Assuming if the Arcane universe ever had some sort of endgame, should the conclusion of it be the destruction or disappearance of magic?
I mean magic is cool and all, but it’s way too out of control, it has caused:
-The temporal disappearance of a resource (Aurem)
-Death of thousands if not millions by one individual (Durza)
-Terraforming and damaging the planet (Peacekeeper vs Durza)
(Image only serves as an example)
Magic and Curses users are basically potential mobilized nuclear warheads, rechargeable ones too. The reason why we don’t see some cuckhead throwing a few nukes around trying to recreate Hiroshima everyday is because we have a treaty that stopped all nuclear weapons from being made. From a fantasy standpoint, the same solution has been employed in similar circumstances, namely “no more mutants” from X-men, and “The rumbling” from Attack on Titan, these also worked to a certain extent. So maybe erasing all magic from existence isn’t that bad philosophically, it could be the end goal if Vetex and Techlevel ever decided they want to end Arcane series for good I guess
we don’t know much about aurem
frankly, the overuse of it by prometheus could have been a good thing in hindsight, as it stopped other gods from doing the same thing
while seemingly terrible and yes a tragedy, events like that are incredibly rare and heal over time
you just need a stronger nuclear warhead to beat the shit out of any nuclear warheads that cause problems then
this however would imply magic is detrimental, which it isn’t by itself
magic users can protect people, solve problems which others cannot, etc.
for instance, a curse user could likely build a canal which could help trade, a really powerful person might be able to move rain to a country in drought, build infrastructure etc
additionally leaders could live much longer, creating a situation where a benevolent ruler could rule for centuries
in a more “peaceful” environment magic would be quite beneficial
even if magic were to disappear, people would still fuck themselves over
Durza killed 80% of human race at the time, I don’t think they’re healing anytime soon, given the following years of screwed up world and economy, probably 10% would remain and populate, which would revert the progression of humanity by hundreds of years
Opposing law by nothing but force and basing law on force is terrorism and tyranny
Magic, in a peaceful environment would grow on and help humanity, yes. But curses however, since curses users are immortal, their psychological health could deteriorate, and their moral code could become vulnerable and change. Those who are younger could be manipulated and used to very drastic extents.
Need I remind you that humanity while full of love and kindness, is a species known for their unfathomable greed
Btw true, if magic were to disappear, people would still fuck themselves over, but at least now everyone has a fair shot of not getting killed, humanity has a better chance of not getting wiped by one uncontrollable individual
its been centuries since then, everything has mostly recovered, everyone is used to living on islands
while I admit any progression would have been significantly slowed, by the time arcane took place a technological revolution was happening in mainland,
albeit AG bought out many inventors
sure a shit ton of people died but everyone dies eventually
while true anyone too crazy would be hunted down
excellent example is trigno taking down rupin
I think greed as a concept is stupid
sure you can attribute an action to greed, but ultimately “greed” doesn’t really exist
simply having power doesn’t make everyone go batshit crazy, it could be because they’re batshit crazy they become powerful
same line of thought of, do video games make people violent or do violent people play video games
you’re saying we don’t have that chance already?
consider modern society, then just replace “nukes” with “curse users”
whole situation is fucked either way
notably, durza put ridiculous amounts of power into that attack,
world ending events aren’t common even in AA lore
People living on the island would very much be affected since the normal trade ships wouldn’t come, in serious cases where islands don’t have mean to feed themselves other than trading, they’ll starve to death
I don’t mean people going crazy when I say “psychological health deteriorate”, I mean that they could change and act accordingly to psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies while remain in mostly full consciousness.
Another reason why we can’t flank around nukes is the entangled web of informations between countries, if you try to launch a nuke, everyone would know you are trying to launch a nuke, therefore making the launching of the nuke very bad for whether you succeeded or not. In the world of Arcane however, since internet and telegrams has not yet been a thing, you could destroy the whole world and blame it on someone else, since information goes by mouth and newspaper.
World destruction events happens quite normally in Arcane, Durza just has an idiotically ineffective way of doing it. Like Peacekeeper raising an entire continent for example, needless to say it would cause a problem, terraforming the planet in anyway is not good. Besides, if the magic-made particles react normally with natural particles, even a weak wind user could cause a reaction of nuclear fusion just by puffing the air
I agree that greed is a concept only based on human’s emotions, which are relative. But human’s emotions while relative, ARE real and deeply affects their actions
sure everything was broken when it first happened but shit gradually recovered
less people also notably means less mouths to feed
being a psychopath or sociopath doesn’t immediately make you a murderhobo
if you tried to destroy countries anyone powerful within them would go out to counter you
nukes notably can be produced on a massive scale, whilst curses remain rare
what do you mean by “greed doesn’t exist”? it’s an abstract concept used to describe a mindset or mental state that an individual can have. no different from “lovestruck” or “vengeful” the way i see it.
greed as an abstract boogeyman that afflicts the hearts of unsuspecting humans probably doesn’t exist though.
it’s also possible that power enables the already batshit crazy to become even more batshit crazy while also affecting others in ways too subtle to realistically be displayed.
undeniably however, those who are batshit crazy without power can only do so much. saw in an article once about the effects on power on empathy in human beings. looking at it in an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that such would be the case. don’t really know since i haven’t actually read the sources, but psychologytoday’s article has these sources
1. van Kleef, G.A., Oveis, C., van der Löwe, I.,LuoKogan, A., Goetz, J., & Keltner, D. (2008). Power, distress, and compassion: Turning a blind eye to the suffering of others. *Psychological Science* , *19* (12), 1315-1322.
