Human Anti-Magic

[Been Brunt]

So, here's my thoughts.
On the world I am invisioning, the first living beings were spirits(elementals, wisps, djnn, the whole shibang). Humans were the final race to appear, (haven't yet decided how, more on that later) and had one unique, defining trait. Of every single other lifeform, they are the only ones who cannot touch the streams of energy around them and bend reality to their will.

In short, they are the only creatures who cannot use magic. However, they make up for this with an innate resistance to all forms of magical contact, some rare others being completely immune to any sort of magic, negating the energies on contact.

Not really sure about this. Could do with some critism.

 

[Ruru]

hmmm. I can see this working. It is almost as if the barrier that prevents them from using magic is the same one that creates the innate resistance, like they are sealed away in both directions. Makes logical sense there.

It's how you use it that counts tho.

I can see this having a strong influence on culture and attitude in the humans, c.f the other, magical creatures/ beings. Do you have a concept of your energy type? As in, is it a natural sort of force that might draw together beings that use it? What might happen to a race that does not have that sense of connection? How might it effect their religions? Might they have developed pseudo magics like alchemy or even science because of a lack of their own magics?

Just some food for thought. It seems a simple enough idea (I find those tend to be the most effective, because a simple idea can still have subtle, far-flung consequences), so I think it would work, depending on what you intended to do with it.

 

[ScaryMJDiamcreep]

If the humans can't interact with the energy streams that magic is made of, then it makes sense that it can't interact with them, explaining the immunity to magic.

Are the humans aware that the energy streams exist? If so, then maybe their ultimate goal of science is to figure out how to make something that can interact with them, so they can artificially use magic.

Do the other races look down on humans because of their inability to use magic, or are they terrified because none of their magic will work on the humans? Or both? That could be a nice plot point. If it's both, then the other races might hide from humans, lest the humans take offence and go to war, as we are known to do.

 

[skip.knox]

I think I'd be terrified all the time. All around me things inexplicable things are happening. I can't see the cause, I can only see the result. Things catch on fire. Houses disappear. Cows fly. Or whatever it is spirits do with their time. Maybe they spend it doing the spirit equivalent of confuse-a-cat. Then again, maybe the spirits have long since grown bored of such entertainment and don't really affect the world much.

If a genie conjures on an empty moon, is it magic? Or is it just a local phenomenon?

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

The humans could develop weapons with technology. Immune to magical weapons, though still able to inflict damage with mundane ingenuity, steel, and lead. I think this makes humans terrifying.

This is a fascinating concept. Are the humans incapable of being deceived by magic/insusceptible to glamour?

Humans might be valuable to the other types of beings in this world in various ways, even as they terrify and confound.

 

[Been Brunt]

hmmm. I can see this working. It is almost as if the barrier that prevents them from using magic is the same one that creates the innate resistance, like they are sealed away in both directions. Makes logical sense there.

It's how you use it that counts tho.

I can see this having a strong influence on culture and attitude in the humans, c.f the other, magical creatures/ beings. Do you have a concept of your energy type? As in, is it a natural sort of force that might draw together beings that use it? What might happen to a race that does not have that sense of connection? How might it effect their religions? Might they have developed pseudo magics like alchemy or even science because of a lack of their own magics?

Just some food for thought. It seems a simple enough idea (I find those tend to be the most effective, because a simple idea can still have subtle, far-flung consequences), so I think it would work, depending on what you intended to do with it.

Thank you for the feedback. As well, I was thinking of making the MC, say, the child of a human and a spirit(beings entirely of magic), so that both "halfes" are constantly rejecting each other, slowly killing him/her.

 

[WooHooMan]

This is kind of the reverse of my setting where humans are the first and most magical race while "elementals" are the youngest and least magical.
It works for me so I imagine the mirror-reverse would be equally workable.

How exactly can a human be immune to magic if magic effects the world around humans (if I'm reading that right)? It would make sense if magic was limited to things like mind control or manipulating the physiology of people.
Like, if an elemental shot a fireball at a human, would the fireball just not burn them?

 

[Been Brunt]

This is kind of the reverse of my setting where humans are the first and most magical race while "elementals" are the youngest and least magical.
It works for me so I imagine the mirror-reverse would be equally workable.

How exactly can a human be immune to magic if magic effects the world around humans (if I'm reading that right)? It would make sense if magic was limited to things like mind control or manipulating the physiology of people.
Like, if an elemental shot a fireball at a human, would the fireball just not burn them?

I'm thinking of adding in a sort of "leveling"system, where most humans could survive a fireball with a few burns say, mabye getting thrown around a bit, but only a rare few had where "powerful enough" to do as you say, where magic simply cannot touch them.

 

[Night Gardener]

This could be a very interesting caveat: magic works on humans, but only in a very superficial fashion. Perhaps those who can weild magic only have the ability to work magic that interacts with humans biologically, as they are otherwise immune to "energies". This would leave tricking the 5 senses, influencing dreams, perhaps causing ( or curing ) illness, and maybe more environmental-external damages (if you conjure say... a fireball, it's going to set a human and all of their stuff on fire because physics says 'yep it's all technically flammable'.)

But, maybe humans are super-resistant to things like telepathy or mind control, levitation, magical weapons, psychic vampirism, etc. These beings would be forced to adjust strategy or it would be like bringing a sword to a gun fight. The question then, is How are these creatures actually at risk around humans? If they are completely non-corporeal, I'm not sure what the threat is (unless humans have invented something like a positron glider). However, if they ARE in a body of some type and basically lose the advantages of their higher forms of magic when dealing with humans AND can be injured by them... yeh. I would see very little reason to get involved with humans. It would probably not end well.