Revolution: The Origin of Magic

This is a freeform RP, intended for as little GM moderation as possible. I'm avoiding using the tab for this purpose. The only proviso is that, if necessary, I will play the goddess of magic.

The OOC is to be found HERE.



A Prelude from Earth:

The Neolithic Era (New Stone Age) gets its name from the further refinement of the stone artifacts used by Paleolithic hunter/gatherers. There was a reason for the increasingly sophisticated tools: the Agricultural revolution. Likely because of some accident, such as a gatherer observing that plants grew in areas where seeds had been dropped years before (and correctly inferring a rule from this), humans began to cultivate crops. And, as they needed a way to best manage their food supply, humans invented tools whose function is still recognizable today.

As a direct consequence of this, human life became more sedentary. Agriculture limits mobility. Wandering bands settled into villages. With increased division of labour, humans developed intellectually. Culture flourished, most recognizably in the form of another gift of the Neolithic mind: organized religion. The two figures of the Goddess and the Bull appear in various ways in sites across the Fertile Crescent (modern day Iraq).


Onwards:

In an alternate universe, where the laws of reality are more tenuous and flexible, a parallel development occurs. Magic, the seemingly spontaneous manifestation of substance from nothingness, occurs in nature in a wild, chaotic form. Human beings have, to date, only touched it by sheerest accident.

But, with the new consciousness that arises during this world's New Stone Age, humans are beginning to understand that it can be harnessed and controlled, just as surely as tools are designed, plants are sown, and animals are raised. They are, thusly, at the cusp of the Magical Revolution, where a single step is all that is needed for a new discovery, and a world-altering paradigm.

Gods watch humankind closely, and many forces, both friendly and sinister, prepare to welcome this fledgling race to a greater community, or to destroy them.


Laws of Magic:

The fabric of reality is shredded, and primordial chaos seeps through. An immortal being of immense power, a self-styled goddess of magic, uses all her power to keep the universe in order. She draws her strength from her Intent, the ultimate expression of freedom and deliberate consciousness. A mortal being might appease her, and she will allow them to thereby do impossible things.

Otherwise, an intelligent creature with sufficient willpower may be able to use its own Intent to combat chaos, and shape reality. Furthermore, many things in nature take advantage of the fact that reality is not entirely contained in the goddess's web, and thus circumvent the powers of order entirely. Besides unusual minerals, many animals and plants have thus evolved magical powers, and their use may be another way to perform magic. There is no guarantee that the goddess of magic will approve the deliberate use of this chaos magic.

With reality breaking apart, there could very well be other forces at work. As the invention or discovery of magic is an element of this roleplay, feel free to play around.


Other Races:

Humans have not, to date, had any major encounters with other humanoid races or intelligent beings. In general, most intelligent beings consider the development of Intent -- and therefore the control of magic -- to be an entry-point into a larger community. It's not an arbitrary point: it's when devils start seeing a species as a useful way to cross into the world.

Besides fire-and-brimstone devils, the world is populated by familiar fantasy races, such as dwarves and goblins, which have to this point experienced very little contact with humans. This is mostly for significance's sake. Roleplaying the first human/elf contact is meaningful, and already quite phantasmagoric. Basically, just use discretion.


Roleplay Suggestions:

At first, it may seem difficult to think like a Neolithic human. Certainly, many constructs 21st century man takes for granted did not exist twelve thousand years ago. Trivially speaking, there was no Freudian structural model of the mind, no Newtonian physics, and no Baconian empirical science. There was no formal mathematics, nor Socratic method. The Neolithic era came before the Miletians thought up the four elements and the geocentric view of the solar system. Currency came ten thousand years later, and even the earliest writing was a long way off.

But, generally speaking, for the last fifty thousand years, humans have undergone very few changes in how they think. Sure, they may have been less deliberate, and their best science was little more than trial and error. But they had inner lives as vivid as modern man. With their fantastic memories -- a necessity of oral culture -- they lived in a rich world. Anthropologists who have studied the few remaining Paleolithic tribes today observe that tribesmen have virtually encyclopedic memories. Anyway, when stories were first written down, the dynamics of literature appeared to arise fully-formed. Humans invented and shared great works of poetry long before Homer wrote down the Illiad. The themes explored by the humanities, of life and death, of turmoil and love, are ancient. They are prehistoric.

My suggestion is, as with any roleplaying, there is no need to stereotype stone age man. He was part of a community. He had friends and enemies, favourite stories, and dreams for his future. Maybe he wanted to be famous, or to settle down with a family, or to go on adventures. He might have thought fart jokes were funny, or stupid and immature. And, unless he was incredibly lazy (which, I suppose is possible), he did not just sit mindlessly around a fire making crude grunting noises.

Cosmologically speaking, he tended to anthropomorphize the universe. People-like gods were behind everything. In this universe, humans are fortunate enough to be mostly correct.

