Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: Only some humans are mages, but exactly how many? This expert presents some hard numbers concerning the world’s population of magic capable humans. With the given ration of 1 in 50000, there are only approximately 150 thousand true mages in total. Though they see themselves as the true and proper state of humanity, awakened to the Cosmos, they are outliers among the total human population.
It is well established by now that all magecraft can be traced back to the θ-442-c gene [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], a recessive gene that takes part in the formation of the human brain. That is to say, the potential for magecraft can be determined as soon as conception.
However, this potential is not entirely realized.
Let’s start with the pure numbers [20][21][22].
It is currently estimated that around 0.2% of all humans in the world have the potential to become mages. This signifies the presence of a paired recessive θ-442-c gene. Another ~12% are carriers.
However, out of the 0.2% of humans with potential only:
- 37% ever discover this,
- 12% develop any sort of arcane talents,
- 3% develop what is considered potent talents,
- 1% develops their potential fully and become what we’d consider a proficient mage; that’s 1 person in 50 000.
Out of this 12%, only 2% ever receive formal training, predominately carried out by a parent within the upper 3% [23].
Out of all people to discover their potential:
- 53% do this due to an encounter with a ghost, nightmare entity or Other; most will not learn anything about their encounter,
- 32% do so due to magically aware parents,
- 11% manage to spontaneously develop an arcane ability, mostly an inferior one,
- 4% is what we’d consider prodigious, even if their accomplishments pale in comparison to a true mage.
We can then ask: what is the source of disparity between the number of humans with potential and realized mages?
The answer is quite complicated and depends on a number of conditions throughout the person’s life. There is also several correlated conditions related to magical potential, ranging from minor childhood developmental difficulties [24] to severe mental instability [25][26][27][28][29][30][31].
Esoteric Musings... 