• Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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    5 months ago

    How bout something in reverse? In Tales of the Abyss, the protag is set up to be someone special born in royal family, but turn out he’s just a clone of an actual royal person and he have to learn to fight and accept this conflicting feeling for the rest of the game

  • In the fanfic sequel the poo people are kept addicted on magic-suppressing opioids and mind-dulling cigarettes provided by the Special owned industrial pharmaceutical companies. It’s been this way so long

    Eveyone knows people who don’t smoke can’t be trusted. The temple priests say so every Sunday service.

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The basic options for magic are:

      • Sorcerers: Magic blood line or other innate gift of birth. Basically magic aristocracy.
      • Wizards: Usually anyone can be a wizard, its the magic equivelent of studying hard in college.
      • Warlocks: Anyone can be a warlock if they’re willing to make a deal with the devil; the magic equivelent of dropping out to become a stripper.

      Pretty much every fantasy has the magical aristocracy but the latter two are available to regular people in a lot of fantasies too, though wizardry is often gatekept and magical pacts tend to be for villains only.

        • Sorcerers and Witches, those who practice magic without a license from the religious establishment, often consulted by the poor and underprivileged since the undesirables can’t simply walk into Oz without the right fancy dress.

        • Thieves, shunned by all since stealing is a greater sin than murder or human sacrifice (mostly because it’s a lower-class crime), but are clever enough to activate wands, identity herbs and potions and use practical household magic, just from ad-hoc experience and fiddling around.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This central idea is why I hate dune.

    Having a so called prophesied savior capable of insane things coming from a distant royal family of some space empire is too stupid to believe in.

    You can’t be both the underdog and the king at the same time, especially when your own supporters treat themselves as expendable.

    • Emoba@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Have you ever actually read it? The prophecies were deliberately spread over the universe by the Bene Gesserit. The department that does that is called the Missionaria Protectiva, they do that all over the universe so their members can manipulate the locals to be safe wherever they end up. This isn’t supposed to glorify those prophecies, it’s demystifying them to the point where religion as a whole is showcased as a mere tool to control the masses in later books. It’s supposed to criticise the thing you’re criticising.