[hal]

If people are going to discuss "potentials" for magic and society, I would suggest that they also keep in mind, that mageborn are a limited resource, and that for each "effect" any given individual discusses is possible for society, that it removes the potential for other possibilities.

An enchanter for example, not only needs to have magery 2 - which is a finite resource socially speaking, but he also has to have at least two of his spells at a skill level of 15+ to create many of the enchanted items involved. An Enchanter who spends time learning to cast armor enchantments for example, is highly unlikely to also be one who will specialized in food enchantments that produce "boxes of preserve food".

Battle mages who specialize not only in combat spells, but also in defensive protective spells, are likely going to need magery 2 or better, which in turn creates an intense competition for limited resources in the enchantment field.

In game worlds where Magery is an inborn talent that can be improved (which to my mind makes me ask why call it a talent if it can be improved?), the number of mageborn who have magery 1, 2, or 3 will be subject to a constant flux as each mageborn strives to attain a higher level of magery capability. If a GM stipulates the ratio of mageborn who are magery 1, and stipulates a lower pecentage of the mageborn population who have magery 2 - the question becomes one of "What is the reason for this ratio between magery 0 and magery 1?" If anyone can do it, then EVERYONE will probably do so. Why? The holy grail of Magery 3 is that it provides mageborn with the potential for Unaging related immortality. There is also the economic impetus imparted to the mageborn to improve their magery capabilities as certain high value and high demand spells are limited by magery 2 or higher.

In game worlds where Magery is an unchangable talent (except perhaps via great wish or via divine intervention), then things grow even more interesting. Lets say for the sake of argument, that each level of magery is 10 times less common than its preceeding level. Magery of any kind as per GURPS BANESTORM only occurs in 2% of the population. A population of 3 million people will therefor have only 60,000 mageborn. That may seem like a lot, but if there are only 6,000 mageborn with magery 1+, and of those, only 60 have Magery 3, and 600 have magery 2 - then you begin to realize just how much of a bottleneck magic aptitude imposes on society in general. If half of those with magery 2 or magery 3 become enchanters, you now have only 330 enchanters in all of those 3 million people. If each enchanter has an average IQ of 10 (they won't if player characters, but if magery mirrors the general population as far as IQ goes, there will be on average, an IQ of 10 for most enchanters) - then it will take on average for a Magery 2 individual, some 4,160 hours of study to learn 10 spells at all to skill level 10 or 11 at 1 point per, and Enchant to skill level 15 (ie 26 character points). It will take another 16 character points to attain a skill 15 in another spell (or if raising one of the requisite spells taken to attain enchantment in the first place, another 15 character points).

Those requisite chains plus magery plus limited numbers of mageborn can and do severely restrict the "potential" effects that magic can have on society in general. Couple the fact that most magic items have a HIGH economic cost such that only well to do individuals can afford them, and many of the "potentials" of magic upon society tend to be limited. In fact? It is because of the high cost of magic that people will attempt to turn to more mundane technology in order to achieve that which magic is supposedly so superior for. What is even more interesting? Once society attempts to limit what technology can achieve, there will be issues arising where "natural" progression will be viewed as suspiciously as "imported" progression from Earth itself. Suppressing technological advances will take up much of the magical resourses that would have otherwise been free for improving society itself.

If Yrth wanted to have 1 mage/physician per 1,000 people, it would require for a society of three million people, a total of 3,000 mageborn with magery 1. That is HALF of all available magery 1 individuals.

One thing I think should be considered for technology available on Yrth would be the following criteria:

How much effort goes into suppressing "imported" technology?
How much can local technology improve before being suppressed?
How much cheaper (money wise) can technology produce an effect over magic?

Those things will likely be the driving force for determining just what technology Yrth will have overall in a "realistic" setting. If fantastical and the GM doesn't care, then of course, the sky is the limit.