WBJ DAY 1: Intro
Day 1: Introduction
Hello im late so very late sorry for run ons its late
My story takes place in a world much like our own, except not really, because there are wizards. And unlike many stories featuring magic in the modern world that I’ve come across, it’s been almost completely integrated into the lives of all citizens, even those who have no magical ability. Magic also changes with time; new applications are discovered, different ways of combining it with regular technology are invented, etc. I’m going to be focusing mainly on the places my main characters live: Europe and the United States (I’m just calling it this for now, but colonization went much differently in my story, so the Americas would be more like the Aztec and Incan Empires, the Iroquois League, and other, smaller nations scattered throughout), mostly, although they travel all over the place, and these places may get occasional mentions. The events I’ve got planned out span roughly three hundred years, so a lot changes and evolves and I’m probably going to be all over the place.
Powerful magical families throughout the world decided that instead of hiding their magic, they would just take over governing powers. Mages of druid ancestry have been ruling England for millennia, with similar events occurring in Japan and Central America. The French monarchy has been fighting a civil war with an illegitimate wizard heir for one hundred years, and are projected to run out of funds long before he dies. Witch hunts sprang up in northern Europe and in small European settlements in the Americas out of fear that wizarding families/the Iroquois League/random magical person will attempt to enslave their non-magical neighbors. Of course, there are still many places run by non-magical or “magically-sensitive” folk (ex. Southern Europe, Western Africa) (these people are known as magi- they have limited magical ability), and the level of influence wizards have will vary depending on the era and location. In the story, a lot of the focus will be placed on the rigid class system of mages, as well as interactions between magical and non-magical people. And magical crime. Lots and lots of magical crime. I realized that almost all my main characters are wizards, so I think I’m going to try creating some more non-wizards when I’ve solidified the world a bit more.
I was not sure where exactly to begin the story. For now I think I’m just going to start near the beginning, which is roughly 1718 (although that’s probably going to change at some point). The Clockwork Magician (dun dun dun! title drop) is the newest member of the British thieve's guild known as The Silver Hands, and no one has no idea where this sulky son of a bitch came from or what he’s doing. And let’s be honest, he doesn’t know nearly as much as he thinks he does, and will be made aware of that fact early and repeatedly until it finally gets knocked into that stubborn skull of his. Along the way he’ll explore a lot of themes, including but not limited to: morality, gender, classism, and the meaning of friendship. Really. And kick a lot of ass and steal some things he really probably shouldn’t even if it totally screws himself over. Yes I like to tear my characters apart, although I’ve toned it down considerably for this story because there was just too much goddamn angst.
I think one of the difficulties with this will be that I’ve never been to Europe, so what I do know is from either my history classes or the almighty google. I can take some liberties because MAGIC and ALTERNATE HISTORY, but I don’t want to spend my whole time researching because if I do that, I will never get this done, period. I tend to use researching as a form of procrastination.
This has been a story that I’ve been thinking about for years, and is almost unrecognizable from when I first started it. I’m not sure how this is going to go, honestly, because I stink at keeping up with things, but we’ll see. Probably going to tag this #The Clockwork Magician, the name of the hellish folders and iPhone notes I call my storyboard/notes/character sheets/random phrases/whateverelsethatdoesntcometomindatthemomentbutitprobablyis. Some stuff is probably going to be skirted around for spoiler reasons, in case I ever post this thing online. And then there will be points where I go on very long in-depth discussions on various funeral services, because that took like an hour to write and I was way too tired to be editing that into something coherent at one in the morning last week. Why funeral services? I have no idea.
ANYWAY, that is the end of day 1, and I hope the next days are a bit more orderly and I am not a tired trainwreck. If you read through this whole thing, thanks, I appreciate it!









