Link the Writer
Active Member
In short, my fantasy is a modern day urban wizard fantasy set in Mobile, Alabama and the theme of it revolves around two wizards with diametrically opposed views. Vaylen believes the Mägi (the magical folks) should reveal their powers to the world because to him, the cost of doing nothing is cowardice — watching people die knowing they could stop the horrors and pain. Bullar believes the exact opposite, believing that (a) the non-Mägi would never accept the Mägi, (b) to interfere with magic would be playing God and risk stripping the non-Mägi of autonomy. There’s a scene where Bullar demonstrates this by taking Hannah (the protagonist) to a scrying pool and they witness the Lincoln assassination, then he uses a charm to show her an alternative where a Mägi saved Lincoln, and the direct consequence of that: Lincoln now having to lead a nation fractured again, this time along different lines.
This whole thing was inspired by Harry Potter, specifically a line from the second movie where Snape says, ‘You have risked the exposure of our world’, and in Crimes of Grindwald where Grindwald, among other things, shows a vision of WWII and rails about why wizards can’t exert their power to rule over Muggles and prevent conflicts like that.
However, in my fantasy, it’s different. Vaylen doesn’t want to rule anyone, he just wants to prove a point by exposing the world of the Mägi to a populace he feels needs to know what they missed out on. I wrote a quick scene (below) but there is a part of me that fears he’s still leaning too close to the Grindwald side of things. Maybe the idea is that he wants to offer them a choice, rather than forcing the Mägi world on them?
I guess the idea is like both men are right *and* wrong, and Hannah tells them that in the climax? Like, ‘If magic just amounts to whether or not you can play God, I want no part in it.’ Like magic is basically the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, and Hannah is like, ‘I don’t trust it. I don’t trust either of you. I’m out. I’m gone. You’re never seeing me again.’
Thoughts?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“So, what, you’re going to expose the Mägi world to everyone to… prove a point?”
“Precisely,” Vaylen said. Hannah leaned back in the chair, the large 18th-century portrait of the mansion’s patriarch on the edge of her vision. Vaylen paced slowly, wiggling the cigar between two fingers as he stared outward, clearly in deep thought. “It’s like what the movie said: if you have the power to stop the horrors, and you don’t, they happen because of you.”
“We’re quoting Spider-Man, now?” Hannah raised her eyebrows.
“You think its a silly little comic about a boy zipping through New York City on webs, but even the most childish stories can carry a deeper meaning.” He drew from the cigar, exhaled a cloud of smoke. Hannah wondered briefly how the curators would feel walking in here smelling tobacco on the historic furnitures. “Bullar fears playing God; he fears the possibility of being a puppeteer to the non-Mägi.”
“Don’t blame him,” Hannah shrugged. “I wouldn’t want some magical entity dictating what I can or can’t do.”
Vaylen pointed the cigar at her, smiled. “Ah, but at what cost?”
Hannah knew where he was going. “They help people. Not with magic, but… during World War II they worked underground with the resistance groups, forging papers and smuggling Jews out of danger.”
“Why wouldn’t they use their magic to stop the Nazis? Stop the horrors they perpetrated?”
Heather swallowed, her mind drawing a blank. “I…”
“We could’ve stopped it all from the very beginning, my dear,” Vaylen said. “You have this common question of: ‘would you kill Hitler as a baby?’ My answer to that is, ‘We could’ve use magic to alter his mind, make him avoid politics together. Or have that damned art school accept him.’
“But then you’d be playing God,” Hannah said. “That’s what Bullar doesn’t want.”
“So we just sit and watch, as we always had… Untold billions suffered and died, and we could’ve helped them.” Vaylen walked closer to Hannah, a knotted hand resting on her shoulder. “My intention isn’t to rule the non-Mägi with an iron fist. I’m not some evil wizard bent for power and world domination. My intention is to show the world what it lost because we chose silence.”
A silence filled the air.
This whole thing was inspired by Harry Potter, specifically a line from the second movie where Snape says, ‘You have risked the exposure of our world’, and in Crimes of Grindwald where Grindwald, among other things, shows a vision of WWII and rails about why wizards can’t exert their power to rule over Muggles and prevent conflicts like that.
However, in my fantasy, it’s different. Vaylen doesn’t want to rule anyone, he just wants to prove a point by exposing the world of the Mägi to a populace he feels needs to know what they missed out on. I wrote a quick scene (below) but there is a part of me that fears he’s still leaning too close to the Grindwald side of things. Maybe the idea is that he wants to offer them a choice, rather than forcing the Mägi world on them?
I guess the idea is like both men are right *and* wrong, and Hannah tells them that in the climax? Like, ‘If magic just amounts to whether or not you can play God, I want no part in it.’ Like magic is basically the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, and Hannah is like, ‘I don’t trust it. I don’t trust either of you. I’m out. I’m gone. You’re never seeing me again.’
Thoughts?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“So, what, you’re going to expose the Mägi world to everyone to… prove a point?”
“Precisely,” Vaylen said. Hannah leaned back in the chair, the large 18th-century portrait of the mansion’s patriarch on the edge of her vision. Vaylen paced slowly, wiggling the cigar between two fingers as he stared outward, clearly in deep thought. “It’s like what the movie said: if you have the power to stop the horrors, and you don’t, they happen because of you.”
“We’re quoting Spider-Man, now?” Hannah raised her eyebrows.
“You think its a silly little comic about a boy zipping through New York City on webs, but even the most childish stories can carry a deeper meaning.” He drew from the cigar, exhaled a cloud of smoke. Hannah wondered briefly how the curators would feel walking in here smelling tobacco on the historic furnitures. “Bullar fears playing God; he fears the possibility of being a puppeteer to the non-Mägi.”
“Don’t blame him,” Hannah shrugged. “I wouldn’t want some magical entity dictating what I can or can’t do.”
Vaylen pointed the cigar at her, smiled. “Ah, but at what cost?”
Hannah knew where he was going. “They help people. Not with magic, but… during World War II they worked underground with the resistance groups, forging papers and smuggling Jews out of danger.”
“Why wouldn’t they use their magic to stop the Nazis? Stop the horrors they perpetrated?”
Heather swallowed, her mind drawing a blank. “I…”
“We could’ve stopped it all from the very beginning, my dear,” Vaylen said. “You have this common question of: ‘would you kill Hitler as a baby?’ My answer to that is, ‘We could’ve use magic to alter his mind, make him avoid politics together. Or have that damned art school accept him.’
“But then you’d be playing God,” Hannah said. “That’s what Bullar doesn’t want.”
“So we just sit and watch, as we always had… Untold billions suffered and died, and we could’ve helped them.” Vaylen walked closer to Hannah, a knotted hand resting on her shoulder. “My intention isn’t to rule the non-Mägi with an iron fist. I’m not some evil wizard bent for power and world domination. My intention is to show the world what it lost because we chose silence.”
A silence filled the air.
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