No body likes the smartest person in the room, so I try my hardest to not be that person. — Jasper Cameron, Leader of the Bronze Ravens
The older I get the more I see that my absolutely massive intellect is a burden, rather than a blessing. How I didnt realize this earlier in life is a mystery to me, but then again, hindsight has perfect clarity.
I first realized that I was different from those around me at the tender age of 5. That is when i Took my mothers sewing wheel, one of fathers belts, and set up an easier way to turn the spit in the kitchen while still being able to whittle. Neither one seemed to appreciate my invention. This pattern would repeat throughout my life.
Wizards academy didnt appreciate that if you can time delay a fireball, you can time delay a lightning bolt, and by using it to vaporize the copper rod that cast it, and linking the time delay to a pressure activated rune you could effectively make a room impregnable.
Or using Tiny Hut to direct explosions.
Or the fact that if you put a prismatic wall inside an area of magical darkness you have a nearly fool proof defense against anyone walking in on you (admittedly I should not have tried this in the school washroom, but)
"Monster" they call you when you show them your research on the creation of tressym, as if a few hundred cats and birds aren't worth sacrifices when making a new species.
"You will pay for this!" they shout when you enact an obviously brilliant plan to use the magma pocket from a coastal volcano to create massive amounts of steam needed to make my lightning bolt generator, as if I hadn't asked that hamlet to move a quarter mile to the west 2 years prior.
I'm sure that someone, someday, will find this note and my journals, hopefully you are worthy of them, and not just the lucky one who showed up after everyone else fell victim to my traps and the magic to reset them has run out.
If you are anywhere near My equal, as I hope, then surely you wont mind me taking over your mind, the spell on this note is rather time consuming, and if your brain is to inferior to mine then the only thing I will be able to o before you expire is re-cast it, forced to wait who knows how long until someone else comes along. While we have never met, thank you for your sacrifice in the interest of furthering the collective knowledge. If you hurry and write your name down I will add you to the memorial wall.
-Note on the desk in an unnamed Wizard's Tower found deep in a Jungle
Entry for Worldbuilding Summer Camp 2022
Answering: "
a condition considered monstrous or "unlucky" by some"
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Awww, this poor unnamed mage! Please tell me they get free one day and what they do to help remember all who knowingly or unknowingly helped them beyond just writing names on walls, please please please! Okay, so this person used their super smarts to do not-so-great stuff, but this prose was really well written to make me sympathetic to their cause.
Thanks for the read, I had a lot of fun writing the article. It was a fun twist on "monstrous by some" that I felt was a bit unique. Plus it allowed me to not write about vampirism, which was the only alternative i was somewhat prepared for.
It was a fun read, and I look forward to someday seeing the "epilogue" of this article. Ahahahahah, that is a mood because I had the same mindset - except I had already written about lycanthropy, undeath, and vampires - until I dug out my notebooks and found my Mage Burnout.