Right, so I usually try to keep a level headed appearance on the forums. I try to be academic and measured in my discussion of lore. I will try to keep such a tone in this post, however, I may descend into madness occasionally, because, what is this? Why is it, how is it, why is it called Electron Magic? Note, that while I spent far too much time on this, I should say my grievances aren’t too serious. Vetex is obviously free to do what he wants. However, I enjoy being pedantic about etymology.
Electron magic is described as “a teal and red lightning that leaves behind clouds of burning air,” (Vetexgames). This honestly does make sense, since electrons are responsible for causing lightning. That’s perfectly fine, no problems there. The problem comes from the name itself.
Electrons are a very specific term, it describes a type of quanta known as a lepton that constructs atoms and gives them either positive or negative charges based on abundance. This means that since Electron Magic is an ancient magic the people during the golden age must have known about electrons? Right?
Except for the fact that, is impossible. The term electron was not used until 1891, nearly forty years after/one hundred forty years before the main story of Arcane Odyssey takes place (depending on whether or not the century gap really matters in terms of progress).
To even conceive of the concept of electrons the ancients must have had three things. Knowledge of electricity, a way to capture hydrogen gas, and complicated enough glass making to create cathode ray tubes. Seeing as the Dark Sea was created around the early one thousands post magic, there is no way that hydrogen could even be first discovered until after the Dark Sea’s creation. This is because hydrogen was first observed in 1520 when the alchemist Paracelus dissolved metal in hydrochloric acid.
Now granted the progression of alchemy to this point may be possible, after all alchemy began in Hellenistic Egypt and was responsible for much of humanity’s metallurgic and chemical progress. Which explains how acid magic is a thing, and may have resulted in the discovery of hydrogen. However, that still doesn’t explain where they got electricity, or rather enough electricity to do a cathode ray tube experiment.
There is no evidence that the ancients had electricity, sure they had lightning magic, however, it is doubtful they understood things such as circuits or conductors. This is evident by the fact that no evidence of electrical equipment exists within the Dark Sea. Now one may argue that the Dark Sea would have worn away any such equipment, except for the fact there are still, albeit crumbling, stone structures over eight hundred years after its creation. If those stones could weather eight centuries of wind and water erosion, there’s a very good chance that any electrical equipment would have as well. The most advanced technology that has been found in the Dark Sea are brigs and cannons.
There is still the possibility electrons may have been observed during the Golden Age, if somehow an acid mage had dissolved a metal mage’s attack and the resulting gas was then struck by a lightning spell. However, not only is this an unlikely occurrence, it’s not as if the three are going to stop their battle to think about what they just did.
