I'm currently running Exalted, which has a huge spirit and magitech influence in places. Everything has a spirit and/or god tied to it. Taken to the extreme, that could include dust particles or even air molecules.

I had the idea of the First Age artisans crafting nanobot sized harnesses for controlling the weakest and tiniest of spirits. The first ones created would be designed to facilitate building smaller versions, and so on down the chain until finally the smallest of particles can be trapped and made into a servant. A swarm of them would be able to aid in things tied to their element. Water could speed the healing process, air could coalesce around the hands and give a little extra oomph to anything you throw, etc.

Any ideas of other effects? They don't have to be tied to the elements of Exalted. If it does something cool I'll find a way to squeeze it in.

You're aware of flowstone, nicht wahr?

I am aware of neither flowstone nor the meaning of nicht wahr.

Flowstone is sort of like a magical nanotech, used in Magic: the Gathering.

Ah, I thought you were referring to something in Exalted.

Is that the flavor text for flowstone? I remember it as being in a few cards (mostly creatures) and letting you pay mana to boost power at the cost of toughness. That could be an interesting version, where you pay essence to swap physical dots from stamina to strength.

There's a cool Walter John Williams short story (in the collection Facets i think) where nanotech has caused a very fantasy-type environment to emerge. Basically nanotech has caused a split in humanity. Those who adopt it seem to live like primitives in a wilderness, essentially protected by their nanotech but with no framework for society that we would recognise and protected/controlled by AI's in the form of various animals. Those who want to maintain society live in large towns at something like 19thc type society and look down on and fear those who live in the country.

having read Exalted it sounds a good story for Lunars - magitech could upgrade normal humans to live in the wild without the trappings of civilisation, but the lunars want them to choose to do so rather than brainwash them. Here and there are 'societies' essentially protected by and dependant on lunars and their powers but at the same time hating them and refusing to admit it

Being a short story a lot of stuff never really gets explored but the feel and core idea is pretty sound - if you had idealised form of nanites in your system protecting you from harm, hunger and the environment what would you want cities and such like for?

That's the basis for the Pillars and Shards in my book/setting/whatever I'm working on. Going the old "collapsed technological society turned fantasy thousands of years later" route with it. The "magic" is actually all done through the activation and use of the nanite swarms that make up these "Shards".

Supposed to be the "Big Secret" of the world, but hey, we're all friends here.

Great ideas! Thanks, and keep 'em coming!

My restriction, since the "magic" is truly technological at its root, is that the magic effects can only be things that could, reasonably, be expected to be performed by millions or billions of nanites - i.e. strictly physical effects. Things like fireballs? No. Lightning? Yes. Healing? Yup. Even enhanced endurance, strength, etc. are fine. No animal summoning (although "spirits" or "demons" could be managed easily, if they are smoky and etherial in appearance).

Also, the nanites are controlled mentally, so Psionics are active in my setting for trained users, because all humans were genegineered to be able to control what was, to them, day-to-day appliances. When society collapsed, people began (consciously or not) to evolve their psionic abilities, so there's that the throw in the mix too.

Quote from: WerekoalaMy restriction, since the "magic" is truly technological at its root, is that the magic effects can only be things that could, reasonably, be expected to be performed by millions or billions of nanites - i.e. strictly physical effects. Things like fireballs? No. Lightning? Yes. Healing? Yup. Even enhanced endurance, strength, etc. are fine. No animal summoning (although "spirits" or "demons" could be managed easily, if they are smoky and etherial in appearance).

Also, the nanites are controlled mentally, so Psionics are active in my setting for trained users, because all humans were genegineered to be able to control what was, to them, day-to-day appliances. When society collapsed, people began (consciously or not) to evolve their psionic abilities, so there's that the throw in the mix too.

Animal summoning/control should be possible. Nanites could "infect' an animal and assume control of its brain/nervous system, then make it respond to a controlling "magician".

They're not quite THAT advanced, but I could see it working, possibly. The thing is, the smaller swarms (shards) aren't really "intelligent" per se, they can only do what they're psionically programmed to do. In other words, they're very limited in function, and even if they COULD control an animal, its doubtful they'e be able to do more than just that - control it. Freeze it in place, as it were - but the psionic control of Shards isn't that subtle. Think of them as Magic Items - single function "machines" like wands or rings in other settings. The larger swarms (Pillars and Infernal - the "bad guy" swarm) are semi-AI however, based on size alone, and I could see them doing that fairly easily. However, the psionics could do that just as well, if not better.