I have recently found a plethora of resources concerning the genre "Muskets and Magic" or, "Gunpowder Fantasy". Apparently, it exists as a sub-genre of "Historical Fantasy", a close relative to the genre "Alternate History." Wow, all of these genre-titles make my brain want to burst! How about a little breakdown, focusing on the title of this post: Muskets and Magic.Themes involved with Muskets and Magic stories.
- What would the discovery of gunpowder do to a world with magic?
- We can look to history to see how gunpowder completely transformed the face of warfare.
- How does gunpowder stack up against magic? Would it throw off the balance of power?
- Magic is mysterious in how it works, gunpowder is a science.
- Sometimes magic can only be used by the elite, gunpowder can be used by anyone.
- And what if gunpowder was somehow connected to magic?
- Usually with a level of tech comparable to 17th-19th centuries, with fantasy tropes mixed in.
These are just a few things, I ran across this article by Brian McClellan titled "Muskets and Magic" and these two wikipedia articles titled "Historical Fantasy" and "Magic Gun" that sparked my interest, considering the fact that for my next book, I have contemplated them having semi-recently discovered gunpowder.
I didn't realize how much it changes the face of warfare! I'll be doing more research, but there you go! For everyone to see.
Also, I suppose the Pirates of the Caribbean somewhat (so-so) falls under this genre, ha! Who'da thunk?
