A Brief Introduction to Arcane Theory and Practice for the Layman

*Excerpt from the monograph A Brief Introduction to Arcane Theory and Practice for the Layman, written by F. Vance and published by Roylott and Sons. All opinions are those of the author alone, and may or may not represent the true nature of the multiverse.*

To the reader, reality no doubt appears solid and continuous. It is a basic assumption of humanoid behavior that what is and is not true may not change from day to day, or from moment to moment. Causality is reliable and predictable. This perception of reality is comforting, but it is entirely false.

In truth, the world we see is a massive, protean, multi-dimensional gestalt of which we may only directly perceive the smallest cross-section. We cannot visualize the true, metaontological nature of the “world-object,” but we may deduce its properties and calculate its shape based on observations of material reality. Objects and events that may appear leagues apart to our perceptions in fact touch each other directly in the manifold space of the world-object. Indeed, every object quite literally touches every other object, regardless of apparent distance. Furthermore, the multiversal world-object is instead in a constant state of ontological flux. There is, in fact, no guarantee that the sun will come up tomorrow, or that you will awake as yourself and not as, say, a giant cockroach. Causality, at least in the limited context in which we are familiar, is an illusion.

Why, then, do these events not happen? Why does reality appear continuous? Put simply, causality exists because we expect it to. The slice of the world-object which we may perceive is held in a state of ontological equilibrium by the consensus of the beings who perceive it. That does not merely mean humanoids--it is true of all beings capable of perceiving and reacting to the world, including animals, plants, and sufficiently large inanimate objects (the earth itself actually makes a significant contribution to maintaining consensus reality), as well as certain abstract concepts and patterns.

The corollary to this is that it is possible to effect local reality entirely by thought and belief. In fact, you almost certainly do so every day. However, a mortal creature’s mind has only very limited influence on local consensus reality, and most psychontological effects are too subtle to measure. At best, a sufficiently motivated individual may exert psychontological influence on their own body and immediate environs. This sometimes manifests as extraordinary feats of skill, physical prowess, or “luck,” but it is a very limited form of ontological control that does not satisfy the colloquial definition of “magic.”

Therefore, if we do wish to perform magical acts that explicitly break local causality, we have two options available to us. The first, and easiest (though not by any means the least costly), is to call on the assistance of a being without mortal limitations. Entities whose share of consensus reality is large enough to force obvious changes to local causality may choose to make agreements with mortal agents, for a large number of reasons, and those agreements may include providing deiontological effects on request.

This approach has an obvious drawback, namely that in order to produce magical effects we must enlist the help of a much more powerful being, and this being may impose any condition upon the use of its power that it wishes. There is, however, another option--rather than attempting to force local causality to bend to our wishes, we can, in effect, trick it.

Recall that reality is, in fact, a multi-dimensional manifold in which all objects and effects are approximal. Depending on how you choose to slice the manifold into a comprehensible space, you will see different objects and different interactions between them. You can, for instance, slice the manifold in such a way that it contains only fire--in fact, that it contains every flame that has ever existed, across all time and space. It would be equally correct to say that there are not multiple flames, but in fact only one flame, and that every instance of fire in existence is simply material consensus reality intersecting with this “plane of fire.” These intersections have a higher-dimensional shape, a “shadow” cast through the manifold.

It would be possible to devise a physical object that, while not actually itself a flame, was shaped in such a way as to cast a similar shadow into the manifold--similar enough that, when combined with the correct pitch, it intersects with the plane of fire and invokes a flame into consensus reality. The sudden appearance of a burst of flame would seem to break local causality, but only because we do not perceive the structure of the manifold.

To be able to cast a wide number of possible shadows, you’d need a flexible, topologically complex object with multiple branches. As it so happens, you probably possess two such objects--barring some accident, everyone does. You are most likely using one of them to hold this monograph as you read it. All one needs to perform the most extraordinary magical effects is the human hand and voice--if used correctly, and with precision.

This is arcane magic in a nutshell. An arcanist does not create magical effects by exerting power--we have no more power as individuals to effect consensus reality then any other mortal being. Instead, like an expert martial artist throwing a larger opponent over his shoulder, we use the universe’s own strength against it. We do not need a god to perform miracles for us. By skill and knowledge alone, we produce our own.