The Magic Goes Away - Definition and Overview

The Warlock's Era (The Magic Goes Away)

The fictional setting of Larry Niven's logical (as apposed to high) fantasy series. Treating magic as a non-renewable resource and set 12 000 years BC, the stories detail how magic was replaced by engineering. In the series, mana is the source of magic. The stories also serve as an allegory for the energy crisis.

The Warlock discovered that mana was a non-renewable resource and was slowly being depleted by the use of magic over time. He developed a magical device consisting of a copper disk with an open-ended enchantment that caused it to spin at an ever-increasing rate, with a secondary enchantment holding it together against centrifugal force. This pointless but high-powered usage of magic would rapidly use up the mana in the local area, causing the disk to explode when its structural enchantment failed and leaving a permanent magic-dead zone.

It was eventually discovered that mana was originally carried to Earth and the other bodies of the solar system on the solar wind, replenishing mana slowly over time. However, at some point in the "recent" past a god created an invisible shield between Earth and Sun that intercepted the solar mana and caused the eventual decline of magic on Earth.

Main Characters

• The Warlock - One of the world's foremost magicians. He devised a simple experiment to explain why a magician's power would fade over time, a device called the Warlock's Wheel.
• Clubfoot - The Warlock's apprentice. A Native American named after a deformity of his foot that he could have cured long ago but it would have cost him half his power.
• Wavyhill - The first Necromancer. Exploiting the mana inherent in murder, he invented necromancy.

Other characters

• Orolandes - A Greek soldier, survivor of the sinking of Atlantis.
• Mirandee - A powerful witch, former Warlock's lover.
• Aran - A werewolf who assisted the Warlock in defeating the necromancer Wavyhill.

The Golden Road

Also set in the same universe as The Magic Goes Away is the Golden Road series, co-authored with long-time Niven friend and collaborator, Jerry Pournelle. Set some 60 years after The Magic Goes Away the series begins with The Burning City which takes place on the future site of Los Angeles.

Whandall Placehold is a resident of Tepp's Town, a town that every few years is gripped in a madness that causes the inhabitants burn much of the city to the ground under the influence of the fire god Yangin Atep, one of the few remaining gods.

His daughter Burning Tower is the main character of the second book, set in Meso-America.

The planned title of the third book is Burning Mountain.

Magical Creatures

Some creatures' metabolisms are based on heat, like humans. Others, like dragons, are based on magic. Some use a combination of the two. Many of the explanations given are firmly tongue-in-cheek.

• Goo - Named after a child's first word, amorphous blobs, these were the first creations of the gods. Once fearsome predators, they grew to be as large as a house, but as magic dwindles so too have they. Eventually they become so small that they are invisible to the naked eye.
• Dragons - Intelligent allies, when magic fades they die and their bones turn to stone (to be mistaken for fossil dinosaurs in modern times).
• Unicorns - In absence of magic, their horns shrink to almost nothing and they become ponies.
• Pegasus - A winged equidae. In mana-poor regions they resemble donkeys with vestigial wings.
• Rocs - Fearsome raptors. In Australia in absence of mana they have become neotenous, turning into modern-day ostriches.
• Werewolves, Werebears, Werewhales, Mermaids, etc. - Animals that use magic to adopt human form. Without magic they return to their original state. Werewolves become wolves, Mermaids become dolphins, etc.
• Centaurs - Half-human, half-horse, they perish in mana-poor regions.
• Trolls - Hairy humanoids, thought to be extinct.
• Zombies - Corpses animated through necromancy.
• Frost Giants - A race of 18 foot tall men, guardians of the god Roze-Kattee.
• Afrit - They survive in magic jars waiting for someone to release them. They grant 3 wishes, but their favorite sport is trying to trick humans into making bad wishes.
• Mammoth - Use magic to create an optical illusion which causes them to appear much larger than they actually are.

Gods

Most of the gods have gone mythical. But in the far corners of the world some cling to life, just barely.

• Roze Kattee - The God Of Love And Madness. Its power lies in the taking away of love or madness. Enemy Berzerkers are suddenly rendered sane, those who do not worship Roze Kattee never find mates, etc.
• The World Worm - Its spine composes all the world's mountain chains, the Andes, Himilayas, Rockies, etc. It consumes its own tail, along with anything that might be living on it.
• Yangin-Atep - A fire god.
• Coyote, Loki, etc. - A trickster god for many cultures.
• Zoosh - Once a powerful patriarch.