Hypothetical Scenario??

[georgelee5786]

Murderfucking

 

[Gray_Mann]

Any pre 80s/70s vehicle would still work (not to mention how easy it is to make a car without any computers in it) as well as 99.9% of all small arm firearms would still work honestly not much would change a little bit of chaos for a few months maybe years before everything settled back down to normalcy

No electronics ever again? No internet? If nothing else, all Gen-Z and about 1/3 to 1/2 of all Millennials would go apeshit.
There are still a lot of electrical wires running through vehicles in the 80's. Idk about 70's.

I think rather than electron themselves, "mana" more or less disrupts the electromagnetic fields that power electronics.

That's a much better suggestion. Screws with electricity, but nothing else. Sounds waaaay simpler than what I was trying to form in my mind.

 

[Daitengu]

Any pre 80s/70s vehicle would still work (not to mention how easy it is to make a car without any computers in it) as well as 99.9% of all small arm firearms would still work honestly not much would change a little bit of chaos for a few months maybe years before everything settled back down to normalcy

Not if it required a spark plug. Which is gasoline based engines.

 

[Daydreamers]

i think flight should be more common than fire for the sake of maintaining order , also technology won't die, energy is technology

 

[Azure_Fog]

Imagine the modern day world, suddenly going dark. Dark as in modern technology fails. No electricity. No internet. No wifi. No vehicles. No missile systems for blowing up a city or whatever. These things just....die. No explanation.

A few days later, a energy source called Mana suddenly appears in the very air we breathe, and about 10-15% of the Human population develops the ability to wield Magic. Not everyone develops the same kind of Magic always, with some forms being common and other being rare. For example, Fire Magic might be common, but Flight Magic would be something only 3 or 4 people alive at the time could do.

Hypothetically, how do you see such a scenario playing out? Myself, I imagine current governments would either collapse, or be very radically altered in their functions, certainly with new faces in charge. Hell, I could see governmental forces attempting to squash the brand new Mages either with old-world tech, or with their own Mages. Either way, I suspect absolute chaos would take hold with dozens of new factions erupting into conflict with dozens of others, and it taking several decades at least before some semblance of order returns, how unstable it may be.

Imagine this is your country this is happening in. What do YOU think would happen and how would it play out?


(Also, if you feel the need to comment that such modern technology wouldn't just die like this, don't bother responding. I'm asking for brainstorming hypotheticals. I don't care if X is not realistic because of Y reasons. That isn't what I asked.)

We’re all dead. Simple as that. Or at least, the vast majority (in the case of the United States)

Part 1: Before Mana
Section 1: Necesites
Within the few days before mana appears, 90% of the food in our homes has gone bad. Additionally, anyone without bottle water on hand is dead. I doubt that plumbing works properly without anything there to pump it.

Additionally, getting any food for that matter would be extremely difficult. Farms and grocery stores are miles away. Granted, that’s assuming the food in said grocery stores is even edible.

Stockpiles will last a few days, so long enough to reach mana aka the next part.

As for shelter, things should remain more or less fine excluding the complete lack of climate control. Those who live in skyscrapers will also have an absolute workout using stairs.

Section 2: Infrastructure
As mentioned above, travel becomes nearly impossible with cars unusable. And, without a communication system that can handle this, everything is in chaos. Good luck getting a message to your friends a town or two over.

How exactly a lack of communication would affect things, I’m not entirely sure. My guess is that the community would more or less organize and try to do something.

Additionally, the death count will already be stacking up the instant that this apocalypse begins. All critical medical devices keeping people alive fail, and thus millions die overnight. Then, planes in the sky would also fall from the sky. Not literally, as comercial planes can glide, but without the ability to steer us means nothing. So, they’ll be stranded somewhere… assuming the seals on the doors don’t fail and kill everyone anyways. Everyone in cars is likely dead too as they lose the ability to brake or steer.