2. Hogeveen, J., Inzlicht, M. & Obhi, S.S. (2014). Power changes how the brain responds to others. Journal of Experimental Psychology* , *143* (2), 755-762.
3. van Kleef, G. A., Oveis, C., Homan, A. C., van der Löwe, I. & Keltner, D. (2015). Power gets you high: The powerful are more inspired by themselves than by others. *Social Psychological and Personality Science* , *6* (4), 472–480.
4. Guinote, A. (2007b). Power and goal pursuit. *Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin* , *33* , 1076-1087.
on the video game part though, i would say that video games do normalize gratuitous levels of violence that people would be less likely to be exposed to otherwise. that’s all i’ll say on that particular topic, but it’d be foolhardy to not expect this to have at least some effect.
EDIT: Oh yeah, sorry for the essay on just one tidbit of what you said, since that might be annoying.
Again, just because it doesn’t 100% make you a muderhobo, it doesn’t take away the 1% can lead to a catastrophe and… ya know, DEATH OF MILLIONS (if not billions)
Curses are rechargeable…
World destruction catastrophe being counted at all is worth worrying
Terraforming a planet was a compromise, doesn’t mean it’s good though
If a certain amount of air was generated in side a bubble of air (the atmosphere) the air would either make a large poof sound upon being pushed onto eachother, or generate a reaction of niclear fusion
not exclusive to fighting but in a way yes
building on fire? have a wizard go in
people stranded in mountains? send a wizard who can fly
natural disaster? super fast response and aid
9/10? thats bullshit bro
bombs are used all the time, and most of the time not in murder
you just hear about the murder more since people like talking about murder
in which case you have plenty of time for someone to come beat the shit out of them
better to have an average ruler for centuries than have a bunch of shitty ones
that doesn’t really say anything
and?
and whats worse, one rogue nuke (a curse user) or dozens of nuclear ICBMs and a nuclear war?
greed isn’t real, you can’t quantify it or actually do shit with it
you can try to attribute an action to greed but it doesn’t change shit, still just a descriptor used to mock/discredit someone
yes.
yeah however as long people get that power who aren’t batshit crazy, then alls good
most people aren’t batshit crazy
generally thats irrelevant though
video game violence is entirely different from real violence, the two don’t compare
maybe some effect, however simply playing video games doesn’t mean you’ll do the things you do in those videogames
pointless long conversations on meaningless topics are fun bro!!
Are you breathing? Just have a wizard destroy half the planet.
It was a hyperbole. The world would still be a better place without bombs and firearms.
That is very optimistic and the real world disproves it. Usually, when a dictator is defeated, they are replaced with an equally bad dictator. Also, since it takes one person to destroy a government, I don’t see any democracies forming any time soon.
The point was you can’t just say “in a more ‘peaceful’ environment.” That would be like saying “if magic wasn’t bad, then it would be good.”
The whole point of “people can still kill each other” is bad because magic makes it much easier to kill people and leads to much more death.
i’d say you can’t quantify it but it’s a descriptor used on humans so you can definitely do shit with it.
i can somewhat predict the actions of an individual that meets the criteria of “greedy” by noticing that they actually do meet said criteria.
it’s a label, as creatures obsessed with classification, labels are pretty useful for our thinking process. the label of “greed” is no different.
you mean graphically or…?
what do you mean?
which part? the first sentence is pretty relevant.
power allows the batshit crazy to enforce their batshittery in more ways and on more lab rats.
and less conflict, warfare, violence, famine, corruption, etc.
world before durza nuke was still basically medieval
even the super strong people in this universe can’t really do that easily
durza was only able to do what he did because of how he gained that power
we don’t know if the curses durza put into that attack could actually be used again
given the scope they may have been destroyed
it was stated you can destroy curses with the absorption curse
you don’t know any of this or the specifics of how it worked in the lore
assuming that terraforming is bad without any evidence is just kinda lame bro
you seemingly didn’t, magic itself isn’t any more detrimental than what people do to themselves
how exactly is magic itself detrimental?
crazy wizard who wants to destroy half the planet? send an even more powerful wizard to beat the shit out of them
and it’d be better if everyone had to stab each other to get shit done? what the fuck would this “better place” even be
guns = bad argument is dumb
thats irrelevant, real world logic of dictators doesn’t apply to magic men who can break mountains
how would that stop “democracies” from forming? that hardly seems relevant
frankly democracies aren’t all that good anyways, they’ll fuck themselves over and get corrupt as shit over time
without magic people would still kill each other readily and cause more death
keep in mind even within the world, wizards of any notable strength are rare
one batshit crazy guy with a curse rampaging is much better than an entire country waging war with an arsenal of nuclear icbms correct?
which still means you can’t actually quantify “greed”
a label used only to mock or discredit people you view negatively, hence it doesn’t really exist.
doing something in a game is much different than doing something in person
probably hard for you to understand what I mean though, hard to explain in words
people without “power” don’t matter in a conversation about “power”
anyone can be batshit crazy, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be relevant
notably powerful wizards are rare even within the universe
you could probably just stab or shoot weaker wizards for the most part
i know. i said so.
though, it has a use, hence my statement that you can do shit with it.
?? because it’s a label of that specific use, it doesn’t exist?
not talking about the act of committing violence in a game in specific, more about the depiction of violence in the first place and in some ways the glorification of it.
