power it’s literally the inversion of what nuclear fission does. Which coincidentally is also a great way to power cities. Also orichalcum is not an energy producer, that’s what the mages are for instead the entire system works as a highly efficient battery moving the magic generated by the mages across the city/kingdom.

Finally, about Chaos. While this force does produce extremely large amounts of magic energy it is simply not viable for standard industrial use. Its power would short circuit even the strongest orichalcum batteries, not to mention the hazardous effects that Chaos’s prescience causes. See Akursius Keep, The Dark Sea, and the 4th through 7th Seas. So having some mages manually charge the system is the safest and most efficient method we have at the moment.

Before I go a bit of clarification regarding my understanding of the magical metals.

Arcanium: Indefinite mana storage, but requires constant infusion to hold it for any extended length of time away from it’s mage.

Devourer/Hecatite: Able to store the entirety of a curse’s power, but in doing so becomes incredibly brittle and will be destroyed upon the release of the curse. Also able to absorb magic energy from normal mages through contact, see the Grand Navy’s manacles.

Copper alloy/Orichalcum: Works as a mana battery with limit storage compared to arcanium, but holds that not-inconsiderable charge for much longer without active infusion. Making it ideal for powering civilizations.

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Elaborate on this part please?

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So the Dark Sea is up for debate, but these are all places that have been destroyed due to Chaos drawing close to them. Akursius Keep is clearly hinted at to have been destroyed by Chaos due to the evils committed before its construction. Then the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Seas (I may be overstating how many seas were destroyed) which were in the Seven Seas sea cluster were destroyed after Acheron’s defeat by the Peacekeeper. Due to one of Acheron’s attacks drawing the attention of Chaos. I’m just trying to show the danger of trying to manifest Chaos for the purpose of generating magic energy.

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The 6th sea was safe to my knowledge.

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Yeah, but not by any method you’ve listed. Magic serves no other purpose in industrialisation other than providing the recourses, or more efficient labour than in our world. Having full-time mages run machines, etc is stupid because they’re capped by mortality, and likely won’t enjoy being a glorified cog.

It’s implied that “regular” Arcanium items last for a LONG while, especially seen in the notebook on Port Mistral which describes this

Yeah, mb but fossil fuels was directly listed above so :person_shrugging:

This thread isn’t about creative writing, we were all discussing actual in-lore stated methods of doing this, not random subjects that aren’t even from the Arcane World. No, they aren’t plausible, because none of these fit within the stated lore made by Vetex.

Because it requires constant attention from magic users, and is illogical since you can never guarantee a certain population gets (x) magic, and though magic types are slightly inheritable, they still boil down to personal character. (or obtainment, but the best magics for electricity, ie. fire, lightning and metal are not obtainable through scrolls, if those are even canon anymore).

bro is still actively making things up man im finished :sob:

Or… for the cost of one drilling site… you can get an energy source 100x more reliable, more powerful and easily.

No, you’re just tapping into the power of both Chaos and Creation, “Magic” is just the byproduct of these 2 forces being harnessed through a circle.

Chaos in itself is not lethal. It’s only dangerous when something genuinely horrific has happened, and it’s been amassed in heavy amounts. Chaos is what magic is, it’s only dangerous 1/10 times, and that’s only if you’re actively next to satan.

You manifest chaos everytime you use magic

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Well if you want in lore stated methods, then you just proved my point. All you did was negate the need for another alloy. This same system could work using arcanium (if like you say arcanium holds its charge indefinitely.) That mixed with its indefinite storage capacity would make it the ideal metal for transporting fulguricity.

Finally back to steam boats, an arcanium steam boat is definitely possible with how you’ve described the metal. All you would need is two arcshpheres (or similar arcanium contraption) one fire and one water to produce the steam that powers the pistons. This is cheaper than coal since its a renewable resource and it’s more likely to be discovered in the War Seas given their fascination with magic. All you would need is a way to mix the energy in the metals, but that would probably be solved by just shaping the arcanium into something other than a sphere.

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Arcanium holding a magic servers no real purpose other than to hurt other people. Metal with water imbued to it is useless for industry.

