text; i completely forgot what i used for patchouli's username cause i'm good at this

[heptagram]

So, about this Amphoria thing.

On Earth, the first device that could be considered a form of modern "virtual reality" was dubbed the "Sensorama," created by Morton Heilig in 1962. The last time I was on Earth was around 1998. We had nothing near as immersive as what exists on this world.

I'm very curious to know if your worlds had anything remotely similar to this. Technology or magic. A magical implementation of such is easier to envision than a technological one, but it's difficult to tell the difference past a point, is it not?

Comments

[systembreaker]

Oh my god you're ancient.

[Text, UN: bardic_uncertainty]

[have_hat_will_travel]

You could... Probably get something like that going with strong enough Illusion magic?

But the kind of effort it'd take to start, let alone maintain, something like that... I can't even imagine the kinda resources or GM bullshit that'd require.

[heptagram]

My closest friend is about five times older than I am.

[heptagram]

Don't get me wrong, it would take quite a bit of energy, but it seems like it's fairly doable. I'm curious if anyone bothered. Some who wield magic do enjoy putting it to some extravagant use.

text (sn: healerprincess)

[im_gonna_heal_u]

There was someone called the Lifemaker who created an entire illusory world. It was so fully made that people with souls in it could safely inhabit it... and this was made on Mars!

But their creation had a finite lifespan without life on Mars to fuel it, so they had underlings try and destroy everything...

There was also a big spell someone had that trapped them in their dream lives, called Cosmo Entelecheia... and this mage wanted to trap a whole lot of humans in it too! But that's about what I remember.

[have_hat_will_travel]

I don't know of any... Not that'd be as programmable as the VR games. Phantasms can fool all the senses, but they're based on the reader's mind completing the scene, so it's not as consistent. In fact, that's key to how you beat them...

I guess the techniques in your time might be better developed, though?

[resenting]

Mine didn't, but apparently there's plenty of worlds that have things basically exactly the same.

Don't they say any science that's advanced enough can't be distinguished from magic anyway? Doesn't that mean it's basically all the same?

[heptagram]

Indeed. The third of Arthur C. Clarke's laws pertaining technology and science. Some approach magic in a scientific way, but ultimately presentation can account for quite a bit.

[heptagram]

This "Cosmo Entelecheia" thing sounds like it is similar to the lotus-eater society Odysseus encountered on his journey, except that people were forced into it.

And is there life on Mars? Perhaps humans, as nosy as they are, have not found it, not in my time.

[heptagram]

At the very least, they're based more on the vision of another. Extracting something from the mind of another with humans' technology is not very simple.

[resenting]

Yeah, that's for sure. I've been in a would that definitely had magic, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the super advanced science kind.

But that's where I met people who had things like hyper advanced VR, and they made it seem like it was definitely a science thing.

So really, who knows?

[have_hat_will_travel]

I've heard there's magics for it, but they're marked as particularly Vile magics for a reason.

The horrific pain being just a start.

[im_gonna_heal_u]

Not quite.

The 'life on Mars' was planted via an alternate dimension that used the real Mars as a anchor. The latter not having much life was pretty much why humans who weren't aware of magic never saw it.

[heptagram]

Perhaps it needs some refinement, or the means of accomplishing the effect need to be changed. It is often very possible to achieve something dangerous in a painful way, but many people are not willing to try if it has such a dangerous reputation.

[heptagram]

So I see. A parallel reality that's a near copy of another? Interesting. [This is not anything like she knows about alternate worlds, but she supposed that this world is the same thing in its way, right?]

[im_gonna_heal_u]

Yeah. Weird and cool, huh?

[heptagram]

It probably came down to presentation more than anything, if both coexisted. Often magic is not presented in a very scientific or technological way. I guess some people don't think magic mixes well with most metals, or something to that effect.

Though, to be fair, sometimes it doesn't.

[have_hat_will_travel]

Yeah... That would definitely be beyond my range. I'm a Bard, developing new magics isn't my category.

We've got some Wizards around, at least???

[resenting]

I won't pretend to understand a thing about how magic actually works, even if my life basically depends on it.

[heptagram]

Certainly, but I'm also curious as to what else is different in the other world.

[im_gonna_heal_u]

Probably culture.

They've been using magic for ages, including the humans who migrated there. Compared to humans who developed more stuff along science, I imagine their view on day to day life is quite different!

[heptagram]

To be fair, this is how most humans of Earth approached machines, from my memory. Don't worry about it too much.

[heptagram]

I've spent most of my life engineering my own spells, so I could probably do something like that if it became necessary.

[have_hat_will_travel]

... Okay, that's actually legitimately really neat. I know some Wizards who do some of their own magics back in my world, but almost everyone there iterates from existing work.

Bards are just a bit more brazen about grabbing existing work - spells, stories, you name it - and worked out a few spells that depend on stylish performance that most Wizards would classify as 'beneath them'.

Doing the primary development yourself is... A couple levels above what I've encountered. So, pretty neat.

[heptagram]

Probably. It seems a civilization which understands the power of magic will leave the development of technology to the wayside. I feel they'd be more effective in concert, though.

[resenting]

That's pretty much how the Earth I'm from was, too. I don't think that one has any real magic, though.

[heptagram]

It's an extremely difficult skill to learn, but I lived in a world with next to nobody else with any magical talent or knowledge whatsoever. Even those who were interested did not actually discover much. So it was a talent I had to learn.

[heptagram]

Earth seems to be quite dry of actual magic, from my experience.

[have_hat_will_travel]

Huh.. That's definitely a different experience than my own work. Bards would barely exist if we didn't build off one another's work, so...

Wow. Alone, though. That's a downer.

[heptagram]

Needless to say, it was very difficult to get even a little bit of a foothold. It was difficult, but worthwhile in the end.

[have_hat_will_travel]

... Yeah.

My quest was a little different in nature, but it was worthwhile for... Well, at least the world. Not so sure it did much besides levels for myself, the more I think it.

[resenting]

Never saw a single hint of it, myself. Well, of course I also wouldn't have known where to look either.