Educated people (that is mostly clergy and a few enlightened noblemen in the middle ages) have known very well that earth was a sphere (approximately) ever since ca. 300 BC when Eratosthenes computed (with a clever approach using triangles and different angles under which sunlight hits the ground in different towns at the same time) the circumference of it (almost exactly). Often the story of Columbus is present as if he thought earth was round unlike others…but the real argument was about its size. He thought it was smaller and others correctly pointed out its real size. He was very lucky that Americas exist, otherwise with his amount of supplies he would have never reached India as he planned and would have died somewhere in the Atlantic/Pacific (they would be one ocean). But most villagers and generally less educated people probably believed that earth was flat.
Flat because of evil witches who don’t like spherical objects!
Perhaps is worth noticing that even Newton practiced magic
No, just no. It is a common misconception that everyone in the Middle Ages believed in magic or magic-like events. This could not be further from the truth. Sure, they may have believed in divine miracles to a certain extent, but those have divine origins therefore no man or woman truly possessed the power of “magic” it is simply God acting through human hands. If this was present in the game it would completely ruin the entire point of having a non-fantasy RPG. Sure, the NPCs can talk about it if they’d like, but there is absolutely no “subtlety” - as you call it - to summoning weather events…This is a game striving for REALISM
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No, they didn’t.
People at that time knew the earth was round that it wasn’t the center of the universe.
That’s a fact. Deal with it.
What the ancient greeks thought about the shape of the earth doesn’t have much to do with what people of the late medieval period thought.
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It depends on the type of “magic” in my opinion:
Fireball and so on…? Please no.
Superstition and tricks? It could be, not all the people has to fall for it but it could be.
Alchemy? Now we call it science and chemistry but at that time it could be perceived as magic
Herbalist? Aren’t the infusions and brews more or less potions?
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Except the bible teaches about necromancy so the educated people would believe in magic at least. Aside from necromancy the bible also refers to people having powers, like the ability to predict the future or having incredible strength, as being possessed by a demon. So that would include people believing in demonic possession. Stemming from that people started believing that practitioners of magic were Satan worshipers or using the powers of Satan. Therefore if the community we are playing in is highly religious it would not be uncommon for people to believe in magic/witchcraft. Also if it’s highly religious you can expect a few gay priest.
NO MAGIC. Okay, now that I got that out of the way, I think that the game should strive for REALISM for the era, and that could afford some small references to witches and superstitions. Now, I personally think people in the modern world have been brainwashed into imagining that everyone in the era as backwards and brutish. This is pretty unfair, although there were episodes of “burning witches,” religious inquisitions, and the like, overall through the history of Europe it is highly exaggerated and is often used to wholly tarnish the image of decent people doing the best they could.
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She’s a witch burn her!
What in that article led you to believe Newton practiced or even claimed to practice magic??? No magic in this game. Period. I’m not saying the people can’t be superstitious or believe in demons or whatever in fact they should but there shouldn’t be any super natural abilities or potions.
Please, no massive witch-hunts.
Witch-hunts were a major issue in the 16th century but not at this time.
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Yes, please, no magic. Its been horribly, horribly overdone to the point of being cliched and most of what gets shown (and, for that matter, what most people think they know about medieval beliefs regarding witchcraft and sorcery) is pure hogwash. I’d much rather the game takes the opportunity to give a fair depiction of the era rather than rehash popular misconceptions.
Middle-ages were pretty much rationalistic. Even pope wrote books on logic. Magic, alchemy and such a things were matter of Renaissance. Magic is both unreal and ahistorical in Kingdom Come. Magic was practiced during mass.
One can argue that the Hebrew Qabbalah and later John Dee’s system of Enochian Magic were kinda practiced in the middle-ages. Albeit in the later periods bordering onto renaissance. Relics were of course of the sort of magic that didn’t get ya burned at the stake.
I could imagine all those systems had their share of amulets and protective items, however, they were more of the good-luck-bringing type and not of the tangible D&D type of magic. So IF they were implemented in the game, they could bring you better dice rolls, but never sway events in one way or the other drastically.
So, what’s the point. I’d say no to magic, but maybe show the NPCs as suspersitious as they were back then.