Lecture 7: Black Magic
"Greetings students," Alaconius began.
"Today's seminar is about the morality of magic within a society. The question that I propose to bring before you and discuss at length, is what place does magic have in civilization?" Normally, the mage stood behind the podium. Today, he paced around the stage.
"Before I get on with the meat of the seminar, I wish to define some terms that I am bringing before you, so that you can understand what I mean when I say what I say." He looked over the sea of student faces.
"First off, I want to point out that for those who can cast magic, a spell is a tool effective in bringing about a circumstance that the mage desires to bring about. Let us examine this concept a little closer. If a man purchases a hand ax, it is almost certain, that he intends to use that ax as a means of cutting some material, wood most likely. He "desires" to shorten the wood, or change it's shape such that the wood is either more useful to him, or less of a hindrance or danger to him. In this case, the ax, a tool, is neither good nor evil—for it is nothing more than an inanimate object wielded in the hands of a person. Now, if that ax were to be used for murdering a child at the altar of a bloodthirsty god, does the ax's alignment change such that the ax is ‘evil’? Does the subsequent use of that ax implicate its user such that the user is now evil—regardless of what that user's moral convictions are? The answer to that is no, for the ax has no choice in what "evil" actions it participates in. I am aware that an argument can be made that the particular ax, used in such a sacrifice, could become resonant to evil, but this does not make all axes identical in shape and purpose, evil. Therefore, the use of a ‘tool’ does not in and of itself, make the tool evil."
He paused, making sure that his students were following his thought processes. Seeing (mostly) an absence of blank looks, he forged onward.
"Having said that, what does make a ‘tool’ evil? What defines the term ‘black magic’? I will not stand before you all and state categorically that magic is or is not black, nor will I state that anything as morally questionable as ‘there are no evil tools, just evil tool users’. I think the answer lies in the grey area of somewhere in between those two schools of thought. For example, is the spell Control Person an evil one? There are many who would state categorically that such a spell denies a person his god(s) granted right to be able to chose between right and wrong, and essentially denies the person their free will. On the other hand, a mage who never uses this spell for anything other than practice for counter spelling the application of such spell on other victims by other mages—is he engaging in the practice of an evil spell? To further confuse the issue, what if a man is about the slit the throat of an innocent child with a knife. No one can get to the man in time to keep him from killing the child. The pristine pure mage who has never cast Control Person other than as a practice on willing targets, is now faced with the moral dilemma of either casting a potentially "evil" spell, or allowing an evil man to kill an innocent child."
In a sense, he was asking his class to think about whether the ends justify the means: would saving the child in the example, using an "evil" spell, be a "good" act?
"The exploring of this aspect of magic, whether it is ‘evil’ or ‘black’ if you will, or of another aspect entirely, is a difficult path to follow. In two different societies, where their mores clash, one would say that it is evil to bring a mouth that cannot be fed into the world. If an attempt is made to stretch the meager resources beyond capacity, the risk is run of killing two people instead of saving one. The other society thinks it is cruel to set a baby out to die of exposure, just because there is only enough food to feed a set number of people. This second society feels that an effort must be made where all of the group must sacrifice some of their food, so that an extra mouth could survive. After all, if it takes 24 bushels of wheat to feed a person, but such a person would survive on only 20, then the sacrifice of the 4 bushels from 5 people will allow an extra person to survive, right?"
Alaconius again looked at his students, meeting each of their eyes momentarily before moving on to the next student. He could see, in most of them, the little wheels turning in their heads, processing what he was telling them.
"Okay, now, this extra one mouth brings into existence another child. The resources remain the same, but the sacrifice must be greater to keep the extra child alive. In addition, others feel they can bring in an extra life, and so stretch the group's ability to survive even further. The males upon whom the society depends upon for defense, are weakened such that any predator group of people can attack and destroy the now overpopulated ‘tribal group’. Disease strikes more often, and death can come earlier due to malnutrition. Also, it is natural for a group, experiencing a shortage of something, to make an effort to get more of the ‘limited’ resource—thus being the cause of more strife between neighboring tribes. So, I ask again, is the act of putting a limit upon the number of children evil? Is the death sentence imposed upon extra children evil?"
He could see that some students were looking a bit disturbed by the implications of what he was saying. Good, he thought. They are thinking.
His pacing got him to the edge of the stage, and he turned and started back the other way. "Back to the concept of Black magic. If you suppose that a man who has no magic aptitude, and consequently, has no ability to cast magic, makes a pact with some evil enterprising agency, are the spells that he casts with the help of an evil agency evil? I suspect that the answer to this question is no. The arts of healing are rarely considered to be evil, and thus, whether granted through the manipulations of a mage, or granted to an evil man via some evil god, the casting of the healing spell is not to be considered ‘black’."
His pacing as he spoke slowed, then stopped, and he found his way back to the podium. He placed his hands on the edges, letting them support his weight. He went on, in a softer tone, although the teacher's wand still made his voice audible to anyone in the room.
