Bonewits is an Apt Name Or, A (Incomplete) Theory of Magic

[mythusmage]

I've been re-reading Isaac Bonewits' Authentic Thaumaturgy. His 'guide' to incorporating real world magick into fantasy RPGs. Two things struck me while reading the section on his theory of magick and the laws of magick. First, he is so mundane it makes my vril hurt. Second, his theory and laws of magick are a senseless mishmosh of wishful and fuzzy thinking. So his name is more appropriate than it first appears.

Let me put it this way, if you must hold to an 'alternate' world view, try having one that's entertaining.

The second thing was, I could do a better job of coming up with a theory of magick. And it uses science better than Bonewits' did. In brief (or as brief as I get when I'm inspired)...

(Nota Bene: This has about as much to do with the real world as the idea that one can reason with a toddler.)

Mythusmage's Theory of Magick

Magick is the manipulation of space time by use of a non-physical ability.

Set Up:

1. The universe is a solid ball of space-time. Everything within the universe is embedded within that ball.

2. Space-time comes in two forms, flat and twisted.

A. Space-time can neither be created or destroyed, only changed from one form into the other.

3 All matter and energy consists of twisted space-time.

A A unit of twisted space-time (called a "twist") takes up a smaller volume than flat space time. (An extremely tiny fraction, but don't ask me to establish the respective volumes, for I haven't the foggiest.)

B. Twists braid together to form what are known as "strings".

C. Strings become "braided" into what are known as, "quarks".

a. Certain quarks have a higher 'concentration' of strings than others. Such quarks exhibit an emergent property known as 'mass'. All other quarks, when joined in trios to form hadrons, exhibit mass.

D Quarks are either found alone (leptons) or in trios (hadrons)

E. Leptons are always found alone. Hadrons are either found alone, or grouped together with other hadrons to form atoms.

F. There are lone twists and strings. As noted above, lone quarks are known as leptons.

4 Since the whole of the universe is a single ball of space-time, everything is 'connected' to everything else.

A. Thus whatever happens to a twist someplace in the universe could, potentially, effect a twist billions of light-years away.

B. Whatever effects a twist in one part of the universe tends to be dampened out as the effect travels through space-time.

a. An unfocused effect gets dampened out faster than a focused effect.

5. Mass is an emergent property that occurs when there is a sufficent concentration of twists in a certain volume.

6. There are three forms of energy. These are, the electro-magnetic, the strong nuclear, and the weak nuclear.

A. Gravity is a property of space-time, it is not a form of energy. Mass (see above) effects space time by curving it.

a. Everything (twists, strings, leptons, hadrons, etc.) follow this curvature. In a sense, 'falling' towards the massive object. (Massive in this case meaning any item with mass.) This holds true even for more massive objects vis a vis less massive objects. Thus the Earth (for example) is falling towards the Moon at the same time the Moon is falling towards the Earth. Since space-time is less curved around the Moon than it is around the Earth, the Earth 'falls' slower than the Moon does, and so the center of gravity for the Earth-Moon system lies under the Earth's surface.

b. The closer to an object with mass, the 'steeper' the curvature. The further away, the 'shallower' the curvature. It is the curvature that affects an object, not some mythical 'graviton'. Thus an item being affected by a distance object's gravity is being influenced by local conditions, not a force with a distant origin. Ergo, no violation of the ultimate speed limit.

(end mental meanderings)

That's about as much as I've come up with at this moment. Yes, it is more theory of gravity than theory of magick, but for the universe I'm postulating here, it does play a role. There's more I need to come up with, some fleshing out to do of the above, and so on and so forth. Any ideas you have are more than welcome. But, they should be at least pseudo-plausible as science. Suggestions on how to organize this beast better, expand on and/or 'correct' what I've already presented, and/or just what that space-time manipulating ability actually consists of would be great.

Off to do some cognitations now. Hope I was somewhat successful in convincing you that even dumb writing can lead to fruitful results when they inspire you to do better than the original author.

 

[seasong]

The primary problem I had with Authentic Thaumaturgy (or rather it's 2nd edition, since I never saw the first) was that the energy conversions showed no rhyme or reason, and specifically, did not seem to be tied to the energy one might actually use to accomplish something.

The theories were reasonably decent from a traditionalist standpoint (rather than a scientific standpoint). The problem was that he tried to throw equations into the mix - and bad ones, at that.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Well, that certinly beats my "magic comes from the magic fairy" thorem.





