>>7759531 (OP)
A fantasy anthology where the stories can be read in any order, in the same way you can play the Final Fantasy games. The main theses I have is that the notion of progress under technology doesn't exist and that technology only illuminates problems that have plagued civilization from the start and can even exacerbate them. Because of the fear of getting "left behind", technology is an important auxiliary element to cultural control. Also, that magic is defined by gaps in human knowledge. If you told a guy from 500 years ago that he would be able to watch and listen to someone halfway around the world, live, on a device that could fit into his pocket, he'd call it magic (or more likely witchcraft). There's a certain threshold in which technology becomes so advanced that it seems indistinguishable from magic. And there's a lot that we still don't know. So for now, the universe may as well be considered magical.
Granted, I don't want heavy-handed philosophical stuff to weigh the stories down. This would all be subtext for people to pick up on. If they do, great. If not, I hope they were at least entertained by the story, the setpieces, and most importantly the characters. I have multiple stories in my mind that focus on how one character goes through a world or region that suddenly experiences a technological shift.
For example, what happens when someone finds magically-infused natural resources that allow for the creation of a flying battleship, as opposed to ships of the line? How will the threat of danger from above reignite historical tension between kingdoms? Or when a continent collaborates on technology for literal weather control and giant cloudscapes you can walk on, but then has to deal with the headache of scheduling weather events as well as the distrust that leads to weaponizing it? Or two schlubs who rely on an evil prince to survive and help him get stronger, but debate when to kill him before it's too late to stop his evil scheme?
