Can't be a wizard without a hat

[les_magique]

[Video]

I have taken the time to figure out the use of this communication device for two reasons. The first is to show off my hat.

[She has a hat on. It's a wide brimmed pointy hat that looks exactly like the kind of hat a wizard would wear. She looks quite pleased to have it.]

I suppose a hat isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, but I like this hat, and having ANYTHING from home is something of a luxury, given our current situation.

Anyways the other thing I wanted to talk about isn't quite so trivial. I'm curious about magic.

I have spent the last few years devoted to unlocking magic's mysteries, you see, and I THOUGHT I was making good headway. But now that I'm here, I'm realizing that this is a MUCH more complicated subject than I thought it was. Magic works entirely differently depending on what world you come from. Some worlds don't even HAVE magic in the first place!

So if you know anything about how magic works in your world, I would be interested in comparing notes.

[And then, a minute later.]

Oh right also. Gladio, if you wanted to try teleportation, now seems like as good a time as any.

Comments

[sacrament_of_blood]

It is quite a nice hat and already I am finding that there are people here with abilities straight from legends and stories. In my world, magic comes from the gods and spirits. Those who earn their favor can be bestowed with a fragment of their power. For instance, I serve the Bloody Goddess, may She slay our enemies. As such, She has given me a part of Her lethality. I have greater physical capabilities, knowledge of some sacred rituals, and I can command blood. When necessary, I may became as Her, or rare a lesser version, thus becoming more deadly.

[les_magique]

Are you saying that you have more than one god?

[sacrament_of_blood]

[Oh no, you broached the subject of theology. Her face lights up at a chance to talk about her religion.]

Indeed! Now to understand our gods, first I must tell you about the Creator. The Creator is the being that created our universe. Though to call them a being is misleading, as they are many and they are one. At times they will present one face, at others three, at times hundreds or thousands. Likewise, their names are countless.

At first the Creator took a more active hand, but eventually they decided to withdraw from interference with the world. Some say out of sadness and disappointment at us failing to follow their messages of love, while others say the Creator wished to let us grow on our own.

Regardless of the reason, they have been silent for a long time. During that time, humanity created many wonders and many horrors. Live-saving technology, technology that takes life. They raised up great cities with buildings reaching to the sky. They crossed the world in flying vehicles. They could talk to each other across the world. They created devices that could think many times faster than a human, yet were very simple and only did what they were instructed to, for better or worse.

Such was humanity's greatness. But that brilliance came with a darkness. There was hatred. There was poverty. There was greed. There were the power-hungry. And so on. Regardless, there was some glory. There were many kind people who did their best to change the world for the better.

Then the Empty Ones came. Abominations from the void that hungered to be real, to be people. So they stole faces and usurped identities, expelling the original inhabitants from their bodies to wander as lost souls. Yet no matter how much they pretended, no matter how much they usurped, no matter how much they stole, they could not make themselves whole.

Such was the Empty One blight. They threatened to overflow the world. But then a woman awakened to the power of slaughter, becoming the Bloody Goddess. She slew many and was as a wind of death, but even slaying a thousand each second was not enough against the endless hordes of Empty Ones. Then a man awakened to the power of sacrifice, becoming the Living Corpse. He urged She Who Walks In Blood to slay him in order so that his life might flood the world in blood in order to stem the Empty Ones' tide. And thus the world changed.

Slowly but steadily, we are reclaiming the world, driving out the Empty ones, rebuilding, recreating our technologies. And other gods have risen up as well from other humans, but of all the gods closest to humanity, the greatest are the Two Gods of my people. We are the most numerous, the most blessed.

[les_magique]

That's...quite the tale.

[Is this how people feel when she starts talking about magical theory?]

I'm afraid there is only one god in my world: Istavan, granter of magic and lord of law and order. I've definitely never heard of anything like these Empty Ones you speak of.

[sacrament_of_blood]

Truly they are horrors and it is fortunate that you do not have to encounter them.

[les_magique]

It seems to me that if you had a lot of gods, they would all get in fights with each other all the time, would they not?

[Istavan, at least, was very much a "Thou shalt hold no gods before me" kind of god.]

[sacrament_of_blood]

They are entirely too busy for that. There are disagreements, naturally, but the Empty Ones are too pressing a threat.

[les_magique]

They threaten your gods as much as they do you!?

[sacrament_of_blood]

Rather, the gods are preoccupied with the threat the Empty Ones pose to the people they love. Those gods are great and powerful, but not all-powerful. At the heights of the Empty One incursion, not even the Bloody Goddess slaying a thousand each second was sufficient. That height has since faded, but the gods have found it more efficient to act through the hands of many than to act singly. Much of their attention are divided directing the flow of power to their followers.