[Dragaera] Lecture on Amorphia

[Jonathan Carey, CHRL]

Posted to FB Klava Cafe group:

Okay, it's time for another guest lecture at Adrilankha University.

Necrophia exercises some kind of limiting or restraining effect on amorphia.

If you consider amorphia to be a sphere, then you have a poor understanding
of what it means to be amorphia.

*silence, punctuated by the isolated muffled cough*

Forgive me my little joke. Let's move on to the lecture.

I will be speaking today about amorphia, the Empire's greatest
strength...and its greatest threat. Only a thing of chaos could occupy such
contradictory roles without apparent contradiction.

Let's consider amorphia to be the effect caused when many different
levels/channels of reality are localized into one specific plane/channel.

There would be, by definition, a potentially infinite number of different
channels that might be so localized, and due to their interactions with one
another, we would never be able to localize which particular channel you're
looking at at any given time. This is why raw amorphia appears to be a
swirling mass of indescribable weirdness---our ability to discern
individual features, which is to say, our ability to assign certain pieces
of information into defined psychic channels would be defeated by the
cacophony of information assaulting our perceptual fields.

However, in order to shut down an infinity of possibilities, you don't need
an infinity of negating effects unless you're trying to do things the hard
way. The smarter way is to realize that you only need to close the door
those infinities are using to cross over into your plane. This is why a
relatively miniscule amount of necrophia can produce such a powerful
limiting effect on the raw matter of chaos.

It is the effect of necrophia upon amorphia that makes me so excited: in
its function, it collapses the randomness into a defined state; for
example, texts speak of coloured stones that would be used by pre-Empire
sorcerors when engaged in their nefarious work.

Instead of being the simultaneity of a cat, a piece of stone, a loud
explosion, a ray of light...the possibilities can be collapsed into a
contained form; a small purple stone.

Where do these stones come from? What channel? What level of existence?
Yes, obviously they are formed by the criminal minds of those who would
risk all of our lives for their own selfish pursuits; but why are the
stones the form that craftable chaos takes? Stones are ubiquitous; I would
theorize that, in order to become craftable, chaos collapses into stones
precisely BECAUSE they are everywhere. Chaos must retain an element of
chaos, even in its most defined form; if it did not, it would no longer be
chaos.

This would reinforce the idea that, if you have defined a single location,
you cannot define an individual pattern; but if you define an individual
pattern, you cannot define a single location. These stones not only could
have come from anywhere, they MUST have come from anywhere.

And if this theory is true, then I would argue that the inside of such a
stone is either an utterly unremarkable rock with extremely curious and
powerful properties, or else the purpleness comes from the fact that the
sorceror that formed the stone has pulled on a channel that allows the
stone's outer surface to become a form of necrophia; a thin film that coats
the otherwise chaotic interior of the device. This is why these stones feel
hot to the touch, and feel like they writhe or even jump in your hand
without actually moving, and how they seem to swirl at the same time as
remaining a uniform shade of pinkish/purple. Unfortunately, only the most
foolhardy would attempt an experiment to find out if this "necrophia shell"
theory is correct. Who would dare unleashing an amorphia explosion centred
on their exact location? Even those precious few who have learned to
converse with the Seas would not hazard such an experiment. Their ability
to shape the raw stuff of chaos is remarkable; but it is not limitless. We
all know of one notable sorceror from history who disastrously proved that
very fact.

Our curiosity about these stones must remain just that. Curiosity, and not
knowledge. Guesswork, and not certainty. Vagueness, and not definition. For
that is the true nature of chaos.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Regards,

Jon Carey, B.A.(Hon), CHRL, CHRP