Logical principles of sorcery

[Nel]

Acording to HQ:G p.172, sorcery works by applying one of the four principles to one or more runes.

Those logical principles are two pairs of opposite verbs:
- Summon / Dismiss
- Combine / Separate

And two lonely verbs:
- Command
- Tap

I somehow felt it was incomplete, and thus, trying to restore the balance, I searched the opposite verbs that are lacking to those two lonely principles:

- When a sorcerer commands something, he is ruling over it: It obeys the sorcerer.
The opposite of commanding is setting free, allowing it to act freely.
So the balancing principle of COMMAND is FREE.

- When a sorcerer is tapping something, he is draining its "itselfness", what causes it to be it.
The opposite of taking away essence is giving existence.
So I name the balancing principle of TAP as VIVIFY, despite a stone is not alive.

Anyway, with these two new pairs, we envision the forgotten and forbidden tecniques of the God Learners:
"Freeing" and "Vivifying"!

And this immediately reminded me of Zistor and the Machine City.

What do you think?
Am I missing something or am I elaborating too much?

[Joerg]

In the RQ3 box "Elder Secrets", the mostali castes have each a caste specific (and utterly useless) spell "Stabilize <caste specific substance>" which is the opposite of Tap <whatever>. I would call that principle "imbue" rather than "vivify" - the sorcerer puts some of his essence or energy (or indeed life) into something else. Brithini (and Brithini-derived) sorcerers probably regard this as tapping oneself for the benefit of something lesser, hence evil.

Command is the triumph of (nearly) pure intellect over (mostly) dumb energy or matter, imposing the sorcerer's will (which is an extension of the Creator's will, don't you ever doubt it) on entities who strayed after being left to their own devices for too long. It is Righting the world.

The opposite would be to go counter to the superior intellect of the sorcerer (and ultimately the Creator) and to succumb to the errors of the world. This is worship, voluntary enslavement to a lesser entity. And we all know that that is evil, and not a sorceror's technique.

 

But then, you are right - the God Learners (or at least the Zistorites) did mass-produce magical swords, imbued with magic that could and should have been used in a better way, and the God Learners experimented with worship, destroying much of Umathela and Slontos.

 

[metcalph]

1 hour ago, Nel said:

Anyway, with these two new pairs, we envision the forgotten and forbidden tecniques of the God Learners:
"Freeing" and "Vivifying"!

Freeing can be subsumed under Dismiss, ie Dismiss Binding Spell.

Vivifying would be better known as Creation.  I assume that the Malkioni use Summon instead of Creation on the basis that since the Invisible God has already created the world,  it has everything we need and that new creations would be either impossible, blasphemous or chaotic. 

[jajagappa]

6 hours ago, Joerg said:

the God Learners (or at least the Zistorites) did mass-produce magical swords, imbued with magic that could and should have been used in a better way

Tap first, then Imbue; Tap first, then Imbue...  Sounds like the Mostali at work.  And I could readily see this as something the God Learners adopted (perhaps with a little help from a 'friendly' Vadeli).

6 hours ago, Joerg said:

The opposite would be to go counter to the superior intellect of the sorcerer (and ultimately the Creator) and to succumb to the errors of the world. This is worship, voluntary enslavement to a lesser entity. And we all know that that is evil, and not a sorceror's technique.

I agree with this thought.  But I bet the Vadeli know it!  And I bet they encourage young and ambitious sorcerers in Fonrit to 'try' this technique (obviously under some other name) with Ompalam.