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Shoot Da Moon
2018-12-11, 11:25 PM
Okay, my own modern fantasy setting is set on Earth, the year 2018 - but a big part of its history is that the existence of magic was revealed to the public by both superpowers right in the middle of the Cold War. The reason why those governments agreed to let the cat out of the bag is Top Secret Classified. But I want to allow the truth behind it as a plot hook. And the conspiracy theories about the big reveal would make for great background fluff.

So my questions for you gentle readers is;

1) Can you think of some conspiracy theories about the big reveal? Like, why do some paranoid or unhinged people think NATO and Russia worked together to reveal to the world that magic is real?

2) What would make for a great truth behind the reveal? Why did the superpowers tell the world the big secret?

Thanks!

Coventry
2018-12-12, 12:12 AM
Agent A: Man, we had to. Both sides of the Cold War figured out ...
Agent R: Soviet scientist figured it out first
Agent A: ... that we had reached a global mana tipping point. If we didn't get people all over the world to start using the stuff ...
Agent R: World would explode. Would wipe out everyone.
Agent A: Are you going to let me tell the story or not?
Agent B: Harumph. Those duffers know nothing in regards of what they speak. The team at Dromelot Park determined that the crown jewels were vibrating with power long before either of them developed a clue.
Monseigneur R: The holy archives warned that this day would come centuries before their countries even existed.
Famous Talk Show Host: You're all wrong. The Illuminati forced them both to work together to reveal magic by threatening to withhold all loans and funding.
Talking Head: Oh, come on. We all know that magic isn't real! It's just like Santa Claus and the so-called moon landing.

LoneStarNorth
2018-12-12, 12:31 AM
Aliens started experimenting on humans to the point that the humans unlocked a wide range of psychic powers, therefore the superpowers agreed to spread the lie that magic is real and was always real in order to cover up the existence of aliens.

Pauly
2018-12-12, 12:37 AM
As for (2)

A) watch “The Mousethat Roared”. A small non alighned nation stumbles onto “the secret” and creates a bidding war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The process of this bidding war causes nukes to be perna-nerfed via magic leaving magic as the tool of the MAD power balance.

B) a magical equivalent of Latveria or Wakanda is revealed, and is equally powerful to The Warsaw Pact and NATO. This Small nation tries to take over the world by magic thinking they are the only ones with magic. NATO and the Warsaw Pact have to fight together to stop it. The small nation can be as visible invisible as the campaign needs.

Cj the coming apocalypse of the religion of your choice.

D) aliens get here, but by magic not science. Both sides of the cold war gain magic abilities and start using them. The aliens are the reveal.

Recherché
2018-12-12, 03:13 AM
A: Something is coming and it's malicious beyond all belief. The only hope of survival is if there are enough mages to take it down when it arrives. And it's really hard to train that many people in secret.

B: Neither Russia nor NATO wanted to reveal anything, they're being mind controlled by an inhuman creature with unknown goals.

C: The old Gods visited world leaders and persuaded them to convert and begin the process of converting the populace back to the ways of magic and away from the heresy of science and technology.

MoiMagnus
2018-12-12, 08:50 AM
The reason why both super power chose to reveal magic is probably linked to why the magic was secret in the first place.

Suggestion 1:

Conspiracies:

First conspiracy: Submarines exploration in the Atlantic are banned. They talk about "krakens", and other creatures, but nobody saw them. They've found something. They've found ATLANTIS. And they are fighting for those old relics in secret.

Second conspiracy: They've tried vaccine by force everyone, even in remote country from the 3rd world. And it synchronized with with the apparition of mages everywhere around the world. What are they trying to create? Are they trying to create the super-mage-peoples by experimenting on the population? Did they put a "mind-control virus" in the vaccine?

Truth:

Magic power come from secret. The less people know about something, the more the few who master it have power. In the old times, when nobody used to know how thunder worked, the few how know could bind it to their will. But now that everybody has some little thunder-machine in their pocket, thunder magic is as useless as a drop of wine in a lake.

During the industrial era, the population of the hidden races were exploding, their magical power were weakening as a consequence. They decided to use what was remaining of their power to hide them-self under the seas. The few humans mages were so weak most of them forgot they even had real powers.

As a new virus, stolen from the Russian laboratories by a CIA's spy, whose plane crashed into the Atlantic, started to decimate the hidden under-sea civilizations, magic was coming back into the human world. It was strong and dangerous. It was a weapon. It was clear for both side: if they were slower than their opponent to find in their population the heir of the great mages families and train them, they would just lose the war.

This was a prisoner dilemma: If both sides decided to keep magic secret, the two governments would have access to a secret power beyond imagination. But if one side decided to make it public, the first to do so would probably win the cold war. Thus, revelation it was.

Oh, and the virus decimating the under-seas civilizations is still a threat to humanity. Hence the ban of submarine exploration in the Atlantic ocean, and the forced vaccines.


Suggestion 2:

Conspiracies:

First conspiracy: This is the Lucifer's attack on our civilization. He managed to corrupt our top government to witchcraft, and they are both actively promoting whichcraft "for the greater good", as a weapon. This is WRONG. Magic shall never be used, even for good. Only faith in god will save us.

Second conspiracy: Everything is fake. The angels and devils fight each other in battle, but don't try to win. Both governments make weapon races, but never use them. Everybody is keeping their strength for a greater battle. They are all AFRAID. Something is off. They made the magic public for us to arm ourselves, but they don't say against what. What happened? What are they afraid of.

