How to make the MAC Cannon from Halo Reach in my fantasy world
A MAC Cannon, otherwise known as a Magnetic Acceleration Cannon, is a large scale weapon which operates through accelerating an extremely dense mix of Tungsten and Iron through a set of powerful magnets in sequence. Each individual magnet pulls the projectile more and more, resulting in an incredibly powerful and precise projectile.
With this in mind, the first thing to establish is the actual method by which the projectile is thrown, before getting to more technical aspects, ie. aiming, rotation, energy sinks, etc.
To do so, lets begin with linguistics, specifically the emergence of prominent magical sign language.
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Part 1 - Propulsion
Magic in my worldbuilding is the result of systems of remembering and ordering thoughts about Energy use becoming embedded in the collective spirit of humanity in the upper atmosphere, which can be tapped into through the same language as was used to talk about this.
Oftentimes this results in a archaic "magical language" which has use in casting spells, along with the current vernacular language. The main area where the MAC Cannon will be set is in an area called the Thunder Forest. The constant lightning in the area results in a larger than average amount of deafness in the population, and thus a much higher prevalence of sign languages. This is notably replicated in their magical language, which while originally verbal, gradually becomes related to hand shapes.
Next important facet is the properties of bones, most magic related to humans is related to the shape of the bones in the body, including the hand signs of the people in the Thunder Forest. The primary Energetic property of bones is becoming arbitrarily hard whenever they are saturated with Energy. This makes them well suited for an environment
As such, the propulsion for the MAC Cannon will be provided by a set of twenty or so human skeletons, arranged so that their hands facing out of the barrel are signing "push", while the hands facing towards the base of the gun are signing "pull". The combination of these two abilities results in an enormous amount of acceleration.
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Part 2 - Energy Supply
The propulsion provided by the skeleton statues is dependent on a huge amount of Energy being pumped through them, which is generally going to be provided through Glass lenses and Lead Water Filters, however each of these methods are fragile and not suited to the incredible forces at play in the MAC Cannon.
Before we get to this, lets talk about the fundamental magical material in my world, Energy. Fundamentally, Energy is a substance which can either calculate, form a field, or create an effect. For example, the Sun in my world is a huge collection of energy which is constantly calculating and expanding the field of Spacetime. A planet is the object which determines most of physics within the relatively solid confines of Spacetime. As such, the planet also determines the properties of materials, including water, air, fire, etc.
Energy can be stored on human time scales in a variety of materials, but in particular, Water and Gems store it efficiently, although the relative size of bodies of water means that it is much more effective as a storage medium than gems in this case. The main difficulty for storing Energy in water is getting it out of water, obtained mostly through pearl-likes, a classification of biogenic materials which animals use to filter energy out of water, or through Lead forcing, where metals inherent Energy repulsing properties cause it to be forced out of the way.
With this in mind, the most effective way to construct a MAC Cannons batteries is to build a set of metal cisterns near or at the base of the Cannon, and then using Lead forcing to separate the Energy, before sending them up through Fiber Optic Cables to the locations of each of the bone statues, where they harden and activate by flowing over them in a pillar of colored light, in this case mostly blue due to its presence in water a couple of seconds ago.
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Part 3 - Safety
Although strong, both the barrel and the bone statues are relatively weak when compared to the exceptional power of the Cannon, as such, Energy limiters are very much required. In this case, they take advantage of one of the worlds physics systems, namely the Subject Object Medium divide and the unique properties of each.
Roughly speaking, a Subject is a thing which acts, while a Object is a coherent thing which does not, and a Medium is a field of something through which a Subject or Object acts.
All three categories are related primarily to the way humans see things at this point, as such, a building is a Object because a human view of it is filtered to the planets understanding, allowing it to act as an object.
Subject - People, Animals in general, Plate Tectonics in terms of Geologic time scales, a City by some definitions.
Object - Chair, Island, Sword, Building.
Medium - Book, Water, Atmosphere, Large amounts of Rock often act as Mediums.
For our purposes, the most important of these is the Medium, which is unique in that it can remain as a single object despite being physically divided. This is used in Water Discharge methods, where a container of water is extracted from a large container of water and placed along the flow of Energy. The Medium link between the two containers of water allows for excess energy to be shed back into the container, effectively limiting the amount of Energy routed into the Cannon.
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Part 4 - Ammunition
The main important categories which are needed in Ammunition in a MAC Cannon are High Mass and High reception to the force pulling the material. In this case most metals are off limit due to their repulsion of Energy, with the exception of Copper, which incorporates Energy into itself by allowing it to flow into it, essentially acting as wiring. Due to this, large slugs of Copper forged into bullets are the most effective ammunition for the Cannon.
In particular, scouring disrupting patterns into the surface of the projectile increases the grip of the projectile by forming a layer of energy on the outer edge of the projectile, which forms a good substrate for Energy to grip onto.
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Part 5 - Targets
As a final aspect of the function of the Cannon, a reason for its construction is required. This function is fulfilled by the presence of a powerful Dragon nearby.
Dragons in my setting are souls in between a Humans and a Planet, as such, they work within the systems provided by the planet, without the connection to a body required by humans. Most dragons are amorphous collections of Energy which form physical bodies for specific purposes, for example excavation and mining would be handled by an enormous, almost drill like serpent which refines metals within its body.
Near the Thunder Forest is an area of an especially powerful dragon which is especially territorial, not only forming mining bodies but also war forms, ranging from human sized weapon wielding lizards to enormous, skyscraper sized wyverns.
In order to effectively defend themselves from the latter, the people of the Thunder Forest maintain and supply a set of these Guns in order to take out the larger bodies, while smaller groups are hunted by groups of heroes.
