Basic Information
Artifice is the use of magic as a substitute for technology … when magic becomes industrialised and is no longer the province of a small number of wizards then it starts to become artifice … and you may very well find yourself in a dungeonpunk setting1. Potions replace medicines, magical lighting replaces gaslight and electricity, crystal balls replace televisions and magical transport moves people about2. Artifice based settings are often 'high tech' in everything but weapons developement (if anything the reverse of real life) … possibly due to the fantasy gun control meme - which at least has the rule of cool benefit of having characters duelling with medieval swords on the roof of the magic train.
On a smaller scale an artificier is a magician in a fantasy setting who specialises in making magical items and may - if the setting is cheesey enough - run a magic shop.
Artifice may also refer to a specific school of magic that is used to make magic items - this is, of course, subject to the caveats given above.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Magic-as-technology can be kind of tempting, although it can take some of the 'magic' out of it if done badly.
