Essay on Essence

by Brian Potter

Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 14:12:32 -0500 From: Brian Potter To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: essay on essence

Since a couple of people did express interest, here's the essay from my campaign on essence.

Basic Principles Governing the Use of Essence

(written by an anonymous mage living in the city of Kungtog, time unknown)

In the name of the Father of All, who makes green the barren lands and protects His children from those who break His Law.

It is He, the harvester of all, who creates that which exists and that which does not exist. And it is by His leave and His Law, that men know of the Essence and are given the knowledge to use it and work with it. Those who keep the Law and have the knowledge may use the Essence for terrible and wonderous things. But he who breaks the Law will be punished swiftly, as the Law says.

When a thing is, or becomes, it contains the Essence. Without the Essence it is not, and cannot ever be. Because the Essence comes from Him and Him alone, only He may truly create or destroy. But He allows man, in return for patience and perseverance and faith, to manipulate and alter the Essence of His world within the limits of the Law.

An object's Essence is in five ways as He makes it. One part holds and tells the object's purpose; another, its structure; a third knows the object's history; the fourth hides and contains the object's secret name; the fifth part of an object's Essence supports its structure and gives it strength. Of these five areas, man is given the ability to know all of them, but allowed by Law to know and touch only four of them. We may not deal with the Essence of an object's secret name, except by Hanter's permission and as the Law dictates.

Before one can begin to touch the other areas of Essence, one must learn to feel and draw upon the supporting Essence. This is because He gives all things extra support, that they are not destroyed easily. Before one can begin to draw upon the Essence of external objects he must come to know his own Essence, at least in purpose and strength. Without knowledge of one's purpose, they can easily destroy themselves by violating this purpose. Without knowing their own strength, they may destroy or cripple themself. Once a person knows their purpose and strength, they may learn to draw upon the strength of other things.

Each time a person "casts a spell," as others refer to it, or manipulates the Essence, he draws from the strength of all things about him, in a sphere whose radius grows as the power and knowledge of the person increases. When this strength is removed, the user must also modify the structure slightly to compensate for the weakening. For minor manipulations, restructuring is unnecessary due to the excess of Essence I have mentioned.

Manipulations which "destroy" a thing draw out much of its strength or else greatly modify its structure. The object is not truly destroyed, for it still has structure, strength, history, purpose, and a secret name. The Law does not allow us to truly destroy an object.

There are some manipulations that give the user knowledge of an object's power or history. These manipulations do not weaken the object, but weaken the user in that he uses his strength to pry into the object's Essence and gain knowledge. This strength returns to the user with time, drawn from the environment slowly.

An man may force an object to reveal its secret name, though this is against the Law and will be punished. If a user of the Essence knows an object's secret name, he has the ability (though not necessarily the knowledge) to change its purpose or structure and may truly destroy it - though this again is prohibited by the Law and will be justly punished.

When a man becomes one and is his own, He allows him to know his own secret name. Before this, he is given a secret name known only to the priest of the Life-giver who gives it to him. This priest may not reveal the name to anyone, or the Law requires punishment.


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