Addendum

If you're wondering what kind of circle of mages would develop such a thing, probably one with access to the internet, to wit, time-travelers. Whether they're traveling forward or backward is beyond me to say.

Practicality vs. Theatricality

I'm not sure a form of magic that involves tinting glass with spells that explode when activated is financially responsible, but the 5-minute animated shorts will be tremendous.

Unicorn Hierarchy

Do you suppose killing the master unicorn will change all the unicorns it turned back into regular horses? I think that might be too optimistic.

Immortal Accommodations

"As for where we go after death and what we do, there is nothing but mystery," the wise man finished.
The listening king thought that over. "We are guilty of an oversight then if we, who have been sure to provide for our living subjects, fail to do the same for our dead. We must set off a park for them alone we will call "heaven" and furnish it. What do the dead like to have?"
Without any pause such as a less thoughtful man might have needed, the wise man said, "Your Majesty, it is universally observed that the corpse grows cold and hard. Unquestionably a warm bath would soothe them handsomely."
"Very good. We will have a warm bath put in and beside it, on tables, bowls of porridge easy in the eating."
All this was done, and soon the dead visited heaven, not only those of the kingdom but from without also. Even when the king imposed a fee on the foreign dead, that did not deter them. The removal of currency worried other rulers with the result that they forbade their dead the journey, but the people revolted over it. In the end they made their own heavens and each land had its own, and later each town as well, funded by its guilds.
Finis

Thoughts on Age of Empires

You know, I'm starting to think there's a particular age of empires at all! It seems like we've had empires for a long time! Unless we are to reckon humanity's entire existence the age of empires. That's pretty deep.

Only One Way Exists to Save the Industry

We have to rely on a combination of digital editing and book-altering nanomachines to make all the old books worse so people will buy the new books. Some of you may say the solution is to write good books. That worked about fifty years ago, but the number of good books has become such that the probability that a good book is new has fallen to MMORPG-rare-drop levels. Some of you may say that's irrelevant even if true because prospective buyers aren't choosing from the total pool of good books. That was the case up till you could ask AI chatbots what the good books are. The odds and the technology have changed; our strategy must change too.

A Future Story

One day, culinary historians will discover people of our era used cookie dough to make cookies. The public will not believe it. Eventually everyone on the internet will come to believe we never ate cookie dough directly. That's just how the world will continue to be.

More Like Final Fantasy Temporarily Crisis!

I know there's something better in there, but I haven't figured it out. Anyway, buck up, evercrisisters. We'll always have our memories.

Currency Complications

When you make up your fantasy currency, potch for example, it can be awkward to inform the reader what it means. "I had to pay 1,000 potch, which is approximately two chickens and a bag of pine needles," someone might say but probably wouldn't. When this happens, remember that the audience isn't always as attached to maintaining an in-universe perspective as the writer. Try this: "He paid 1,000 potch (this is exorbitant)." There, everything's settled.

Time Grime

The first wizards who figure out long-distance communication time differences are going to be thrown for a loop. They're going to end up working up huge tables full of wizard towers with times listed till some genius figures out a system. That system will probably not be time zones, but if they are, they'll be named after gods or guardian beasts or something.