Magical Underpinnings of Reality: Difference between revisions

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Then there's settings that take it [[Up to Eleven]]. In a world where there are [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]], ''everything'' that happens in the world is attributable to a magical force, worker, artifact, or another explanation. Gravity? There's [[Odd Job God|a gigantic god]] who is holding the world like a bucket and spinning to create centrifugal force. The stars? They're cute little lightbulb girls that are suspended on a gigantic scaffold. The changing of the seasons? [[The Fair Folk]] go about telling the plants to grow, bloom, or sleep. The sun? It's a giant lamp fueled by the laughter of good children, which is gathered by angels, so be good or the sun won't shine!

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 On Windows|paint the leaves for fall]], or machines that manufacture clouds. If this doesn't jive with science as we know it, there may be a [[Masquerade]], or the magical aspect is only obvious in the [[Magic Land]] or [[Spirit World]] dimension parallel to the mundane world, but is no less important to the natural world. Some stories have the [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]] act as [[Cosmic Keystone|Cosmic Keystones]] to the real world counterparts, so kidnapping the Maiden of Spring effectively stops spring from happening in the real world as well.

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 on Windows|paint the leaves for fall]], or machines that manufacture clouds. If this doesn't jive with science as we know it, there may be a [[Masquerade]], or the magical aspect is only obvious in the [[Magic Land]] or [[Spirit World]] dimension parallel to the mundane world, but is no less important to the natural world. Some stories have the [[Magical Underpinnings of Reality]] act as [[Cosmic Keystone|Cosmic Keystones]] to the real world counterparts, so kidnapping the Maiden of Spring effectively stops spring from happening in the real world as well.

Essentially, [[Painting the Frost On Windows|everyone paints frost on the windows.]]

Essentially, [[Painting the Frost on Windows|everyone paints frost on the windows.]]

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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== [[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 (~~Film~~)|Stardust]]'', stars in our world are the typical giant balls of gas (or meteorite), but on the ''other'' side of the wall they are immortal women who float in the sky and shine at night (unless someone hits them and knocks them down). A star crossing the wall turns into a lump of rock and metal.

* In ''[[Stardust (film)|Stardust]]'', stars in our world are the typical giant balls of gas (or meteorite), but on the ''other'' side of the wall they are immortal women who float in the sky and shine at night (unless someone hits them and knocks them down). A star crossing the wall turns into a lump of rock and metal.

* 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]] ==

* ''[[~~Charmed (TV)|~~Charmed]]'' is loaded with this trope to the nth degree.

* ''[[Charmed]]'' is loaded with this trope to the nth degree.

== [[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 ~~King Killer~~ Chronicle]]'', the moon disappearing from the sky isn't caused by the moon being between the sun and the Earth, it's because when it's not in the sky, the moon is actually elsewhere, serving as the moon of Fae. This phenomenon may have been caused when a boy named Jax (Actually Iax, a long dead Namer, and purportedly the greatest of them all at the time.) learned the moon's name and partially trapped it in a box, hence the [[Just-So Story]] of why the moon waxes and wanes.

* In ''[[The Kingkiller Chronicle]]'', the moon disappearing from the sky isn't caused by the moon being between the sun and the Earth, it's because when it's not in the sky, the moon is actually elsewhere, serving as the moon of Fae. This phenomenon may have been caused when a boy named Jax (Actually Iax, a long dead Namer, and purportedly the greatest of them all at the time.) learned the moon's name and partially trapped it in a box, hence the [[Just-So Story]] of why the moon waxes and wanes.

* 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 ''[[~~Nobilis (Tabletop Game)|~~Nobilis]]''. Everything has an anthropomorphic spirit. ''Everything''. Your car, the chair you're sitting in, your teeth, etc. Mythic Reality is not "how things really work" so much as an alternative way of understanding the universe to "Prosaic Reality," the world of bound by laws of physics that we normally perceive.

* This is how Mythic Reality works in ''[[Nobilis]]''. Everything has an anthropomorphic spirit. ''Everything''. Your car, the chair you're sitting in, your teeth, etc. Mythic Reality is not "how things really work" so much as an alternative way of understanding the universe to "Prosaic Reality," the world of bound by laws of physics that we normally perceive.

** 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'' -- in Creation made out of [[Mana|Essence]], to the point that motonic theory (referring to "motes," the basic unit of Essence) is the setting's equivalent of atomic theory. Sorcery is the setting's equivalent of understanding physics to the point where you can tell them to sit down and shut up. In addition to that, everything in reality, from a single grain of rice to the sun itself, has a god that represents it. Causality is entirely dependent on the Pattern Spiders weaving the Loom of Fate properly.

** Unusually for this trope, the Magical Underpinnings Of Reality take up a managerial role. If you kill or traumatize the god of a river -- which, as an Exalt, is pretty easy and usually exactly the wrong thing to do -- the river won't disappear or dry up, but it will suddenly become far less predictable.

* ''[[~~Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|~~Changeling: The Lost]]'' has it so that this is how Arcadia works. Every thing is a sentient force that requires you to make a Contract with it in order to gain its benefits. For instance, you need to make a Contract with Water in order to quench your thirst, though it can still drown you even if you haven't signed on. [[The Fair Folk|The Gentry]] gain most of their magic by forging these Contracts with the forces that technically hold the keys, and their changeling servants gain mastery of them by proxy.

* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' has it so that this is how Arcadia works. Every thing is a sentient force that requires you to make a Contract with it in order to gain its benefits. For instance, you need to make a Contract with Water in order to quench your thirst, though it can still drown you even if you haven't signed on. [[The Fair Folk|The Gentry]] gain most of their magic by forging these Contracts with the forces that technically hold the keys, and their changeling servants gain mastery of them by proxy.

== [[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 ''[[~~Zan Zarah~~]]'', everything in the eponymous [[Another Dimension]] is powered by faeries (small magical mostly non-sentient creatures): stone faeries hold mountains together, nature ones make trees grow, water ones keep rivers flowing, etc., etc.

* In ''[[ZanZarah]]'', everything in the eponymous [[Another Dimension]] is powered by faeries (small magical mostly non-sentient creatures): stone faeries hold mountains together, nature ones make trees grow, water ones keep rivers flowing, etc., etc.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[~~Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|~~Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has the Moddey-Dhoo mentioning that [[Psychopomp|Psychopomps]]' "clients" ensure that "[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=358 the world continues to spin]", though didn't clarify beyond this.

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' has the Moddey-Dhoo mentioning that [[Psychopomp|Psychopomps]]' "clients" ensure that "[http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID=358 the world continues to spin]", though didn't clarify beyond this.

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ~~(Animation)~~|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': The ponies on that world do everything - wrap up the winter, wake up the animals, move the clouds to make rain, produce the rainbows and snow, make the autumn leaves fall - and their [[God-Emperor|God Empresses]] are responsible for raising the sun, the moon, and the stars in general. In fact, the [[The Lost Woods|Everfree Forest]] is considered an unnatural site precisely because nature takes care of itself there.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'': The ponies on that world do everything - wrap up the winter, wake up the animals, move the clouds to make rain, produce the rainbows and snow, make the autumn leaves fall - and their [[God-Emperor|God Empresses]] are responsible for raising the sun, the moon, and the stars in general. In fact, the [[The Lost Woods|Everfree Forest]] is considered an unnatural site precisely because nature takes care of itself there.