Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

The land of Arcanum, is a place of infinite possibilities, a place where many different types of races lived together, however, this land is also a place where magic and technology coexist in an uneasy balance, the reason is simple, magic and technology is two opposing forces, magic defies and weakens the physical law of the world while technology depends on it and strengthened it, and in the land of Arcanum each use of technology strengthen the phyical law, countering the effect of magic, the same is true for magic, where each use of magic weakens the physical law causing critical failures of the technology. The use of magic and technology also affects its user (in case of magic) or creator (in case of technology), a practiced mage weakens the physical around him/her and that weakness of physical law become part of mage following wherever he/she goes, a learned technologist strengthens the physical law around him/her, and the strength of physical law become part of the technologist, travelling with him/her. What differs magic and technology are the way it is used, for example, a stone bullet spell summon a small rock (which is impossible to happen physically) and then stone is shoot in straight and fine trajectory (also impossible to happen physically), on other hand, a gun can take advantage of several physical laws to meet the same ends. Because of their polar opposite nature, magic and technology won't get along, presence of technology can cause spell to fail or weaken, both beneficial and harmful, the magical item and consumables won't work on someone with high technological aptitude, similarly, presence of magic cause technology to cause critical failure, gears bind, springs warp, friction disappears or becomes impossibly high, chemical reaction go haywire, etc., in a place with high density of magic or/and presence of power mage, to make the matter worse, the helpful technological weapon and armors won't work or/and cause critical failure if user has high magical aptitude, because of this very reason magic and technology are said to be opposite forces as they defy each other. Arcanum was originally the land of magic until the industrial revolution started, kickstarting the supremacy of technology which also somehow weakened the magic, much to mage's anger and horror. Each nation had different opinion on technology, Unified kingdom saw technology as an opportunity to strengthen their nation, thus, after embracing it caused the nation to grow extremely powerful, unfortunately, due to the increase of reliance on technology, the unified kingdom completely abandoned their traditional ways as well as them neglecting the nation's magic aligned civilians, causing various protest against the current goverment and over reliance of the nation on technology. Kingdom of Arland, fortunately didn't make the same mistake, they also embraced technology but unlike Unified kingdom, they retain their traditional ways including the continued reliance on magic while at the same time relying on the latest technology, they treated both technology align civilians and magic aligned civilians equally and is welcoming towards both magic and technology, unfortunately, some politicians in Unified Kingdom, misinterpret it as an act of defiance against the progress of technological advancement, thus, causing many of the governmental officials to urge the current government to start a war against the Arland before it's inhabitants affects the way of life Unified Kingdom and intensify the protest of mages. Kingdom of Cumbria, a nation that once used to be most powerful nation of the Arcanum, viewed technology as a blasphemy against the traditional ways, Cumbria being extremely strict about tradational rules, continued to go according to their traditional ways, relying only on magic and pre-industrial technology only. This proved to be a mistake, as when war between Unified kingdom and Cumbria took place, the Cumbrian army was proved to be no match for Unified kingdom's army, causing the nation to lose face, eventually forcing them to sign a humiliating peace treaty, if that was not enough, the technoogy that defeated Cumbria in war also weakened Cumbria's economy, thanks to that the quick returns that technology promises, Cumbria's magical and pre-industrial business crasshes, causing the nation to become extremely poor. In the end Cumbria has become the shadow of their former selves, it is no longer a powerful nation it once was, to make the matter worse, it's monarch didn't learn from his mistake and blame the technology for the weakening of Cumbria, and banned all form of modern technology in his kingdom, which is ironic, the very technology that ruined Cumbria is also capable of restoring Cumbria's glory, but the ruler didn't cared and contnued their old way, thus, further weakening the nation. Mages are showing deep concern over the weakening of magic in the world, believing that technology is unstoppable and it will erase the existance of magic in the world, this is however untrue, the reason magic weakened is not that technology is superior, it is because technologist are constantly improving their technology, if mages do the same with their magic, then, magic and technology could have been in same footing, but unfortunately many mages are arrogant, and still believed that magic is still superior to technology, thus, they barely made any improvement to magic, as only very few mages understood how dire situation is, most mage remained ignorant and didn't made any effort in improvement of their powers, and instead tried to take down technology, which further worsen the situation, as they angered the technologists, who begain to see mages as an obstacle to the world's progress. This result technologist to speed up the development of technology in hope to make the rely on technology more than on magic. Mage's on other hand still clinging on their past glory, continued to sabotage development of technology rather than putting all their focus on technology. By this point it was clear that magic and technology can no longer coexist, and one have to disappear from this world. This is what most believed, not knowing that an appearance of 'certain someone' will result in technology and magic coexist peacefully once more and end this so-called uneasy balance.