Er, well... given what you described there sounds a lot like any one much more mundane philisophical sci-fi series... which are not necessarily bad but not what seems to be the popular direction in this thread, um... That's why I see it.

There's no point in involving magic if you're not going to go all-out and actually let it be magic. Besides, didn't you say you wanted conflict? While philosophical stuff is interesting, sustaining an entire RP, especially one with so many different people planning it, solely on that would be difficult if not impossible.

Besides, who said magic was sudden? It could have been here the whole time. Certainly long enough to establish space colonies and a great deal of technology around it.

On top of that, explaining weaponry [i]is[/i] a good way to give an idea of the kind of magic/technology in-setting.