Man I love me some guns Ever since some dude said "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", the fantasy genre has had brave souls attempting to fuse the tech we have today with the possibilities of magic. Nowadays science is so important in our lives, a lot of people try to implement it in our entertainment as well, usually in a superior position. Just think about what-was-his-name in Arifureta, who set off past the introductory part on a motorcycle with a vampire loli on the seat and a couple of concealed carry friggin' railgun pistols to shoot at Monster Hunter mobs with. Now then, I personally believe the above sentence sounds awesome conceptually, but the execution was lacking, and it is usually lacking in any work that tries to implement magitech in a standard isekai setting, as a general rule. Frankly the closest thing I've seen that works, and have read as of recent, is this little gem, which simply has D&D spells via wands (like in D&D, but not exactly). Meanwhile enchanted objects like the stuff in Isekai Mahou is in fact not magitech, as it doesn't follow any systematic magic (magic science) rules, but rather mystic/esoteric ones. So, after specifying these, just judging by examples, somehow actual systematic magic, supported by RPG systems, using magitech usually represents bad writing. Various KR novels often introduce magitech machines and artifacts that just do something without much explanation, and it works out better. Can you really give a good example of a litRPG with magitech in it? Why does bad writing occur when you mix those elements? Is it too hard to imagine for the poor uneducated writer, who never held an engineering degree of any kind? Is it just the genericness of an isekai work the problem? I'm left to wonder, so do give your opinions, authors.
Where do you draw the line for consideration of magitech? Would using magic as a battery like source while following same design principles as our current life considered magictech? Or what about magical items that are granted certain properties via runes or other enchantments?
1) Magitech pre-dates Clarke's Third Law, the latter just allows people to shortcut to using "modern technology" like devices & then ignore the science behind them with "It's magic". 2) Arguably Sufficiently Analyzed Magic means that the lack of Magitech (as in, the actual development of "technology" & "engineering" proceeding from the established principles of Magic in the world) is a greater signifier of "bad writing" (or at least "lazy writing") especially when thousands of years of stagnation is passed off with "Magic retards development" (which might be true, with the exception of magic itself, which would be where the "Magitech" came in).
It's pretty simple, they want modern structure with fantasy setting but don't want to explain how everything works. Don't want to research how firearms work and having a concrete structure in a magic system beyond "magic explodes and projectile goes".
In my opinion, the biggest problem regarding mixing together magic with technology is when people put too much effort into explaining how it works. It is a novel, not a research paper, so putting too much effort into it can put off the audience who are not as interested regarding how things work. People might like it simply because it is a mix of magic and technology. There are a lot of people who consider guns, explosions, and giant robots as romantic stuff, and there are a lot of fans of magic and the like. So I do not think that a mix of tech and magic would give out bad results, provided that the author could write it out well. If you have enough imagination and know some technological basics, I do not think mixing together magic and technology would be too hard. The easiest method would be replacing electricity, steam or whatever powers certain technology, with magic. The easiest example I could give that did it well might be The Novel's Extra, though the magitech is not really that advanced, but it instead feels more 'natural' in my opinion.
I don't even like magic systems, let alone magic tech, simply because it's not longer magic at that point.
I think, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and/or is a nice blend of magic and science. Though it was my first novel so my memory is probably blurry now... I don't like magitech much but the idea of mixing magic and science seems interesting. However, most of the time, I see authors try to make it sound cool using science and technology explanations only to add magic when they come short. It feels badly done. I prefer when a fantasy world just adds its own structure to the rules of magic than use technology to harness this magic with not so logically sound concepts. Fiction has always been a mix of facts and imagination though. It's not just pure garbled taken out of thin air.
1. I probably can, but 'good' is highly subjective. What is good for someone like you who wants a scientific explanation for magitech may not be good for non-science minded people who read magitech more for the coolness/design than the science. For example, I dropped Mahouka because I'm have no desire to learn physics in a novel for entertainment. 2. I personally don't think good writing should be too complex for the readers. Mixing science, magic and rpg systems (3 different systems) will likely be very complex if you actually try to explain how it all works. 3. It's not too hard to imagine, but writing it in a way that makes sense to both people with engineering degrees, and people without engineering degrees is much harder. 4. No, magitech is common in fantasy, isekai or isekai doesn't matter.
When theres artificers and enchanters, there should be some form of magitech around. Creating a kettle to boil water, should be easy.
Magitech should really be described as any technology created with magic. This obviously means that making a steam engine or a kettle purely from magic doesn't really work and as has been said above as the best way is to replace the power source with magic (At least in a medieval fantasy imo). In modern day fantasies magic and technology combine far better as you have technology already existing and so you are exchanging power sources (E.g. coal for magic). This also follows when you have a more advanced civilisation. Obviously magitech can still work in medieval fantasy setting. I personally enjoy magitech in any kind of setting however I much prefer it when the setting is at least industrial revolution level unless, magitech is treated as something that anybody can use akin to miracle throne. After all you have physical power sources that are magical to use as well as the energy source from within peoples bodies. This makes it far more likely to occur as most of the uses aren't for strong fighters but instead for cannon fodder to use or for simple cooking and such. Further I think I enjoyed this best because it didn't really care overly much about the magitech it was just another part of the MC's kit and thus given as much focus as everything else. Magitech should never be called bad writing just as time travel and such ideas are not bad writing more often than not they are just poorly executed. Usually due to to much of a focus on the wrong parts of them, if their is already magitech in the world don't bother explaining how it works ever XD just explain what it does or name a few key components that allow for the magic to power it.
