AnglerStudios:Story/Aspects

Aspects

Aspects are, in the contempory world that the player enters, an area of secret knowledge. Previously, particularly in the age of the Trenashi, it was not nearly so closely guarded. Aspects are the foundation of Magic.

Those people who still have some knowledge of the Aspects (notably the mages of The Tower of Magic) have nowhere near as an advanced an understanding as the Trenashians did, largely due to human limitations.

So, what's the deal with Aspects?

Well, okay, y'know how a tree is a tree? Right? Well, you take tree 1 and compare it to tree 2. They're both trees, right? But they look different. They're not the same tree, are they? So what is it that makes them trees? That's the Aspect - in this case, the Tree-Aspect.

So, that tree-ness that a tree represents is the Aspect of the tree. And the closer the tree is to this tree-Aspect, the more tree-like it becomes. That commonality that all trees possess is the tree Aspect.

This applies to all things; snakes, birds, water, fire, green, red, tall, short, etc. Each has an associated Aspect - or, to put it more accurately, they are all derivatives of an Aspect. A green tree is a derivative of the tree-Aspect and the green-Aspect (as distinct from the Green Aspect).

Now, the more philosophically-inclined of you may say to yourselves 'Ah, these are just Plato's Forms'. Well, sorta. But no. A little different.

Firstly, conformity to an Aspect does not necessarily breed uniformity. Two red objects are both perfectly red, and thus in conforming to the Red Aspect, and still be different shades. Two trees may both be tree-like in the truest sense, but look nothing like each other. Two mountains may be both tall, and thus in conform to the tall-Aspect, but still be different heights.

And an object may embody 'contradictory' forms simultaneously - for instance, a fence embodies the tall-Aspect when compared to the grass, but also embodies the short-aspect when compared to the house. Sometimes, however, some 'opposites' are really simply the non-conformity to an Aspect. For instance, the 'cold-Aspect' is really just non-adherence to the 'hot-Aspect' to such-and-such an extent.

So, it is readily seen that any given object is a whole nexus of Aspects. Some old Trenashian experts have theorised that all things possess all Aspects, to greater or lesser extents, which many have used as a basis not only for fellowship between and within races, but also for veganism and - by some extremists - not doing anything at all.

Now, the theory of Aspects becomes a little more complex. We can look at trees and go 'they have the tree-Aspect'. But we could also go to individual trees and say 'this has the willow-Aspect' and 'that has the oak-Aspect'. We could even step back and say 'this parsely and that tree both have the plant-Aspect'. We see that the Aspect-sphere of reality is equally as decisive and collective as physical matter.

Aspects and Magic

What, then, does this have to do with Magic? Well, at it's root, magic slightly alters aspects from one thing to another. For instance, a fire spell will turn air into flame. Essentially, by way of 'pulling the invisible strings' of the universe, one can shift something's aspect. This doesn't mean magic can't operate in a vaccuum - the Vaccuum-aspect is shifted to the fire-aspect or whatever.

That's what's happening at a grass-roots level. Most magicians have no idea what's going on, they just know what works, and sorta 'feel out' their way to more powerful abilities. In a way not fully understood, even by the traditional experts in Aspect-theory, the Trenashi, is how movements of the hand and spoke words and so forth effect the aspects of other objects.

Aspects and Sentience

Most Trenashian experts maintain the theory that, in essence, Sentience is the ability to comprehend other aspects. Tied up within this is perhaps the ability to reach other Aspects - Someone with the weak-aspect may train and gain the strong-aspect. Now, the factor which distinguishes this change from a plant growing up and moving from the short-aspect to the tall-aspect is Will. A Sentient creature can will itself to change.

This is a matter largely for philosophy and religion, and it bores me, so I'll cut straight to the relevant bit - Most people notice that the larger portions of sentient races in the known world are more similar than disimilar - usually humanoid, for instance, and employing similar notions of Reason. This has sparked a controversy over the origins of sentient life between two theories:

1) All life has developed from one initial race, either now non-existant or still current

2) All races, or their progenators at least, were begun indepedently of each other, and the similarities are due either to coincidence or the machinations of a higher guiding force.

Of the two, theory 1 has gained the far greater following.

The issue then is What was the initial race? The two most commonly presented options were the Trenashi or the Humans.

The Trenashian case rests upon the idea that, due to the Trenashian ability to screw around with their Aspects, they must necessarily be closer to the will-powerless aspects of the natural world. Other arguments include religious ones, like that since The Smith was a Trenashi, the Trenashi must be the original race. Critics invert these arguments and state that the Trenashian kinship with Aspects may be due to a developed superiority, rather than a perfect originality, and further assert that it is therefore possible that the Smith emerged from the most advanced sentient race rather than the underdeveloped original.

The Argument for Man being the original rely on their more considerable population and the belief that they represent a logical 'mid-way point' between all the races.

Other splinter groups have suggested other races, usually their own, particualarly the Angelinas, and even more particularly the reigning Praetoria, Lady Felina.

Aspects and Religion

Now, earlier, you may have have asked 'wait, we have a red-Aspect here and a tree-Aspect there, and a courage-Aspect here - isn't there an Aspect we've missed out on?' and you would have been most clever to notice. Shouldn't there be an Aspect-Aspect? Is there a principle to which all Aspects, provided that they conform to themselves, are themselves conforming to? This abstract thought is often called 'The Aspect of Aspects' or 'The Aspect beyond Aspects'.

There have been, throughout the history of Aspect Study, those who have looked to this concept and called it 'The High-God', or rather 'this is the High-God we have been worshipping'. While these individuals have rarely been called out-and-out heretics, they have generally been considered with varying degrees of suspicion. The more popular opinion - presuming that the individual both believes in a God and even has any knowledge of Aspects - has been that the High-God is outside the Aspect-System, or more accurately, permates but is not bound by the Aspect-System.

Many different religious movements have sprung out of the study of Aspects. There have been hedonistic cults that worshipped every individual Aspect, and ascetic cults that attempt to deprive the self of any Aspect qualities whatsoever, and other such things. These groups were usually based in Burgand, being the unquestioned hub of all research into the Aspect world, and most have been quenched or at least greatly reduced by the emergence and success of the Cult of the Smith.

The cult of the Smith itself has no inherent dogmas concerning Aspects, excepting where theories may contradict their own doctrines, and has mostly been open to research in this area, at least where people are even aware of it. Resistance to Aspect-research is usually based then on personal feelings given a religious covering rather than actual issues of belief.

Aspects and the Trenashi

- able to 'distort' or 'shift' aspect qualities