Section 3: Nuclear Power Plants
Separate section because I just thought of this. Not sure what would happen exactly, but if any go critical… let’s just say things aren’t looking to good for the people nearby. (Or in the same thousand miles)

Part 2: Mana Arrives
So, anyone who isn’t dead has gathered in communities, hoping to live yet on the brink of death as supplies begin to dwindle. And then, magic arrives.

Section 1: Mana’s Arrival
I think it would take either almost zero time or a stupidly long time to figure out that mana even exists. Let’s review both scenarios.

In the case it’s found almost instantly m, it’s because some child tries magic and it happens, thus alerting the community they’re in that it exists.

On the other hand, adults aren’t going to try doing magic. If everyone that gets magic is and adult, we’re not going to find out fast until someone does something stupid and finds it exists.

Since I don’t want branching timelines, let’s say it takes a few weeks for everyone to figure out mana exists. To see if we can even get there… see part 3.

Section 2: Mana Spreads
As people gain mana, chances are they’ll help their communities as most people aren’t horrible*. Of course, some are and they will conquer their people and others, use magic to kill or steal, and things along those lines.

*see part 2 section 3

But, would we even make it this far in the first place?

Part 3: How many will die?
So I’ve conveniently ignored a few things… let’s talk about those.

Section 1: Food and Water
Unless you live next to a farm, chances are in the time it takes to discover mana, you’ll die off from the lack of food. Stores only last so long, after all. What happens as these run out? (See section 3)

Now, say you do happen to have mana. Does that solve the problem? No. Maybe you can feed yourself, but as an idiot with no idea how the fuck magic works, you’re not growing anything. Maybe you can create water. Good job. How long does your mana last? Can you do it every day for hundreds of people? Will you even?

And, how are you even going to get food. You can grow it, so go the farmers, right? So, you can carry food for hundreds of people now? Or, can you help them migrate to a place where food is grown before they die off? No.

Except for a lucky few, 90% or more of the population starve or die of thirst.

Section 2: As supplies dwindle
What happens as food dwindles? Well, see section 3 for human behaviors, but one thing is certain. As food supplies dwindle, we’ll turn to anything we can. Pets, those who died, plants in yards… all will become food for a desperate population.

Some will die from food poisoning (directly or indirectly). Others will starve, die to diseases from unscrupulous food sources, or to themselves. Some will see the increasingly bad situation and decide that it isn’t worth living anymore. And thus, they take their own lives, adding to death count.

And of course, we shall be the greatest threat to ourselves.

Section 3: How do humans handle crises?
In most scenarios, humans act as how society deems good. But, this breaks down as crises approach. They turn more selfish, trusting only themselves and perhaps a select few family or friends.

Not to mention, will dwindling food, people will become irritable and desperate, only exacerbating the above effects.

Fights will become common, despite communities’ attempts to keep them from starting. People will become injured and die from infections we can no longer easily cure.

Mana might also be discovered through this method… but it won’t be pretty. Communities will collapse as things devolve into a free for all. Only the most tenacious will live… and the rest simply die out.

———

TL;DR 90+% of people die, we’re sent to the stone ages again and humanity is set back thousands of years. Perhaps humanity will arise again. But, it won’t be fast, and in the end, it will never become as technologically advanced as the current humanity once was

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Except for a lucky few, 90% or more of the population starve or die of thirst.

Nah - you're underestimating things like the Amish and other anti-technology groups, the large number of survivalist groups around the world, etc. Probably closer to 60 or 70% perish, most of them within the first seventy two, maybe forty eight hours.

 

[Azure_Fog]

Nah - you're underestimating things like the Amish and other anti-technology groups, the large number of survivalist groups around the world, etc. Probably closer to 60 or 70% perish, most of them within the first seventy two, maybe forty eight hours.

I said I was basing this on the US... Perhaps in other parts if the world, but in the US there’s an approximate 395k of them. The US has ~334m people, meaning the Amish make up 0.1% of the US population. Other ant-technology groups aren’t likely to be any larger.