-BG

PS Seriously, nice post.

 

[Umbran]

D Quarks are either found alone (leptons) or in trios (hadrons)

Sorry, but that's not complete. There are "Mesons", consisting of a quark-antiquark pair.

 

[jgbrowning]

Well, that certinly beats my "magic comes from the magic fairy" thorem.





-BG

PS Seriously, nice post.

Magic TROLL! How many times do i have to say it..... Not a fairy, but a troll.

joe b.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, I will be honest, I don't particularly like subject titles that assume that you agree with the poster.I realize that it was not (quite) intended as a troll, but the title and subtitle led me to believe it was one. Insulting both the author and his name was unnecessary.

As it happens, I rather liked Authentic Thaumaturgy as a concept while finding it to be a completely unplayable system. Taking several hours to cast a spell was just a tad longer than I would have liked.

But then I do not believe in magic. I consider roleplaying games to be 'Advanced Let's Pretend', allowing us to create rules to prevent 'Bang Your dead!', 'No, you missed arguments. Just in case your wondering I do not consider that an insult to RPGs, I like and I play RPGs and have for almost 30 years now.

Magic system-wise I like Ars Magica, with its Forms and Techniques. I also like games that assume that all magic comes from the gods, like Runequest. And, finally, I like the sense of wonder displayed in Changeling, and (in a very different way) Call of Cthulhu.

I would not have posted this had you not asked my opinion of the post, and I thank you for asking.

The Auld Grump, yep, that's me!

 

[mythusmage]

Re: Re: Bonewits is an Apt Name Or, A (Incomplete) Theory of Magic

Sorry, but that's not complete. There are "Mesons", consisting of a quark-antiquark pair.

Do they 'congregate' much as Hadrons do? If so would the loners be known as Freemesons?

Seriously, I'll have to amend the original then.

In any case, I now present a continuation of the original post.

Mythusmage's Theory of Magic Continued

Now that we've got the foundation of our imaginary universe established we can consider the nature of Twists.

There are two schools of thought about Twists. One says that Twists, and everything made up of Twists are real things. That Twits et al move through a fluid space-time. The new school says that a Twists is not a thing, but a property of space-time. That it is not a thing that moves through space-time, but the property.

Think of a Twist as being like an ocean wave. It's not the water that moves, but the energy that makes up the wave. With a Twist it is the property that move through space-time, space-time itself does not move. In a sense, the Twist is not so much moving but being constantly destroyed and recreated as the Twist property propagates through space-time. So when you move your finger, the finger isn't really moving. Rather, all the Twists that make up that finger are propogating through space-time, under your direction. (My Emphasis.)

Under this theory (which Mythusmage holds to. [Alan]) (Why not? It answers more than the elder. [Mythusmage]) there is no such thing as mass. Rather, the Twists themselves answer for gravity. As each bit of space-time gets Twisted it pulls on and so bends other bits of space-time. The more Twists there are in a volume of space-time, the greater the bending. Until, at a certain level of density the bending reaches beyond the eight 'hidden' dimensions into the traditional three spatial dimensions and space-time as we know it becomes curved.

Under the "There Aint no Such Thing as Twists as People Think of Twists" Theory dark matter ceases to be matter at all. Rather , dark matter consists of Twists that do not twine or braid, but stay singular. But, they do 'congregate' in dense enough collections to 'cause' gravity. Thus they are not affected by energy (which can only interact with matter) but still curve space-time enough for it to influence matter and energy.

With all that out of the way we can now proceed to magic.

We start by considering the emergent property of Twisted space-time known as 'spirit' or 'soul'. (Technically speaking, a spirit is a non-sentient soul, while a soul is a sentient spirit.) (I'm not touching that one [Alan].) Spirit arises when the Twists in a certain volume of space-time reaches a certain level of complexity. Most often this occurs in a physical body. Furthermore, one that exhibits neurological activity. The more complex the neurological activity, the stronger the spirit. When the spirit becomes strong enough it becomes self-aware (that is, sentient) and becomes known as a soul. But, it is possible for even a sufficiently complex collection of singleton Twists to express a spirit, and for some of these spirits to become souls. But such tend to be larger in volume than spirits and souls that arise from matter.

