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Originally Posted by The Colonel
Concur - especially given the topic of Horror, we need to be thinking of the fact that if the Supernatural did exist (and the majority of our ancestors seem to have taken this for granted) then we, like our ancestors are right to be afraid of it. Recent fantasy - especially RPGs - have made us far too comfortable with the idea of magic, whilst for most of history it was viewed with great suspicion if not fear and hatred. Any given historical event might be mistaken identity, but "kill it with fire*" turns out to be a reasonable and rational response to the supernatural in most folklore.
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And friendly elves? Victorian bowdlerisation, polished off by Tolkien. Historically no-one in their right minds would mess with the fae - to add to the comments above, there was a historical rumour that the fae paid an annual farm of human souls to hell as a sort of "protection" racket.
*iron, salt, holy water ... whatever. Just kill it.
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Yes. This^^^. And it's remarkably consistent across different cultures, too. Sometimes the recommended response is 'kill it', sometimes it's 'hide from it', sometimes it's 'run from it', but the consensus is usually
negative.
Which is entirely reasonable, looked at unsentimentally. If you're dealing with beings who are alien in mindset and nature, think in ways you don't and possibly can't entirely grasp, and are very powerful, then they are dangerous almost by definition.
One reason modern fantasy/games are so 'comfortable' with this is precisely post-Enlightenment lack of belief. It's safe to play/dream about Faerie because Faerie isn't real. But if it turns out Faerie
is real, the equation is going to change very quickly, and fear is going to reappear in a hurry.
(Note that I share a rather similar view about human-extraterrestrial alien interaction, I strongly suspect that the 'positive' visions of it in SF are much less realistic/believable than the negative ones, and for somewhat similar reasons.)
Suppose a guy (or gal, it hardly matters) who has long played fantasy RPGs and loves to read fantasy novels discovers that Faerie is real, and further that
real Elves are nasty, sociopathic, lustful, sadistic (at least from the human POV) and very, very powerful, and that you
can end up in their clutches if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Will s/he still love fantasy novels and RPGs? Probably not so much. He might even start seeing them as bait or come ons for the bad guys...and in such a world, he might be right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Colonel
The Dresden Files is unusual in that it actually probes the horrific consequences that magic might have even if used for the best of motives ... although it also shows some remarkably dark magic being used for benevolent purposes: discipline and control are a big thing in 'verse.
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Yes again. Butcher is in some ways remarkably unsentimental about his world, and to the degree there's a trend it's going more that way.
Most of the DF stories are told from the first-person perspective of Wizard Harry Dresden, White Council member and major player. Now Harry gets into some harrowing situations, but he does have the advantage of wielding some pretty potent magic himself, and has access to extensive useful knowledge from his training by Justin, Ebenezar, and his allies.
But what does this same world look like from the POV of a mundane or a low-power magic practitioner? It's a
terrifying place, if they're in the know. An example of what can happen to mundanes who get cross-ways with major magic is to be found in the early novel
Fool Moon. Karrin Murphy tries to apply standard police procedures to a supernatural situation, effectively she pokes the supernatural hard...and it pokes back when a
loup garou runs wild through the police station, and Harry battles it, blowing huge holes in brick walls in the process.
In the later books, Karrin would sometimes start to let her pride take her in that direction again, and Harry could usually sober her up just by reminding of the
loup garou rampage that killed her partner Carmichael and tore up an entire police station.
And then there is what happened to Susan Rodriguez when she let her curiosity get the better of her common sense.
You can even make a good, solid case that Charity Carpenter is completely right in her attitude about magic, unless the potential practitioner is very very powerful. What does training and refining a minor talent get you in the DV? You can do a few useful tricks. You might be a shade healthier overall. That's about it.
The downsides: magic users are more tasty to many monsters, so now you're more visible as prey. Magic users tend to hang out in places where the monsters also go, so there's more opportunity to fall foul of a White Court vampire or worse. It's entirely possible, and not even rare, for a young magic user to violate one of the Seven Laws through ignorance, even with good intentions, and have the Council hunt them down and kill them for it. (The Council are the good guys, more or less, by the way.) Oh, and your electronics and mechanical gear will be less reliable.
Is it worth it? An honest judge would look at it and probably say 'only if you have a LOT of potential and a reliable trustworthy mentor too'.