I recently got an idea of an AU fic where the Wizarding World is dominated by both magic and technology.

The plot thread goes like this, the war with Grindelvald spilled out into the Muggle World. The muggles, due to their large numbers and due to many of the wizard forces being decimated after the Grindelvald War nearly won the War. It was only the efforts of Dumbledore, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, and a few others that stopped them from being defeated easily. The Muggle and Wizarding worlds agreed to a peace treaty where the muggles agreed that the knowledge of magic would be erased from every muggle minds except the Queen, higher ranking officials of the Ministry and Army. It was also agreed that every Muggleborn children would be taken from their parents at their birth or a few days after it, erasing the memories of parents and relatives though the wizards are supposed to give information about new wizards to the palace.
In the Wizarding World, the wizards couldn't accept their defeat by the muggles, but the treaty prevents fights between them. So, the wizards, in order to improve their forces, decides to accept technology to their world. The problem of magic and technology is solved by Flamels. Many technological innovations happening in the muggle world become easier to do with magic, for example nanobots and laser guns, are easier to make with magic. In this world Tom Riddle became one of the most influential technomancer in the world, whose technomagical innovations are great. Harry is a boy with alive parents. He goes to Hogwarts with his wand which is technologically fitted into his body. He becomes one of the best technomancers in Hogwarts, and maybe becoming an apprentice of Riddle?

This is all I have got now, please tell me if this idea will work or not.

 

no

 

Aside from the Wizard VS Muggle element, the story has potential. Maybe wizards just adapted to include technology over time, which would leave the rest of the idea largely intact.

 

@Rico Rodriguez The idea has potential but for the initial war, have the wizards beat the muggles and take all their innovations after they get acces to their governments and their data.

 

I never get why people are so interested in Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel.

 

@syed

 

Ignoring that there's no way muggles would win, this peace treaty makes no sense in a world in which they are winning. They give up all knowledge in exchange for what? Peace? With no way to enforce it (presumably its done by magic, which they do not know)? And the wizards get the muggles supposed advantage?

It also makes no sense as a background that's necessary to the actual story you've proposed, which is "wouldn't it be cool if muggles used sci-fi tech" - this needs no war to occur.


Also, this sentence is (unintentionally) hilarious:

> He goes to Hogwarts with his wand which is technologically fitted into his body.

 

@Rico Rodriguez The most major immediate concern for any sort of story from this premise (because all you've got is worldbuilding, no story) is: There was a war, and it was close somehow, and the muggles agreed to a policy in which wizards would selectively remove most memories to recreate the masquerade.

How do they stop the wizards from just removing a few extra memories?

If the masquerade is recreated how does the palace co-ordinate those members of the military and government who retain their memory, without those outside the know (i.e. the voting public) from questioning what must surely look like bizarre non-sequitur decisions?

How do they maintain this status quo, when the muggle's greatest advantage was numbers (now lost via mass obliviation). Magic? They have no control or understanding of magic (if there are nation binding vow magics), how can they guarantee the wizards dealt in good faith, and perpetuate the treaty in good faith.

Lastly, the war happened in the past. We're following an alive Harry Potter, 50 years later, in a world where wizards use technology and magic.

Wizards have learnt STEM apparently, but muggles can't learn magic.

In most muggle vs. wizard threads, for those in favour of the former, it generally argues victory in a situation where there is open knowledge of wizards for great numbers of muggles and wizards are ignorant of technology. In a world where the muggles have neither of those things, why should the story have any tension?

 

Sorry for posting here, I wasn't looking when I posted.
Most of the hate is at the war thing, so obviously, I have to correct that. The war could be with a close tie between the two factions or as @momo said,

That's a good idea, you mind if I use that. And if I use that, there could be a chance rebellion plot line.
About the storyline, I don't have specific ideas, just a few speckles of barely formed ideas, maybe another war, or pure bloods who don't want technology, or maybe Tom riddle who wants to control all people etcetera.

 

Ignoring the whole war aspect, what technology do we think would actually benefit wizards? In terms of capabilities, wizards are basically already an advanced sci-fi civilisation, albeit with a rustic aesthetic. Shields, instant transportation, matter manipulation, control over gravity, ability to regrow limbs and organs, invisibility, ability to interact directly with the human mind, expansion of space, time travel - wizards can do it all already. And to top it off, they can do it on an individual basis without any requirement for a power source, fuel, natural resources, or industrial infrastructure. So really, they're well ahead of civilisations like Earth in Star Trek, the Asgard in Stargate, etc. Their closest sci-fi comparison might be the Nox in Stargate.

Nonetheless, wizards have adopted magical versions of trains, cars, cameras and radios, so what other technologies might wizards create magical versions of after the 1990s?

I don't think phones/mobile phones would take off - transport is just so quick and easy that you can just as quickly see someone in person. And we already know that television was a flop when introduced to the wizarding world.

I'm also not sure that the internet would interest wizards all that much. Wizards already have the three of the most useful aspects of the internet:

- Internet shopping: wizards have a functional catalogue-order system, which we see used for brooms.

- Maps: wizards can go to a place directly, so don't need to know the route.

