Kristofor L. Carlson

The Hidden Masters

For hundreds of gyres, cerebremancy was one of the specialties of the magi. It was understood and accepted at least as well as its brethren specialties such as theramancy and channeling. It was in the Age of Acceptance, when magi emerged from hiding and joined society as productive citizens, that cerebremancers first saw concerning signs. The mental magics were silent, subtle, and in many cases undetectable, which caused them to stand out from the more physically obvious specialties.

The insensati of the time began to tell tales of magi that could read a person’s innermost secrets with a glance and even steal control of a person’s thoughts. The fear of this invisible magic made people question every action of their neighbors, and people with unpopular opinions were accused of being under the influence of cerebremancy. Fear turned to hysteria, as it is wont to do, and the persecution of magi resumed in some city-states.

It was not only the mundane insensati that reacted to the fear. Magi of other specialties began to distance themselves from cerebremancy and deflected by claiming it could only be performed by those who specialized in it. It was in these rotes that the name the Hidden Arts was first applied to it. This attempt at making it seem to be a secret known only to certain magi created an othering: a separation of the more obvious magics and the hidden arts.

Displacing blame onto a small group in a population as a means of dealing with a societal issue worked as well as usual. The fears escalated until the violence became too much. A large scale conflict between insensati and magi felt inescapable. This resulted in the Schism.

The magi knew there were at least a thousand insensati for every magus. Open conflict had to be avoided. A council of magi from dozens of city-states, realms, and nations came together and banned the practice of cerebremancy. The most vocal proponents of the ban were the Elorian magi. A recent scandal that involved a mind-controlled magistrate was central to the hate espoused by these magi from the Capital of Empire. As Eloria had long taught and shown with its own naming practices, names had power – especially simple and descriptive names, and so they renamed cerebremancers as the Hidden Masters to highlight their nefarious ways.

There were only a small number of magi who voted against the draconian ban, and they were all from the Sheofite Kingdoms. Sheof, Gateway, and the other city-states whose alliance dominated an entire coast rejected the decision of the council and offered succor to any cerebremancer who could reach the kingdoms.

After the rotation when the ban on cerebremancy was announced, its practitioners began to disappear as if they never existed. Some were killed. Many more went into hiding in the same manner that magi had hidden for generations before the Age of Acceptance. Some stopped openly practicing cerebremancy and claimed to be a different type of magus.

The ban on cerebremancy was intended to wipe out its use. Books were burned, workings faded into obscurity, and the ban almost succeeded in removing the specialty entirely. The Schism, the great divide between hidden masters and magi, kept it alive. Many cerebremancers undertook a quiet journey to the Sheofite Kingdoms where they gathered in their own council in a mountain between Sheof and Gateway. From there, they released several proclamations.

First, they willingly took up the name hidden masters with which they had been derisively branded. They would never again call themselves magi or cerebremancers. Second, they declared the hidden arts the most intrinsic and powerful of the specialties. The mastery of the mind allowed magi to absorb energy for use in instantiating workings. The hidden masters used this proclamation to broadcast the hypocrisy of the previous council.

The third and final proclamation was the creation of the Three Immutable Laws. All practitioners of the hidden arts were required to swear to obey these laws above all others. This enforced moral compass was meant to show that the hidden masters were not the insidious evil the previous council claimed.

The Law of Killing. No practitioner shall kill. The murder of a fellow being hampers proper growth and evolution. Life must always be respected.
The Law of Command. No practitioner shall command a non-practitioner. It could not be proven if a command from a practitioner was obeyed willingly or throughout mental influence. Practitioners advise and recommend, but must not command non-practitioners either through the powers of the mind or through the achievement of rank within a society.
The Law of Magic. No practitioner shall use magic. The easy magics that exist outside of the powers of the mind are a temptation that must be avoided. They weaken the body and mind with curses and repercussions and corrupt the user. Those who walk this path, the magi, must be opposed at every opportunity.

The Three Immutable Laws are often debated. For instance, some hidden masters claim that the Law of Killing applies only to intelligent beings and therefore allows hunting. Other hidden masters take the stance on the avoidance of killing so far that they become vegetarians so that others do not have to kill for them to eat. The violation of the Three Immutable Laws resulted in execution originally, with the hidden masters at times turning one of their own over to Sheof for the actual execution. Debate on the appropriateness of executions given the Law of Killing resulted in the more common modern punishment: banishment from the mountain.

Six hundred gyres have passed in animosity with the hidden masters secure in their mountain fortress in the Sheofite Kingdoms, and the magi claiming everywhere else as their domain. Many would claim the magi have won this long conflict, but the mountain home of the hidden masters holds many secrets and should not be underestimated.

Bastials Vs. Canids

Bastials

All modern bastials are the result of an ancient protective working. The historical details were lost ages ago, but legends claim that house cats started to become associated with magi. This came at a time when magi were persecuted for their abilities. A cat was an easier target for violence than a magic-wielding magus, and so the feline populations of cities and towns suffered.

These legends claim that a woman named Bast instantiated a powerful working to protect the innocent cats. In some stories she is a young erudus, and in others she is one of the Creators, but regardless of her origins she loses control of the working. One compelling song passed down by melodians for generations claims that Bast spoke aloud during her working and asked that all cats be able to find home and family amongst the people of the cities and the beasts of the wild, but her words were misinterpreted. Of course, that isn’t how magic works.

The protected cats (stories variously place the original numbers at one recipient, or a litter of nine kittens, or every cat in a large city-state) became able to interbreed with any species. Animals of drastically different temperaments took in abandoned kittens and raised them as their own. New populations of hybrid felines exploded in the wild and lurked in the cities.

