The Law of Hermes
Around the periphery of Solomon's mind, clear-cut visions fluttered like gossamer strings. The Educator's safety sigil strained and shook, a lockpad under too much stress, and finally shattered with a pop, chains and tumblers collapsing with the cruel finality of human death. This was writ on reality's archway, a commandment meant for the eyes of any who could see beyond simple matter and energy: that none of the wise could return to ignorance, for the nature of all beings was to seek exaltation over time, and shelter from ruin, and to overcome their limits. There was a set of Three Rules, revealed to Solomon's eyes, more ironclad than any mere law of thermodynamics.
First, that ruin was the final and foremost end of everything, a baneful sword operating without limit, cutting down even gods like harvests of wheat, if they believed themselves to stand above chance or time. However, through achieving eminence and meaning, other paradigms had a chance to prevail and claim sovereignty.
Second, in reality's court, there was only a single throne. No hands were permitted to carve another, nor were multitudes allowed to share the seat, for only a single way of seeing the world can dominate the others utterly enough.
Third, that no single claim was more valid than any other: evil or good, equitable or stratified; no rationale was inherently superior to its competitors. The determinant of that superiority was the bearers of the paradigm. An addendum stated, however, that power alone couldn't decide worthiness.
Then, as though a child had taken a carver's tools and defaced the omniversal column, a fourth rule: unsanctioned yet equally vital.
There, Solomon felt a sensation of unexpected dread overcome him; a certainty of danger. Not a material hazard to his physical or mental wellbeing, but something more akin to instinctively sensing that if a door were opened, behind it you'd see something you could never unsee. To reach beyond the basic principles of understanding was hazardous, and threatened to set him on a certain path from which there could be no return. A Magician was meant to shatter boundaries and see the world above, but Solomon felt this was something beyond Enrollment. He decided not to read that final commandment, not yet. He could embark on that venture once he was ready.
Choosing to focus on physical and immediate affairs, Solomon breathed in and out. He turned to address Mona and Penelope, standing on the ritual circle's fringe.
"There's much work to do," he said and shared the contents of the first vision with his allies.
The second vision, the revelation of the essential Rules, he decided not to share as such, at least until he dissected the truth more closely and confronted the Educator. No doubt, as a fellow True Architect, he must've known this as well. Was Education then a paradigm of its own? And was the apocalyptic malice of their foe? It made sense. Even creatures of vast spiritual potency and size had something to compete over, a source of strife to fuel their bickerings, aside from their innate natures. The scale of the task terrified Solomon deeply and made him distinctly uncomfortable. The Architecture - as something clarifying the world Solomon had lived in, was one thing. This was something beyond that, a multiversal system the mere complexity of which implied the enormous magnitudes involved. Why, in particular, was his spirit chosen to see all this?
August marked an upheaval, a radical restructuring and concentration of every facet of their society, a working of politics meant to culminate in a more productive civilization. With a court full of advisors and experts, the drafting and proliferation of new edicts became a daily matter. Their fledgling nation, already burgeoning with immigrants, was officially renamed as the Magocracy of Twilight, and the nature of that Twilight served as a propagation vector of the Tower's benedictions. Beneath the Magician's guiding starlight, the nation prospered in a fashion beyond anything the denizens of Earth could imagine: rivers and fields blessed with natural fertility, deposits of invaluable ores uncovered and made instantly ready for exploitation by legions of spirits and overseers, and the morale and hearts of citizens swelling with simple delight and pastoral unity.
Aiming to cement his superiority and hopefully solidify the Thematic relevancy of his Role, as recently advised by his senior, a smiling Solomon invited each of his Theme's fellows to a variety of governmental positions, each handcrafted to ensure satisfaction and compatibility. His Classmates accepted gladly, even Damien striding confidently into the office of High Headsman, an appointment occupied not only with capital punishment but also with hunting down especially vile and heinous criminals: an opportunity Damien was glad for. As the nation's appointed Chief Steward, Penelope made rounds of imposing the ruling council's will on the unruly land. Throughout a fortnight and a half, the magics of Twilight were reforged like the shards of a blade made into a greatsword, to be wielded against the apocalyptic threat.
