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III.2 Early Mysticism

III.2.1 Native and Principle Spirits

(1) During the Age of Sorcery, human magic involved carefully aligning one's activity and the activity of one's community with the seasons and rhythms of life in Gielinor - in short, with the spirits that animated life in Gielinor. But the gods brought with them new races and magics, interplanar portals and stories of other worlds, new modes of governance and new values by which to live.

(2) Thus Gielinor's sorcerers came to draw a new distinction among spirits - between 'native spirits,' such as those native to Gielinor, and 'principle spirits,' which guided the gods and other beings whose ambitions transcended the values borne by the native spirits of any particular world. The concept of principle spirits allowed humans to make sense of empires that spanned the multiverse. Without this concept, Gielinor's humans would not have been able to understand how a god could have plans for their world without first having aligned himself with the values of its native spirits. The gods followed fixed, world-transcending spirits.

(3) The fact that gods came with their own spirits, along with persuasive means for ensuring obedience to those spirits, led human sorcerers to turn their attention from their traditional roles to watching for the influences of foreign spirits and to defending the aspects of their traditional ways of life that they could preserve within the new empires of the gods. Fortunately many humans sensitive to Gielinor's native spirits were also sensitive to the influences of principle spirits and spirits native to other worlds. Some of these became counselors to the gods.

(4) This shift in attention from well-known and immediately practical affairs to unknown influences from beyond the world of Gielinor led to a reconception of human magic itself - sorcery became mysticism. Early Mysticism begins precisely with the distinction between the traditionally known spirits native to Gielinor and the new spirits from beyond Gielinor. While sorcery was understood as the reflective use of or participation in spirits, mysticism was the study of all things spiritual; mysticism was no longer immediately practical, and the realm of the spiritual was expanded.

(5) In fact, a new distinction was drawn in the 'place' where spirits dwell. The mystics distinguished between Gielinor's shadow realm - where the native spirits of Gielinor lived - and the abyss - where the principle spirits lived. Today the abyss is often conceived as a space containing all worlds; the mystics, on the contrary, conceived of the abyss as a dimension shared by all worlds, the place from which principle spirits worked and through which interplanar travel was possible.

(6) The concept of anima was likewise expanded - the mystics saw that living things participated in the activities proper to their homeworlds and also in the activities of interplanar empires.

III.2.2 The Schools of Mysticism

(1) As Gielinor's human populations were absorbed into the empires of the gods and were thereby brought into greater communication with one another, human mystics formed schools, often aligned with locally ruling god and serving the local imperial government. We will briefly examine each of them here. **The roots of several of these schools are treated in Thormac's Letter and the Epic of Ikov.**

(2) The Ancient School of Muh - The first school of mysticism was founded among the Menaphites by the legendary sorcerer Muh - of whom we know little - under the rule of Tumeken. It has survived until the present day in the form of the department of metaphysics at the University of Menaphos.

(3) The School of Strite - Strite was the name of a town destroyed by the dragon Garak in the 4th age. It traces its history, as well as its tradition of mysticism, back to the remnant of an ancient nation which survived the Zarosian destruction of the city of Aidos upon the eastern slopes of Ice Mountain. The school emerged from millennia in hiding at the start of the 4th age and perished along with the town of the same name.

(4) The Fremennik School - This school was formed by the followers of V, as well as the 'noble outlanders' whom the Fremennik had welcomed into their ranks when they were visited by Armadyl and Ikov in the 2nd age. This school alone preserved and then kept to itself the skill of runecrafting through the millennia, until the beginning of the 5th age and then its destruction during the runecrafting crusades - its traditional robes can still be found in the Fremennik slayer dungeon.

(5) The School of Lesarkus - According to legend, Lesarkus was the name of Ikov's first successor. Lesarkus founded the Armadylean school of mysticism, which thrived throughout the Armadylean lands, especially in the regions of modern-day Ardougne and Yanille. By order of Armadyl, the School of Lesarkus absorbed the more ancient institution of human magics founded by the legendary wizard Jack. The school disappeared after Armadyl's departure from Gielinor and was quickly absorbed or suppressed by the Saradominist Academic School. Whether and why its founder truly shared a name with Lesarkus of Terragard is unknown.

(6) The Academic School - The Saradominist school was founded later and modeled itself after the other, older schools. After Armadyl's departure, it quickly established its headquarters in Yanille, covering over the heritage of the School of Lesarkus. The modern-day Mage Guild is its descendant. While the practice of mysticism has all but disappeared since the discovery of modern runic magic, the Mage Guild still sells the traditional mystic robes, if only as a reminder of its long history, i.e. so that its prestige might not be eclipsed by the younger and more successful Wizards' Tower in Misthalin.

(7) The Zamorakian School - Little is known of this school; since its destruction following the burning of the Wizards' Tower, it has been replaced by the secretive ZMI. It was probably also modeled after the older schools. Its last headquarters was in the Slayer Tower of Morytania, where its robes might be found. Its members had a keen interest in interdimensional portals - it is likely that this knowledge was lost, since the ZMI show only a rudimentary understanding of interplanar travel.

(8) The Neo-Mystical School - This school does not belong among the ancient schools of mysticism but is included here for the sake of completeness. This recently founded organization draws recruits from multiple races and has set itself the goal of providing bodies for the revenants which linger from the time of the Godwars. They have discovered the Primordial Realm and invite adventurers to help them gather sacred clay. The head mystic claims to have insight into the connections among the planes. It is unclear whether this new movement really resembles the ancient schools. The mystics' camp lies very near to where Aidos and Strite once stood; the new mystics claim to carry on the legacy of the School of Strite.

