Faith-based Magic: Why Multiplayer Makes You Stronger

Let’s say you grow up in a society where the proven method for lighting fire is to strike two stones together. It sparks. The dry straw catches. Nice. This has been going on for millennia.

In another society, they light fire by focusing on one point, manipulating atoms so they become flammable, rubbing them together fucking fast, and bam. Fire in the air.

Now, if you tell the first person to do what the second does, he will laugh his ass off. He will never be capable of it, because all his life he has been told that it is impossible, because no one in the world does that.

BUT — if we put this person together with someone who creates fire using the second method, then after a while he will believe it is possible, because he sees it. And if he sees that everyone does this, after a while it becomes natural.

The Entire False Heaven Society is Built on This Principle.

For them, it is natural to manipulate plant growth. To create whirlwinds. To carve houses into cliff faces with a single touch.

For everyone else, it is sorcery.

And here is the greatest weakness: if they leave the community that built the magic based on their faith, they are on their own and surrounded by skeptics. They might keep their abilities. They will not learn new ones. From whom could they? Who would support them?

In the game, this becomes our co-op engine.

When you start, you can join groups that practice magic. Your ability develops when you cast. It also develops a little when you see others casting. Faith. Practice.

That is why it will be worth it for players to play with multiple people. More people, faster progress.

Leave your group and your magic stagnates. Stay isolated and you’ll never learn the big spells.

This is not a “group bonus.” This is a world rule. Magic is belief. Belief is community. Community is other players.

Co-op isn’t optional in Whirlpool. It’s metaphysical.

— The Forge