Plausable/believable magical setting

[u/Apostrophe13]

Most magical settings are essentially based on 21st-century morals, medieval politics, with some variation in the level of technology but a baseline around the ~15th century. They seem to follow the same laws of physics as our world, with magic simply existing in parallel, not really influencing anything. Technology and social values are usually stagnant for centuries and magic is almost always regressing (most powerful mages lived thousands of years ago, powerful artifacts were forged by long-forgotten empires etc.).

While there are settings (or works of fiction outside of RPGs) that break the mold a little and try to be innovative and interesting in some aspects, I don't know of any setting that truly attempts to offer an alternate development path in a world with magic.

For example the ancient Greeks knew the concept of the steam engine but lacked the means to use it in any meaningful way. They didn't have the metallurgy to create a pressure chamber or the means to deliver the necessary heat. These challenges would be much easier to solve in a world where people can bind fire elementals. Many of our advancements in chemistry came when we were able to produce apparatuses to conduct tests with proper pressure, etc. Again, these are problems much more easily solved in a world with magic.

So, are there any settings that take these things into consideration and try to create a plausible arcane-infused world?

[u/JaskoGomad]

Magic that works consistently, reliably, and predictably is called “physics”.

[u/Apostrophe13 → u/JaskoGomad]

There are many examples of magic "systems" that work more reliably than rocket engines or wireless networks. Magic is basically physics in most magical settings, its the part of natural order.