1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.5 Hellenic to me
Wellington: “So clearly this tower was constructed by Hellenic refugees. Did Lady Dieconeura come with them, or was she created specifically to run it?”
Johannes: “Records are not entirely clear on that point, though they contain some indications that this was not the site originally intended for the tower. If this tower were designed as a defence against the Lich Queen Azura, the Mother of Monsters in the last days before the fall, then possibly both?
Alderney: “I thought this was a Zoo?”
Johannes: “It acts as one, but that wasn’t its primary purpose. It’s an interstitial space, like the gap between the ceiling of one layer of a building and the floorboards of the layer above, filled with interesting disorderly stuff. All the big evolutionary changes take place in such boundaries, such as the tidal pools between sea and shore, or the edge between a fruit filled forest and a plain riven by fish filled rivers. I think they planned to use magic to affect chance, and breed themselves a counter to Azura’s bio-weapons.” He added sadly, “They ran out of time. And they knew so much more about magic than we do today.”
Mycroft: “There’s a group of hunters here whose speciality isn’t tracking monsters. They specialise in finding ruins, penetrating them and trying to recover knowledge from the ancients. Other mages specialise in dissecting dead monsters and studying live ones, in order to determine what they can do, what their weaknesses are and where they came from. You’ll find seers, mind mages, healers and non-mages all teaming up together. A very diverse bunch, here at the zoo.”
In an amused voice he added: “Though it should be mentioned that there are quite a few strong personalities among them, who get on better with the monsters than with their fellows.”
Johannes: “And we are stronger for it. A gestalt, or any organisation, benefits from having a variety of perspectives.” He pointed at Verdre who was halfway around the course now, and attempting to cross a set of stepping stones without being swiped in the side by a set of swinging pillows that had been enchanted to emit a buzzing sound if they came into contact with anything. The problem was that the gaps between the pillows were shorter than the lengths of the bodies. “Once you get trapped by making an assumption, it is hard to spot that you are making it, if you all start with the same perspective.”
Kafana: “What actually is a gestalt? When Tomsk fights in a formation with others at his side, is that one? How about when I sing a duet or am in unity with my Corporeal Vessel?”
Johannes, Grand Master Light, said: "The best way to explain gestalts is to start with light." with an entirely straight face.
Johannes: "Take two identical grey objects. Put one of them against a bright white background and put the other against a dark black background. We can check using a prism that the light arriving at our eyes from each object is equal. But our spirit perceives the grey objects against white as being darker than the other one. Why? Again, the answer is a triad. There's what is outside, the noema, that is perceived by our thymoeides; there is what is inside, the noesis, that is perceived by our epithymia; and there is the qualia that our logistikon produces as its attempt to resolve the tension between the expected and the actual."
Mycroft: "In other words, if you see a cat behind a fence, your mind fills in the parts of the cat blocked from your sight by the fence posts. You never think: 'there are two half cats over there'."
Kafana smiled at him gratefully.
Tomsk: "Assumptions can trap, but they are also useful. 9 times out of 10, it will turn out to be a single whole cat not two halves. In most circumstances where speed of thought is advantageous, making such jumps in reasoning is adaptive not maladaptive."
Mycroft: "What Grand Master Mage Johannes has done is study the process; categorise the assumptions."
Johannes: "If two objects are in close proximity to each other, our Spirits are more likely to consider them to be part of the same thing."
Kafana: "Such as a person and the person's clothing."
Johannes: "Also if two objects are similar to each other. We more often think of the object as being 'a pair of shoes' rather than 'shoe A' and 'shoe B', unless they don't match."
Johannes: "If several objects are positioned or moving in a way that we can easily define and predict, such as a picture with reflective symmetry or a flock of migrating birds, it is easier for our Spirits to fill in any obscured gaps."
Johannes: "If the objects have a common origin, such as pieces of a game, or a common destination such as things fated to be put in a bin, our Spirits are more likely to think of them, collectively, as a single thing: 'the game', 'the rubbish'."
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Johannes: "If a view can be interpreted two ways, our Spirits are more likely to perceive the interpretation that is the simpler explanation. For example, when we see two overlapping circles on a page, our expectation is that is how they were drawn, rather than as a collection of curved lines each drawn separately."
