Magic, the raging debate

First off, Holy Crap, I know, I almost didn't post today which would have ended my dreams of a 20 in 20 streak. Thank goodness I got online finally! What a relief.

So what's today's big question you wonder? I had wondered about that too. I settled on a straightforward question that, to be honest, I still haven't answered to my satisfaction.

Does magic exist in this specific fictional universe? The hazy boundaries between science fiction and fantasy blurs even more in Steampunk style content, can magic be made to fit with the star ships and mecha suits of this world?

Right off the hop, I want to say yes, and I tend to go with my instincts. Still, I find it somewhat difficult to fit magic in. It can't fall into place along the lines of more "hard" fantasy, with Orders of Magic users who train in musty old towers and have some sort of alignment or colour code (Gandalf the Grey? The Red Robes of Lunitari, et cetera). At the same time I don't want to take the standard science fiction style easy out that is psychics, psykers, telepaths, et al. Those have always struck me as the simple answer to magic in science fiction, and while psychics might come into play in this game, I won't do so happily.

So where does my magic come from? That's a fine question. I'm settling on the idea of a nearly scientific magic. As if the magic itself is not treated as the arcane, but as the scientific. Imagine alchemy, if it had been given the chance to simply evolve with its part mystical part scientific system. The idea that with a dose of simple science and a dose of "mystical" hoodoo, one could make lead into gold.
This way, "magicians" don't really see themselves as such, but rather see themselves as paranormal "insert scientific field here" where the paranormal aspects may be overlaid onto many various fields. The obvious one's of course are botany, biology, toxicology, and other natural things. But go further with metallurgy and the various smithings (black, gun, etc) even physics. mystically enhanced ballistic trajectories never sounded so sweet.

But let me reinforce this: it would not be seen as magic, rather, as science. If we assume that the bones of a newborn calf possess some mystical aspects in hoodoo, and a wild eyed young chemist decided to use such things in a salve for gangrene, would such a chemist see it as magic or simple experimentation. The possible examples could go on and on, with chemical bathes for metals and alloys playing a part in smithing.

Magical delivery would be less "sim sim salabim" and a finger gesture, and more ballistics. More thrown bags of components that when released create great effect. The best real world, entirely non-fictional example I can muster at this hour is potassium. Mix potassium with water and you get a relatively violent reaction. To those not versed in science, this might be seen as magic (could be magic too lol) but to a scientist its science, even if it's a new discovery.

Basically, these craftsmen, aiming to use new chemical mixtures for combat, would be more akin to petards than to Gandalf the Grey. Delivery would be through grenade like items, and reaction would be based on atmosphere, or on seperate items mixing after barriers in the grenade shatter. A grenade exploding into a stoneskin causing mist is still pretty damned magical if you ask me.

Now, such "magics" might only exist on select planets. I suspect the elements of human space still versed in human history - and thus connected to the idea of the "falsity of magic" - might disregard such things, and even shun the idea of mixing traditionally mystical components with traditionally modern science. But on worlds like Talaesia, where such a connection vanished centuries ago, the stigma against such mixing would not necessarily exist.

I think its the best way I can happily use magic. We'll see if I change my opinion later. Comments encouraged, desired, and welcome.