Disclaimer: The following document fragment is presented from an in-character perspective, it should not be taken as the truth of the setting.
Context: Considering the differences between mages and other humans, there is a point where it might be appropriate to ask – are mages even human, or are they something else? In these excerpts we see different people struggling with the question and coming to different but related conclusions. Mages might be something above or below a common human, an evolution or a parasite upon the species.
Is it not a form of presumptuous arrogance to hold ourselves as the apotheosis of humanity when we are the outliers breeding among them as parasites? Throughout our history, we imposed our self-serving agendas through force and subterfuge, seeking only to sustain and prolong our existence within the shadows of humanity.
But, you shall cry. We’d destroy them by showing them the splendour of the Cosmos. They are not ready. Their minds are too weak.
That may be the case, but that is not what I call for. I am not an integrationist. I am not a proponent of opening ourselves to the Norma.
All I ask is, by what right we see ourselves as better than them? By what right do our needs supersede theirs? By what right have we decided to be the shepherds of who we see as blind?
We are all so eager to see ourselves as marked for greatness by our provenance, our gifts of magic and the crumbs of attention thrown to us by our great and horrible patrons.
Even though we call our pursuits the Great Works and insist we conduct them to better our society, that isn’t at all what we do. In reality, we are consumed with self-destructive memes and delusions that put us and this very world in danger.
Perhaps we are insane.
Perhaps we are inhuman.
One of the fundamental questions I dispute is the differences between us and the Norma. Or, to be precise, the perspective common among us, that we are the natural evolution of humanity, perhaps even a burgeoning, nascent Great Race.
The vision of humanity awakened to the Cosmos can be a beautiful one. But one issue remains, however enlightened we become, enlightened by our own judgement and definition, we will remain a species of koinomatter life, unfit to live in the great expanse of the Universe. And there is no proof we may ever change that.
If anything, our attunement to the eldritch truths shows us the wall of our prison. While they, the Norma, live in blissful ignorance of the Universe, its accurate scale and the scope of dangers lurking within them, we gaze upon the sky in fear of the Moon and what lies beyond.
Is our fate to linger upon this planet, then, until its inevitable demise? Or perhaps, through the actions of some of us, drown it in oblivion altogether?
What if we were never meant to be? Would that not make more sense? What if we’re but some kind of self-propagating, parasitic nightmare given physical form in our genes? By all we know, that is the only way in which we’ve seen a Norma open their eyes and see the Cosmos as we do.
Would it not be the grandest irony?
In the end, looking at the impotence of our power to bring change into the world. Seeing the Norma live on ignorant of the political and ethical struggles rippling through our secretive society, I can only be reminded of the words of a woman I once knew.
You bring yourself to ruin
You are a moth, drawn to a flame
And a flame, drawing things unspoken
What your power will bring
Shall sear your wings
And cast you down
In your last breath, you will know
Your power consumes you
~ Silvestra Dufort
Indeed, we are but insects, given just enough power to become the architects of our own downfall.
Esoteric Musings... 