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The Black Pentagram

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Dantalian

Dantalian

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"We were quickly able to delve deeper into the mysteries of magic, increasing our power and our control. However, we were unable to achieve the power that the mages of ancient times had. As we puzzled over this, a certain mage of our number; he went by the pseudonym Fade, suggested that some of us pursue various alternate branches of magic, in addition to our studies of the histories and our experiments with runes and willpower. Almost immediately, this led to an argument; another of our number, Zephyr, thought that we should not delve into necromancy or warlockry, believing those two branches far too dangerous, she was backed by several of our group, however when we voted on the subject, it was decided to go ahead with Fade’s suggestion. Fade himself chose to pursue the forbidden art of warlockry, while a girl going by the name Dusk took up necromancy, and a boy, Amethyst, took up thamaturgy. In addition we sent several emissaries to the druids, to learn what we could about their arts.

Our results were interesting, but not altogether helpful in increasing our understanding of magic. Amethyst, Dusk, and Fade all agreed that the artes they had pursued were more powerful because they both called upon a higher will than their own, and tapped into a power greater than their own. Amethyst also reported that he felt himself changing a small amount every time he used Thamaturgy, he hypothesized that the source he was calling upon for his magic was making him more like itself. Fade disputed this idea, and said Amethyst was simply imagining things.”

An uncomfortable look crossed Taika’s face, “We later learned that Amethyst was right, and that Fade was also being affected by his use of warlockry, but by then it was too late…" "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:04:08

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"Regardless, our emissaries to the druids also reported being able to perform greater magic, this they interpreted as a result of being able to tap into the immense power within nature itself. However, we were still unable to grasp the magic of say, the mahjarret or the dragon-kin. We were about to give up on our research when we ran into a strange boy… you’ve met him before; Aion le’Colombe.

Aion suggested we look into a series of ruins he told us belonged to a race called the Prantiqeth, we did so, and soon noticed that there was still magic in said ruins. We discovered that the magic that was still active was present in sigla carved into various surfaces. In all, we were able to identify fifteen sigla. While we were studying these, we caught word of a mysterious “Dark Temple” hidden in the west. We dispatched a number of our group, to study the temple. They went there expecting some insight on the magic of the ancients, since the god of darkness is also said to be the god of magic, what they found astounded them…

From the location and architecture of the temple, they were able to determine that the builders had not been Prantiqeth, yet the sigla we found in the Prantiqeth ruins were also found on the temple. The group widened their search at the suggestion of Amethyst, who believed that there would have likely been a city within the vicinity of such a large temple. His suspicions were confirmed when we found the “ruins” of an Asura village." "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:06:49

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I use the term “ruins” lightly, for the Asura build their buildings to last, and as such, the village was mostly intact. This was the turning point in our research; for the Asura had kept massive libraries, and the books were still readable. At that point, we discovered that the Asura employed two forms of language, runic and the Prantiqeth sigla, the former we had a basic grasp of. To our surprise, spellbooks seemed to be exclusively written in siglic, and all other books in runic. Furthermore, runic followed the writing style that elves and humans use; there would be a line of runic characters grouped together in words, followed by another line, and so on. But siglic had no such organization, rather siglic books would have the sigla within connected squares, octagons, and triangles. For a while, this made no sense to us, but then, one of our number, Terra, suggested that perhaps sigla was a global language. It was a major breakthrough!”

Taika stopped, noting Orcris look of confusion, “Oh, I’m sorry, Orcris, you don’t know what a global language is, do you?”

“I’m afraid not,* replied Orcris.

“Well it can be difficult to explain,” sighed Taika, “But I’ll try. You see, the language we speak is a linear language, meaning that we communicate by stating a sequence of ideas. This is very useful when attempting to communicate chronological information, such as explaining what happened on a given day. However, it is less useful when giving descriptions, or defining something. In order to define or describe something, we often have to list its characteristics. For example, if I were describing fire to someone who had never seen it I would have to do so by listing its characteristics, like hot, bright, dynamic, and so on…”

“So, in that case, something like a picture would be a global language?” asked Orcris. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:09:42

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Excellent!” exclaimed Taika, “It takes most people a while to catch on to that. Yes, a picture is a type of global language. In addition we experience reality in a more global way.”

“So, a global language is one where you have a wide array of meanings simultaneously being presented?” asked Orcris. “And this… siglic language was one such language? As interesting as it is, I don’t see what that has to do with magic.”

“Nor admittedly did we,” replied Taika, “At least until Coral’s interpretation. She pointed out that thus far, while our research had gone deep, we had abandoned runes almost entirely except as tools subservient to the will. She questioned if perhaps we should re-study runes. It was her belief that runes were not an optional tool, but rather building blocks, much like the sigla we studied. In fact she went so far as to suggest that perhaps the fifteen sigla were just different symbols meant to represent the same concepts as runes. It seemed plausable to us, after all, we had fifteen sigla, and there were fourteen known types of non-combinational runes. For all we knew there was simply a rune we hadn’t yet discovered.

Coral was only partially correct, however, thanks to her we did go through the various maps the Asura had left behind, and eventually found a map of Gielinor with the runecrafting altars marked. We were pleased to find that the six lower level rune altars were marked by one sigla apiece. The other altars that we knew the location of, however, were marked with multiple sigla. Still, we were able to decipher six sigla as meaning air, water, earth, fire, mind, and body." "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:13:03

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
At that point Amethyst pointed out the similarities of the sigla to alchemical theory, according to which, everything we see is comprised of four basic elements; fire, water, earth, and air, along with a ruling element; spirit. He proposed that in addition to this, siglic could contain the theorized “higher set” of elements, also called the primordial set of elements, which consisted of the base elements; darkness, light, order, and chaos, and the ruling element; soul.

