[Dragaera] Lecture on Amorphia

[Steve Rapaport]

Hrrrmph hrrrumph! Hear! Hear!
Most prudent.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2018 at 21:01, Jonathan Carey, CHRL via Dragaera <
dragaera at lists.dragaera.info> wrote:

> 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
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-- 
\Steve