Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: In a setting where magic is real, it’s hard not to see it as being studied much like any form of science or art. The questions of why and how magic works the way it does are bound to follow after questions of what magic and accomplish. In this excerpt we see someone writing their thoughts on the matter, musing about the connections between magic and the mind.
In a young mage’s life, there comes a time to ask a specific and pertinent question: why can we do some things but cannot do others? This is a natural question and usually settled within the family, as we all went through that phase of questioning as well, and we know the answers. The usual, not at all incorrect response is to say that we may only do what is within our power, within the bounds of what we may do per the laws of the universe, and that while we might know the entire boundaries of our capabilities, indeed we are not omnipotent.
In time we simply get used to the odd restrictions under which we operate, sometimes gawking with confusion at the false arcane concepts perpetuated among the blind and their boundless potential. To us, magic is a tool we come to know well, and we become proficient in its use, roundabout as it may be.
But there is an actual interest among the more scholarly inclined, ask not what our limits are but why they exist.
After all, when brought to this material reality, a simple elemental possesses the power to invoke flame and affect reality’s physical constituents. Yet we do not. Are we thus somehow inferior to this simple elemental, cognitively or in our arcane might? No, but in a way, yes, we indeed are. We lack the profoundly ingrained, instinctual even, ontological understanding of the concept of fire this minuscule demon possesses. To us, fire is so many different things that we lack perspective on its true nature. I could ask you, tell me, what is fire? And your answer, while it may seem pertinent or even profound to you, will always be a reflection of fire through the lens of different ideals.
Scholars gave this a name. They called it ontopotence. And in having named it, they concluded that they had understood it. To them, it became the nature by which one mind holds the understanding needed to manifest something into reality. This principle states that highly ontic entities such as ourselves, born of the dream, perhaps, but into the waking realm, cannot defy physicality within the physical.
Within the dream, it is a different matter. That realm is more malleable. More prone to the whims of our qualia replaying within its bounds. But here, we struggle to instil change outside of the dream-adjacent realm of the mind and the few secrets of the universe we have so arduously plucked from among the stars.
We often assume, faultily, that if we seek guidance among those who perform feats outside our grasp, they could impart the wisdom and knowledge to replicate them. This is foolish, for a human can never comprehend the true meaning of their words. Instead, our minds would dress them up in masks and confuse their purpose, leading us to a false understanding of reality.
Words were perhaps both the greatest of our works and the most devastating of our follies. Now, they envelop all we experience, weaving veils of deceit to mask true reality from us. Some call it a defence mechanism, protecting us from the eldritch truth. To others, it is shackles we have placed upon our minds to rob us of the freedom to think in true, eternal ideals.
Esoteric Musings... 