 

[istryj]

I remember seeing a cartoon on Cartoon Network as a kid with pretty much the same backstory... But in that show, it was set way after the cataclysm, and it had its own issues. If something like that happened in real life, it would be a total collapse of everything around us. Too much is tied to technology. And no, modern technology won’t just quietly die; it’ll come crashing down and bury all the mages and non-mages underneath it.

What would happen in my country? Well, we’ve been at war for three years, and there’s an army of 1.5 million angry, armed men. What could possibly go wrong? A hundred and fifty thousand of them wouldn’t just be mages; they’d be seasoned killers with PTSD. Some of them were forcibly conscripted, beaten, and humiliated. Some were literally crapping their pants yesterday because there was no other choice, and eating mice because there was nothing else. Now, today, they can throw lightning bolts and fireballs—whereas their commander (who used to take their pay and wouldn’t let them go home for the holidays) can’t do anything like that. The show has begun.

 

[OatMush]

Hmm, interesting scenario. I live and work on a farm, so I thought I'd share some thoughts.

1. At Least here, there would be no immediate rush. Currently we have about a hundred tons of potatoes sitting in storage, and another two hundred or so of sweet potatoes in the paddock in various stages of growth, ranging from slips planted last friday, to potatoes ready for harvest. Plus maybe another ten or twenty tons of grain and legumes. (Although harvesting that by hand would be shit work).
It's also almost divine prominence that 80% of agricultural weeds are edible, so while the diet won't be very interesting, we'd get the food we'd need.
We also have about a hundred steers that'll be ready for slaughter in the next few months, plus a whole herd of heffers and two good bulls. These are meat cows so they aren't great for milk, but I'm sure we could source a young dairy bull within walking distance, so in a year or two we could get milk.
We don't have chickens, but they're easy as hell to get going, and we'll have plenty of waste to feed them.
I haven't done any math, but I think we should be able to feed hundreds of people for at least a few months assuming we planted no knew crops. And my farm is actually quite small. Modern crops are miracles of breeding.

2. We have access to a lot of knowledgeable people. I work with an electrical engineer, an electrician, a mechanic, and a guy who fixed pumps for ten years. Everyone around here knows how to weld, fix engines, fish, hunt and farm.
Many old farmers keep all their old machines, we have multiple tractors we could get going even without anything electronic, and maybe 5000L of diesel on the farm (the tanks were filled last week). And if no-one's driving their car, I'm sure we could barter more. (Did I mention how much food we have?)

3. We would have an over-abundance of unskilled labour—we have food in the paddock, come help us get it out of the ground!
Sweet potatoes is already very manual, the loss of machinery would slow us down, but an extra thirty hands and I think it'd be manageable. (Currently the farm has six people working there)
Sheltering people isn't gonna be easy, but if most the machines are broke, there's no reason we couldn't salvage corrugated iron from the sheds to make shacks, there's trees and bamboo on the farm too.

4. The only machine absolutely necessary for the farm's operation is the pumps for irrigation. It'd take some doing, but we have some old diesel motors sitting around we could probably replace the electronic ones with, otherwise the big diesel pump on the centre-pivot could be reallocated. (Have I mentioned we have a pump repair specialist and a mechanic on the farm?) although I think that engine is fuel injected so I'm not sure it's ready to go as is. (It also has an electric starter, but nothing a few strong lads couldn't substitute.)

So overall I think we could make it work, I don't know what happens in cities, but at least where I am we'd be fine. If we could get the pumps going we'd even have working toilets, and we have wells for drinking water. (Just pull the pump out of a water bore by its hose, tie bucket to rope, BOOM! You have a well.)

Tldr. If this happens, don't worry, you can all come grow sweet potatoes with me c:

I kinda forgot this scenario was meant to be about magic... Come grow magical potatoes?