Johannes: "I am particularly excited by this last one. I designed a machine, for which Mycroft has provided several suggestions on how to improve it, that displays a series of images in the same position, very quickly one after the other. The simplest explanation the Spirit can provide to explain the data seen by the eye, is that magic has been cast upon the picture, bringing it to life! I foresee a future in which one mage tower in every city on Covob will have such a machine, to aid teaching about geometric figures."
Mycroft shrugged: "It's a zoetrope. I mainly suggested adding lenses. He was already using runes to produce stroboscopic flashes of light, and with Gustav's aid he has progressed to using a series of 3D objects, not just 2D images."
Kafana: "I think both High Master Mage Flavio, and a local artist and sculptor named Carlo, would be fascinated to see it."
Wellington: "Which geometric figures are you studying? It is something of a passion of mine."
Johannes: "Ah, excellent! A like mind, we flock together. I shall show you, but first I must explain the nature of magic and the whole of reality."
Bulgaria: "That might take some time."
Johannes: "Not at all. The bigger the subject, the easier I find the explanation. It is only when things move from the general to the specific that explanations are hard."
A joyful bark drew their attention to Verdre, who was moving along the stepping stone path balanced upright on the rear two legs of each body, now easily fitting into the gaps between each swinging pendulum.
Johannes: "To explain why people do things in general is easy. To say exactly why Verdre managed to solve that puzzle in precisely the amount of time he did solve it, accounting for every contributory factor, that could require knowing ever expanding amounts of history, going back to the beginning of time."
Johannes: "Through observation, reality affects us. Through the mana the deities grant, we affect reality. Magic is the process by which this tension is resolved. For example, when our Spirit expects that two objects are but parts of a single greater object, our will can direct that mana to make reality conform to our expectations. When the simpler explanation for the way two Spirits interact with others via their effect upon reality is that those two Spirits are but aspects of a single greater Spirit, there exists the potential for those others to apply their mana to make that perception a reality."
Verdre charged now towards the last section of the course. She noticed that his barks seemed different now, not just in time with each other, but in harmony. The effect was more emphatic, somehow, than just the barking of three hound individuals would have been.
Johannes: "The key is that, in order to attain stability, and it not later be advantageous for others to perceive the whole as individual parts, it is necessary that the whole be greater than the sum of the parts. Our reality seems to have been designed around this principle. It is why 10 mages casting as a group are stronger than 10 mages casting as individuals, if they are harmonious enough. The deities love us, and wish us to live in harmony with each other."
Kino: "It would be nice to think so."
Kafana startled. Kino seemed to be very good at fading out of people's awareness when she wanted to. Was it an in-game skill or just natural ability?
Johannes: "Maybe it is not true. But if enough people are persuaded to see reality that way, perhaps through magic it will become so. So let us say it is true, and spread the vision."
Wellington: "Our minds seek patterns, even where none exist. And, having found a pattern in one aspect of reality, we try to cram other aspects of reality into the same pattern. If a logistikon is primed to see things in terms of binary choices, they may not look for a third choice. But, similarly, if they expect things to naturally fall into 3s or 8s, they may find themselves striving to bend into that shape things which don't fit."
Mycroft: "The menu is not the meal. It requires a process to convert one to the other."
Verdre trotted over the finishing line, his tail wagging, and was greeted by a rugged looking woman in a battered leather hat who fussed over him and praised him.
Johannes: "And now all your questions have been answered, let me ask one of my own." He turned to look at Wellington. “How do you change a pentagon into a hexagon, without losing its property of being a regular straight edged polygon at any step along the way?"
Alderney raised a hand, and was ignored by Johannes.
Wellington thought for a moment. "I don't know."
Johannes looked delighted. "Then let me use the zoetrope to show you the answer, and along the way you will learn how to alter and transfer existing enchantments to your heart's content!"
Alderney: "Excuse me, but I still don't know, in practical terms, how to tame a creature standing in front of me."
Johannes frowned at her. "I've already explained the theory to you. If you want specifics, go ask High Master Mage Faispeu, over there. She's a tamer."
With that he headed off to a building, with Mycroft, Bulgaria and Wellington in tow, and a reluctant Tomsk trailing behind them carrying his sword.
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Alderney sank to her knees in mock horror: “We were talking to the wrong person!”
{Sys, activate group skill “Facepalm”}
She and Alderney acted together. Alderney looked startled: “What did you just do?”
Kafana: “I activated a group skill, that lets us facepalm together with perfect timing.”
Alderney: “Weird. It didn’t ask my permission. What if I’d had spiked gauntlets on?”