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I am planning on running a homebrew campaign, whose ultimate premise is that a villain is attempting to garner enough power to be able to eliminate all magic from existence.

I am planning on setting this in the Forgotten Realms, but to avoid any confusion, I am excluding any of the other settings/realms from the equation (Grayhawk, Eberron, etc) to spare myself the headache of how a change of such scale would affect other realms.

I am aware that a lot will have to be done for someone to be able to achieve such a goal, but that's a question for another day.

So, mainly, what happens with the entire removal/deletion of magic from the Forgotten Realms entail? Would Elves disappear, owing to their magical nature? What about dragons, and other magical creatures as well, such as the fey? Would the planes "collapse"? Would they cease to exist? Would only the Material Plane remain?

I know that I can simply change things up a bit in my homebrew to accommodate my vision, but I would prefer to first go off a bit of established lore.

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    \$\begingroup\$ When you say "entire magic" what exactly do you think that entails? \$\endgroup\$
    – Akixkisu
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 9:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ Does this include divine magic? Do you want to know how society reacts? \$\endgroup\$
    – Trish
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 9:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ This is largely going to be opinion-based, depending on how you interpret "magic". For a strict rules-based idea, you could go with media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf#page=17 (the question on whether Dragon's Breath is magical). Or you could go with "anything that breaks real-world physics" (which would be far more cataclysmic for many races and species). It would really be up to you. \$\endgroup\$
    – PJRZ
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 10:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ In my opinion, we can answer this, but at the current time the question doesn't convey what "entire magic" means to the querent, so our answers might not address what interests them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Akixkisu
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 10:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ "Entire magic" would be anything that has any magical qualities to it. Spells, magical effects, creatures, places, etc. Admittedly, I did not think to go as far as divine deities, but in hindsight, I would probably also treat them as magic, since they're technically a source of magic (for clerics, for instance). So, in a sense, maybe the removal of magic would also remove the deities, so the world kinda ends up left as being just the world and it's physical qualities. I apologize if I am unclear; English is not my first language. But I'd be happy to provide as many details as I can. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mahoufo
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 12:01

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If by the removal of magic, you mean the Weave (arcane magic), it's already happened in the past, in the Spellplague, and caused the following effects.

Spells obviously will fail.

When a similar event occurred in the past, the many spells failed (Undead, p. 69) or produced unreliable results (Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, p. 50).

Charged magical items will stop working

Most permanent magic items, such as artifacts, will be left intact, but charged magical items will be either destroyed, warped, or simply cease to function. Items with dormant magical qualities, which were manually activated, will be largely unaffected.

Places hidden by magic will be revealed

About your specific questions

Would elves disappear? No, because their existence does not depend on magic, but many of them will be driven mad. Magic creatures? They will exist as normal, but can't use spells obviously. Would the planes "collapse"? No, the planes aren't sustained by magic, but such an event can change their structure. In the Spellplague, the Outer Planes merged or split apart, generating the Astral Dominions.

I really recommend you to read about the Spellplague, there are a lot of changes that can be written in one answer.

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    \$\begingroup\$ “Places hid by magic will be revealed” is this section missing something? \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 10:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you, I'll be reading about the spellplague! \$\endgroup\$
    – Mahoufo
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 12:03

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