Historians have questioned the existence of Bast for hundreds of gyres. Whether she truly existed or not, the magic described in stories about her is undeniable. Bastials, wild and domestic, are an unavoidable part of life. Griffons are perhaps the most well-known of the bastials. Barnyard griffons provide eggs and meat, diver griffons make it possible to fly over the dangerous oceans to find new lands, and several types of griffons serve as beasts of burden – pulling wagons and carrying goods to market on their backs. A scam involving the existence of griffon milk across Empire even led to the raucously inappropriate and funny song Do Griffons Have Nipples?

This brings us to the most controversial aspect of the history of bastials: the children of Bast. More vulgarly known as bastards, records indicate that people with feline traits have existed in the margins of society for nearly as long as bastials. While there are those who deny their existence, frequently as an attempt to ignore the persecution the children of Bast have endured, the children of Bast are very real and less accepted by society than the unpatterned.

Canids

The origin of canids is a messy combination of two different workings never meant to interact. The first piece of the canid puzzle involves what is called “true-bred canids.” These creatures are the results of a magical working known as intertwining. Desirable traits from one creature are introduced into another creature at a young age. There are few theramancers able to perform this working with a high degree of success, but it is prized in times of war as a method for creating dangerous creatures to unleash on the opposing side. In many intertwined creatures, the traits being added are those of wolves. Once intertwined, the creature will breed true only with others intertwined in the same way, so if only one such creature is created it will be doomed to a very early extinction.

The most well-known of the true-bred canids is the gray bear. The result of intertwining dire wolves with brown bears, these gray-furred canids hunt in packs, generally weigh well in excess of 2,000 pounds, and can be trained to obey simple commands like a dog. I’m sure you are familiar with the story The Gray Charge, when a force of 50 gray bears with riders routed an army with more than 20 times its number.

While populations of escaped true-bred canids that have established themselves in the wild can be dangerous for travelers, it is the second element of magical intervention that has led to attempts to exterminate canids. About 1,000 gyres ago the magus Ektavyn was a theramancer with a mongrel dog as a familiar. The magus was angered when a local noble made disparaging comments about the familiar in comparison to his own purebred hunting dogs. Ektavyn placed a working on his familiar that allowed it to pass some of its own appearance and crossbred traits to other dogs through its bite, or more specifically, by getting its saliva into the blood stream.

Surely Ektavyn could not have known that his working would one day form the basis for a widespread and feared curse. It started when his familiar bit the noble’s hunting dogs. It spread when some of those infected dogs bolted into the woods where they eventually infected a pack of wolves. The magic passed down through generations of dogs, wolves, and other creatures as a disease for which there is no cure. Then, around 500 gyres ago, a true-bred canid received the disease-like curse from a wolf. Unfortunately, the true-bred canids are mixes of wolves and other creatures, and this allowed the curse to mutate and learn to propagate amongst other species.

A cursed canid is said to be “ektopic” – a reference to the progenitor of the curse. It can be very difficult to tell a true-bred canid from a cursed canid, and the uninformed assume that a bite from any intertwined wolf or dog will spread the curse. Stories of ektopic people, or werewolves, have terrified people for the last few generations. There is no cure for the curse.

Terminology: Units of Time

The terminology for most units of time are inspired by music. This is believed to be because of the status of melodians as early keepers of history and tradition. For some units of time, the omruns look to the movement of the celestial bodies they can see – the orbs.

Beat. Equivalent to a second. There are exactly 1.18 Earth seconds in a beat.
Measure. Equivalent to a minute. There are 50 beats in a measure. The measure is therefore equal to 59 Earth seconds.
Bar. Equivalent to an hour. There are 50 measures to a bar. The bar is therefore equal to about 49.17 Earth minutes.
Rotation. Equivalent to a day. This is often shortened to rote. There are 30 bars in a rotation, making one rote equal to about 24.583 Earth hours.
Movement. Equivalent to a month. Sometimes shortened to move. There are 40 rotes in a move. The movement is equivalent to about 40.972 Earth days.
Gyration. Equivalent to one year. This is frequently shortened to gyre (pronounced \ˈjir\ or jeer). There are 360 rotes in a gyre, making one gyre equal to about 1.01 Earth years or 368.75 Earth days.
Score. There are 20 gyres in a score, making one score equal to about 20.192 Earth years.
Composition. There are 100 gyres in a composition, making one composition equal to about 100.958 Earth years.

There are other, less common, units of time. “Cycle” is used in many rural communities and refers to a period of 100 rotes that is a typical harvest season from beginning to end. “Tick” is a tiny unit equal to approximately 1/10 of a beat that is used in some scholarly circles. There is a sensitivity working that aids magi in measuring this brief unit. An “octet” is a historical unit of time that is composed of 8 rotes. It fell into disuse a dozen or more scores ago but is seen in aging manuscripts and scrolls.

There has been ardent debate amongst rolled scholars as to why the modern units of time are a mix of musical and celestial terms. One popular theory espouses the idea that there were once two distinct systems for measuring time and they merged in the distant past. With melodians being the gatekeepers of the ancient past, and the pride they take with the music-based terminology, some scholars have accused the melodians of concealing the truth. A subset of this argument involves the movement unit. The word could refer to the movement of the orbs across the sky or a movement in a musical arrangement. The ambiguity will likely never be resolved and which of the two timekeeping systems it originated with is only really of interest to the most cerebral of historians.