- Search: we know the summoning charm can be used as a search (Hermione's "accio books about horcruxes").

That leaves social media/chat, but I doubt that would interest wizards for the same reason as phones.

So what else is there?

Muggle medicine is useless compared to wizarding medicine.

Wizards don't need electricity, so power generation technology has no appeal.

Muggle military technology would not interest wizards either, since all that technology is designed to fight wars according to a military paradigm which is at odds with the way in which wizards wage war (and in any case, it's going to be useless against magic).

Even if we look to future technology, I'm struggling to think of anything. VR might have been one, but Fred and George already invented magical VR in 1996, years before the Muggles got it. Similarly, AI would have been useful, but again magic has got their first, with portraits, mirrors, objects like the Sorting Hat etc. all having an intelligence created by magic.

I'm looking at the technologies that wizards have already adopted and trying to extrapolate from those. Trains and cars are transport methods; though slower than magical transport, they are more comfortable and it's easy to take passengers. So they're useful for transport where the journey is just as important as the destination, and for transporting children/cargo. It seems likely that wizards have ships as well, based on that logic, and in the future maybe they will adopt some form of aircraft, though aircraft lack the "comfort" aspect, and generally it's all about getting from A to B rather than enjoying the journey. So the same logic doesn't really apply to aircraft. If wizards were to adopt an aircraft, I imagine it would be a blimp of some kind, with a magically expanded interior.

The obvious extrapolation from radio is TV, but as I said, that was already a flop.

 

I don't remember Television being a flop in the Wizarding World. Why do you say that?

And Internet can be used by wizards, maps can be used by those who don't know apparition. Brooms and magical carpets can be autopiloted. E-books, e-banking, e-mail, I know owls are fast but emails are way faster. Searching is different than accio cause accio summons a book from a place, it doesn't matter if the book is yours or some other person's, internet is different, it is available to everyone.

Satellites can be used by wizards. It can be used tolocate people, maybe it can be used for intercontinental apparition, etc.

Rockets, travel to other planets, this can be made easier due to magic.

Maybe future technology like nano technology, and such can also be used by wizards.

Muggle Warfare things could be modified by wizards. Bullets could be coated with poisonous potions and such. Maybe something like magic guns, which shoots concentrated bursts of stunner.

This is all I could come with now.

 

These threads always end up in hilarious theological debates about the subject with the same people arguing their points ad infinitum... I mean, it's not like there's already several seemly endless threads dedicated to this subject - not at all.

I suppose this depends on how you define success, but I highly doubt many would care for it on DLP. With that said, I've seen several sub-par stories on FF net that are popular simply due to the fact they explore mixing technology with magic. The topic seems to slot into the 'guilty reads' category over there.

Personally, I reckon you just take the "magic" out of the Harry Potter world when you delve into trying to merge the two worlds. It ceases to be Harry Potter at that point, and more like an original piece of science fiction with token characters from the series inserted in.

 

Magic out of Harry Potter, that would be crazyyy!

 

Anything the Muggles can do, Wizards can do better. Coating bullets with potions is just adding extra steps and creating more points of failure - why bother when a witch can just conjure darts and banish them at their target? No worrying about ammunition or equipment. Magic guns just don't work. If you can give an inanimate object the ability to use magic, you've got far bigger problems in the Wizarding World.

About the only time I can see a gun being useful against magicals is an occasion where it's an out of context problem - say a wizard is holed up where they can be seen, but far out of reach of any magical attack. They've got all these powerful magical defences, but they're all geared towards magical attacks, and so you can maybe swing it that a dude with a rifle could blow their head off. Again though, this can go either way on a narrative level, and if you're writing a story about Muggles vs Wizards (apart from it being a short fucking story), magical defences would not take long to be expanded to cover whatever gaps they might have. You might once have been able to walk into Diagon Alley with a pistol in your coat because it has no magic, but the moment the Probity Probes are upgraded to detect 'weapons' rather than just harmful magic...

What you need to be thinking, when brainstorming, is "With these tools, how would I overcome this challenge?", not "How do I make this fuckin' cool". In my experience, chasing rule of cool just leaves you with lame shit, whereas thinking up new and smart ways to do things often gives you cool as a byproduct.

 

Yeah, guns and stuff may not be that good with magic. But magic guns can only be used by wizards as it needs a small sign of magic to be activated.

And the story is not about the Muggle VS Wizard War. It is described in history only. The story starts with Harry in his first year of Hogwarts, if there is a war, it will come sometime later. If there is a war, I think somebody like Hermione or any Muggle born or any wizard who wants equality for muggles to lead it.

 

But then what is the point? Unless you want to have it so Squibs have enough magic to use them, you're basically hobbling the wizard forced to use them. You could make wands something that only the elite have access to, but then you're just changing things to fit so you can have magic guns rather than building a world for the world's sake.

 

Why does there have to be a war? It’s a dumb trope people keep trying. If you want technomancy to be an important magical art, you’ll have to overhaul magic entirely. Which probably won’t be for the better.

While there are exceptions (wizards have adopted vehicles for mass transport. Agreed with Sorrows on needing better instant communication), magic covers most needs better than tech could. Problem is more a lack of imagination.