The Hobgoblin Warcamp under the command of Warchief Tyrgol The Devourer was busy as always. The soldiers and workers needed to keep the large encampment were milling about in the muddy streets between the war-tents. I, Glyphnax Warlock of the Second Circle did not concern myself with the affairs of the lesser soldiers. My duties as one of the chiefs magic casters afforded me far more important responsibilities, and far more appealing benefits to do my work. 

I engrossed myself in thoughts about the steps that I made which had lead me here while waiting within the foyer of the Warchief's personal tent. Before this, my life had been much different as I had been an apprentice Warlock within The Circle of Neverending Discoveries, a secret society dedicated to the worship of the Archfiend Trakaya. My father was the only other true Warlock within the cult, and Trakya had once revealed to him during a dark ritual that if he bred a child with one of the few Hobgoblin cultists within the society. They would bring a child into the world with an incredible potential for magic.

After my birth, I had apparently been dedicated to the archfiend before I was old enough to lift my head and that shaped my destiny. I was raised to become the perfect warlock, but eventually I had realized I wanted to see life outside of the largely High Elf driven cult. I fled from my father and his compatriots and sought out the Hobgoblins, to learn more about my heritage.

As I reminisced about the past and the steps that lead me to serve Tyrgol as one of his magic casters, I could feel a ripple move through reality. The strange purple ripple through space was barely perceptible to me, but I noticed it and with that notice came a realization. "This is a dream, these events happened centuries ago," I whisper out loud to myself and I notice two of the honor guards in the tent looking over at me curiously.

I turn around and walk out of the tent before anyone within the confines of it can say anything. "Not only is this a dream....but I am also not alone within this dreamscape," I conclude with a chill entering my voice as I strain my senses to see if I feel the invading presence. The war camp is busy like all hobgoblin encampments, with soldiers and civilians alike scurrying to ensure that the army is ready to move at a given notice.

I strain to try and filter out the sounds, scents, and impressions from the camp to better locate the invader. Unfortunately, I don't get to test my senses before the invader reveals themselves to me. I see a purple shadow emerge from one of the tents, it is a vaguely humanoid shadow. A flickering purple specter with empty sockets and pulsating limbs stare at me and then it gives me a vague approximation of a smile before uttering. "Glyphie! There you are, I am sorry for intruding but I wished to ask if you could begin with the mystical lessons?"

With a sudden shiver, I realize who is floating in front of me and I ask. "Mara, is that you?" I keep my voice calm and collected as I try to ensure that she cannot read my emotions. The specter merely nods and keeps staring at me with her empty eye sockets. My mind is racing through an ocean of different thoughts as I work up the never to respond to her request. Her appearance here in my dream so soon after having been given magic and without any guidance from me is truly disconcerting.

"I presume we could start now my patron, but before we begin could you explain your presence here in my dream?" I watch Mara intently for her response and try to ponder up some token lessons about magic while at it. Mara floats closer to me and she hmmmmmmms loudly before saying, "Good question, I experimented with magic and it led to me entering your dream after I constructed a mystical program which let me do it."

I tried to process the strange terminology before I asked confusedly. "Wait you are some kind of mystic scribe? You wrote your way into this dream?" As far as I knew mystic scribing was not really a talent exhibited by eldritch entities, their magic is a more primal type of magic that ties itself to the baser nature of the entity in question. Mara looks at me confusedly before she says with a note of amusement in her tone, "Ohhhhhh, nono I am not a scribe...Or I guess programming is kinda like scribing, but no let me explain."

It took her over twenty minutes to explain the basic concepts of digital, computer and programming to me, to my initial shame but I realize it must take a genius to grasp such alien concepts so quickly.  The closest equivalent to this alien art is runecraft, which invokes the same principles of combining runes to produce effects when they have been infused with magic. Yet to ensure my understanding is correct I once again ask, "So, to be fully clear. My interface, yourself and other beings like you and this entire "Veb" function because ephemeral letters and numbers are written in sequences that machines read to activate specific commands? And you entered my dreamscape by writing such a "code" while infusing each non-existent letters with eldritch mana?"

Mara floats in front of me for a while until she says, "Not entirely, but you have grasped the basic concept of it at least." With that revelation, I am glad that Mara is not capable of reading minds as I am unsure how she would react to the knowledge that if I had only been slightly more powerful I would have attacked her immediately. This information made it crystal clear for me that I am standing before my most dangerous foe yet. 

An eldritch titan that is capable of neverendingly adjust and adapt her very core essence and create new forms of magic that are at the core of her being, is far more terrifying than Old Ones, Demons, Spirits or even Faeries. Even entities born out of the primordial realm of Chaos, are less problematic than what Mara represents. All Eldritch creatures be they of Arcadia, The Murky Depths, The Thousand Hells or even Chaos, are limited by their core nature to some extent. Even entities of chaos and change are predictable in that they are chaotic or that they change over time. Mara, on the other hand, is a creature that can be completely static or ever-evolving according to the needs of the moment and the most concerning part of it all is that she can consciously control her alterations.

She can at will completely rewrite her very nature to adapt to whatever obstacle she needs to overcome. As long as it doesn't undo her existing programs, she can cleverly evolve and change at will and she has almost all the power of an Archfiend at her disposal to use for her growth. These factors make Mara truly unique as eldritch entities go, and I have to carefully observe her development and guide her to ensure she remains under my control. Mara flies around me in a circle before stopping to ask, "Sooooo with that out of the way can you teach me now?" Her voice reveals a hint of agitation and impatience this time, and I note this development down in my head before I answer.

"Very well, since you are completely new to Magic allow me to explain the basics. Magic is a force created by life which comes in infinite variations, but there are in general three forms of magical energy you should be aware of. Arcane Mana, Eldritch Mana, and Faith." Mara interrupts me to state, "That last one makes little sense to me, based on my data Faith is just believing in something without evidence...not a form of force." 

