Post-apocalyptic magic

[clare_dragonfly]

I have a post-apocalyptic world. (The apocalypse in question is a ten-year world war that used physical, chemical/biological, and nuclear weapons.) The world is mostly based on our own, though as it's post-apocalyptic, technology, communications, etc. are broken down and much less common than they used to be. However, now they have magic.

I've worked out that magic is a genetic trait; a long time ago, people with magic existed but were rare. Then they stopped being able to use magic. Now that the war has destroyed whatever infrastructure element kept the magic hidden and dormant, magic users--who are more resilient against modern weaponry and therefore have survived in greater numbers than they previously had--are able to use magic and out in the open again.

My problem is the infrastructure element. The original suggestion I had was cell phone towers/lines, but I think that's too recent. If magic existed up until the time cell phones were invented, the world wouldn't be all that much like ours. I want something that changed longer ago.

Other suggestions I've had are the steam engine and the printing press. The first doesn't seem insidious enough (and now that I think about it, steam engines haven't been widely used for a long time, have they?), and while the second is kind of awesome and I've worked it subtly into a short little story, it seems too nebulous. I guess it's hard to explain. I also thought of using plumbing, and having magic unable to cross running water, but I've been able to find frustratingly little on the history of plumbing, so I don't know how well it would work.

Any suggestions? Reasons one of the other things would work better than I thought? Throw 'em at me!

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

I find the idea of some sort of machine non-purposely blocking magic to be kinda silly, honestly. If it was something like 'the extra pollution in the air from industry makes it more difficult for magical energy to flourish' or 'with scientific advances people were less likely to believe they had magic' or 'there's a set amount of magic and the higher the world's population the less there is for everyone until Highlander effect kicks in' or even 'fluoride was added to water to dampen magic' I could buy, but 'the printing press was invented and magically got rid of magic' would take a lot to be believable.

[clare_dragonfly]

Yeah, that's kind of why I said the printing press is too nebulous--there's nothing physical (like phone lines or running water) to prevent magic. Or, like you said, extra pollution in the air, which would work perfectly well. I think I'm leaning more and more toward the use of fossil fuels...

I don't know about "purposely" though. You're saying that it would be more believable to you if, for example, people started to use fossil fuels precisely because they thought it would make magic more difficult?