Published February 8, 2012
Magic
Thousands and thousands of years ago, when humanity was young, magic was discovered. It started small, a way to quickly light a torch or to cook a slab of meat. But in this dark age, people saw magic as a beacon of light, and they flocked to it. Over the years, magic grew from a way to accomplish mundane tasks to something much more. It became a cure. It became a creator. It became a teacher.
And it became a destroyer.
When something as powerful as magic is found, it is inevitable that, no matter how much good it can do, evil men will use it for evil. And so it was. The good, the pure, the kind used it as a way to help people, but the evil, the greedy, the vindictive used it to enforce their will. At first, the good tried to resist… But their magic had not been developed for battle, and soon they realised how futile their struggle was. A few fought and died, but most fled. Evil reigned.
The mages ruled for a long, long time. Those who had no magic, and no control over their destinies, were driven before them like sheep. Over time, the mages grew brash and overconfident. After all, they had no equals. Who could possibly hope to stand against them and their magic? They were truly the most powerful men on the earth. Their subjects were too afraid to rebel, or they believed that they were the messengers of their gods; they built mighty temples in their names. The mages knew better. To them, they were gods.
That was when they discovered how to strengthen their powers even more. They allowed their magic to consume them, to conquer their life, but all too soon they lost control. Whereas the arcane arts had once been their slaves, they became the slaves of the arcane arts.
The changes happened slowly. At first, the only difference between them and normal people was the strange taint in their eyes. A glimmering but subtle movement, like a dim fire. Eventually, however, they lost their humanity. As the magic became an even bigger and bigger part of them, it soon dwarfed all their other parts. Very soon, they were no longer human. They were grotesques, with metallic skin and burning hatred in their eyes. Their appearance reflected their deepest desires and most depraved fantasies.
It was at this point when they became demons in the eyes of their subjects. The people of the world stopped worshipping them and began to hate them. Their hate spawned bloodshed, and the world quickly found itself embroiled in another war… Only this time, no matter how hard the mages fought, they could not win. They were defeated in every corner of the earth, and as quickly as it had begun, their dynasty was ended.
Magic, now viewed as the greatest of evils, fell out of practice. People became fearful of mages, dubbing them witches and heretics. They became weary of those with the familiar dim flame in their eyes. They tied them to wooden stakes and they burned them, as they had burned the last mages who had resisted.
Then the age of reason came. As the world was submerged in new revolutions, disgruntled peasants overthrowing their kings and queens, people became jaded and cynical. They rejected the existence of magic, and the practice lay forgotten for centuries.
Until now.
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137,435 Literary Works • 672,020 Reviews
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),
Hi! I'm Knight Hardy here on a mission to ensure that all works on YWS has at least two reviews. You will probably never see this but....Imma do this anyway.
First Impression: This is a really nice story and I have to say I would have read any book that came after it. Even if that's not a thing this would make for some awesome lore. Definitely felt like the sort thing that we all wish we saw in our history textbooks but will never see in a history textbook.
Anyway let's get right to it,
Well that sounds like a really cool way to start a story. Its definitely a very nice way to view things even if its a little cliche by this point to go with this origin of magic.
Unfortunate but true fact in life.
Okay now I am starting to see a very original twist on the traditional stuff and that's certainly nice to see.
WOW what a story there. It escalated really fast from a cliched start to an awesome ending. This would make one awesome prologue but then I don't think I've seen any other stories by you after this but of course I will look because this looks like a truly awesome setup.
Aaaaand that's it for this one.
Overall: Overall its just a wonderful piece of writing. I really couldn't find anything wrong here. I hope I do run into a story that comes after this because I am definitely invested in this world now. Great Job!!
As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.
Stay Safe
Harry
Wow, I am seriously blown away by this. It was fantastic, but it felt more like the prologue of a book that a short story. The "Until now." part seemed to imply that you would write more about how magic was coming back into the world. What brought it back after the Age of Reason? Was it someone specific, or a whole group of people? Did it come back all at once, or did it slowly creep up onto people? i would love to know the answers! if you wanted to continue, you could write a series of shorts that all tie into the others, explain how magic coming back into people's lives affected different people, from the wealthy to the poor, the powerful, to the insignificant. I think you have an amazing idea and I would love to see you build on it.