Magic-Tech Affinity: Why do some places have more magic and brick cellphones

Ah, examples from my MAP. But this time it's not about making the map but the information there in! After the the world got ruined and magic took over, most higher technology stopped working -- or more so, would break in seemingly impossible ways. What counts as "technology"? Well, the aether field, the field of energy that allows magic is made up of soul-stuff -- loose, unassigned spiritual energy, "directionless will". This allows the definition to be fuzzy and even vary a bit on region. Just like "demons" kinda exist because people believe in them, the definition of technology. A lot of folk lore places technology as the blame for the unexplained 'end of the world', and put it directly antithetical to magic but neither of these things are true. While Shiv and the Weiss desert served as bastioned of old world technologies in the absence of magic reinforced these notions, the growing co-existence of magic and technology in the Free Cities and to a lesser extent, southern Astoria kinda bring old theories into question. So what gives? So first off, while Magic probably does just naturally mess with really small electronics passively, the real technology hositility comes from the influence of Karric (The weird proto humans the Goddess made) souls had on the aether field. They're bitter about humanity ""shunning" Sciferia's gift for crude technology, so.... bam. As (almost) all of the Kar are dead, that influence has been fading and as more people get exposed to old world technology, the spiritual bias against technology fades. Over a course of centuries, eventually this entire effect will be (mostly?) gone. But right now, what influences both? h3. Why are some areas more magic or more technologically permissive than others?

Areas full of life, especially non human life tend to have extra high degrees of magic.
Cities and huge population centers tend to trend lower.
Humanity isn't anti magic, but the more people exist in an area, the more the aether field is filled with normal, human souls which aren't as easily influenced.
In most places, even in metropolis, there will always be some magic. Places like the Weiss, a region where the aether field was literally ripped away -- are an exception an not the rule.
An area becoming more technologically permissive comes from a want. The free cities started opening up first because of it's proximity to Shiv. People were more familiar with technology and that followed all the way through to Aistoria.
Some places it's the opposite. While magic is somewhat a regular thing in most of the world, real high end magic users are not. But in high magic regions like Danere, with a culture of magic use, anti technological sentiments can be maintained indefinitely.
Roads help propagate technology. As vehicles pass up and down roads or rails, their operators etch their will along the path, making future travel even more reliable.
This is allows roads and vehicles to extend farther into high magic regions than one would expect, even if they may stall out if driven even a little ways off road.
The air is relatively low magic, one of the things that makes air travel relatively reliable.
Ocean is weird. It's high magic as you go deeper, but the surface is kinda average. Tends to be forgiving for motorized boats, but there are scary ass megafuana in them seas.
Mountains are often high magic despite being low in life. This is because the ruins of many old world cities are buried underneath for... reasons. :-)
Deserts have weak magic. Though again, the Weiss is the exception not the rule. it being devoid of magic is more complicated.
Super high magic area can get real abstract. Not only does technology not work, laws of physics can just break down in general.
Space has no magic (... currently)! Shiv and [Unnamed Feng Nation] have launched satellites. Getting them up is hard but once they're their they work just like modern times.

But basically, tl;dr: isolated areas in the wilderness = High magic, unless it's a desert, which = low magic, and over time as populations grow, most things tend. exposure to technology + large populations = more technology, though this process can take anywhere from decades to centuries.

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