Basilicus
Worldbuilding
on a galactic scale
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The Magisary is a theocratic organization that maintains law and order in many parts of the Sabeau continent of Authlanis.
Philosophy[]
All things have always been.
All things always will be.
All things that are not, are.
All things have no boundary.
All things were never created and can never be destroyed.
All things are connected.
All things are affected by all things.
The Way Things Are[]
The Way Things Are is a term used to describe reality and everything in it. There is natural order to everything in reality, maintained by connections with everything else. Everything is affected by everything.
The Truth[]
The Truth is the antithesis to The Way Things Are. For all things to be connected, nothing can be connected as well. Both concepts are true, but the Truth is looking at it from the opposite angle yielding different but equally real results.
The Great Balance[]
The Great Balance is the notion that for every thing there is an absence of that thing as well. Everything must be balanced by its equal and opposite manifestation. This concept is why there is both The Way Things Are and The Truth. Order and Chaos are both true and both false. Personal perspective distinguishes between two poles of a balance. If one thing is true for a person then the opposite thing is false for them, even though another perspective will reverse the results.
Immortality[]
The ultimate form of enlightenment where one can walk the common ground of the Great Balance and perceive both poles of a balance at the same time. This removes a perceiver from the consequences of a balancing reality and so are not affected by time or any perspective limitations. Essentially immortals can see reality for what it is and since their actions are outside the realm of normal perspectives, contrary affects can happen in polarized perspectives.
Plummet[]
A perceiver from either poles of perspective can now see both poles of a balance at the same time. This is different from immortality, because the perceiver is still walking on one pole or another and operating under limited judgment based on their native perspective. To become immortal, the plummeted must balance their own perspective with both poles.
Dominions of The Way Things Are[]
There are three ways to perceive The Way Things Are and the range from the most limited to perspective to limitless perspective. These tiers of perspective are called "Dominions". The Three Dominions of The Way Things Are are Identity, Motion, and Will.
The limitation of perspectives are broken down by natural means throughout a person's infinite existence. The very basic sense of self, Identity, is the most limited form of perception and the bottom Dominion. One's ability to know that one exists is limited only by one's inability to react to an environment. People in a coma, perceptional handicaps, or limited biological perceptions (such as plants or insects) exist in the Identity Dominion. To remove this perceptive limitation, one must meaningfully interact with others. For some creatures that will always be impossible or, at least, unobtainable given their circumstance, and so the only way to for them to broaden their perspective is to die, losing their physical limitations and immediately perceiving the Will Dominion. Others, however, may learn to meaningfully interact with others by firstly acknowledging that others exist and secondly moving to react to that other.
This reaction means that one is no longer limited by only his or her Identity, now one's perspective of The Way Things Are also include other identities as well. Only through movement can one perceive the Motion Dominion. Since now the perceiver has an origin and a destination in his or her perception, the perceiver can now understand time, distance and depth. This is the level of perception that most people exist in.
Although people can perceive a certain Dominion, his or her consciousness must always exist above that Dominion. For example, for a person to realize he or she exists, then the perceiver must at least understand and connect with the idea of Motion, even if he or she can only perceive Identity. Likewise a person that can perceive Motion, must in his or her consciousness understand and connect with the idea of Will.
To perceive the Will Dominion, the perceiver must no longer be limited by his or her body. This is achieved by breaking down the barriers of what the perceiver actually perceives by forgetting the sense of Identity or Motion. This is often achieved through meditation, but can be a permanent state for the perceiver if he or she is illuminated, physically dies, or evolves to the next level of perception.
The Will Dominion is no longer limited by thought, motion, or identity. This is where the Cosmos exist and is where one can perceive all of The Way Things Are all at once, not needing the boundaries of time, body, or soul to understand the perception. When the conscious physically dies, this is now the level they can perceive and in essence become no different then the Cosmos. The Cosmos choose to limit parts of their perspective into forms of Motion and Identity and likewise choose to remove those limitations of perspective via natural means, including, but not limited to death.
There are those that through evolution or other means, may become stuck between perceiving two dominions, particularly between the Motion and Will Dominions. These perceivers are often called "lost souls" and must be communicated to through dreams, as that is the only common ground between Motion and Will.
Dominions When Applied to The Truth[]
Because of the Great Balance there is an equal and opposite perception of the Dominions of The Way Things Are. If one loses one's identity, instead of expanding that perspective of identity, then the perceiver moves and interacts inward, essentially creating a completely false experience of motion unique only to that person. This situation escalates if he or she loses boundaries on that Internal Motion Domain and becomes a part of ultimate "nothingness" resulting essentially in the complete immobility and inability to perceive anything. From the perspective of The Truth, this person ceases to exist, from the perspective of The Way Things Are, this person is an inanimate object.
The caveat to that is, if this person is able to interact with another person in the Internal Motion Domain, the other person is now within that perception of The Way Things Are. Ultimately this means that if enough people join in this "false" internal reality, there is no difference between how that reality functions and how The Way Things Are functions and so it in essence creates another reality. In application, this means that feasibly a rock is actually, from the rock's perspective, a person with a perfectly operational reality, limited your perception to the rock's perception would be the only way to see that reality... but then, you'd become a rock. Now, if you were to go back to The Way Things Are, to the rock/person's reality you were in, you'd be a rock.
The beauty of The Way Things Are and The Truth is that they are exactly the same when looked at from different perspectives and there are an infinite amount of levels that it can go.
Schools[]
The Magisary is divided into two forces: School of Magic and the School of Warfare. Each school has delegates of the Council appointed to particular functions. Magic answers to the High Priestess and Warfare to the High Lord. The Priestess and the Lord, in turn, answer to the Grand Magisant who answers to no one but the Cosmos themselves.
As with all things in the Magisary, the schools of magic are based primarily in religion, or rather, the participation with The Way Things Are. There are circles outside the Magisary that practice magic with no reverence to any deity at all. The religious slant on magic make the Magisary unique and further ostracized many of its practitioners from the traditional schools of thought.
Although there are many other forms of magic, the five recognized and practiced by the Magisary as proper tools of the Cosmos are: Druidry, Wizardry, Sorcery, Magicianry, and Priesthood.
Druidry is the Magic of Craft. The practitioners use the energies of stones, herbs, and talismans to manipulate Reality. It is the art of learning natural energetic qualities and then directing that energy. Many druids specialize in a lifelong art.
Wizardry is the Magic of Tomes. Wizards find the power of language as a medium for altering Reality. Their magic is completely stored in the sounds, order, and design of words. These words are written as spells in tomes and by speaking chants they direct energy.
Sorcery is the Magic of Life. Sorcerers look inside themselves and manipulate their natural energies on all the Life Dominions: Motion, Thought, Will and Creativity. Although all magic fundamentally works within these Dominions, Sorcerers actually manipulate energy on their fundamental levels. They use the channels of energy in their bodies linked at the threshold of each Dominion to direct other energy.
Magicianry is the Magic of Illusion. Magicians use the energies of the mind to transmute what others perceive. By manipulating mental energies, they are able to alter dreams, thoughts, visions and the like.
The last school of Priesthood is simply the Magic of Prayer. Priests and Priestesses refined the art of prayer so that their requests to direct energy would happen as the result of a deity or even the Cosmos.
Each delegate in charge of the schools has mastered one or more of the arts.
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