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Originally Posted by Anthony
One thing I've considered is that FTL works by shifting the ship into an alternate dimension with weird and different physics. Including what can be called 'magic'. Outside of FTL (and maybe other specialized areas where they create similar zones) physics is normal.
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There's something roughly like this in the
Ender's Game series - I forget the specifics, but there's essentially a stopover dimension that can be used to functionally teleport to anywhere in the universe, and while there it's possible to basically create something just by thinking about it. One character has figured out a self-replicating cure for a disease that's ravaging her world but has no way to produce it - traveling through this stopover dimension allows her to basically conjure it up into a vial. Another character has a crippled body; he recreates his body prior to the accident and migrates his mind over to it (the old one collapses into dust IIRC). And yet another character ends up creating clones of his siblings, with his own subconscious essentially split three ways between himself and them (this was a mistake on the character's part, but ultimately worked out pretty well). It's pretty wild.
A setting with modern fantasy style magic while traveling through hyperspace could certainly be interesting. If things created through the use of magic are maintained, this could be utilized for manufacturing (even if conjured objects vanish, you could still potentially use magic to rework existing matter, to a similar effect). You can have all kinds of crazy adventures while on a months-long journey on such a vessel. And, of course, you'll have people who get (mentally) addicted to being able to use magic, and who purposefully try to travel through hyperspace as much as possible.