Thus it was better to die in battle affirming the greatness of Vasska and his aspects than it was to retreat. Failure was without forgiveness.
Glory (Inner Strength)
“The body is of many parts: The Heart of Vasska is steadfast.”
The physical and organizational aspects of the Pir were largely dealt with under this aspect. The body of the Pir was constituted from the individuals of whom they were a part. No individual part was of any importance except insofar as it served the greater good of the Pir.
The inner strength referred to in this Aspect was twofold: inner strength of the individual in being steadfast to the doctrines of the Pir (left aspect) and inner strength of the Pir itself as an organization serving Vasska (right aspect).
Right aspect. The priests of the Pir were the most recognizable manifestation of this aspect. They served locally as both secular government and ecclesiastical authority. All matters of civilization came under the purview of the priests: community harvests, festivals, local defense, jurisprudence, taxation, welfare, and education, to name a few. The priests were also concerned with controlling the doctrine and knowledge of the petitioners under its purview.
Left aspect. The individual had to support the Pir. As part of the body of the Pir, the individual petitioner was to respond to any task required of him by the clergy from any branch of the Pir organization. Most such tasks were menial, simple, and easily satisfied. Occasionally, a pilgrimage was requested and the person made the journey to the Temple of Vasska. Some had been called to work on the reconstruction of the Temple without any knowledge of when they would be released from their task. Accepting and, more importantly, completing these tasks were the highest form of worship, and their rewards toward one’s past family sins were great. The penalty for failure was dire (see second aspect).
Spirit (Inner Knowledge)
“Bright faces hide dark hearts: The Eye of Vasska is vigilant.”
Right aspect. The purity of the doctrine and the destruction of opposing doctrine was largely the province of the Grand Inquisitor and the monks of the Pir Inquisitas. Judge, jury, and often executioner all rolled into one, the Pir Inquisitas roamed the lands of the Pir in search of heresy and impure doctrines.
Left aspect. The doctrine of the Pir as it related to the individual was one of penitence for the folly of humanity and the Mad Emperors of Rhamas, and a search for favor in the eyes of Vasska both for the individual and for those who had departed before them.
The doctrine states that the world was created by the Dragonkings from the smoke of their dreams. Into this world, also from their smoke, came the beasts, with man chief among them. But man, in his madness, rebelled against the greatness of the Dragonkings. The Mad Emperors of Rhamas built citadels that defied Vasska and his kind high in the mountains so that they, too, could reside among the clouds. The Dragonkings were angered by the madness of the Mad Emperors and came down to earth with vengeance and power. Man had proven himself willful and insane with pride. Only a chosen few, the Talkers, heard the words of Dragonkings and knew their justice.
Thus came the Cleansing War, or the War of the Dragon Siege. The dragons, their Talkers, and those who would follow them in their righteous anger—the people, or the Pir—made war against the Mad Emperors of Rhamas and brought low the might and folly of humanity. The souls of the damned sank deep into Aerbon beyond the caverns of the dwarves and into N’Kara—the belly of the world. Only through the penance and devotion of the Pir could the souls be purchased from the belly of the world to become part of the Dragonkings in the land of Surn’gara—the Veil of Sighs found beyond the sky.
Rituals and Worship
There were many ways to serve and worship Vasska, each prescribed in the Pir Inquisitas Desment, the multivolume doctrinal work that was the touchstone for all the Pir. First was the knowledge that none of the Pir could approach the greatness of Vasska on their own, for such presumption mirrored that of the Mad Emperors and was to invite similar folly. All devotions were to be done through the authority of the Pir Drakonis and were to be strictly maintained.
The Kath-Drakonis
The heart of each Pir community was the Kath-Drakonis. This place of worship varied greatly from place to place in terms of its construction, although invariably it was the finest and largest building in any community. In most villages this simply meant a larger structure than those around it. In some of the larger communities, these buildings were the size of cathedrals and were tremendously large, though none came close to rivaling the Temple of Vasska itself.
All the Kath-Drakonis, however, were built along the same basic plan. Each had four naves reflecting the four aspects of Vasska, and each portrayed the basic principles of proper penitence and worship for the Pir. At the nexus of the four naves was an Eko-Drakonis, an iconic image of the great Iconograph of the Temple. This item was the center of worship, for it represented the image of the great Iconograph itself.
The Festival of the Harvest
Also known as the Festival of the Election, this Pir-wide celebration of the rule of the Dragonkings took place every Leavenmonth of the Pir calendar. It was a community celebration which formally began with the Supplicant Dance. The call to Election, the Reveler’s Trump, and the Mad King’s Parade followed in that order. The local priest then conducted the Election over the entire assembled community, culling out the Chosen to be taken care of by the Inquisitas. The event culminated with the casting of the coins of blessing over the crowd.
The origins of the Festival were as old as the Pir.