(9) Though the Church of Zaros never became a mystical school on its own, because its teaching on self-control demanded close attention to the spirits at work in one's heart and in the hearts of others, it also contributed to the development of mysticism in the 2nd age. It's fate will be addressed below . **Thormac's Letter treats the histories of Strite and of the magical institutes in Yanille.**

(10) Before we conclude, let's note the various degrees and titles and regalia used by these schools. The School of Lesarkus awarded two degrees - sorcerer and mystic (**like MA and PhD**) - so that a graduate might be styled as, e.g. Lamanda, Sorceress of Lesarkus. The Fremennik School used only one title - seer - which continues among the Fremennik today, as well as among their neighbors to the south. The Academic School and its successor have made use of many titles throughout the centuries, such as 'mage' and 'wizard.' Only one title is known from the Ancient School of Muh - magus; its graduates often take the name 'Magus Muhbar,' a name as common at the University of Menaphos as 'Ali' elsewhere in the Kharidian. Unfortunately we know little of the Zamorakian School or the traditions of the School of Strite; of the latter we know only that its heavy, decadent robes were compared to those used by the Ancient School of Muh.

(11) The mystical schools flourished especially in the 2nd age - they studied the new magics and races brought to Gielinor, trained thousands of human sorcerers and mystics, counseled the gods, and participated in the governance of empires. In addition to these roles, the schools were home to countless debates - concerning the relations among native spirits, principle spirits, realms of light, realms of shadow, the abyss, and anima; concerning the nature of mysticism itself, whether it was a theoretical or practical discipline, whether it should serve the purposes of gods or of humans, whether certain forms of magic should be encouraged or discouraged, etc. Let's now turn to one example of an academic discussion from this period.

III.2.3 An Example: The Principle of Plenitude

(1) From the time of sorcery, there was a spirit that Gielinorians described with the following statements: "All that can happen will happen" and "Do everything that can be done." It was understood that the prompting to "do everything that can be done" came from a spirit at work throughout Gielinor, the same spirit that ensured that everything that could happen would happen. But as new gods and races arrived in Gielinor from other worlds, the early mystics found that others too knew this spirit - it was not limited to Gielinor. Therefore, it came to be regarded as a principle spirit, often called the 'principle of plenitude.'

(2) The early mystics also came to recognize that there was much more to this principle than they had previously known. Their interpretation of 'all that can happen' and 'everything that can be done' differed widely from the interpretations of foreign races - the human interpretation was guided by human customs and what humans had observed in Gielinor in centuries past. The spirit rarely prompted them to act in ways contrary to what they knew. But Gielinor's new inhabitants interpreted the principle according to different customs and phenomena from other worlds. Yet the mystics recognized the same principle at work behind the various interpretations.

(3) From this insight, it was determined that principle spirits manifest themselves in countless ways and that they take on particular local forms in each world and region in which they work. The same spirit that causes various living things to fill every region of Gielinor may cause the greatest possible diversity of species in another world, and creatures of every possible geometric shape in another world, and every variation of some temporal sequence in yet another, stranger world.

(4) Knowledge of this principle contributed significantly to the new science of planar theory during the 2nd age. For example, the principle of plenitude was found to play a key role in the formation of pocket dimensions - called 'dead worlds' by some of Gielinor's new inhabitants. If some particular nexus of spirits - within a particular space or within a particular soul/anima - fails to manifest all of the various forms intended by the spirits due to external interference, then that nexus continues to unfold as the spirits intended unseen - in the form of a pocket dimension or of a soul within the shadow realm. These insights have found application in the magic of folding space, as used by the estate agents today; flattening space, as used by the Moon Clan; creating pocket dimensions, as used by today's Runecrafting Guild; and drawing people into the shadow realm, as used by the mahjarrat.

(5) These developments also had a significant impact on popular images of shadow realms and the abyss. Previously shadow realms and the abyss had been pictured as 'small,' hidden dimensions of the realms of light, but at that time they came to be re-pictured as vast expanses of hidden worlds. Planes and pocket dimensions were themselves reconceived as nexuses of spirits - like tiny points of light within vast expanses of darkness. The darkness came to represent the unknown, all that could come to be under the guidance of the principle spirits.

(6) One last development contributed to the expansion within the images with which Gielinor's humans understood the multiverse. This was the advent of golem construction. Humans had long been familiar with the practices of necromancy, of better or worse quality. But, while necromancy animates material naturally fit for life, golem construction animates, i.e. makes receptive to spirits, matter without any natural aptitude for life. While necromancy restores to some extent natural processes, golem construction makes matter receptive to whatever purposes the practitioner desires.

(7) This introduced human mystics to a countless further possibilities than what they had imagined based upon the natural forms of life in Gielinor. In fact, the number of possible forms of life far surpassed all that was known to exist in the multiverse. Thus one interpretation of the principle of plenitude was found to be false - not everything that can be, can be found in the realms of light. Therefore, the principle of plenitude was reinterpreted to apply also to the shadow realms and the abyss - in those dark places lie all the countless possibilities which the spirits do not bring into any plane or pocket of light.

- reserved for additions to III.1 and III.2 -