Magical Underpinnings of Reality: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
In [[Fantasy]] settings magic and the mythic creatures are not abnormal, but a natural part of the world. It's normal to see wizards, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of love, and even weirder fare sit down every third tuesday for tea and biscuits (baked by [[Our Elves Are Better|tree elves]], of course). Many things that are explained by physics in [[Real Life]] may even have completely different explanations in this world, such as [[The Grim Reaper]] going about ending lives ([[Don't Fear the Reaper|not necessarily killing, mind you)]], that fires are actually small (or enormous) imp-like beings, or that there are [[Nature Spirit
Then there's settings that take it [[Up to Eleven]]. In a world where there are
In short, most or even all the natural world works thanks to magical means. In a weird twist, they may even use industrial or scientific methods like worker shifts of gnomes who [[Painting the Frost
Essentially, [[Painting the Frost
Compare [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]]. See also [[Planet Eris]]. Can be the result of enough [[Odd Job Gods]]. To populate this world usually requires authors make liberal use of [[Crossover Cosmology]].
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{{examples
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''Nocturna'', the nighttime world invisible to humans, fey beings go about ensuring that everything necessary for a normal (not necessarily "good") night's sleep happens. There's a writing department for dreams (and a cadre of tiny women who deliver and read them to you as you sleep), hair mussers that mess up your hair as you sleep, "composers" of nighttime sounds, and all lights are actually living beings. Stars are immortal doll-like lightbulb women who are suspended from a giant scaffold held aloft by a lighthouse; street lights are firefly-like workers in mining gear.
* In ''[[Stardust (
* In ''The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns'', Trooping Fairies run nature worldwide, they manufacture leaves, make sure snow and spring and rain all take their due course, etc. But a war with the leprechauns distracts them from their duties, and so natural weather patterns worldwide collapse into chaos.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[
== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Tom Holt]]'s novel ''Here Comes The Sun'' is about a group of grumpy and [[Celestial Bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] beings responsible for ensuring the sun rises and the Nile delta floods and so on.
* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' the conflict between the Summer and Winter Courts of the Sidhe have a major impact on the change of the seasons and the overall climate of the planet. Global Warming is attributed to Summer having a slight advantage over the last few decades.
* In ''[[The
* In the ''[[Mune Shinri]]'' (which the video game ''[[Oracle of Tao]]'' is loosely based on), reality is run by scientific laws, as much of the empirical world accepts. But behind thoses laws, the people keeping them working are various spirits, and a group of beings called [[Shinigami|Reapers]].
== Tabletop Gaming ==
* This is how Mythic Reality works in ''[[
** However, Earth is the only world on the Tree which has a Prosaic Reality. Mythic Reality is the default everywhere else.
** Being made forcibly aware of these magical underpinnings tends to drive mortals '''insane''' -- ''Earth itself'' couldn't deal with the knowledge of a world in which the capricious whim of a god can wipe out the dominant lifeforms on the planet or transport rabbits from their peaceful undersea homes to the world of land, so it's not surprising that mere mortals can't, either. In 3e, the Locust Court allows victims to forget this knowledge and regain their sanity, if they can find it. Otherwise, those who can't learn to cope with the knowledge on their own are basically doomed to living with a view of the world that's ''accurate'', but not rational or functional, and which causes them to (rightly) be considered insane by their peers.
* ''[[Exalted]]'' has everything -- ''everything''
** Unusually for this trope, the Magical Underpinnings Of Reality take up a managerial role. If you kill or traumatize the god of a
* ''[[
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Oracle of Tao]]'' has the entire universe operate not through faeries, but through [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic|mechanistic laws]] (for instance, fire magic runs on principles of thermodynamics, meteorological principles for thunder and cold magic, et cetera). The [[Dark World]] works also works, but on entropy rather than energy. But the reverse is true, that everything from electricity to magnetism relies on faith, strong will, or emotions. This would all be normal, except mundane things like cellphones and ATM machines also run on magic, and the former can [[555|literally call God]].
* In ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Magical Underpinnings of Reality]]
[[Category:Magic Items Index]]
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