I have a torrent of Barely Legal 1-50 I'm working on. Last bit of Riv-ness, this one is actually not a role but one in a series of reports I just posted to fellow Outlanders about the "nature of magic." The erudite philosophy scholars (or high-school graduates) among you might recognize that I plagiarized the Allegory of the Cave from Socrates...but I'm pretty sure his copyright ran out so fuck it.

My previous reports have been an earnest attempt to put in plain language the
principles and theories of working Magic. Most of what it takes to reach
beyond our world and into The All is intuitive, but also diametrically
opposed to what most societies would term "common sense". If you find
yourself at the point when you can begin to believe what I say, then perhaps
it is time to move forward. If you cannot, but are still curious, you may
come to me and ask whatever you wish. I will answer or not as I am able.

My final lesson on the theory of magic is thus: Forget all I have told you.
For theory is how we explain magic to ourselves and others, but the actual
act of harnessing your true power will always be something akin to a miracle.


First, there is no one path to mastery. There are the classic five, and now
many more varieties of magics. All have their own rituals and rules that are
useful for them. If they produce results they are certainly not "wrong".
Biomancy works just as well as necromancy, morality aside.

Second, theories fail because, besides what we take with us from our parents
at birth, language is the only way to convey our knowledge. Words are
terribly inexact when discussing universal Truths - Truths that existed
before there was language.

Last, and most important for myself, Magic is fundamentally irreducible. As a
primal force in our world, the mystery of why it works, or exists at all, is
a mystery that is impossible for mortals to unlock. I tried but failed, as I
suppose many wise women (or men) have before me. Why? If we are to understand
the Forces of the world intimately we need to be _outside the world._

A simple example: Imagine if you lived your whole life locked away in a
dungeon. You were born there and never spoke to anyone who had been outside.
You grow to maturity and you learn your cell better than anyone. You know
everything about the guards, how many bricks in your stone wall and bars on
your gate. A barred window you cannot see out of is at the top of one of your
high dungeon walls, and it admits air and light. And every day, as the sun
sets, you gaze upon fantastic images that appear on the wall opposite the
window. You marvel at the show for years, perhaps naming the shapes that
appear on the wall. Or worshipping them. Or imagining you somehow command
their movements.

Then one day you are released from your captivity. You bound out of your cage
and into the wide-open, only to drop to your knees in pain as the sun blinds
your eyes. Your sight adjusts after time and you can now see the keep that
once held you. You walk around, rejoicing in a realm that you might have
thought paradise would look like back in your cell. Finally you spy your old
window, hidden behind some weeds and wildflowers. The sun sets behind you
and you witness in shock and horror as your very own shadow appears on your
picture-wall.

Of course we are all the prisoners, and our dungeon is Thera. We enjoy great
power, great learning and art, and the full range of intelligent emotions in
our cage. When we grow bored of that, as some among us always do, we try to
look beyond and delve into the mysteries, with limited success. We can know
how many grains of sand are in the Araile. We can learn the names of the
angels and demons and spirits who bound our world, and sometimes win their
favors. But the true enigmas are forever beyond our reach, for they come into
our world from without. If we are lucky or strong we can escape the world in
one piece, or if the conditions are right maybe just peek behind the veil.

Madness, being quite literally blinded by the light of The All is common.
Those who survive the sight of the "sun" risk arrogance or apathy at the
apparent heaven or hell in which they emerge. And those who come back to the
world in hopes of freeing their comrades are, in a stroke of cosmic irony,
blinded again by the darkness. To again use our dungeon metaphor, if we come
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back to tell our fellow prisoners that the shadow-images are not real we will
be scorned, ridiculed, or worse.

A harrowing prospect. But this tragedy is played again and again throughout
the Planes as the souls who learn there is more to life are irrevocably
changed by that knowledge. Being an optimist I believe this is the structure
of The All - just a series of dungeons all the way up. Why would this delight
me? It means we have infinite chances to be who we want to be, see what we
want to see, and explore...not just the mysteries of Life, but the simple
fact of being alive. Today. Where you stand.

Take a look around at your surroundings, comrades. Inhale deep and let the
air slowly, naturally flow from your body. Inspect your emotions and your
thoughts with the precision of an alchemist tending his garden. Then enjoy
it. This is the skeleton key. Enjoy not the dungeon in which we are trapped,
but the paradise we've been born into. This is Magic.