Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: An excerpt from a handbook for young mages explaining a term very commonly used by all of magekind – the Mask.
See, something a lot of us, maybe even you tend to forget is that we all perceive the world, and thusly reality differently. Both in small, and bigger ways. Way smaller and way bigger. All of these little fragments of perception that we all share without truly accurately sharing, hand to hand is part of a bigger, greater whole. We are shaped by our experiences and thoughts just as much as we create our own experiences, our own thoughts based upon ourselves and how we see the world, and ourselves both.
One of the more oft used ways of putting this more simply but accurately is that we all wear masks. A mask for every occasion that trawls our way, every individual and every little thing, and even one for the person you see in the mirror every morning. I want to emphasize the ‘simply’ in this. We cover everything we experience with a mask, filtering and distorting it all through our own subjective perception of what Reality entails to us. Past, beliefs, personal or as far religious ones, mood, even past experiences you’d swear happened objectively warping out of the current state your mind finds itself in…
Reality becomes like a collage of experiences, all subjective. Unique ideas and perspectives on our and everybody else’s world, the true Mask we all, in a way, share without sharing.
Let us try and ease ourselves into what this concept, this idea of the Mask means. As per the work of Professor Dwight Vs. Swain on this particular subject, try to begin with simpler, less overhead ideas. Things you hear in the news or read about. How do you feel about rainstorms? Do you enjoy the rain pattering against your window, or do you worry about your pets rushing under the couch to escape the thunder? A bombing raid, then? What’s your opinion on this military tool of demoralization? How much does it matter who it is being used against to you? Worker’s strikes? Current divorce laws? What it means to marry someone?
Even if we’re not actively participating in or living within these ideas, we have perceptions of them. Opinions, also, no doubt. To return to the storm, we can see variables, and these are ever valuable to us. How hard the rain falls, if there’s thunder or no, if it’s just a gentle pitter-patter or a hail… these are very specific things we use to measure our perception of the event, like a focus. Variables, large and small, and how we use them to perceive our world and the “fact” we create from this is a very simplified idea of the Mask. For those more interested in the subject and craving further education, refer to the book “Understanding Yourself” by, again, Swain.
Thusly, humans filter reality, in effect creating their own world. Their own view. The Mask is what our mind, or something thereof uses to protect our perception of reality from unravelling like a ball of yarn. Some manage to see beyond their Mask, however – through awareness of its existence, they learn to look past and beyond it. Several of them have been called shamans or prophets throughout history, but not all who are documented as such were. Some, though.
Humanity at large abhors, rejects magic – even if the common man you pass on the street every day is unable to truly reject its presence. The human mind, on its basic level, refuses to notice its presence, and any chance they might the subconscious nudges to be a coincidence, or luck and chance. It is their own Mask, protecting them from what we do. Within reason, of course, this has come to mean that magic has often been safe to practice in the open, not counting the baffled looks.
The very most potent and dangerous act of magic thus is forcing another being, human or no, to accept your Mask like theirs. To make them see the world as you do, for all that entails. The fancy word for it you’ll hear from us and your books is Thaumaturgy, Theogeny… primarily used in the case of large-scale incidents. Rare, but there’ve been some, certainly.
Without fail, they’ve all been completely fatal.
Esoteric Musings... 