A Reason-Based Approach to Understanding the Unknown
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Replicability and Understanding: What Defines magic. Chapter Two: The Sociospatial Logic of Magic and the Fourth Dimension Chapter Three: The Body and Magic: Innate Casting and Mind-Alteration Chapter Four: Sociospatial Resonance Between Here and There and the Purpose of Components Chapter Five: The Law of Unsustainable Intent in Conversion Chapter Six: Space, Society, and Time: Beyond Magic?Excerpts
Chapter One: Replicability and Understanding: What Defines magic.
… Therefore, we must recognize the difference between the terms magic and Magic. This is not to suggest a hierarchy or primacy of either, but to recognize their distinct linguistic meaning. magic is that which is yet unreplicable due to some unknown quality. The Lost is certainly that, so are the sewers of Fools Lip or the shadowed tentacles of a Bróg. The seemingly endless expanse of the lost, the shifting spatiality of the sewers, and the shadowed appendages of that great bear have unknown qualities that make their functioning mystical to conscious-kind. Yet fire, a complex reaction that may not be fully understood, is not magic as it can, whether with a match or some basic arcane skill, be replicated. The conjuration of fire by an Arcanist is thus Magic, but not magic. This distinction in terms is not defined then by replicability or understanding, but, as is laid out in this book, the accessing of a certain place. Magic is an arcane craft that, like carver working of wood, relies on materiality. The material is insensible but no less tangible in the effect it has when accessed, bent, entreated, or otherwise shaped by an arcanist’s intent. Furthermore, like the carver, the product or effect is shaped by the social and historical context of what is known, desired, and valued. Magic is then produced by a sociospatial dialectic of an arcanist’s intent and the materiality of their context. It is this dialectic that we turn our attention to now.Chapter Two: The Sociospatial Logic of Magic and the Fourth Dimension
Magic is the appropriate term for an effect produced by the intent of a subject, that materially affects the subject, another subject, and/or an object or objects by way of interaction with the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is at its most basic a spatial layer of reality that conscious-kind does not have the natural ability to perceive. It lies within and around that which our senses allow us to touch, taste, smell, see, or hear. While we do not have the senses required to perceive the fourth dimension, we are no less a part of it and have to varying degrees an innate ability to affect it. This innate ability is like any muscle something that through dedication can be trained and honed. Without hearing one can still know the shaking of a dragon’s roar or the meaning uttered through lips. Without taste one still must eat and drink, and foul food becomes no more digestible. Thus, we know Magic for the unnatural echo of an amplified voice, the draining of being’s life force following an eerie bell, or the changing sight of an old friend with a new face. These things do not originate solely within the dimensions that our existing senses know, but instead are effects caused by the shifting of materiality in that imperceptible fourth dimension. As the fourth dimension changes, it ripples back onto that which we sense and produce effects that to most appear often as magic, but the trained arcanist knows as Magic. In this way Magic is the process of our intent shaping the fourth dimension, which in turn ripples back onto our world shaping us and our needs, wants, and thus intended future. …Chapter Three: The Body and Magic: Innate Casting and Mind-Alteration
Chapter Four: Sociospatial Resonance Between Here and There and the Purpose of Components
Chapter Five: The Law of Unsustainable Intent in Conversion
When a spell is cast the material, verbal, and/or somatic components must be transfigured, their meaning translated, their power converted, to a form that is amenable to existing primarily within the fourth dimension. Yet ultimately these are still foreign concepts and ideas; no sooner is the conversion completed then the original purpose begins to fade, to disintegrate, to fracture. Entropy. We step into the misty beyond and are shunted back no further than 30 ft. We conjure a lance of fire, one that travels straight and narrow unaffected by gravity or any natural law, and yet it dissipates after an arbitrary period. That which persists requires nearly single minded concentration, and even then, our grasp on that place will eventually slip through our fingers and the effect is lost. This entropy is a function of what I term the law of unsustainable intent in conversion (ed. note. This has come to be known commonly as Friedricks Law). We attempt to impose our intent through a three-dimensional concept into a four-dimensional space. The fourth dimension while responsive to our intent, is nigh impossible to permanently transform with it. With training, study, and time we can produce ever more wondrous effects. We learn to better offer or impose our intent. Yet, fundamentally we leave the spirit of the intent in the fourth dimension where it begins to warp and fade. …Chapter Six: Space, Society, and Time: Beyond Magic?
Document Structure
Publication Status
It has been republished multiple times since its original run in 269AS. With most editions published by the Observitair An’ees the arcane College of Marsetan's personal press the "Marsétan College Press"
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