(There is a new school of thought that says that spirit results when space-time is bent by Twists enough to become 'entangled'. This arose from the old theory, but it soon became obvious that it does not fit with the old way of thought. So far there is no apparent connection with the new theory concerning Twists, but there are possibilities. My thought is that the 'entanglement' occurs not just when enough Twists concentrate in a certain volume, but with every Twist. This means that at the Twist scale everything has a spirit. When an Entanglement grows beyond the scale of the eight hidden dimensions and enters the realm of the spatial dimensions it becomes Spirit as we know it. But since Entanglement is on a smaller, well, scale than Curvature the concentration of Twists necessary to express it must be greater than that necessary to express Curvature. Thus both gravity and spirit are emergent properties of Twists, and though Twists of space-time itself. As you can see, there is really nothing to this universe. (I will let that speak for itself [Alan].))

So, in a sense, everything you do is magic. Think, sneeze, swing an axe, all are acts of magic. Magic in the traditional sense consists of doing it without mundane (that is, physical) tools. According to the new theories (summarized above) magic is space-time in the form of Spirit manipulating space-time. And this through yet another emergent property that arises from Spirit known as "Ensnarement". It is this Ensnarment that allows one to influence space-time at a remove with no physical connection.

To re-cap: Space-time on occasion becomes 'concentrated' in a volume densely enough to become 'twisted'. These Twists bend space-time nearby, that close enough that it becomes 'entangled'. When there is a sufficient concentration of Twists in a volume that this Entanglement becomes large enough to be expressed in the spatial dimensions it becomes known as a spirit. When a spirit is sufficently 'advanced' (large) it 'bends' space-time in a different manner than Twists do. When this 'bending' becomes complex enough it becomes an Ensnarement.

That's the difference between an Entanglement, and an Ensnarement. The first is a matter of size, the second a matter of complexity. All spirits produce some level of pre-Ensnarement 'bending' of space-time, but only a sufficiently advanced spirit can produce a 'bending' of space-time complex enough to be called Ensnarement.

(And the connection just shut down, so it's time for me to close this. In the next part we'll take a look at how Spirit and Ensnarement allow for magic.)

Mythusmage

 

[JPL]

I haven't actually read this book, but after reading several reviews, it's my impression that Issac Bonewits is a silly person.

For one thing, he has adopted the name "Issac Bonewits."

For another, he has a degree in Magick.

I figure he's about thirty-four and works at Barnes and Noble and none of the other employees can stand him.

There is something to be said for keeping fantasy roleplaying and your religious beliefs separate...

[edit] http://www.neopagan.net/

Yeah. This is a silly person.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

I haven't actually read this book, but after reading several reviews, it's my impression that Issac Bonewits is a silly person.

I figure he's about thirty-four and works at Barnes and Noble and none of the other employees can stand him.

There is something to be said for keeping fantasy roleplaying and your religious beliefs separate...

[edit] http://www.neopagan.net/

Yeah. This is a silly person.

I gather from his website and the date of the original printing of Authentic Thaumaturgy that Bonewits is about 50, but otherwise, he is a very silly person.

A few thoughts on AT:

* This man is religious-intolerant. I can see his cuts to the Religious Reich (his phrase, not mine) -- they're anti-gaming after all, preaching to the choir -- but does have any idea how many gamers are atheists, another group he dislikes? And women? Man, don't go after a large hunk of your audience, even if you think we atheists are in denial and women are idiots. And, of course, what does bashing anyone have to do with a magic system?

* As already written above, the system as written is unplayable.

* Having said that, I found that I can make it work for GURPS. Base spell level is half skill, start applying his magic laws to reach full spell skill, and assume a low-mana Earth (which some of us think otherwise), making all spells in normal-mana have shorter casting times. For D20, I've never tried it, but one could use something like each spell formula would have a DC based on how powerful/tricky it is, the laws would give bonuses, skill gives a bonus. CoC could take some of the system as written. The ideas are interesting, even if the execution is not, and the author is though in ways he would not like.

The book this should have been was a survey of how folks throughout history thought others practiced magic. Instead, we have his view, and his alone.

 

[mythusmage]

His Authentic Thaumaturgy is based on his book, Real Magic, which in turn is a 'popularization' of his doctoral thesis. Since he got a PHD for it, obviously it has to be the right way to do magic.

In my (considered) opinion, his Theory of Magic is ugly, complicated, and incomplete. It is an attempt to make magic sound scientific by someone who not only hates science, he has no understanding of science what-so-ever.

Isaac Bonewits is a sad man.