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By RaistlinColtaine
THE WAYS OF THOUGHT
- by ~RaistlinColtaine, Mar 13, 2013, 10:18:46 AM
- Literature / Characters & Settings / Sci-Fi & Fantasy / Settings
(Izzib of Ehrlitan, dialecting in the Synagogue of Karashimesh's Great Agora)
Of all the paths that magic offers to the practised mind, Mockra's is the easiest to use and yet the most difficult to comprehend and, subsequently, master.
The warren of Mockra is born of the brain. And its main function is to influence the brain. Its fancy title is nothing more than a disguise to the universal truth that the power of thought is limitless. Ponder on that for a moment; The human brain. It elevated us above the savages and the beasts of the desert. It gave us laws. It made us realize the blessing of life. It allowed us to preserve ideas and ideals in skin and papyrus. It built us an empire.
Agreed, its future dynamics may seem finite. Which soul does not lament when a mind declines before the body it calls house? What heart does not mourn when blunt thoughts are produced, concerned with menial and petty tasks? All these, though, are mere illusions, hiding the existence of the endless possibilities of the brain. The illusion is always in place because – and you must fully comprehend this – barriers exist. Barriers that close our way to the true, god-like, capability of our minds.
Think of an oasis. A man can always live in its outer reaches, around the trees. He can eat the fruits and be content. He will use the dense foliage above to protect him from the sun's harsh rays and be happy. He may well cut down the trees to build a house; find safety between palm trunks. A happy life. Decades of ignorance, based on the false assumption that nothing unique exists just beyond the trees. For the man, however, who knows how to think, who dares to walk into the unknown, water awaits. Life itself. And even then, the surface of the water is just one more step. The dark-blue depths of the oasis, full of shadows and home to spirits, hold the true power. Thus, if we dive below the surface, create ripples, we will grant ourselves a fully blossomed mind, which I dare say, can last for eternity.
Despite the arguments – be sure there are many – I strongly believe that the Mockra warren is anthropocentric. In spite of the other warrens' usual structure, this one can be described as a labyrinth, a structural paradox, just like any ordinary human mind. More than that, the wizard who opens a path to Mockra doesn't reach for another world, to draw its power and do what we call magic. No, he reaches for the brain's gates. He opens them, cuts down the barriers and finds those aforementioned depths. A Mockra unveiling is to have a fully functional mind – a terrifying notion – and then take a step beyond.
Also, notice that in the Deck of Dragons, no place for Mockra exists. The Deck holds all these forces, warrens and ascendants and realms, in balance. But how can you keep in check something as chaotic and, in the same time, as orderly as the human mind? It follows the whims of the man, which are numerous. It can have hundreds of disguises and faces, thousands of colours and different aspects. It cannot be analysed. Its characterization as a warren signifies nothing but vanity and wishful anticipation.
I said before that it is easy to use this most perantique of warrens. In a most basic level anyone can do it. Everyone has done it. This usage however – I tend to call it a ''sudden burst'' – is one that happens without its practitioner's knowledge.
Waking up in the darkest hour of the night, mind crystal clear and senses honed, having the answer to a numerical problem. Or alternatively, strongly desiring something, pure and worthy want, neither selfish nor base, and that thing then being acquired. Those have nothing to do with divine guidance, as some priests or seers would call it. Theology is as far from Mockra as is a hovel from a flourishing city. No, this is nothing but clarity of mind and directing invisible energy.
For the ones attacking my thesis, I have an inquiry. Had you all not, from time to time, the feeling of imminent danger? An unexpected shiver, an itching on the fingers, a senticous numbness on your spine? You wrongly name that feeling Aris'ja, air spirits' warning. It's Mockra. A subconscious layer of your brain surging forth to grip the reins. To face what danger, I know not.
Also, the sense that you'd experienced the same conversation or action somewhere in the muddy past? The exact same? Do not fall into false assumptions. It's Mockra again. The unrefined power of your mind, trying to tell you dozens of things.
All these, dear friends, are not mere examples of circumstantial power. They compose a promise. That of an all-powerful mind.
