The Burning Sky (33 page)

NOTES

1
. FOR CENTURIES,
historians and magical theorists have debated the correlation between the rise of subtle magic and the decline of elemental magic. Were they merely parallel developments or did one cause the other? An agreement may never come, but we do know that the decline has affected not only the number of elemental mages—from approximately 3 percent of the mage population to less than 1 percent—but also the power each individual elemental mage wields over the elements.

Presently, quarry workers still regularly lift 20-ton blocks of stone, the record of the decade being 135 tons by a single mage. But most elemental mages make few uses of their dwindling powers and are capable of little more than parlor tricks; all the more astonishing as we look back upon the great elemental mages of an earlier age, those individuals who set mountains in perpetual motion and destroyed—and created—entire realms.

—From
The Lives and Deeds of Great Elemental Mages

 

2
. THE DOMAIN'S
classification as a principality rather than a kingdom has often confused mages. It is certainly not a microrealm: at more than one hundred thousand square miles in area, it is one of the largest mage realms on Earth—and historically, one of the most influential.

Legend has it that the night before his coronation, Titus the Great, the unifier of the Domain, had a dream in which a voice cried, “The King is dead and his house fallen!” To avoid that fate, he had himself crowned Master of the Realm, styled His Serene Highness, a prince instead of a king. The ruse worked: He lived to a ripe old age, and his house has endured. Today, when most other monarchs and princes are figureheads without actual power, the House of Elberon remains that rare phenomenon among mage realms: a ruling dynasty.

—From
The Domain: A Guide to Its History and Customs

 

3
. THE SEPARATION
of mage and nonmage populations has never been absolute, on account of vestigial mage communities that either opted not to join a larger mage society or subsequently left.

The nonmages, with their burgeoning advances in science and technology, may someday pose a threat to magekind. But throughout history, the greatest menace to mages has always been other mages. Never was a successful witch hunt mounted without the cooperation of mages willing to turn on their own. For that reason, mages who dwell among nonmages are subject to the strictest regulations.

The Exiles from the January Uprising presented a curious scenario. By the time the revolt had been quelled, there were no other mage realms to which its sympathizers could flee: Atlantis was the master of the entire mage world. So they chose instead to live among nonmages and to plot their return therein.

—From
A Chronological Survey of the Last Great Rebellion

 

4
. THESE DAYS,
the term “beauty witch” has become quite diluted.

On one hand, the leading ladies of stage and fashion are sometimes referred to as beauty witches. On the other hand, it has also become a euphemism for prostitutes, much to the annoyance of real beauty witches who consider themselves far above such common strumpets.

For the purposes of this book, we shall cleave to the classic definition of “beauty witch”: a woman of great beauty and elegant taste who is well versed in music, literature, and art and who can converse intelligently on most topics under the sun. She may or may not depend economically on the generosity of a protector, but she has no profession other than that of her personal attractions.

—From
Sublime Loveliness: The Seven Most Celebrated Beauty Witches of All Time

 

5
. SOON AFTER
the advent of vaulting, mages realized that this revolutionary new means of travel presented a serious problem to the security of public institutions and private households alike. A mage who has seen the interior of a building can vault back into it anytime, which quite defeats the purpose of having walls in the first place.

A series of ingenious—and sometimes laughable—solutions came into being. Who can forget the Nevor-Same™ Home, which changed the colors of a house's walls and furnishings after every visitor? Randomly, one might add, leading to some of the ugliest interiors ever to assault a mage's eyes.

Nowadays we enjoy advanced and discreet spells to protect our dwellings from ill-intentioned vaulters. The spells listed in this section, when implemented properly, are guaranteed to repel any unauthorized attempt to vault into your home.*

 

*None of these spells, singly or in combination, work when a quasi-vaulter is involved. Therefore we are terribly glad that quasi-vaulters have become virtually impossible to find.

—From
Advice to the Novice Householder

 

6
. NEW ATLANTIS'S
rise as a dominant mage power was, in many ways, a surprising event. The island, while big—nearly twice the size of the Domain—is ill-suited to large-scale civilization. The volcanic frenzy behind its creation was too recent, its interior too steep and angular. Much of the ground is basalt, arduous to walk upon, impossible to cultivate. Sea life, astonishingly abundant when mages first set foot on the island, came dangerously close to irreversible depletion at several points in its eight-hundred-year history.

Two hundred of these eight hundred years, in fact, were known as the Famine Centuries. The isolation of the island, the relative primitiveness of long-distance transportation of the era, and widespread corruption among members of the royal clan made aid campaigns mounted by other mage realms largely ineffectual. At the end of the Famine Centuries, population on the island had plunged by at least 70 percent.

The Bane is believed to have been born during the last decade of the Famine Centuries, into a devastated, lawless society. Whether he would have still become the single most influential mage on earth had he come of age in a more prosperous realm, we can only speculate. But there is no doubt that the chaos and deprivations of his youth influenced his desire for order and control throughout his career.

—From
Empire: The Rise of New Atlantis

 

7
. MAGELINGS WITH
elemental powers present additional challenges to parents and caregivers; there is no disputing that. Most young children give in to temper tantrums at least once in a while. But a toddler elemental mage in a screaming fit is liable to shift a house from its foundation or choke the air from a playmate's lungs—without ever meaning to. And even when elemental magelings grow older, they might still inadvertently let their powers get the better of them.

In this chapter we aim to present a comprehensive list of training techniques for disrupting the direct connection between an elemental mageling's anger and his or her instincts to turn to the elements. It has been repeatedly pointed out that violence is hardly the best substitute, but until we learn how to perfectly control small children's emotions, their tiny fists will remain preferable to their—at times—disproportionally immense powers.