The Temple of Vasska
The center for worship among the Pir Drakonis of Vasska’s lands was the Temple of Vasska.
This edifice was originally the Temple to Kel during the Rhamas Empire and was kept largely intact following the Pir sacking of Mithanlas, which was renamed Vasskhold. Vasska took the Temple as his home—more accurately, he took the caverns underlying the Temple as his home and determined to rule from there. After that time, the Temple of Vasska, as it was renamed, was the center of Pir rule, law, and faith throughout Hrunard and the Dragonback. In later years, extensive efforts were undertaken to “restore” the Temple. These so-called restorations, while they involved rebuilding those parts of the Temple that were damaged during the ancient assault, were more aimed at eliminating any icons or vestiges of its former function or reworking them into icons that favored Vasska and the Pir.
The Temple of Vasska was the great pilgrimage temple of the Pir. Devout Pir journeyed from the far reaches of Vasska’s lands to come into this structure and worship at the center of spiritual power.
Appendix C
Mystics
In the early days of the mystics, the fundamentals of magic were little understood. Down through succeeding generations, the principles would be analyzed, codified, and refined into exacting relationships and effects. In the beginning, however, the mystics felt their way clumsily into the power of magic . . . its metaphor and analogy . . . and were doing so by instinct alone.
One of the most basic principles of magic—especially in that first Age of the Mystics—was that of reciprocity. All things hold within themselves a power; a power of presence, potential, and force. The magic, too, has a momentum of its own. It then imparts this momentum to the people and objects in the world that it affects. However, it only does so in a great cosmic balance between the worlds. Heat in one realm becomes cold in another. Light in a third realm dims two others. Greatness borrows its power by diminishing another sphere. No magic in any world has any impact without affecting in reciprocity one or another of the others.
All of this was still part of the great mystery in the First Age of the Binding, unknown and unsuspected. Massive, chaotic magical effects were enacted without consideration of their direct impact on other realities. The results were often unexpected and profound in their implications. One need look no further than Galen and the Battle of the Enlund Plain for an example. The Magic of the Stones caused much of the
army of Satinka to vanish in a cataclysmic abyss of destruction. Yet no thought had been given to the reciprocal: the army had vanished but the power that army represented had imparted a momentum of its own to the magic. To Galen and those on the Plain, the army had disappeared, but its reciprocal momentum still existed within the magic and searched for its release . . .
THE COMMENTARIES OF IGNASTUS BRONZE CANTICLES, TOME 21, FOLIO 12, LEAF 17
Overview of Magic
Magic in the Bronze Canticles is commonly referred to as either Surface (or Common) Magic or Deep Magic—even though the two are related. All magic, in its various forms and regardless of cultural custom, appears to be linked to one or both of these forms. Further, it is important to understand that while the nature of magic remains constant throughout the Binding of the Worlds, the methods by which it is employed change over time due to the altering conditions of the Binding itself.
Magic in the Bronze Canticles is thought of generally as reciprocal and metaphoric magic. It is reciprocal in that creative events in one world translate into magical effects in another world, often greatly amplified in power. It is metaphoric because the causal translation of the creative and subconscious mental energies involved relies on icons, metaphors, representations, symbolism, interpretations, similes, and parables.
Magic is also transtemporal in nature. Within certain limits, the timing of magical cause and effect between the worlds of creation is flexible. A mystic in the world of the humans who draws upon a faery Seeker may meet that other in the dream (the ethereal realm) while they are both asleep, even though the passage of time in their respective worlds since their last encounter may be counted differently. This is true of both Deep and Surface Magic, as Surface Magic naturally compensates for the power of Deep Magic.
Surface (or Common) Magic
All the worlds have always had Surface Magic, also known as Common Magic. It is a power that is tied to the Deep Magic, and both operate in tandem, although this fact was not fully understood by the mystics until late into the Binding of the Worlds.
Each of the different incarnations of the world utilized Common Magic in some form or other, although always with different names and processes. The faery were the most adept at this form of magic and incorporated it unquestioningly into the very fabric of their society. The Famadorians used it also, although without nearly the subtlety of the faery and most often through shamans. The Kyree used it through what they called Oracles. The Dragonkings and their Pir priesthood utilized a rigid form of it to actually suppress the burgeoning Deep Magic. This was the source of the magical properties given to the Eye of Vasska staffs utilized by the monks or the visions in the dreamsmoke of the Dragonkings. The dwarves had totems which were imbued with Common Magic. While the Titans themselves had spurned all forms of magic—Surface or Deep—their servants and slave gnomes, goblins, imps, and ogres often had societal shamans or even simple superstitions which drew upon the Common Magic.
