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Post by Gatekeeper on Mar 12, 2017 18:41:26 GMT -8
"Don't get demanding, either." She reaches out and flicks his ear. "I may be a little mental image embedded into your mind, but I've got my pride. Still, yes, I quite agree."
"There are thirteen practices, each one describes a basic magical operation. It's quite simple, really - you begin by visualizing the task you wish to perform, which will generate a complete idea in your soul. This idea is what we term an Imago, and it is distinct from thoughts in the mind because it is a function of your higher self. Then you draw on your Watchtower to form a connection to the Supernal realms - that's fairly instinctive, you don't even really need to think about it unless you're drawing from another tower. Yours governs the Arcana of Mind and Space, but there are 4 other towers each ruling a different one. When you draw on Life, you need to exercise mana - a little piece of Supernal grace bound up in your soul or found in the world - to establish a connection from your tower to the Watchtower of the Singing Stone in the Primal Wild. Mind and Space magic is quite instinctive.
"The first three practices are the simplest - Knowing, Unveiling, and Compelling. They're the first things you learn as an initiate to the mysteries and secrets of an Arcanum, and you'll find that you can exercise them instinctively for the ones that you already know. This is because of what you learned in the Supernal realms. For a demon like myself, these actions are complete instinct, with no real barriers, because I am unbounded and unrestricted within my expertise - the Lie is that you aren't. Learning the mysteries peels that Lie away, and teaches you that you are powerful.
"Knowing is the practice of channeling divine understanding - ie, you can touch or look at a person and know what they're thinking, you can learn facts about their minds, and the same is with Space. You can judge distances, read the connections between people and things, know where to find things. The Practice of Knowing channeled through your knowledge of Life can tell you someone's health, whether or not they're transformed, so on.
"Unveiling is the practice of revealing hidden things and changing how you perceive the world. This is distinct from Knowing in a subtle way - for instance, if you were an Initiate of Forces, you could directly perceive radio waves, or even receive them mentally. For instance, you could recall any memory you've ever experienced in your entire life, even things you weren't consciously concentrating on. You could penetrate disguises and concealing spells.
"Compelling is the practice of - well, nudging." She smirks. "It's the art of subtle change, of poking things to be a little worse, or better, or to do things they might have done but didn't. With Mind you could make a thirsty guard go for a drink, or split your thoughts so that you could do completely separate mental tasks at the same time with no barrier. You can shorten the distance between two points for yourself or make it seem like forever for someone else."
She fetches a new drink.
"After that, a trainee is expected to master the practices of Ruling, Shielding, and Veiling. One who has demonstrated mastery of all 3 is called an Apprentice, someone actually competent in the art - more or less.
"Ruling is like Compelling, but it takes what are suggestions and makes them commands. One who Rules Matter could shape it with her mind into any shape imaginable, while one who Rules Space could open a window to see and hear a distant location. One who practices the art of Ruling through Mind may control people's emotions - even give them commands that must be obeyed. With Space, you can even walk through doors as if they were open and remove cuffs with a thought.
"Veiling is the opposite of Unveiling, surprisingly enough. After learning to reveal things, you learn how to hide them. One of the best uses of Mind is in making yourself inconspicuous to any and all minds, even through cameras. You can hide a fire's heat with Forces, make someone lose all sense of Time, make a building impossible to notice, hide a door with Space. You can even shield yourself from aging.
"Shielding is, of course, the art of protection. You can shield your mind from external influence, prevent people from teleporting into a space, protect people from disease, use Forces to shield someone from fire."
She makes symbols appear in the air with each practice, ones that taunt him with understanding, as though he should be able to read them.
"After that, you're expected to learn the Practices of Weaving, Fraying, and Perfecting. One who masters all three is called a Disciple of that Arcanum.
"Weaving is like Ruling, but with a key difference - Ruling cannot alter things fundamentally. An animal can be commanded, but not made stronger or fiercer. Think of objects in the world as patterns of threads made out of different things - ruling lets you move those patterns around, stretch them, but doesn't let you really change them. Weaving throws that out the window - you can start altering things, within limits. It isn't Patterning, after all. It can alter nearly any property of an object, and the limits may surprise you - man into woman, solid steel turned to liquid, a few minutes of Time can be rewritten. You can delve deep into their subconscious and find memories you can't reach from the surface with ruling. You can also use your phenomena to hurt people, though sometimes that's doable with Fraying, too.
"Fraying is the practice of breaking Patterns, or at least damaging them. You can tear people's sanity, confuse them. You can - and, I see, already have - opened up a portal between two points by tearing at the Lie of distance. You can also combine two places, layering them in ways that are nonobvious to people who can't perceive Space as you can. You can erode the barrier between worlds, damp a fire, sap strength.
"Perfecting is the art of taking Patterns and hammering out their imperfections. It heals and strengthens - Life Perfecting heals people, or makes them stronger. You can make yourself literally more intelligent than any normal human being on the planet with Mind. Matter can make a machine run perfectly without wear and tear, or make it run better in general. Fates can altered from minor to earth-shattering destinies. You can clear your mind for perfect thought, or have a perfect sleep with Mind - or remove the need for sleep entirely. Or you could, if you were a Disciple of Mind~
"At this point - we move beyond what you know, to the Adept and the Master levels. Your goals, if you wish to improve your grasp of Space, would be learning the practices of Patterning and Unraveling.
"Like Weaving, Patterning takes Patterns and changes them - but you can do so much more than just mess around with them. You can completely change them, taking all their threads apart and putting them back together in new ways. With Mind, you can send your mind into others and control them, or send your mind through Twilight to view other places remotely, or make hallucinations. You can gain skills you never had by accessing them from the collective unconscious. With Space, you can flagrantly teleport, or make rooms much bigger or smaller than they should be, or redefine down as up, causing things to fall to the sky. With Life, you could turn a man into a beast or a beast into a man - though Mind would be needed if you wanted them to be intelligent. You can turn yourself into living fire with Forces.
"Unraveling tears patterns apart. You could erase the distance between two locations and have them violently slam into one another, like putting a building in a battleship. You could dispel any kind of magic with Prime. You could turn solid iron into rust.
"Once you've mastered the Adept powers, the final rung are the Practices of Making and Unmaking.
"Making allows you to create phenomena ex nihilo - generate new spirits, create fire in the depths of space, dilate time, create whole minds from scratch, create so much energy that you can kill everyone you take offense at. You can cause miracles. With Space? You could even create your own dimension.
"Unmaking is similar, in the opposite direction - obliterate people. Cut places off from the world.
She smiles, and finishes her drink.
"There are more, but such are the secrets of the archmages. I shall tell you nothing of them."
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