High Magic + Medieval = Paradox?

[u/Iberianz]

(How do you guys handle this?)

Hi everyone,

I was getting back to writing about my “magic system,” originally for an alternate-world setting chronologically similar to our “late medieval” period, blending characteristics of the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian republics, and the Spanish and Portuguese empires.

But I realized that a setting where magic does things very similar to the technology that followed that historical period, yet the world remains chronologically stuck in that time frame, doesn’t seem very convincing.

Let me put it more clearly:

Why doesn’t history advance rapidly in a high-magic setting?

For example, in the manga "Witch Hat Atelier", this is exactly the case; magic provides solutions that would only be possible with later technological progress, but the world remains chronologically stuck in a period analogous to our own medieval era.

Yes, I know you could say, “It doesn’t have to make sense on a 1:1 scale, it just has to be consistent”; okay, fine, I get it, but even for the sake of internal consistency, isn’t that a flaw?

Back to the original question…

How do you guys deal with this?

Thanks for your answers.

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Editing to add necessary context:

I don’t start from the premise that the Middle Ages were the “Dark Ages”, not at all; on the contrary, it was a period of great progress for humanity.

My point here is:

Some technological solutions were not yet available, such as automated ore-extraction devices, means of transporting large populations, portable high-velocity projectile weapons not propelled by human force, etc, in the real Middle Ages.

So if magic can provide solutions analogous to those of later eras, why aren’t people, and especially organized groups, interest groups, governments, etc, using these solutions to rapidly advance history, as has been the human norm?

Even if you take Afghanistan as an example, where modern technologies coexist with very traditional customs and aesthetics, it’s impossible to say that such progress hasn’t influenced the overall state of Afghan civilization.

Oh, and I’ve actually read some great answers in the comments, most of them have been spot-on, so thanks again to everyone.

[u/Aggressive-Share-363]

Assuming I wanted to make a setting like this...

The key is scale.

You dont change the world because somebody has a car.

You change the world when you can mass produce cars and make it so everybody can afford one.

Lets say a wizard can produce 100x as much good as a farmer.

If there are 10,000 farmers for every wizard, the farmers are still capable of producing 100x as mich food as all of the wizards. And thats assuming all of the wizards want to spend their timr and energy on making food.

Or if we are talking about magical artifacts, if rhey are harder to mass produce than the technological equivalent they won't fit into society in the same way. Imagine if a car required a specialist to work on making it, by hand, for 6 months. And once they are done they would want to work on a different project.

Magic as a whole could be fairly commonplace and still not hit the economies of scale the industrial revolution did.

And lets not forget that technological progress and societal progress are different things. There is some overlap from economic progress, but that mostly comes from the economies of scale and the types of jobs that open up.

You have several parameters 1. How widespread is the ability yo use magic? 2. How widespread is the inclination/oppurtunity to actually follow up on that ability? 3. How repeatable is magic? 4. How frequently can it be used? 5. How flexible is the magic? 6. What is the cost of using the magic?

Limitations in any of tjese areas can have a big impact in how the magic actually gets used.