I believe that it should, depending on the difference between the two and what we define as ‘explosions’.
Let’s begin by explaining the latter:
Explosions are a rapid expanse (decompression) of matter, usually caused by a transfer of energy (everything is energy, what else could it be caused by?). Please enlighten me if I’m wrong somewhere, I’m literally basing this off of a few google searches regarding the physics of explosions.
Why I think it should explode:
If the air is condensed enough by cold magic, the hot air created by heat magic could theoretically cause an explosion. However, since it would still be gaseous air, it would instead cause a blast of pressure, a shockwave if you will.
Of course, this is based on a theoretical standpoint, but we can safely make the assumption that the energy gap is wide enough to cause such a thing based on heat magic’s visuals… being visible (similarly to plasma&lightning).
This whole topic was made to move a derailment of Tobi's Magic Circle Hub somewhere else in order to let me argue about whether or not light&shadow magic should explode on contact (which I believe it shouldn’t), but I’m way too tired to do so for now.
light and shadow explode because they’re two opposite energies that don’t mix even if real light and shadow just makes less bright light, so theoretically heat and cold magic could be the same even if there’s not a great enough temperature difference to cause a shockwave physically
To be honest, we kind of lack an explanation as to what shadow magic’s properties are, stopping us from finding out whether or not it should truly explode when in contact with light magic.
I came up with two explanations as to what it could be and plenty of others as to why it should or shouldn’t explode in both cases, but the lack of definition really stops me from coming with a conclusion.
Of course, since it explodes in-game, I guess that it should (I now realise how close-minded I was when making this topic).
How would magic take on only the properties of “a lack of light” though? Unless magic energy can… well… magically absorb light just like that, it shouldn’t be capable of doing so.
This is part of why I believe shadow magic to be a volatile1 matter2 which absorbs at least 96%3 of all light, instead of just being “energy that takes away light” (it’s so nonsensical that you can’t even call it ‘something’).
Footnotes: 1. It is volatile in two ways, one being that it dissipates in the air (as seen in its visuals), another happening to be that it is explosive. 2. As explained in footnote n°1, its visuals dissipate in the air, something which I take for granted is only possible for matter in the context of its capabilities. 3. Searching about what minimum percentage of light absorption makes a colour black gave me that result, take it with a grain of salt.
I can’t provide a source of this (@westloonlake might be able to though), but didn’t Vetex state that magic only takes on the properties of things and people decided to name said magics after said things which it resembled?
This might not be relevant at all of course, but I felt like it should be when considering that there is no known thing in the modern human world that absorbs so much light, is volatile, etc.
My goal in using them was just to provide information without having to build more sentences surrounding them as I’ve done in this topic’s header.
just to add on to those here’s some vetex statements on shadow. granted these are from 3ish years ago but honestly I doubt vetex has really changed his perspective on it lol