Possible, but inefficient. We’ve already seen steam-boats in AA, and they have no need for magic since thats just taking the long route.

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Except it’s not water, none of the elements that mages control are the real thing. It’s all just magic energy simulating that element. This is why magical constructs dissipate after a short while. Thus what arcanium is storing is not water or earth, but pure energy. However, magic does still hold properties in common with the element it’s mimicking.

This is why imbuing the sunken sword with fire creates steam. Therefore we know that mixing fire and water magic creates steam, and therefore could absolutely be used for a highly efficient steam engine.

If you have water and fire arcanium producing steam then the only limit on the engine’s power is how much magic was infused into the arcanium. Unlike a furnace that produces steam the Arcanium isn’t constantly having to be fed and therefore man power can be spread around the ship more efficiently as the boiler room needs no real maintenance. Now granted this means you wouldn’t be able to increase power either … or does it?

If you have a mechanism that is able to add or subtract different pieces of arcanium (read magical energy. More fire = more steam/faster speeds. More water=less heat/less steam slows the ship down) you could quite easily make a machine that increases and decreases the level of steam being produced allowing the ship to speed up and or slow down. All you would need is one man assigned to this machine, whose not even having to deal with the extreme heat often felt in a boiler room.

Overall Arcanium can be used for energy you just have to think of ways that magic energy interacts with itself. Whether that’s using it as a storage for raw magical energy to be transported along arcanium wires similar to real electricity, or by producing steam like in a ship’s boiler room. Like I said myriad of ways for combining magic and engineering.

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Can i get a source for this plis

yeah, but the sunken sword is ancient arcanium, and nobody has time to wait centuries for the metal to richen itself with the ocean.

Yes, I suppose in the field of Steam-Engines, magic is actually pretty beneficial, but that’s not the case for a city’s power grind.

i’ll make a more in detail debate after i finish dealing with a durza hooligan who im also arguing

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I think I’ve found a compromise for our debate, I’ll wait for your next explanation, but I just want you to think about nuclear reactors.

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Overall, I don’t feel as if Magic would benefit Humanity in their cities and societies (technologically) until far later. The Arcane World’s 1854 is our 1954. The creation of Nuclear Reactors using constant magic is completely an illogical state to take, when they have not even yet invented rifles and ships like Near-Modern Frigates. They are still in a stage where certain armies unironically still use melee weapons.

Inventions such as the Chaos-Creation attuned Nuclear Reactor would not be beneficial until AU’s societies have reached Edwardian technology and advancement.

Tldr: These technologies COULD work, but only in the very far future when a cluster has reached high level of development.

But tbf, technological advancements almost always come out of an existing issue, and with magic there is no existing issue, so it’s really questionable on whether or not people would even want to invest in change.

(magic is more of a burden on humanity, as seen by wom, taking place 1000 years in the future literally living in a medieval esc world)

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I was actually making reference to the fact that Nuclear reactors are essentially just giant steam engines. Basically what you could do to generate electricity using magic is have a large plate of fire arcanium constantly heating up water in large steam turbines. This way all you need is someone who knows fire magic to replenish the plate when its charge runs out. There’s no risk of fallout and it’s low tech enough that people in the AU during the 1800s or their equivalent year so the 20th century/1900s could conceivably think of. Being just an extrapolation of the ironclad’s steam engine, built large enough for city’s to use.

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Yeah but again, Magic is a burden on societies of all fiction. Innovation in humanity has always thrived from misery and issues within society and life, Magic fills all of these.

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Laughs in The Wax and Wayne series also known as the Second Era of Mistborn part of the greater work of epic fantasy known as the Cosmere written by Brandon Sanderson.

Like no joke if you want some examples of really cool magi-tech and magic being used to progress society you should really read the Cosmere.

Edit: Also magic in the AU as it currently stands does not fulfill any need in society aside from combat. What I and I think a lot of the other writers on the forums do try is figure out the utility of magic outside of combat. Now this may be impossible, given magic spawning from Chaos, but I like to think it’s not.

Edit 2: Small clarification adjustments.

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