—From
The Care and Feeding of Your Elemental Mageling

 

8
. A QUICK
word on countersigns before we move on to our first section of spells.

The spells in this and many other textbooks do not have countersigns. But no one ever became archmage using spells that can be found in public libraries. Heirloom spells and cutting-edge spells, considered far more powerful, usually operated with an incantation that can be said aloud—and therefore overheard by others—and a countersign that is never uttered, to preserve the secrecy of the spell.

By the same token, countersigns are also sometimes used with passwords, to maximize the latter's effectiveness and security.

—From
The Art and Science of Magic: A Primer

 

9
. IT TOOK
more than fifty years after vaulting was first achieved for the general mage population to accept that vaulting is not a universal ability. Until then, it was believed that with earlier and better training, and an ever-burgeoning collection of vaulting aids, every mage could be taught to vault. Nervous parents regularly enrolled children as young as three in vaulting classes, for fear that should the tots start any later, they would grow up to be
emus
—flightless birds—disdained by their peers. Medical literature of the day recorded multiple instances of dangerously premature labor, brought on by expectant mothers hitching too many vaults in misguided attempts to inculcate the process in the minds of their gestating babies.

But before society at large could accept that vaulting was not possible for every mage, it had to first accept that mages who could vault often did not vault very far. In the heady early years of vaulting, mages were convinced that their vaulting range would continue to improve, as long as they continued to practice. When these pioneers began to be thwarted by personal limits, they attributed it to late starts, incorrect training, and a flawed understanding of the principles of vaulting—and encouraged the next generation to push harder and more astutely.

The best data currently available suggests that between 75 to 80 percent of adult mages are capable of vaulting. Of those, more than 90 percent have a one-time vaulting range of less than fifteen miles. Only a quarter can tolerate consecutive vaults; the rest must wait at least twelve hours between vaults.

Moreover, it is now known that vaulting exacerbates pre-existing medical conditions. Expectant mothers, the infirmed, the elderly, and those recovering from serious illness should refrain from vaulting. In rare instances, vaulting has been known to cause grave consequences in otherwise healthy individuals.

—From
The Mage's Household Guide to Health and Wellness

 

10
. DO YOU
need a wand? The short answer is no, you do not. The working of a spell requires only intent and action, and it has been conclusively proven that mouthing or speaking the words of a spell constitutes action.

Why then do we still use wands? One reason is heritage: We have wielded wands for so long, it seems almost rude to stop. Another is habit: Mages are accustomed and attached to their wands. But more practically, the wand acts as an amplifier. Spells are more powerful and more effective when performed with a wand—reason enough to find one that fits well in your hand.

—From
The Art and Science of Magic: A Primer

 

11
. NOT MUCH
will be said of otherwise charms here, given that they are both too advanced for the scope of this book and, more importantly, illegal.

Love philters are often mistakenly pronounced as the best known examples of otherwise magic. The effects of love philters, however violent, are temporary. The effects of true otherwise charms, on the other hand, are semipermanent to permanent. And they seek not to alter emotions and short-term behaviors, but perceived facts. In other words, they are campaigns of misinformation.

Fortunately, it is not easy to implement otherwise spells. If Mr. Stickyfingers is a known thief, no otherwise spell will change that perception. Nor will otherwise magic help someone already suspected of lying. Otherwise spells are only effective when (1) the intended audience is entirely unwary and (2) the misinformation disseminated does not run counter to established facts.

—From
The Art and Science of Magic: A Primer

 

12
. LAST WEEK'S
confirmation by the Citadel that Princess Ariadne is indeed expecting her first child ended months of speculation—and raised even more questions.

The decree governing succession to the crown specifies only that an inheritor should be a firstborn child of the lineage of Titus the Great. No mention is made of legitimacy.

With a few notable exceptions, most princely bastards have refrained from staking a claim to the throne. But the
Observer
's sources believe that Princess Ariadne intends to declare her firstborn an heir of the House of Elberon.

The declaration, should it come, would not be challenged on grounds of legality. But most mages surveyed by the
Delamer Observer
are of the opinion that they deserve to know the paternity of a future ruling prince or princess. The princess's steadfast refusal to name the father of her child has damaged her erstwhile pristine reputation. Rumors brew and froth, many casting doubt on both the princess's character and her fitness to rule.

—From “The Princess's Hurdle,”
The Delamer Observer
,
8 June, Year of the Domain 1014

 

13
. THE FOLLOWING
is a reproduction of a January Uprising-era underground pamphlet.

 

We have ill news from our friends on the Subcontinent. The offensive in the Hindu Kush has failed catastrophically. Survivors report of Atlantean aerial vehicles of a type never before seen, armored and enclosed chariots that repel every known assault spell.

To make matters a hundred times worse, the armored chariots spray a deadly potion in their wake. The potion is clear and odorless. Many of the resistance fighters on the ground first believed it to be natural precipitation and believed the demise of their colleagues to be casualties of battle. But afterward, when massive civilian deaths were tallied in the armored chariots' flight paths, our friends had no choice but to conclude that Atlantis had unveiled a terrifying new weapon, death rain.

—From
A Chronological Survey of the Last Great Rebellion

 

14
. IT CANNOT
be stressed enough that blood magic is not the same as sacrificial magic. Sacrificial magic, needless to say, has always been taboo in mage realms. Mages who choose to break the taboo usually do so among nonmages, manipulating local religious rituals to suit their own ends.