Truth:

God is dead. Literally. Its been a long time he was progressively less and less "omnipresent" into the world. Everybody in the Secret was fully aware of that. But its rules were still enforced: hidden races should remain hidden, angels and devils should oppose each others, ... He was God, after all. You shall not defy him.

But at some point, the fact was clear to all the leader of the secret worlds: God was no longer. In urgency, a council was created, and 3 propositions were submitted:

Proposition 1: Enact a 5 years truth in the eternal wars. To stabilize the situation.
Proposition 2: Reveal the secret world to humanity. So they could pick side and access magic. Without an omnipotent chef, the secret will break at one point anyway, so we should rather control its end than keep it until it break.
Proposition 3: Start a nuclear war. This should reduce the potency of the human civilization, and prevent them from endangering the current balance. Without God, we no longer have any "Deus Ex Machina" to protect us.

Proposition 1 was barely accepted.
Proposition 2 was strongly accepted.
Proposition 3 was barely rejected.

An additional proposition was suggested on-the-fly.
Proposition 4: The death of God, and the existence of this council, shall remain secret, as a way to protect the status-quo
Proposition 4 was accepted with unanimity.

And thus, the leaders of the mortal world were informed: magic exist.

Calthropstu
2018-12-12, 08:13 PM
God is dead. Literally. Its been a long time he was progressively less and less "omnipresent" into the world. Everybody in the Secret was fully aware of that. But its rules were still enforced: hidden races should remain hidden, angels and devils should oppose each others, ... He was God, after all. You shall not defy him.

But at some point, the fact was clear to all the leader of the secret worlds: God was no longer. In urgency, a council was created, and 3 propositions were submitted:

Proposition 1: Enact a 5 years truth in the eternal wars. To stabilize the situation.
Proposition 2: Reveal the secret world to humanity. So they could pick side and access magic. Without an omnipotent chef, the secret will break at one point anyway, so we should rather control its end than keep it until it break.
Proposition 3: Start a nuclear war. This should reduce the potency of the human civilization, and prevent them from endangering the current balance. Without God, we no longer have any "Deus Ex Machina" to protect us.



Proposition 1: Enact a 5 years truth in the eternal wars. To stabilize the situation.
Proposition 2: Reveal the secret world to humanity. So they could pick side and access magic. Without an omnipotent chef, the secret will break at one point anyway, so we should rather control its end than keep it until it break.
Proposition 3: Start a nuclear war. This should reduce the potency of the human civilization, and prevent them from endangering the current balance. Without God, we no longer have any "Deus Ex Machina" to protect us.



Proposition 2: Reveal the secret world to humanity. So they could pick side and access magic. Without an omnipotent chef, the secret will break at one point anyway, so we should rather control its end than keep it until it break.
.



Without an omnipotent chef...
.

:smalleek: Someone cooked the flying spaghetti monster?

... I bet it was delicious.

ExLibrisMortis
2018-12-12, 09:56 PM
Being a linguist, I would tie the discovery and subsequent reveal of magic to the rise of computer programming and formal linguistics in the Cold War era. Similar to how magic works in Charles Stross' Laundry novels (recommended reading in this context), but with mathematically founded theories of semantics allowing precise formulation of spells--formalization of the old belief that saying something makes it real, a form of magical thinking--instead of theorem-solving to bring in extradimensional intelligences to work magic for you.

N.B. There is currently no single widely-accepted theory of natural language semantics, so you'll have to make something up :smalltongue:.

daemonaetea
2018-12-12, 10:39 PM
1. Conspiracy Theories

a. The truth had been discovered by outside groups, and the governments wanted to get ahead of the reveal.
b. The hidden powers had become dangerous, and there was worry that soon they would be begin to take over both sides. By bringing them to the open, it's harder for them to get away with such a thing.
c. The hidden powers were simply tired of being hidden, and were beginning to act openly. The governments chose to reveal the truth first to look like it was their choice, and they were still on top of things.
d. The governments don't actually know why they revealed it. The ones that did so were following orders, but the next step up the chain of command never gave them. No one knows the origin of the decision.

2. The truth

Conspiracy D is closest to the truth.

There are a number of laws of magic. And they are as different as the branches of study. Each wizarding college, each coven of witches, all of them have their own understanding of the flow of truth. But there is one law that is universal. In every magical tradition, it is the first taught to all practitioners:

Though Shalt Not Prophecy.

Prophecies bind fate, the will. They lock the future, and they are nearly always harmful. In their haste, and their madness, the great powers of the world ignored these words as they sought a way to defeat their enemies. They turned to prophecy. And they birthed The Descent of Man, and the Maze of Intent. Hundreds, thousands of prophecies, nearly all of which speak of the end of all things. Once it began, they dug the hole deeper and deeper, turning to prophecy again and again trying to find a way out of what they wrought, only making things worse. Finally, in the end, the East and the West halted their terrible works, and spoke to each other. Though they trusted each other nought, they had no other choice. After months of frantic work, and with the first deadline fast approaching, they charted out the Maze of Intent, the path through all these dark futures, that might allow the future a chance. Their actions were now tightly dictated by the possibilities shown in their compiled book of prophecies, The Descent of Man. If they were to avoid disaster, they must walk the tightrope.

And for reasons none of them understood, it all began with a simple announcement to all the world - that magic was real. And the Path began.