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.

Aspects and Sentience

beings are sentient by ordering, sub-conciously, aspects in their mind, and by holding, even in some minute degree, other aspects but one.

Who came first - Trenashi or Humans? - other? (Angelina?)