And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own ...
Haven't posted here in a while. I blame Twitter.
Yearlust 2020 was ... honestly pretty much the same as 2019, chi-powered martial arts in settings where it is just one source of superpowers among many.
I guess I could expand on it and say I like the idea of the different underlying superpower types being related (already true in most settings: magic users use life force when they do ritual human sacrifice. Same goes for wizards firing off a Death Curse with their last breath. See also: vampires/succubi/incubi who drain life energy i.e. chi)
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Been listening avidly to the Metamor City podcast which is far less famous than it should be. Think cyberpunk, psychics and high fantasy all happening in the same urban setting but better than it sounds (and it SOUNDS great, you should totally listen to it and pimp it everywhere) and was fascinated by how magic, tech, vampirism, deific power and psionics all coexist and overlap (vampire feeding creates a psychic link between vamp and thrall. Vampires are thus scared of telepaths because the psychics will turn that link around and 0wnz0r the blood-sucker. On the flip side, psychics hate vampires because their minds can't be read unless they're feeding on a telepath)
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There was this Eastern European scifi series (possibly Polish, idunno) from the early 00s. You know, the Peak Transhumanism Stross' Accelerando Years) Anyway, in it, the Kardashev tiers of technological advancement didn't top out at the best one could do within the laws of physics but at the best and most permissive set of physical laws you could modify reality to have.
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All powers converge toward similarity as they grow. Magic, psionics, chi, technology, cosmic power, all rivers that flow into the same ocean if you follow them far enough.
There are a million ways to be weak, a thousand ways to be strong but only one way to be omnipotent.
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Conclusion: Yearlust 2020 was not chi plus martial arts, it was superpower interactions, the Olympic Symbol Venn Diagram Mandala of Assorted Bullshit Magics.
Yearlust 2020 was ... honestly pretty much the same as 2019, chi-powered martial arts in settings where it is just one source of superpowers among many.
I guess I could expand on it and say I like the idea of the different underlying superpower types being related (already true in most settings: magic users use life force when they do ritual human sacrifice. Same goes for wizards firing off a Death Curse with their last breath. See also: vampires/succubi/incubi who drain life energy i.e. chi)
--
Been listening avidly to the Metamor City podcast which is far less famous than it should be. Think cyberpunk, psychics and high fantasy all happening in the same urban setting but better than it sounds (and it SOUNDS great, you should totally listen to it and pimp it everywhere) and was fascinated by how magic, tech, vampirism, deific power and psionics all coexist and overlap (vampire feeding creates a psychic link between vamp and thrall. Vampires are thus scared of telepaths because the psychics will turn that link around and 0wnz0r the blood-sucker. On the flip side, psychics hate vampires because their minds can't be read unless they're feeding on a telepath)
--
There was this Eastern European scifi series (possibly Polish, idunno) from the early 00s. You know, the Peak Transhumanism Stross' Accelerando Years) Anyway, in it, the Kardashev tiers of technological advancement didn't top out at the best one could do within the laws of physics but at the best and most permissive set of physical laws you could modify reality to have.
--
All powers converge toward similarity as they grow. Magic, psionics, chi, technology, cosmic power, all rivers that flow into the same ocean if you follow them far enough.
There are a million ways to be weak, a thousand ways to be strong but only one way to be omnipotent.
--
Conclusion: Yearlust 2020 was not chi plus martial arts, it was superpower interactions, the Olympic Symbol Venn Diagram Mandala of Assorted Bullshit Magics.