Records: the Great Illumination

## **The Torch of Knowledge**

There had been instances in the English Royal Court, from both brothers, about the Torch of Knowledge bringing illumination to the world. Richard didn't use the word "epiphany," but Edward certainly did. What was once hidden in the darkness of ignorance was discovered in the light of knowledge.

It had been hammered, repeated from the Gospel of John, where the English variant read as: "*And You Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You Free*." Which was somewhat at odds with eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but Richard had found consilience by stating that was a parable, a metaphor: once we discovered a little knowledge, we are bidden to discover more.

It was reflected in the Socratic Paradox, and amplified by the irony that until one accepted there were things they didn't know, they wouldn't be able to learn them. It was the very manifestation of quantum uncertainty at the level of human consciousness and behavior (though he couldn't exactly say that).

What he could do was find a way to raise the floor of human intellect.

### **Compulsory Education**

The idea of requiring children to attend school was controversial to say the least. Who would teach them? Who would care for them? Who would pay for it? Prince Richard had answers, and was willing to pay for it himself. It was a long term investment, he was warned, with no guarantee of return.

More so, if everybody could read, those who could already read lost power...

And that was the moment Richard had been waiting for. It all came down to power. And that was the key that Richard sold the idea to the Royalty as a way to keep nobility honest: *teach everybody*.

Plato had promoted the idea in *The Republic,*some three centuries before Christ. Every parent in Judea was required to teach their children to read – which couldn't be done in London as most parents didn't know how to read. The boys of Sparta were required to learn critical basics for the survival of the city or they forfeited their citizenship.

The Church asked if Richard was promoting Plato's ideas, and the Prince confirmed it. The Royal Academy had already translated the works , roughly a century earlier than they would have otherwise, and were going to make them available. This alone would accelerate the growing renaissance in London and spread it to the rest of Europe.

Prince Richard couldn't fully disclose the growing threat on the horizon, but he didn't need to. The Incidence of Incidents, especially the Devil's Teardrop earlier that year, it was clear to more perceptive courtiers when Richard was promoting progress out of self-defense.

This opened yet another door.

## **Tools History Never Had**

There was already a labor shortage, and no cadre of teachers large enough to start instructing the masses. Via mundane means, this was a project that would take two decades before the impact was felt by the rest of society.

Like construction, though, the power of the tools was making itself apparent. Averaging 10% of the original project span, castle construction that might've otherwise taken 20 years could be done in 2. If they poured more resources into it, it could be done quicker or better or both, depending on how they were willing to invest.

Prince Richard was going to leverage his greatest tool – knowledge – upon the world.

### **The Discreet Classroom**

From Prince Richard's own careful training and education history, he'd experienced and later built devices to do the same to others. His own had been via SNS, and his replication of SNS had taken magic to do it, but it was an SNS methodology. Even so, *any* SNS knowledge implantation left a particular signature unless specifically crafted otherwise. It was complex.

The inner circle, starting with Richard, had replicated the SNS function with magic. There were things a magic training device could do that SNS couldn't and vice versa. Both, though, had already progressed in a grand circle to the point that certain training could be focused through either method in a way that was true to the context. If they needed to train via a religious source, at a Church for instance, they would use SNS. If they were going to train a batch of magicians, training via magic made sense.

For general education, that was broad enough that it could go either way. Politically, though, the religious part was more politically sensitive. The Holy Spirit was powerful stuff, but claiming it in front of the masses opened a new set of controversies that simply had no context for informed dialogue.

Given the comfort with Merlin's Magic, then, the Order worked on training devices that bypassed the simplicity of their own pre-existing devices and created a new category of devices. While there were already *Pommels of Learning* that taught sword-fighting technique, the ROM created *Books of Learning*.

### **Turning the Page on Accelerated Training**

The ROM had already created a dozen devices that educated, instructed and even indoctrinated and induced physiological changes to different levels. The basic principle, whether magic or SNS, used memory imprinting and implantation.

They instruction could be made on any subject, providing there was a template for the curricula. It relied, however, on frameworks that required tools for the brain to process the lessons. If someone was illiterate, the portions that required the subject to understand writing or reading (or most critical analysis) would be lost. This was why, at the moment, the Regiment of St. George had the highest concentration of literacy on the planet.

Similar effects could be done with ***Potions of Recollection***, released a few months prior, but with those magical pharmaceuticals, there was no guarantee that concepts would be understood, they would only be remembered. A Book of Learning, on the other hand, clarified the tactics, techniques and procedures within a given range of context to make the reader functionally capable at a task.

### **Throwing the Book at Ignorance**

Enhanced training could be done with something as simple as holding an enchanted object and activating it (for quick instruction), but the book method, which included actual reading, was its own way of reinforcing the lesson.

The book method reinforced that the lessons were on the page, reducing the suspicion factor of what the ROM might be pouring into people's heads (there were plenty of conspiracy theorists at the time, at Satan himself was the lead conspirator).

The Books, as designed, were powered by arcane crystals and could be used over and over until the magic was depleted – though the magic could be recharged as easily as replacing a crystal in the binding.

These books were immediately produced for government functions according to UK doctrine, and new books began based on needed skill sets through the Commonwealth.

The first book people read was designed for people that were illiterate. The OM literacy primers were designed to be able to teach every language, and expand as they go. The usual method was to teach literacy in the readers first language, say English; then chapter two was to teach conversational and written Latin as the lingua franca (so to speak). After that, they could max out the book of whatever language had been imbued into it.

Note, it wasn’t necessary to start with the native language. They could have the reader learn latin from scratch… and the book could open up a teach-back loop to learn their language in the process. It was powerful arcane programming.

### **There was more than just books…**

The imprinting done by the Books of Learning was different from the previous teaching aides. Pommels of Training, for instance, only needed to be large enough to hold the components within: the magical power and a vessel for the lesson programming (usually a type of crystal) and the conduit for imprinting.

The pommels were affixed to training weapons of any size and shape that could allow the subject to learn weapon skills with a training weapon actually in their hand. Like reading, this allowed a deeper training method that included creating whole-body muscle memory in the process, also creating some level of introductory conditioning to whatever type of fighting was being taught.

The books, however, used the pathway of the student's vision. It was magical, without a doubt, but the optic nerve into the brain was different from using the rest of the body as the receiver (like the pommel did).

#### **The Binder of Learning**

The *Binder* was a variation that cradled a books binding, but allowed any book to be learned. It didn't have the deep imprint capacity, but it allowed a user to quickly learn what lessons the book had. Whether somebody chose to believe the lessons was the user's choice – *but they would definitely remember*.

The *Binders of Learning* became particularly important to teachers who already classrooms – *and had written their own books*. In here, their lessons were guaranteed to be taken into the world, applied and remembered. At Cambridge and Oxford, the *Binders* quickly brought some teachers fame, and filtered out others as rubbish (or illustrated the necessary art of *editing*).

#### **Books of Duplication**

In a different direction, blank books were created that would copy the content of other books. This was the *Alexandria Insurance Policy*, and allowed books to be copied and transported.

A dozen versions and evolutions of the BoDs were created, including some that physically changed form to match the original, some that corrected spelling, some translated (and later ones translated but also kept the original language, just in case).

## **The Age of Enlightenment**

As education exploded in areas where the [Royal] Order of Merlin was operating, it kick started the Age of Enlightenment across Plantagenet lands.

In short order, it was realistic to require new recruits or employees to have at least a "Basic Education" (the first tier of training provided by the introductory Books of Learning). Whether that was BoL-provided or not wasn't necessary, but those who were BoL-trained would sail through the Basic Education testing.