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Message: <blockquote data-quote="helium3" data-source="post: 4626175" data-attributes="member: 31301">I don't actually know where I'm going with this yet, but I had a brainstorm of an idea on the way to an appointment. That brainstorm led me to slapping out a few pages on "the nature of magic." I put it behind the spoiler cause it's kinda long and I didn't want to force people to scroll through it.[sblock=The Nature of Magic]What IS magic, you ask? That's a tough question. A VERY tough question and one you'll never really find a complete answer for no matter how much or how long you devote yourself to its study. I can give you a summary answer, but even that's going to be a bit long winded. But, I promise that if you stick with me and keep your trap shut I'll get to the end and you'll understand. Well, understand may be a bit strong of a word. You'll think you understand, but you won't. I promise.Let's see. Where should I begin? Ah. Yes.Magic owes its existence to both the fundamental structure of the cosmos and the blind stupidity of the folk that live within it. See, reality is like a cake with a really, really large number of layers. Maybe even an infinite number of layers. We don't really know the answer to that question.Anyhow, each layer of that cake, with the exception of the one we live on, represents the distilled essence of some part of the world that we live in. There's a layer somewhere that is the essence of war, the essence of death, the essence of taxes, forests, agriculture, baking, booze, sex and even my dear Aunt Martha who lives down the street.I know, I know, it's hard to imagine but you just have to accept it as an incontrovertible fact of nature. Somewhere out there in the cosmos there's an entire layer of reality devoted to apple pie, calico cats, bingo and hectoring my Uncle Rupert about mowing the lawn.The layer we live on (technically referred to as the prime layer) is more poetically referred to as The Grand Conjunction. Why? Well, in the ancient times before The Mistake, a conjunction was a word used to describe both an alignment of the planets within a small patch of sky and the process by which a word could be generated by chopping off the end bits of two other words and spackling them together with an apostrophe. As it turns out, both metaphors are apt.WE are the Grand Conjunction. The little patch of cosmological sky where every star in existence resides when viewed by an outside observer. The unpronounceable shibboleth formed when every word spoken between the beginning and end of time is glued together with an uncountable number of apostrophes. We are both the center of creation and completely outside its boundary. The alpha and the omega, everything and nothing, etc. etc. and so on.I can tell from the look on your faces that you still don't understand. That's fine, as I'm only halfway through. I've done this particular monologue more times than there are days in your life so far and I can say that every time I've given it, the faces on my students have looked just like yours do now. So, let's get back to it.Long ago, longer than I've been alive and longer than anyone I've ever met has been alive, there was a time when Magic didn't exist. I know. It's difficult to understand but it's true. No wizards. No wasteland. No warlocks. No covens. No fetches. No demons. No zombies. No nothing. Just the usual humdrum savagery of every day life for as far back as the universe goes.Then came The Mistake. We don't really know why it happened or even how it happened, though we're pretty sure that it was our fault and that it was people like you and me that caused it. Some like to describe The Mistake as if we tore a big hole in the walls between the layers of reality. Others like to talk about it as if we got lost and found ourselves deeper into the wilds of reality than is safe. Me, I try to not think about those sorts of things too much. I find that it makes it more difficult for me to practice the forms of magic I'm innately good at.That being said, I do have a metaphor I prefer to use when pressed on the matter. There's an ancient philosopher whose name is lost to time who said something along the lines of "When you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss stares into you." I've modified that a bit to something like, "When you show an interest in the Abyss, the Abyss shows an interest in you."That's what we did. That's how we made The Mistake. Thanks to our endless curiosity and dissatisfaction with a normal life devoid of being torn to pieces by horrific monsters, we poked our collective noses into a dark corner of the Cosmos that we should have left well enough alone. We became truly aware of the nature of the cosmos and thereby generated a wholly new layer devoted entirely to representing that awareness. That layer then fed back into ours, as we are a reflection of reality, causing that awareness to ripple outwards and reinforcing the strength of its own representation. Voila!! Instant magic!!See. I warned you that you weren't really going to understand. Luckily, you don't NEED to understand to begin your studies with me. That being said, there's something about the nature of magic that I'll need to get through your thick skulls before I'll even think about teaching you how to do something as simple as lighting a candle with your mind or changing the color of an orange. Magic isn’t safe. Magic isn't predictable. Magic is dangerous. You're tampering with the raw forces of creation, the fundamental structure of reality and if you aren't the perfect balance of confidence and caution you'll get torn to pieces or transformed into a cloud of butterflies.Before I finish and open the floor to questions, here's a cute little description of what magic is really like that I thought up for use when normal types ask me to describe it. You're just a step above them so I think it's appropriate.Magic is like a demented, booze addled fairy step-godmother. She means well. She wants to do right by you. Then she goes out on an all night bender and comes home tired, still a little drunk, filthy and missing a couple of hours. Then you come toddling in, prattling on and on about wanting to know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and if there's still time what the meaning of life is. In her blind rage she simply can't help it when she turns you into a newt. With magic, the real trick is to get her to turn someone ELSE into the newt.Are there any other questions?Good. I didn't think there would be.Welcome to school. Class is adjourned until tomorrow morning at dawn. Please meet me in the middle of the henge and bring your dowsing rods, your chicken bones and your first year textbook.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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