Scholars and sages talk of an epicentre, a knot in the depths of the human head so tight that it radiates power. In both the physical and the spiritual world. But when the brain, the epidermis of that dense spot, is untrained, dappled with non-polymorphous thoughts, then power can only leak through in small doses, in unexpected circumstances, in mysterious ways, in ''bursts''.
Only a wizard can grapple the true meaning of that hidden faculty and still, it takes a Mockra user to fully utilize it.
All things considered, the wizards' artful skills are widely known. Controlling fire, invoking shadows, granting the eulogy of healing, conjuring rituals of devastating power. A mage, however, who stands in the path of Mockra, surpasses them all.
For one such as him, the possibilities are, literally, endless. He has absolute control of every tiny part of his brain. No rogue mental state can be imposed on him because he holds them all in check. He is capable of joyous laughter in the most dreadful of circumstances, of remaining calm when faced with a sudden catastrophe. He is able to exactly remember a conversation – accent and punctuation included – from years past. He can – if he wishes so – never get angry while pride will be insignificant to him, imprisoned in a dark corner of the mind. Love and lust ever subdued, any despair crushed. Well may he think a hundred things at once or, inversely, concentrate his attention to only one topic. And crumble it to dust. He may isolate his senses to all outer disturbances, thus not feeling pain, cold, heat, hunger. He may well dismiss habits and tics of the body, leading them to forgetfulness and oblivion. He has the opportunity to relive moments of his life – both happy and sad – in such painful clarity and agonizing detail that it'd cause him to withdraw behind barriers – and isn't that a most frightful irony? Taking down barriers, only to erect new ones in their place?
Have no qualms. The blade of Mockra deeply cuts the unprepared brain and the reckless mind even though it delivers treasure and power to its wielder. This game, however, of cold reason and orthological understanding does not end there.
Τhat's due to the fact that the human brain is not an autonomous device. Just like the islands appear to be independent pieces of land – while the truth is found in the fact of the islands' connectivity below sea level, forming one gigantic landmass – so is it with the brains too. Seemingly separated, the minds of the human race are tied to each other with strings of Mockra. "Tie" may be too mild a word, but the connection exists. It is that web which gives birth to quite a handful of menacing possibilities. A Mockra user is able to follow a path to another mind and influence it. Nudge it towards any destination or attitude. Or even lead it to favour an idea or two. I hardly need spell the dangers of a rape of such magnitude. The concept of thoughts not belonging to the person whose mind they appear in is, at the very least, a repulsive and execrable sin.
Who is he who will resist the temptation of delving into other peoples' esoteric world, discovering secrets and guilty desires? Does anyone exist who will stay away from the power of seeding on another the idea of suicide? Or the idea of committing murder. The perfect crime is that which keeps blood far away from the true murderer's hands.
Finally, such power can often lead to a certain proclivity, to the erroneous hypothesis that one may – without harm – heave upon his shoulders the mantle of the tyrant. The notion that his magic can grant him invincibility. The means to do as he pleases. This is certainly a quaint antithesis. The succumbing of a logic-trained and accurately honed mind to such delusions of grandeur – ones that the brain had dismissed in order to reach its present vigour – is highly oxymoronic.
If, by this time, you have tired yourselves with the question of how such a dreadful creature of Mockra could be stopped, the answer is simple. It restricts itself. There are traps in the Mockra energies, pitfalls and abysmal depths anyone can fall victim to. Examples have been set by wizards who got lost in vast, thoughtless oceans with no logic islands in sight. Mages falling victim to fatal injuries named scratches by the mind in order to bear the pain. Sorcerers who drank too much from the Mockra glass and ended up as drooling lunatics.
And let us not forget that power ever draws power. By these three words the most ancient and true law is described. Be it the communities of the ants or the cruel machinations of the gods, power will always create forces in opposition. Mockra is no exception. The warren user strong – and crazy – enough to try influence humans and communities will soon find himself against nature. A host of cosmic powers because balance must be maintained at all costs.
Dear colleagues, allow me to draw my speech to a conclusion by saying something trite. All powerful as the warren of Mockra might be, it falls to us to make proper use of its gifts and charms. Have precise thoughts and be careful with them.
