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,

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?)

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