Pseudosciencing "magic" into existence

[GrayPhilosophy]

Hello there

 

I'm a creative writer working on a worldbuilding project where I'm trying to create a typical fantasy universe, but based more on realism and "theoretical plausibility" in lack of a better term. Fictional lifeforms are designed with evolution in mind, laws of physics are consistent and so on. To an extent where it's looking more like medieval science fiction.

 

With my limited knowledge in a lot of scientific fields, this naturally creates a few obstacles. Despite that, I'll be damned if I don't at least try.

 

Something I've been playing around with, and what I'd love to hear some input and feedback to, is the idea of creating a type of energy or the like, that could be considered equivalent to magic.

 

What I've thought of so far, is a fundamental type of energy or particle (I'm honestly not sure what the correct term would be) that happens to be an anomaly from our own universe, it just naturally exists in this universe.

This energy, while invisible to the naked eye, is able to affect nearly everything physical at a molecular level. It can't conjure mass from nothing, but it's able to move objects as well as cause chemical reactions within them (alter the state of liquids and solids or even provoke emotional responses etc.). It's all still a bit jumbled at the moment. As I'm typing this I'm even having a hard time understanding it myself.

 

The thing I'm struggling with the most is explaining the how behind it. What would be required for an invislbe "energy" to be able manipulate the physical world to such an extent? Or is it simply so supernatural that I'll be better off with a "just because" reasoning?

Thank you for your time

Edited February 13, 2016 by GrayPhilosophy

[ajb]

What I've thought of so far, is a fundamental type of energy or particle (I'm honestly not sure what the correct term would be) that happens to be an anomaly from our own universe, it just naturally exists in this universe.

Energy is a property of a physical configuration. It is not an entity in its own right, just as 'pure momentum' is nonsense.

[cladking]

Such things already exist and are known.

 

If a butterfly flaps its wings in China a hurricane results a week later.

 

There's a perception that we understand the basic elemental forces pretty well but, of course, our ability to control chaos is non existent and always will be. Contolling it would be the stuff of magic. This one will require some great writing.

[Prometheus]

Maybe go with Clarke's dictum: 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'.

 

You could give it a 'scientific' feel by having wizards knowledgeable about things we now take for granted but would've been arcane in the dark age.

 

To the horror of a mother the wizard places maggots on her son's festering wound: and lo his arcane ways break the fever.

The gamblers' den is left fuming after a wizard leaves. When he attempts to explain the maths he used to tilt things in his favour to people, they are all the more convinced it is magic.

 

Sprinkle in a few of these while leaving others unexplained and hopefully you'll suggest they have 'scientific explanations' while shrouding them in enough mystery to retain the mystic any good wizard should maintain.

[Daecon]

From what I understand, there are real creatures that can detect EM fields, like migratory birds and Hammerhead sharks, as well as creatures able to generate electric bursts (such as the eel).

 

Would it be disbelief-breakingly absurd if some creatures in your setting evolved a brain lobe that was the equivalent of a wi-fi modem or TV remote control?