Magical Realism in Cantr

[kinvoya]

Cantr often reminds me of a type of literature called Magical Realism. This is a somewhat difficult term to categorize but a simple definition could be, "...in which the magical is an integral part of everyday existence."

Everyone knows that magic doesn't exist in Cantr and yet our chars see inexplicable occurrences almost everyday which they could easily interpret as magic but, instead, they have come to accept as just another aspect of Cantr life.

Some examples: A person travels onto a road and two days later his body and possessions suddenly appear on the ground in the town; buildings and other objects disappear and then reappear without explanation, occasionally even landing on other islands; tools and weapons have been known to suddenly change shape and size; for a while saris could be made from invisible silk cloth.

There is another thread discussing the fact that chars are able to perceive the death of someone they've met even if that person is far away. This reminded me of a scene in one of the most famous magical realism novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude. In this scene a man is shot and his blood runs in a stream out of his door, across town and under the closed door of his mother’s home. When she sees it, his mother immediately knows that he is dead.

Anyway, I think it’s an interesting aspect of Cantr that I thought other people might want to discuss. I used to believe Cantr should be made as realistic as possible. Now I feel exactly the opposite (although I would never want to see actual magic or fantasy elements introduced). I love these weird little quirks of Cantr and the way our chars just take them for granted.

[mortaine]

I love the ghosts in Cantr.

[formerly known as hf]

They aren't always taken for granted....

Some call it 'an act of Jos (or other deity, the programmers above and whatnot)'
Many think that there's some kind of outside force controlling everything that can destroy buildings and make things appear at will (where do they get that from?)

Apart from religion, some characters take the event as being magic...

But, you're right, normally they're ignored. I recently killed a thief on the road and a character asked what would happen to the stuff that he took. My charrie just said it'd be with his body back in town. The character replied that it was weird. Nothing more was said... I guess, like inreal life, unexplainable things are often approached with a blase attitude...

[Yo_Yo]

Ignorance is Bliss.

My life motto, some might say >.>;;

[mortaine]

I've been reading a lot of Stephen King's Dark Tower series this week, and one thing that I've concluded about Cantr is that it's a lot like Midworld-- internally consistent, but there's some unexplained crossover with our world, and there are many other worlds as well. Cantrians don't know about the crossover, and they don't think it's odd, because that's how it always is. Cantr is an unstable world, so the people in Cantr accept instability with an open mind.

But I wouldn't regard it as magical realism, though I can't pinpoint why not.

[nitefyre]

The magical dust that propels our cars, a variant of which makes our weapons fixed (I've thought about trying to fool characters into buying 'it' ) and the 'zombies' that become unburied at Kirinn Forest.

[Lumin]

I've always thought it was strange the way Cantrians can hear and see everything that goes on around them even while they're asleep.

Those magically appearing pieces of paper and writing utensils are pretty neat, too.

[Okud]

I can imagine the database getting corrupted and then everyone in town gets the insomnia and cannot remember anything anymore, so they start labeling everything. "This is a cow, you have to milk it every morning"
Maybe rain will be implemented and then it could rain for 4 years, and I'll pretend a rainbow trout came swimming through my window
No kidding, I love that book.
Now if only those yelow butterflies would go away.

[Stan]

Notes aren't on paper....you can't burn them.

[Lumin]

Well, all right. Magically appearing small, light-weight objects with a surface you can write on, then.

[Nixit]

Yeah, they're magical inflammable pieces of paper.

[Lauren]

Those magically appearing pieces of paper and writing utensils are pretty neat, too.

The character I have that uses notes the most writes with carrot juice that she gets by grinding carrots against rocks.

[SekoETC]

Oh, I saw that one lately! Don't remember where though.

[Lauren]

She got lost on her way to visit a friend and ended up in Doryiskom...that might've been where you saw her. Or, you could have seen her at her desination but she doesn't know the name of the town where he lives...

[Russell of Los Angeles]

Let's remember Arthur C Clarke's famous quote:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

My feeling about the "magic" things in Cantr is that they are only considered magic if the characters explain them as magical. The characters might come up with some other explanation, like the powers of gods, or hypothesize it's the advanced technology of another region or power (or a god, again), or perhaps forumulate a natural explanation. A natural explanation for bodies returning to town might be, for example, that regions are gravity wells, where all innanimate objects are drawn to, and only animated objects (like living people and animals) can escape this gravity.

So, at some point, nature, magic, and science converge and what you've got is basically an explanation for phenomena. The difference is that something "magical" might be felt to be less understood, where something "scientific" might be something better understood. I think it'd be cool to see more magical or supernatural explanations for things, since there are indeed a lot of things that would be difficult to explain otherwise. I'd also like to see more natural explanations for the everyday things we take for granted, like paper and writing utensils.

I've always thought it was strange the way Cantrians can hear and see everything that goes on around them even while they're asleep.

...yeah, and working while sleeping? So, I don't look at it that way. Since sleep is not hardcoded into the game, I often imagine characters to be just standing there (maybe working), watching everything around them instead of sleeping. But this is weird too. It makes for broken conversations and events out of continuity. Sometimes there are three interesting things that I want my character to respond to, but instead of responding to each one as they happen the way a real townsperson might, they wait 3 hours (when I get around to logging in) and then respond to all three at once.