He suggested we could test this theory if we could find an introductory level book on the theories of alchemy in the Asura libraries. He based this assumption on the idea that most Asura probably used runic for their everyday language, and that only those trained in magic would have to learn siglic. If so, he hypothesized, there must be a book which introduced the sigla, but was written in runic.

Long story made short, we found such a book, and were able not only to decipher the meanings of the sigla, but their names as well. In fact, we even discovered that there were in actuality nineteen different sigla, as oppose to the fifteen we had previously discovered. In fact, here they are.”

Taika pointed at a chart bearing nineteen symbols, placing her finger on the first she said, “Reb,” she proceeded to move her finger to the others, saying in turn, “Nan, Kha, Aet****, Aega, Nex, Unde, Syl, Nom, Ifri, Ra****, Paar, Cor, Nou, On, Tein, Su.

I’m certain you realized something Orcris…”

She placed her finger on one of the sigla, which consisted of two triangles connected at their tips by a single line, “Nan,” she said. Moving her finger to a sigla which consisted of a diamond with two lines extended from it, she added, “Nou,* Finally, her finger moved to what seemed to be a silhouette of a gem in brilliant cut and she finished, “Paar.”

“The spell I asked about,” Orcris realized.

“Indeed,” said Taika, “That spell is a type of magic that we named Base Magic, and it works different than most magic." "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:16:49

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"We later discovered that this fit in with a theory proposed by Delsart, a famous sage that had opposed Zaros in the Second Age. According to him everything exists on two planes, the physical plane, which we see and interact with on a daily basis, and the astral plane which contained the “true name” of any object. This sage theorized that the names of all objects would be “written” in a language comprised of the elements. He failed to see the modifiers, but nonetheless, when we discovered his thesis we were able to determine a method by which we could utilize these symbols in magic. It is hard to describe, so I’ll spare you the details, but I will say this; Base Magic is very difficult to control, and very dangerous. As such, you must not use it!*

*It*s too dangerous, why, because it’s just that powerful?” asked Orcris.

“You don’t get it, do you?” sighed Taika, “Everything is connected. An object is defined not only by inherent values, but also by its relationship with other objects and the rest of the world… Perhaps I should explain by a demonstration, you see that column over there?” She pointed at a distant column, “Well, observe this. Syl!”

Orcris could only stare in shock as the column spontaneously exploded, a large section of the ceiling collapsed, a portion of the floor caved in, several bookcases burst into flames, and the air pressure seemed to drop dramatically.

“What?!” he gasped. "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:19:07

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I used Base Magic to change a single part of that columns “name,”” Taika explained, “However, the new “name” did*’t make sense in relation to the names around it. The result is what is called Rethis’ principal, after the ancient mage who discovered it. Basically, his principal states that every name is held in equilibrium by the names of other objects. If you disturb this equilibrium by introducing a defining element which throws the name off balance, the universe tries to correct this unbalance. Normally, as you saw, the results are pretty impressive. However, it is impossible to predict exactly how this imbalance will be corrected, and it is rare for even two supposedly similar imbalances to correct themselves the same way. By the way, this destruction is very minor compared to normal corrections, in fact, it is quite likely that a more complex imbalance could result in the destruction of the whole world.

What one works with in Base Magic is not simply possibilities, it is the very fabric with which all creation is woven.

And that is why, our group was dismissed from the Mage's Guild, and the Mage Tower. We presented our research, aware that now that we had concrete evidence, we would be accepted...

Instead, the senior mages tried to kill us. They had heard of Base Magic, and were both afraid of its power, and believed that it was something that only the gods should use.

Of course, they failed to kill us. We already had a far greater understanding of magic than those idiots, and with Base Magic, were able to fight our way out. Unfortunately, some of our number were damaged, either by improper usage of Base Magic on their part, or the much weaker, but admittedly powerful magics of the elder mages.

Our group scattered, but some of us still interacted with one another via our old code names. Yet, I haven't heard of the boys; Amethyst, Fade, and Crimson in a long time..." "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:26:53

Dantalian

Dantalian

Posts: 3,434 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“So, Base Magic is very dangerous... but... you understand how to use it,” commented Orcris.

“To an extent, but I have had years of study, you have not had any such thing. Do you still intend to use it?!” demanded Taika.

“Not at all,” replied Orcris, “I simply was going to request that you train me in its use.”

“Train you? In Base Magic?” questioned Taika.

“I wish to learn more about magic, in addition to becoming better at swordsmanship,” replied Orcris, “So please, teach me.”

“It will be hard on you,” said Taika, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” replied Orcris, “So, will you teach me?”

“Heh,” surprisingly, Taika smiled, “I never thought I’d take on an apprentice, but yes, I suppose I can teach you. For now though, we should get back to the fortress before our absence is noticed.” "He appears in the Form of a Man with many Countenances; and he hath a Book in his right hand. His Office is to teach all Arts and Sciences unto any; and to declare the Secret Counsel of any one."

27-Aug-2009 14:28:38

Swolomon
Mar Member 2023

Swolomon

Posts: 1,527 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Fantastic add's, aqua, the detail you've used to explain the magic of runescape is brilliant. Also I very much like the introduction to 'Base Magic', the concept is excellent.

I look forward to seeing more add's, untill then I shall be waiting.

01-Sep-2009 19:40:25

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