Of Magic, and Its Uses in Governance

This is about magic and how to make use of it. I heard Your Grace’s critique on my last attempt - specifically I don’t care about the bloody theory, just tell me what use it is!

Firstly. There are two errors that the rich and the powerful (ie: yourself) make when dealing with magic.

The first error is ignoring it entirely and leaving it entirely up to the specialists. This tends to end badly when the specialists realize they can kill thousands with a thought (given enough setup) and don’t really have to do what you want.

Like what happened with Catherine’s Gate. And the dungeons at Harrow’s End in Wattle. Or even recent incidents, which we shall not speak of . . .

The second error is treating magic like an infinite factory of wishes. When people commit to magical solutions without understanding what those solutions cost - well, the Waste is a great reminder of what can go wrong.

This means yes, Your Grace, you will have to do some reading. And dare I say that the most useful ideas for for how to deploy magic often comes from outside universities and the like.

For example, if I invent a Ritual that gives me infinite lumber, that would be very nice - a curiosity, something to research, maybe an excellent reputation bump with the faculty. But to a carpenter? That’s an infinite resource. To a king? Cheap housing, walls, shields, weapon shafts. To your Treasurer? A giant headache, because the price of wood is now effectively zero.

Your Grace rules Daub. Daub sits at the intersection of several magical traditions. Admittedly, none of them are as developed as in Wattle, let alone Singhapura, but this just means that the problems are simply in the future. Avoiding magic is not a position that is available to you.

So, on my second attempt at this quest, here is what I have for you:

One, the general theory of the workings of magic and types of practitioners involved, keeping largely to results and staying away from most of the technical. Where possible I have tried to give examples of who uses these different types and how.

Two, a sampling from the Singhapura system of magics, which is also what the Lesser Thereotical University of Daub uses. There are thousands of potential Patterns and hundreds of Rituals, many of which are minor variations upon each other. Rather than fill a library, I have hand-picked a version of what we call the common corpus - well-known workings that most competent Masters are familiar with. I have arranged them in as practical an order as I can think of.

This also lets me give Your Grace a warning. Not all magic can be done solo. Some require groups. Some require gifted Masters who can be quite expensive, and not the sort you keep on retainer. Ssome are possible in theory, but are functionally suicide. Some need resources.

Workings of large magnitudes often need materials. These include enormous compilers and spell-plates, which means metal, metalworking, many days to inscribe, much effort to transport . . . sometimes it is much cheaper to hire men to watch your fields than to comission a magical scarecrow; sometimes it is easier send an ordinary army instead of a cabal of Masters.

This is why I implore Your Grace, once again, to read, especially the magics I have listed. Examined together they should give Your Grace a basic understanding of what magic can accomplish, and what it cannot.

There are some technicalities still. Most of these Rituals come from Taprobane or with the Lesser Theoretical University of Daub. The compiler differs between the two institutions: Taprobane Rituals require the Universal Ritual Interpreter, while LTU Rituals assume a Rossum’s Universal Translator.

Your Grace does not need to know how these things work, but you do need to understand how to spot people who do. Most practitioners available to Your Grace should have discs or plates of tempered steel or bronze with both compilers etched on them, and should be able to draw the weaker but more portable Turing’s Array from memory. This is the most basic test of competence I can think of. Anyone who cannot can be safely diregarded as an amateur.

If Your Grace wants to hire someone, at least let them prove they know what they’re doing. Confidence is more common than skill.

For serious study I recommend the abridged Ustaad, Volumes One to Sixteen from Taprobane University Press, originally written by Paragon Bolgoda and translated by myself. If Your Grace wants just the principles and simpler workings, my own Art of Magic will serve, though I have to say that the target audience for that book was children under twelve.

Folio II · The World According to Art

Transcribed by Victor Konara