"However, if there is a price to be paid for the casting of the spell, either by the caster, or by the recipient of the spell, that is excessive, then might not such a spell be evil? Case in point, suppose some mage were to research a healing spell. In order to break the barrier of cheaper energy casting, he makes the spell, which we will call Restoration True, steal time from the victim/recipient of the spell to the tune of 1 month per unit of fatigue the spell Restoration normally took. Thus, Restoration True robs the target of this spell of 15 months of its time. Is this evil? What if the prerequisite of such a spell included Steal Youth? Now is it evil? Ok, what if instead of stealing the youth of the person who needed such a spell cast upon him, the stolen youth was taken from an unwilling donor, who is tied up and helpless to stop the whole affair?"
He paused, for effect, letting the idea percolate into his students' minds.
"As you can see, by changing the parameters of the hypothetical spell Restoration True, we have taken it from something that may be black magic, from something closer to black magic, to something that is clearly foul and the blackest of magic. To be black magic, or evil magic, the spell should be examined by the following criteria:"
He waited a moment, letting his students ready their writing utensils. Then he continued.
"1) Can a decent person have legitimate use of such a spell, and work not only with the purest of intentions, but also with the purest of results?"
"2) Can such a spell be shown to be damaging to some "innocent" bystander or cause such a bystander to pay a price they are unwilling to pay?"
"3) Does the spell cause unnecessary torment?"
"4) Does the spell deprive the victim of its soul given right to chose between right and wrong?"
"5) Does the spell interfere with the activities of the person's link with his god(s)? I.e., if the spell summons a demonic presence, and in exchange for the demonic presence's co-operation, a soul is consumed or taken into hell away from a caring and loving god (or gods), then said spell interferes with the ability of the soul to link with its god(s)."
"Except with a few spells, very few spells as are written today in this here GURPIAN universe, are written that are plainly ‘black magic’."
"I think that's enough for today. Homework is an examination of the moral issues of a spell in either the College of Body Control, or the College of Mind Control, and how said spell could be abused. Class is dismissed."
Black Magic Magery Variant
Speaking out of character now, I wanted to use this "seminar" as a spring board for the concept of black and white magic. This "optional rule" that I am sending your way, can add a little bit of flavor to your campaign, and give a definite moral feeling between mages of good intent, but lousy follow through, to mages of evil intent, yet capable of working through methods of good intent…. Black Magery: 5/15/25 pts This advantage grants the mage the ability to cast magic as if they had ordinary Magery as per GURPS Basic. The mage must follow the limitation that in order to get fatigue usable for magic, they must engage in either ritual slaughter, or in ritual energy storage by means either foul, or blasphemous (see Gather Energy ritual). The recipient of this advantage is truly one of evil intent, or one willing to sell his soul just to be able to practice magic, when clearly, he was never destined to do so. Characters who use this ability, wind up having an automatic -2 reaction to them, a sort of Anti-Charisma if you will. In addition, the use of normal mana spells not of the black variety, cost either twice as much, or +2 fatigue more than normal (as per Rune Magics) depending on how the GM desires to work this in. It is my personal preference that it costs only +2 fatigue since it then makes sense for the "witches" (my request for pardon to the wiccans on this list) to study runic magic as well…. The use of black magic leaves a "taint" as it were on the practitioner's soul, and the discovery of such use is usually grounds for the authorities to deal with the practitioner most strenuously... (user of this must take the Secret disadvantage as well). Gather Energy Ritual: (M/E, M/A, or M/VH) This ritual is designed to gather into the caster of magic, extra energy that will help control the mana as the caster works his magic. For some, it is a drug trance energy, where the drugs act to "focus" the user's personal energy into something that can control the forces of dark magic. For others, it is a sexual orgy type energy, where the caster is able to use a "circle" of dancers to help "charge" his energy battery. Still yet for others, it is the ritual release of an animal or sentient's "soul" to power the spell being cast. In any case, most of these activities will be unlawful, or at least frowned upon by the community. Of the three forms of energy storage, Sex is the most powerful, but the hardest to control, and thus is a M/VH discipline. Drug energy is unpredictable, and thus the easiest, or a M/E discipline. Ritual sacrifice is between the other two forms, and thus, M/A. Dancing/orgy will allow the recipient to gather up to 8 times Skill in energy of skill level per dance. So if a person has a skill level of 15 in Dance Gather Energy Ritual (GER for short), he can gather up to 120 fatigue for their spells. However, said practitioner can only gather fatigue equal to the amount of the people who dance, and at the rate at which they expend it. So if 12 people with a 10 strength attempt to charge up the black mage, they need to dance until they drop (roughly 2 energy per hour for most, but out of shape people will lose fatigue faster!), or roughly 10 hours! Drug GER will only get the practitioner 4 times the skill in GER. It takes the use of drugs that are hallucinogenic—and addictive, to gain such energy. Drug dosage and duration of time is what determines the energy gained. It takes 1 hour to gain "skill" level in DRUG GER energy. Thus, a mage with Drug GER at 14 will gain 14 energy per hour, with a max time limit of 4 hours, or a max energy tap of 54 energy. Sacrifice GER is only limited by the number of helpless victims of the spell/ritual. Sacrifice GER can only be cast with a ceremonial spell. All other times, the caster must use his personal energy with spells costing an additional 2 fatigue in order, since the Magery is not "natural" but conferred from an outside agency.
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