[Teresa Edgerton]

And finally, the part from my notes that I didn't send in:

A word of caution, the following may contain ... well, not spoilers exactly, but information that may aid those who are particularly adept at putting clues together to form a more accurate idea of what is going on than they may wish to obtain at this particular moment. If you want to test your guesses against more background information this may be of interest, otherwise, you might want to wait to read it.

MORE ON MAGIC

There are three great forces at work in the world:

Order/evolution (servants of the Light)
Chaos/semi-sentient nature
Degeneration/entropy/devolution (creatures and servants of the Greater Darkness)

Order and Chaos are both essentially creative, but while Order works toward the spiritual elevation of all life forms, Chaos expresses itself through cycles of destruction and regeneration. Order consciously attempts to maintain balance and harmony; Chaos operates instinctively and more like a pendulum, achieving a more dynamic (and sometimes violent) form of equilibrium by a series of equal and opposite reactions.

Degeneration/entropy/devolution on the other hand, is purely destructive; it creates nothing, and has the ultimate goal of Unmaking, undoing, or degrading everything the other two try to create or maintain. However, it is extremely opportunistic, and has shown itself as adept at the seduction of the more extreme, conservative, and restrictive proponents of Order, as it is at finding ways to infect and make use of the wilder and more destructive elemental powers (see below) of Chaos.

Wizardry is more than the learning and working of spells, it is an intellectual discipline, strongly allied with Order, though generally respectful toward nature. Above all, wizards attempt to establish and maintain Order amidst Chaos, while remaining sufficiently aware of their own limitations that they understand the dangers of meddling too much with natural processes. However, those like Sindérian, who are seers and/or healers, are also in touch with a more instinctive world.

Magicians, witches, hedge-wizards, and all the array of ordinary healers, fortunetellers, and spellcasters, use the magical forces within nature for their own ends or to serve their own communities. Their goals may be altruistic, or purely selfish. But whatever their motives, the danger lies in not fully understanding the forces they invoke; as a result, they frequently end by serving where they seek to control.

The “Old Earth Magics” are those spells which invoke or make use of certain elemental powers or semi-sentient entities existing within nature -- which are typically the most unpredictable, potentially the most destructive, also those most likely to contain some taint or infection of Darkness.

The durathagi, commonly called the “Old Earth Powers” are the most sentient of these chaotic entities. By nature incorporeal, they can become strongly linked to places, objects, or individuals. They are also able to shape bodies for themselves out of the material elements, taking on the form of immense creatures. When this occurs, they lapse into “mortal time” (instead of the vast epochs with which they usually concern themselves) and wreak much havoc in the world by attempting to accomplish over a brief period what ought to be the work of eons. In this state they have sometimes been worshipped as gods, tyrannizing over their followers at the same time that they become more and more entangled in the material world -- so much so that many lose the will to return to their natural incorporeal state. They may also, under these circumstances, form an especially powerful linkage to a particular nation or to an individual human host, which is the most disastrous of all, as the ruthless amorality of the elemental is joined to human ambition and human frailty. Worse, this corporate entity exists in such a state of ambiguity that it becomes highly vulnerable to the persuasions of the Dark.

Sorcerers can be either magicians or wizards, who, knowingly or unknowingly, have been seduced or corrupted into serving the forces of Degeneration/devolution. As stated above, those who deal most closely with the Old Earth Magics have proven to be the most susceptible to this kind of corruption. Nevertheless, there are many ordinary magicians and spellcasters working elemental magic who are able to shake off these temptations and who never lapse into sorcery. Here, the original motivation of the magician is probably the determining factor. Yet those who are directly enslaved by a durathagh bound to the material world may be so entirely in thrall that even a strong will and excellent intentions are powerless to resist.


As for the mages of Otöi, their history is somewhat clouded. It appears that at one time they practiced a discipline similar in intention if not in form to that of wizardry, until a change came over them at about the same time that the Sorcerer-Kings rose to power. Existing circles of magicians were disbanded, and new ones formed under royal patronage; this was apparently linked to mass (and almost certainly coerced) conversions to a new religion. It is therefore likely that those of the mages who refused to convert were persecuted as heretics. These new circles were devoted to the practice of the Old Earth Magics, yet as time passed, they began to explore more sophisticated (and dangerous) sorceries. By the time the Otöwan Empire reached its greatest power and extent, most if not all of its mages had become unashamed votaries of the Dark.



©2007 Teresa Edgerton