If so, is this capacity unique to her? If not, what does the society use as the monetary standard instead of precious metals?
I don't think the monetary standard is that big of a problem, in part because there economy must already look very different from any real life analogs. For example, I suspect the ability of an earth mage to nigh instantly create stable, incredibly durable, structures with no meaningful resource requirements should completely change their economy. At a minimum, stone castles, walled cities, and good roads are now much easier to build, which should have far reaching implications for both warfare and trade. Beyond that, any jobs that would have been based on either extracting resources for construction (e.g. forestry and mining) or actually building structures are now significantly less in demand.
In terms of the currency itself, there are three relatively straightforward solutions.
- If the countries are stable enough, they could have switched to a fiat currency sooner than real-life. This mitigates would mitigate the problem of mages pulling precious metals or other things out of their rears while also allowing for a more stable economy. (The gold standard and mercantilism were not actually good things.)
- Currency could be based on some magical substance that cannot be easily replicated, rather than a naturally occurring one.
- Magically created materials could have specific tells that allow them to be recognized as such, like a detectable magical charge, or they could be temporary in nature and will fade over time. I find this last possibility the least satisfying, but it would also help reduce the economic changes caused by mages pulling entire ramparts out of thin air. (Though it wouldn't completely eliminate them, since you can still do a lot by just moving the earth around.)
Circling back to the alloy, how did she actually carbide all that tungsten? AFAIK that substance does not occur in (our) nature, so does it mean that it is naturally abundant in this world's soil? Or does she pull the carbon out of the earth or air (less likely, given how she is not an air mage) and let it react with elemental tungsten? If so, how does she achieve the necessary temperatures of 1000+ degrees without having an affinity for the fire element?
I'm not sure if that's a reasonable set of questions? Even FMA style alchemy, which explicitly cares about the presence of the correct atomic elements, doesn't require you to exactly replicate the normal chemical process to create compounds and wouldn't involve heating the substance to any particular temperature. If this system is more conceptual, with people performing effects based on how they perceive the world to work, then it becomes even less of an issue: Rei did not create her wall by pulling atomic tungsten and carbon out of the earth and then combining them, she summoned a wall with the properties of Tungsten Carbide, rather than more common stone.
Given the way Prince Rod was able to create detailed, animated, flame constructs and Clair was able to utilize some form of plasma or laser cannon, which isn't an obvious form of fire magic, I suspect their magic is conceptual in nature and most people simply don't have the concepts they need to really abuse it.
last edited at Jul 26, 2021 1:32PM