Magitech/Magitek is not the same as magic science, it just means substituting/modifying/powering existing technology with magic, whether that is done through systematically studied magic or by some kind of wish granted by a god is unimportant to defining something as magitech. What defines magitech is the end result, not the process.
There is no such thing as a bad concept, only bad writing. Magitech is a good concept, but it is hard to skillfully integrate it into your story without making it dumb-looking or nonsensical.
What is it that makes Magic, Magic ? If you manage to analyze magic until you understand it, is it still magic or has it lost its "magic qualification" ? Is sufficiently analyzed magic indistinguishable from technology or force of nature or such.. Or.. Is sufficiently analyzed magic simply, technology or force of nature or such..
Like @TiggerBane mentioned, I don't think magitek is necessarily bad, just a lot of failed implementation. Good magitek should still adhere to some basic principles of high-school physics (e.g. law of conservation of energy), just because we're so conditioned to it through our education. It's fine if authors add more tweaks after that (inscribing mana runes on weapons for +1 damage, etc). Maybe the Warcraft universe is an ok example. Projectile weapons will require energy, and the source could be chemicals (gunpowder) or mana (assuming it's basically an alternative energy source). Mental attacks (psionicist, etc) would still have the same energy requirements, mana. Even "Full Metal Alchemist" was arguably based on the same idea of magitek (energy source was mental strength + life itself). However once authors try to be too fancy, leave basic physics and have to over-explain entirely new scientific concepts is when everything starts to fail. Because most readers can't follow along.
Every power system needs a cost/use ratio. If it hits hard the user needs to pay a price. Is Sorctech a power system? Quite. Is it logical? Yes. Magic in any setting is science since it is a force of nature of sorts. Using it with other tech combined appears logical (an airship might have magical propulsion but wings would def. help with the energy consumption etc). Not having Sorctech in a setting where magic is even mildly common (a wizard guild in every larger city is "common") is in fact, a pretty big plothole. Magical transportation would be among the first technologies developed for sure (given how bs annoying traveling in medival times was). Im not counting teleportation since its one of the big three and should thus be avoided. Now the issue is that some authors forget that everything needs an energy source. What do the runes leech their power from? Atmospheric mana? Then there is a limit on how much an area can support. Or maybe it consumes a special fuel. Stuff like that is a strategic resource and might very well be the spark for many conflicts. Even the former could cause conflict if fey are involved, or it might simply be the reason why they avoid cities where the ambient mana is low. At the very least sorctech would lead to a magical industrialization in the mid term, and thats no joke. Heck, my setting has airships (they have a short active travel range tho, and the materials are very expensive since the strategic alloy arcanite is involved). Plasma cannons and rail guns are used as anti aircraft weapons. All of them are a lethal mix of magic and physics. Meanwhile nobody would ever use a gun. Its projectile is too small for enchantments, meaning an arrow has superior penetration power (everyone is a mage so literally everyone in a fight is covered in layers of barriers). Bows start at 120 pounds and go up to 400 since the users can use physical reinforcement. The only reason they are as big as the user is the maximum projectile size since bigger arrow = better enchantments. Small horseback-sized bows exist as well, crafted out of spring steel and other advanced materials. Where does the energy for all of this come? The user or the city core, which is a finite but absolutely gargantuan origin force source. This is why elves have cities surpassing the 20 M and this is why airships only hop between cities. This is also a reason why attacking a city is very very difficult. The enemy has massive home-turf advantage and the elves, territorial little assholes they are, might very well fully mobilize several of their eternals to mess with the attacker. They dont like to loose their cities. At all. They are long-term investments and just about the only nice living area in this setting. This energy problem also leads to the interesting scenario where cities are borderline sci-fi and battles are still more or less classic sword and sorcery. Tl;dr: Its a logical necessity but authors, especially web novel ones, just suck.
Magitech is never equated to bad writing. However, the good writing with magitech will demand you to think about the whole technological timeline, like what tech comes first, what tech is derived next, who invents what, and what about the effect on various civilizations. History, social, political, economical results from having magitech need to be thought in advance. In short, magitech works if you do a lot of homework.
Yes it is, kind of. You see like everything, to pull off magitech, you require proper planning, execution and a lottttt of creative, a lot. Magitech as a idea requires way too much to get away with scott free/praised so while it can be something really awesome, it is just bad most of the times. Another thing is magitech doesnt have shit common with proper scifi so it needs to be clear from get go that it is magitech and not scifi (trust me I hate when author says scifi but uses magitech, it is just awful and instantly makes my default rating for the novel start in negatives.)