On Eternal Well-Being

On Eternal Well-Being is a collection of four long essays generally attributed to the pseudo-historical wizard and demigod Morogyad. Written in the Chogyan Dialect, it is one of the more debatable and less well-regarded entries in the Esoterica of Morogyad, providing various threads of advice on how to court fortune in life.

Content

The four essays in the book cover discuss the concept of good fortune and how to court it in various areas of life. The first essay deals with physical health, the second with mental health, the third with business ethics and the fourth with general personal morality. None of the advice contained in the book is particularly innovative or noteworthy, though the author's perception that all four areas interpenetrate and influence each other can be seen as such.

Commentary

The attribution of this book to Morogyad is frankly controversial. He is not known to have spoken the Chogyan dialect in which the book is written or to have visited the city where it is spoken. The Commercial Guilds who run Chogyos are the post-Wesmodian descendants of the cult of Zargyod, Morogyad's widely-attested divine father, and whispers among thaumatologists from other cities persistently cite this as a motive the Guilds might have to associate the wizard with a city with which he has no particular link.
This being said, if On Eternal Well-Being is a forgery it is one that dovetails fairly closely with one of Morogyad's ongoing concerns; the manipulation of the laws of probability to one's advantage. All four essays feature frequent discussion of hands. The first essay devotes considerable space to the anatomy of the hand and its care; the second uses frequent metaphors about taking oneself in hand; the third discusses the invisible hand of macroeconomics; the fourth uses the "gesture of morality" as its basic unit of discussion. It is suspected by some proponents of the book that these statements collectively constitute a practicum for Morogyad's earlier book Phardys Horodyas Karanrad, providing instructions on how to gesture for magical effect. Such researchers observe that many of Morogyad's book of theory, notably those of the 'Tyros canon,' were ornately written, to the point of being barely intelligible, and that there is no reason to suspect a practicum to be any different. Sceptics find this idea rather far-fetched.

Availability

The book is a mainstay of the literary culture Chogyos; copies in circulation there number in the hundreds and a fresh copy can be had in a few weeks from most scribes in the city, including those of the Chogyos Customhouse, for a reasonable price. The doubt surrounding its attribution and utility, however, makes it fairly rare outside Chogyos.