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Her statement causes me to smile as she reveals a shortcoming worth examining later, but before she can notice any deviations from me I answer. "Now now there are a lot of people who would claim that there is no power greater than belief, faith can figuratively move mountains and in magical circles, it can literally do so as well. Faith comes from that powerful belief and those who truly believe earnestly enough may wield faith magic. In theory that belief could be in anything and not necessarily a deity, but most people do not believe that....love or an idea about economics can give you magical powers. So regardless of the faith in such subjects most believers would not become capable of wielding magic."

"The selectiveness of faith is what makes it sooooo...limiting compared to other forms of magic. Arcane Mana which is the magic that comes from corporeal creatures and which is wielded through willpower. Either through intellect or base emotions, Wizards and Sorcerers are the most notable wielders of that form of magic."  :: I try and notice to my annoyance that even in my dreams, I am not able to snap my fingers.:: "Lastly, Eldritch Mana is the magical energy that you and I channel. It is the magic that stems from.....not natural lifeforms everything from creatures from other planes to ephemeral entities in the material. As you and I discovered this form of Mana is alive and to some extent sapient, to what degree we do not yet know. This magic is wielded by warlocks through a connection to the entities that fuel us, we draw power from them and in turn that power shapes us. All Eldritch Magic has a tangible cost of some kind, even if that cost is paid off in months or years rather than at the moment of use."

I pause to consider Mara and carefully decide my next words before I continue, "Drawing power from the unnatural has a cost for beings who don't own that magic. It will be different for you as you are eldritch mana, that power is natural to you and frankly my ability to guide you here is limited." I draw out the last word before I turn to look around at the campsite. The milling hobgoblin soldiers pay no heed to us and I return my attention to Mara. "Warlocks are of course not the only magic users to wield Eldritch Mana, in addition to "natives" like yourself there are of course second degrees." 

Mara tilts her spectral head in a questioning sort of my way and, I lift my hand to stop her from giving voice to the question. "Second Degrees are lesser practitioners of magic, they are the weaker counterparts to real magic wielders like myself. Warlocks have cultists, Clerics have lay-siblings, Wizards have acolytes and I am sure the myriad of other true mages have their lessers. Second Degrees are only capable of using ritual magic and calling upon simple tricks. Spells, Principles and other more demanding kinds of magic are beyond their meager capabilities." I clench my fists for just a second as I think of those lesser creatures.

Mara seizes the chance to speak up as I am lost in reverie and says. "You seem antagonistic towards these Second Degrees. If they are "lesser" than you then I fail to understand why you feel such animosity. Tell me more about Cultists please?" I sigh and throw up my hands for a moment, "They vex me because most second degrees meddle with forces they do not understand, let alone control. Magic is not something for everyone and...democratization of magic is a wasted effort in my opinion. As for Cultists, they are altered by the touch of an eldritch patron such as yourself. Most eldritch creatures are only capable of creating Cultists and for each Warlock they have, you are safe to assume they have created ten more cultists."

"Cultists are only capable of using ritual magic and whatever mutations they gain from being enhanced by their patron. In essence, they are quantity over quality personified" I might be sneering in derrision as i finish explaining Cultists to her, as I do this I get an idea for how to pad out the lesson without giving up any real knowledge. I gesture grandly around at the war-camp. "Now, we should examine what you have done here. Dreams are usually liquid places they don't stick to the same form or narrative for long, there is a reason why most don't remember their dreams. However, this changes when magic is involved." Mara's specter seemingly perks up and floats closer as I turn my attention to her work. "Maybe flattery will be the way to manipulate this entity?" I casually think to myself as I am racing through the improptu lecture.

"A powerful entity like you solidify dreams by entering them or casting magic into the dream itself. The dreams then become something known as a dreamscape. Dreamscapes are just as mysterious as normal dreams, but they are solid and everyone from the dreamer themselves to the things that are dreamed are more lucid. I know that there are people who specialize in dream magic, but I myself have never pursued the field with any real interest. It might be a good start for you, however, as dreams serve as a good area for you to practice wielding your immense and incomparable power." I add on an added tone of deference as I give her the lecture which is an amalagam of truth and fiction. 

Mara perks up even more at this explanation and I manage to keep her entertained for a good thirty minutes espousing the little I know about oneriomancy and well reasoned lies. I expect that it will take her time to realize just what is truth and what is fiction, and such a surgically gutted education will serve my purposes far more than presenting her the real truths of magic. 

However, too my satisfaction I notice that a ripple spreads through the camp. Mara floats around still clearly processing the information, and she doesn't notice that the dreamscape is starting to fade. Wakefulness is coming and that means I will get a reprieve from the tedium of explaining the mysteries to a neophyte. A powerful neophyte but still a neophyte. I focus my mind on trying to help the process go along and force myself back into wakefulness. Several ripples reverberate from me and out through the world and cracks grow along the fictitious landscape. Mara turns towards me again and cants her head questioningly in the direction of the growing cracks. "Sadly Mara this session has come to an end, the dreamscape is shattering and that means I am to wake up now. Let's resume the lessons at another night."

Before she can reply the final ripple reverberates through the landscape and the entire dream breaks apart, replaced only by the blinding light of wakefulness. I open my eyes to see a blinking system notification hovering above me on the bed in the cramp room that serves as my quarters.

Crew Member(Glyphnax) Schedule of the Day:

Morning: Free time

Early Afternoon: Introduction to galactic society by Morgera

Afternoon: Meal time

Late Afternoon: Therapy Session with Amatha.

Note: Alarms have been coded into your NVR to remind you of these, as the passing of time is hard to judge in space.