This is quite cool

Very curious about the political system (obviously) - are the city states federated at all? With isolated populations what do individual states offer to others? Are there differences in the way magic-laden water/ore is processed between areas? Any remnants of the civilization that set off the bombs to begin with?

How is waste magic processed? Is it recycled?

Are there like enclaves of learning (like monetary types) that save old knowledge and technology like in late antiquity Europe?

What is the transportation scenario like? For example are draft animals preferred to be uplifted so they can react to bandits more effectively, or are human handlers even used when teams of uplifted draft animals are used for transportation? I could see an uplifted taxi cab driver's union of folks driving rickshaws around in the cities

How has the plant life changed? At what level are things uplifted? Something something uplifted tardigrade and pond water cities like Osmosis Jones

The city states are largely isolated, and there aren't really any formal agreements between them. The regions outside their bubbles are too inhospitable for much trade / commerce or even people moving between them, so the main contact between them is via internet, lmao.
The Govt's that set off the bombs were entirely decimated. The city states that remain were actually smaller towns to start with, which is part of why they struggle with infrastructure and feeding themselves.

Magic-infused material is decontaminated using Arcanivores (creatures that eat magic) - largely grubbons, but also smaller species that I haven't designed yet haha. There's probably also slower (cheaper) methods like arcanivore bacteria / algae that is possible!
Most of the city states do things around the same way, with innovations being shared freely between them. Present-day there's so little left of the society that was that most of the world is happy to work together to rebuild.

waste magic is processed using grubbs / arcanivores. With grubbs specifically its turned into more stable products (their emissions: gas, fluid, goo) that can be integrated safely into magitech where Leyblood would be way too dangerous.

Oh there's absolutely several groups of "explorer" / "historian" type people who delve into ruins to recover artifacts from the old world. The Event is in living memory, so there's a big push to, now that things are a bit more stable, preserve what was lost for future generations.

bcus of how limited space is larger animals are kind of tough in the cities. I think maybe one or two of them have larger populations of them, and specialized housing on the outskirts. But the others kind of just tell 'em to leave cus there's no space for say, a bunch of horses running around- lmao.

Theoretically, plants could be uplifted. But there's not really a way to tell for sure, or anything you can DO with that information.
Critters with little mass have less to "work with" magically speaking, so they aren't changed mentally so much as physically.


tbh a lot of this is stuff I hadn't considered so I'm making it up as i go, ty for the prompt! :D

I'm so happy I got around to reading this, it's such a fascinating world. Other than size, are there certain kinds of animals that are more or less likely to be uplifted?

Thank you! glad you're enjoying it! ^^
Creatures that gestate their young inside them or keep their eggs underground/in water are more likely than say, critters that keep their eggs in trees. The different is fairly small, though. Other than that there are regional differences, based on where magic is concentrated, the eating habits of a pregnant mother, etc. You basically just need the developing life to absorb a certain amount of magic from the environment early in development. If that happens there's probably a 70% chance they'll be uplifted.