Coincidence, Reality, Cause, and Effect
One of the important effects of the Common Magic as it related to the Deep Magic was in the area of causality or cause and effect. The Common Magic permeated all of creation in all incarnations of the world. It was a leveling force that helped keep the worlds in balance while it was being acted upon by the more dynamic and focused forces of the Deep Magic. Thus a great many “little coincidences” in one world could translate through the Deep Magic into dynamic and powerful effects.
Deep Magic
Creative expression in many diverse forms is the medium by which magical force and change is generated on the world of the ethereal, also called the dreamworld or thoughtscape.
As it is this ethereal plane by which all magic is created, the basic and fundamental principle is that all magic results in an iconic or metaphoric translation of action or thought from one realm to powerful incarnation in another. Thus any magical action can only have effect if it draws its power from reciprocal thought or action in another version of the world.
Reciprocity
One of the most basic principles of magic—especially in that first Age of the Mystics—was that of reciprocity. All things hold within themselves a power; a power of presence, potential, and force. The magic, too, has a momentum of its own. It then imparts this momentum to the people and objects in the world that it affects. However it only does so in a great cosmic balance between the worlds. Heat in one realm becomes cold in another. Light in a third realm dims two others. Greatness borrows its power by diminishing another sphere. No magic in any world has any impact without affecting in reciprocity one or another of the others.
Abstract Translation
The exact form in which the provided energies take shape is controllable but naturally tends toward representational or abstract translation. Visions in the dream, for example, rarely, if ever, depict a clear and exact representation of either the source of power or its ultimate form. Rather, inside the dream, these are represented by icons that are similes, analogies, or parables to the actual source or result.
More importantly, each participant in these visions may experience different perceptions of the vision itself. This is due to the metaphoric nature of the magic; different mystics perceive the metaphors in different ways. Thus while two mystics may meet in the ethereal realm, their observations of events taking place there may be different. In general, mystics in the same world will find their metaphors closer to one another than those from different worlds. Thus two humans who meet in the ethereal realm may experience the encounter with nearly identical observations, while a faery joining them might perceive the encounter with an entirely different set of metaphors.
Contents
FOLIO I
The Dreamers
1
Far Shores
2
Galen
3
The Forge
4
Whispers and Ghosts
5
Festival
6
Blessed Coins
7
Falls
8
Dwynwyn
9
Tatyana
10
Aislynn
11
Famarin Gamesmen
12
Tragget
13
Dark Waters
14
Bayfast
15
Hrunard
16
Mithanlas
17
Visions of Smoke
18
Demons
19
Mimic
20
For a Clock That Works
21
Up and Coming
FOLIO II
The Warriors
22
Whetstones
23
Common Ground
24
Bright Swords
25
Twelve Suns
26
Black Hope
27
A Private Walk
28
Nightrunners
29
Sympathetic
30
Master and Servant
31
Traveling Companions
32
Blind Eye
33
Obsessions and Confessions
34
Kyree
35
Beholder
36
Gynik
37
The Bargain
38
Deep Magic
39
Farther to Fall
40
Tower of Mnumanthas
41
Heretics
FOLIO III
The Mystics
42
Pieces in Play
43
True Blades
44
New Rules
45
Tin Soldiers
46
&nbs
p; Small Sacrifices
47
The Warriors
48
Enmity’s Fool
49
Destiny
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
1 * All faery stories begin with this line. It is a designator for the listener or reader effectively saying that what follows is a lie—that it is something like real events but altered by limits of perspective and words. Faery stories were invented for the benefit of communication with humans, who require story structure for communication. They are for all intents and purposes useless to the faeries themselves.
2 * Faeries believe only in fact; they quite literally have no imagination. They believe that anything that does not exist in their experience is a lie. They believe that all truth that now exists has existed since the beginning of creation. “New truth” consists entirely of uncovering a truth that was previously unknown either through investigation or, more often, through the combination of known truths to uncover a “new truth.” The uncovering of such previously unknown truths is the calling and province of the Seeker caste.
3 * Humans might describe this experience as “imagining” a hallucination or a daydream, but this trait is completely unknown among faeries.
4 * There are no stairs in faery architecture, as all faeries fly. The access shafts are primarily used to control comings and goings among the faeries.
5 * The original manuscript indicated this measure as being “five feet,” but the measure was according to goblin feet. Throughout this translation, however, we have converted most measures of time, weight, and distance for both convenience and clarity.
6 * Readers and scholars of the Bronze Canticles have often noted the striking difference in the apparent eloquence of this text as compared to the other, third-person accounts from the goblin realms. This oral history, dictated and passed down by memory due to the lack of any formal writing system known by the goblins, was embellished linguistically over the years. This passage from Mimic’s oral history is the only known source of Mimic’s firsthand experience. However, as it is highly self-serving and has certainly been heavily embellished to improve Mimic’s image as an educated goblin, the accuracy of the account is highly suspect. It is most improbable than he—or any other goblin—ever actually spoke this way. This is, nevertheless, typical of all goblin oral histories.
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