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--- melf [2007/01/01 19:36] – created jims
+++ melf [2017/05/27 18:56] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 ==== I-A-3) The Elemental Energies: Melf's Guidance of Symmetry ====
-[[World|Back to main World page]]
+[[start|Back to start page]]
-//**Expert Knowledge**//:
+=== Expert Knowledge ===
 One of the cornerstones of elemental magic is an observation that the disparate
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 This latter document has been translated and annotated innumerable times over
-the centuries and routinely sparks debate within the decennial Council of
+the centuries and routinely sparks debate within the decennial [[council|Council of Wizards]]
-Wizards research seminars.
+research seminars.
 The basic premise of Melf's Guidance of Symmetry (or simply "The Guidance")
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 Guidance is a useful rule for common, lower powered magics.
-//**Hidden Knowledge**//:
+=== Hidden Knowledge ===
 One side-effect of The Guidance is the creation of shadow.  This quasi-elemental
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 interested in his future is doing research on this substance.
+=== Bigby's Heresy ===
+//excerpts from "Treatise on Elements and Ethicants" by [[Bigby]]//:
+...where Melf fell short was in not considering the degree of free will in actions and power.  Where Good and Evil are weak human manifestations of positive and negative energy, he neglects the orthogonal Ethicants, Axiomatic and Stochastic (others will use 'anarchic' as the chaos descriptor, but I find this an excessively sociological, rather than logical, term)
+Like the concepts of Good and Evil, the precepts of Law and Chaos drive description of human behavior.  So, in the same way that Melf considered the extension into positive and negative energy, I will consider the extension into Axiomatic and Stochastic behavior.  The important result to note is that it takes a combination of these to create Free Will.  A purely Stochastic creature will behave in a wholly unpredictable manner; in the same way, an Axiomatic creature will be created with a specific purpose or action, and will not be able to deviate from this purpose.  Ergo, neither has free will.  Thus, in the same way that humanoids are not capable of the purity of evil or good as Outsiders (making the concepts of corruption and redemption possible), they are also not capable of true Law of Chaos.
+Magical energies are generally composed of both positive and negative energy (the power of the Fireball comes from positive energy focusing Fire; the destruction that it causes represents negative.  (personal note:  It would be interesting to conduct experiments on fireballs into empty areas, to see if they actually **do** generate power, as they lead to no destruction)  In the same way, Axiomatic  and Stocastic ethicants are present in the fireball.  There is no uniformity of density or result in a fireball, representing the chaotic nature of the spell itself, not that of fire.  To counter this, the fireball takes a very precise diameter...precise enough to allow the skilled mage to avoid harming a complatriot who is adjacent to an enemy.
+Increasing the Axiomatic or Stochastic ethicants of a spell would be useful; note the means by which Vincent and Kesi managed to totally avoid being harmed by a fireball...were this a fully axiomatic spell, there would be no quiescent areas for them to dodge into; if stochastic, there would be no prediction possible.
+The presense of Axiomatic or Stochastic creatures is, at this time, purely speculative (Slaad and Modrons, although known agents of 'Law' and 'Chaos', posess enough intelligence and/or will that they cannot be pure creatures)
+As such, I am preparing an experiment.  Having studied Flint and his summoning of Elementals, I believe I can do the same for Axiomatic and Stochastic creatures.  As these are not, at my current level of experience, separable Ethicants, I will simultaneously summon one of each.  Although I believe this experiment to be safe, I will enlist the aid of my compatriots in case unforseen circumstances occur (especially those involving Shadow)
+In whole, this experiment (the first of several I have outlined elsewhere) will expand the theory of Magical Chromodynamics beyond Melf's crude theories of balance, into the element/antielement/ethicant/antiethicant conformal map.
+//Editor's Note: During his adventuring career, [[Bigby]] was infected with an epic level of Chaos -- and is considered insane (even by wizard standards).//
+\\ [[start|Back to start page]]