Dead Magic

Dead Magic

A lecture by Archmagister Xodores, delivered at the Anticlere Mages Guild

3e 422

In times past, learned scholars assumed a kind of stasis in the physical world, which stood in contrast to the endless, shifting change of the arcane. The imposition of the arcane on physicality begat magic, according to these old notions, and brought about the forces of Change and Chaos to afflict our world. The Lorkhanic cults in their various shapes revered this interaction of stasis and change, though perhaps never fully grasping the implications of their belief.

Mages of the modern era, those of our Guild foremost among them, have admirably striven to observe, measure, catalog, and replicate arcane phenomena. Skilled enchanters have gone so far as to standardize and bring to market spells once thought to be attainable only to the gifted after a lifetime of study. Anchor teleportation, for example, was assumed for centuries to be tied inexorably to the holy sites of divine beings, an expression of godly will which mortals could never harness without building a holy site. Now, we know that the anchor of a teleportation spell can be as mundane as a closet, or an alley, or a cave.

By and large, the story of the Mages Guild -- the story of Magic -- has been "We did not know this, and now we do." Tamriel's naturalists have welcomed this development, and hope for the day when arcana might be thought of as one of the many sciences, rather than an unknowable art reserved for the naturally talented. Some in the Guild itself believe this revolution in understanding is at hand, perhaps very soon.

These hopes are folly. Magic is not science, and magic can never be science. A mage who neglects to account for this essential fact is in enormous danger.

We must not forget, my colleagues, that the path of arcane learning has not been a steady upward climb. Indeed, a sympathetic scholar might argue that the lifetime of this Guild represents the longest period of sustained magical innovation in recorded history. Most of the past does not share this quality. Consider, for example, our earlier example: teleportation. As the Guild Guides among you will no doubt recall from your studies, mages in ancient times experimented with other forms of teleportation, dissatisfied with the limitations of divine anchors and liminal bridges. An eastern mage called Barilzar was the most successful of these, creating a famed artifact which could punch holes in the very fabric of reality and drag the wearer through them.

But the fate of Barilzar is a warning. The spell he created fought back. One day, unexpectedly, the magic started failing. Barilizar could no longer flit from city to city with ease, but instead found himself violently tossed from high frozen mountaintops to deep ocean trenches. As the artifact stopped responding to his control entirely, his life became a torment, his waking hours consumed by the enchantment he'd brought to life. In the end, it is said that Barilzar was stripped of his own flesh and blood by the Mazed Band, cursed to live a doomed and wretched half-life, torn between this world and the liminal holes he'd carved through it.

The horror of Barilzar's story conceals a deeper and more pressing lesson for the modern mage. Magic is change, and change cannot be permanently classified, nor understood forever. Consistency is not in its nature.

As we reflect on the loss of Passwall, and continue our studies into the nature of the Warp in the West, consider this lesson. While our brightest minds may endlessly probe the deep caverns of the arcane, and even innovate upon what we learn there, we should never be surprised when the ever-shifting miasma of that world realigns itself. A mage who forgets this fundamental fact risks being consumed by unreality.

Publisher's note: as of 3e 426, Archmagister Xodores has not been seen publicly since his lecture in Anticlere.