About Magic

Far-Star Victoria is a steampunk-themed setting for Pathfinder 2e without magic... Kind of, sort of, perhaps not in a supernatural sense? Perhaps the best way to explain is to quote that wonderful adage by Arthur C. Clark:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

It's been millennia since Humanity of Far-Star Victoria lost most of its technological knowledge. What high-tech remains is a source of mystery, fear, and superstition. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, most people on the Far-Star Victoria star system consider the highly advanced technology affecting their lives as magic that comes from the gods, their ancestors, or the planet itself. Explanations vary depending on their cultural or religious background. Few are the ones who truly understand the reality behind what some might consider "supernatural" effects.

Even now, in what many consider an age of enlightenment on the planet Elysium, brought by Steam technology and a nascent industrial revolution, the particular and strange Consensus Reality that everyone shares on the planet Elysium has nourished and maintained a day-to-day reality that's filled with the fantastic, the unexplainable, and terrifying.

So, where does magic REALLY come from?

Through the ages that Humanity has endured after The Event, no single answer to that question has found agreement among scholars. Some say that it is the work of ancient machines that are sharing their power with those they deem worthy. Those of a religious inclination tend to believe that the god of Abrahamic tradition is empowering new prophets and holy people in this current age. Many believe that it is the nature of the star system itself, granting mighty abilities to those who discover its secrets. Others say that it is the emerging psychic gestalt that's empowering Humanity in its next evolutionary step. And yet, others claim that the source of the fantastic is beyond Human understanding and worse, that it belongs to entities and presences that lurk in the outer confines of our reality.