“Any sufficiently advanced technology…is indistinguishable from magic.”

— Arthur C. Clark, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

The designers of the AQ: Jaern (2016) manual included an overview on their design process for a magical system that is inspired from the physics of the real world. This chapter explores the scientific and technological knowledge of Jaern, and discusses Majykology — the term for the study of the nature of magic, and its application in customizing and creating new magic. We briefly explore the PFC's approach to magic, and discuss some considerations for the GM when it comes to adjudicating magical effects in unique and special circumstances.

The Purdue Fantasy Club uses a homemade magic system, inspired by other TTRPGs and fantasy media. The original creators noticed that magic was usually given arbitrary reasoning on its effects and capabilities, acting solely as a narrative tool that can explain away any inconsistencies. This has its advantages, allowing the narrative and plot to determine the limits of what magic can do, or offering creative and powerful solutions to conflicts through the application of magic. However this can also make magic inconsistent, unpredictable, and unbounded, which can hinder a gaming system that relies on a cohesive and self-consistent ruleset.

This led the creators to base the existence, interaction, and use of magic as an extended technology, a way of manipulating magical energies in familiar ways, similar to how we manipulate electricity, radio waves, magnetism, and gravity.

The original model of magic as based upon the electromagnetic spectrum, a way of classifying energies of different kinds in a continuous spectrum of different frequencies. However, this electromagnetic energy (light, electricity, magnetism, radiation, etc.) works according to consistent laws, and can manifests itself in very different ways.

The existence of magic is analogous to this spectrum, where magical energy is delineated according to its “frequency” or “color” as well as its amplitude or intensity.

This helps separate different types of magical energy onto the following types: Nomadic, Psionic, Elemental, Divine, and Magitech.