Below the height of the trees, hidden by leafy canopy, three red eyes watched closely as a group of H'oapa tribesmen lifted a wild Borak onto a carved plank. The creature turned to examine its droppings, sniffing the mass, afraid, startled, and sensing its mothers spirit. With a rustle of leaves, the beast shuffled itself into a dense cluster of broad shaped brush, and scampered down a track to find refuge.

The H'oapa smeared the animals blood across each others faces with all five fingers, so as to ward off the spirit of the animal and prevent further encounters. The tribesmen had remembered to act together in chant, as O'apa, the witchdoctor had told them. Moments earlier, as the Borak spewed its life over the ferns of a Cycad tree, the woodsmen had sung together. O'apa knew that doing so would strengthen the men, and push the spirit away. He still did not understand where the spirits went, but he had been taught the rituals of the hunt, including the Borak spirit song from his father, who was famous as the best orator of the chants of L'oatsa. It was known that his father could act all the parts of the L'oatsa and was able to work the ideas of the story into the tribe day after day. Now it was O'apa's time in the sun, and he wanted greatness.

The spirit which had emerged from the animal was no different than any other, except that it moved towards the tribe making as if to attack, and took longer to vanish into the usual glowing blue and green wisps. The spirit had been strong, but O'apa was worried about something else.

A light had exploded across the scene just as the tribesmen hoisted the animal onto the plank, a light O'apa had never seen. Going through his memories, O'apa could not come up with any explanation, and his tribesmen were scared. The light had lasted only a moment, and had seemed close. When the light had emerged, the men had slowly stopped their song. In the distance they heard a sound like no other.

'Morran, Morran.'

O'apa knew what must be done

Summoning two of his best tribesmen, he decided to seek out the cause of the sound. The others would have to stay with the animal. After an animal had been killed, no man could leave its side until the creature had been consumed by every member of the tribe. Otherwise, the spirit may return, or some predator would ravage the corpse. O'apa had heard stories of dead animals walking again, but never had seen it with his eyes.

Whistling like a bird, O'apa pointed first towards the two tribesmen with a wiry finger, and then towards the unknown sound with the sharp end of his spear, his head and eyes gesturing the men forward. The others he commanded to stay, using a Borak grunt and a bob of his head.

Through the leaves, they crept, silent. Any fern or branch that was an obstruction was moved as quietly as possible. Emerging into a clearing, O'apa and his men witnessed the scene. Gasping, O'apa tried to comprehend the man and the sight, while his men mumbled and backed away. O'apa sang a small blessing and walked forward, after a couple steps, he realized his men were not behind him, and taunted them. O'apa could tell that the man was unconscious and injured, and could see that the man looked different, utterly different from anything he had ever seen. Shaking, O'apa became afraid of the perfect circle, and was looming on the outside of it, afraid to cross over. Using his spear he prodded the ground, and realizing it was safe, mumbled a blessing as he walked forward. His men caught up with him and gasped when he walked forward through the circle, but followed in line, each whispering the blessing. O'apa gestured towards them to fan and surround the man.

Thinking to himself, O'apa realized all at once that this was what he needed to achieve glory. The man was like a spirit, but had not disappeared! Using this man, who was entirely different from any other, perhaps the spirit world could finally be controlled. And here was an answer from another realm.

O'apa lowered his spear and in his minds eye surged with the image of sun, the light coursing through his entire being. Now it would be possible, O'apa thought, to harness magic.

Strands of sensate energy stretched across the universe. If it could look like something, it would be somewhat like a web, but no spider would ever create a structure of such beauty and complexity. Energy had been woven, ever flowing, through an intelligence and method far surpassing the art and science of mere humans. Pulsating with power, these strings held together an entire universe.

Mythra, the weaver, noticed immediately as a sudden, new, fracture in the universe cracked open and tore back at her feelers. But, as always, there was nothing she could do yet. It would take time for her to patch over the damage. In the meantime, she would need a representative to assess the damage.

Carn heard the Goddess calling to him. He awoke, in deep sweat, from a dream. The images were dying embers in my mind; he struggled to recreate the thoughts and thus, with repetition remember the details. The Elf, the Touched of Mythra, knew from exprerience that anything would serve him. However, this dream was not meant for this world, and time was unforgiving. He could, in the end, only recall a direction.

Thus he walked, heedless of supplies, to a twisted old tree, wreathed in ancient vines of dripping poison. He looked into the distance, picked a particular spot on the horizon that looked somewhat like the arc of a sleeping giant's knee, and set off. Carn had no firm idea how long this journey would be, but the wise Goddess would not have called to him if any of her band of followers were closer to the chosen spot.

As Carn travelled, Mythra wove quickly, in hope that she could witness whatever being had damaged her universe so.