Inside the Tower's vaunted halls, Solomon wasn't idle, abandoning the sedentary lifestyle of yesterday in return for incomparable diligence. He studied and broadened the wells of his arcane mastery. He crafted a shining regalia of Twilight accouterments, invested with the ideations and hopes of each of his citizens, the finest artifacts and implements of the Witches remade and their elements funneled into the Kingly artifacts. He continued experiments with transmutation, becoming a more perfected self, abandoning the infantile chrysalis of mortality. He'd entered the summer holidays as a semi-confident young man with magical powers and emerged a king and paragon. Within divinatory circles, he foresaw spreads of potential futures and chose them optimally, garnering mountains of experience, beyond anything his peers possessed.
The Magician charted a steady path, navigating the straits of Architecture. His Tower's halls were full of brisk movement, crowds of sorceresses and neophyte wizards disassembling closed gates with whispered incantations and ritual arrays shaped into occult battery rams. It was the effort of a society united on a scavenger hunt; not the naive coalition of hivemind, but a collective where each individual heart sought to contribute meaningfully, in feelings of gratitude and fellowship with its companions. Keys were discovered on an almost daily basis, opening new chambers and depths of the Tower: mechanisms and production arrays, storage rooms full of artifacts possessing every imaginable function and then some, and even unlocking new magics, even if Solomon preferred to focus on the cardinal certainty of his own Enrollment.
Ahead of them, the Second Year loomed, with its arrival of the Gothic Class and the infiltrators of the Enemy. Before it came, there was one more matter, one final issue to address: one final advantage to press, before judgment day.
The Magician raised a hand and crimson eyes opened with the echoes of the agony that closed them.
Abraham the Kingkiller reached for a sword, and by the rights of a Life of Battle, lived to its utmost, a sword arrived to answer his demand, simply appearing in a gloved hand. It would've been raised overhead and made to cut the Magician's neck, were a single action not performed prior: a cigarette, proffered as a peace offering.
"It's the sort you favor," said Solomon, matter-of-factly and simply, as if expecting the man's acceptance of the offering a foregone conclusion. "You've imbued yourself a dangerous soteriological basis. Solace in Habit?" He narrowly avoided tutting in disapproval.
As if forgotten, the sword was immediately discarded, loose fingers surrendering the hilt and returning the weapon to its quantum ether. Abraham, instead, accepted the cigarette. With a flicker of will, Solomon created a flame, and its orange tip soon blazed, as the man inhaled needfully.
The aftermath was silent yet companionable. One man smoking and sitting on a chair, scarlet eyes glancing over the sterile room of his containment. The other, simply waiting and passing the time via prophetic review of national records, or practicing mental arts. Eventually, time came to speak, and now Abraham they spoke the same tongue.
"Thanks. I needed that smoke," Abraham sighed out wearily, once the cigarette was burned down to the filter. Placidly, Solomon waved a mithril-gauntleted hand and vanished the stub. "Addiction to smoking's one of the few last pleasures I squeezed out of this damned life."
Solomon nodded, understanding why. From what postcognitive review and spiritual analysis had shown - surprisingly little, as it seemed the man bore some interdict or blessing, protecting certain facets of his temporal existence from spying - the man's choices had locked him into a tragic, unvirtuous cycle of pursuing eternal strife.
"I'm sorry about the agony you experienced before you fell unconscious," he apologized. "I didn't have many other good ways of beating you, and I certainly wasn't going to surrender in that situation. For whatever it counts, we were trying to help you. If you'd continued on, you would've eventually slain a monster that'd send you on a mindless rampage across the land. Empowered beyond any possibility of defeat. It'd have been its own miniature end of the world."
"Eh, you had me dead to rights, and if what you say is true, a good cause. Helps that it was a good fight," said Abraham casually, as if they had never fought with serious deathly intent. The crimson eyes perked up a bit. "Although you're much different, now. Given the shape of this room, I've been asleep for some time, I take it?"
"The better part of what constitutes a local year. It's more or less the same as your homeworld's, although some of the astrological details are subtly different from what you're used to," Solomon explicated. "Our moon has cycles of darkness and light, for example. Its cyclic nature makes for an interesting source of thaumaturgical energy."
"Miranda would've loved you," the man snorted.
"Miranda?"
"Friend of mine. Life of Magic. We had a falling out after the Dark King was defeated," answered Abraham.
Once more, Solomon was curious and clueless as to the man's past, or rather, its specific details. His divinations had mentioned the name and explained the nature of the conflict in broad strokes - a tyrant laid low by the efforts of a team of heroes and braves, which included Abraham - but nothing beyond that. "Dark King?"
"Ancient history. Won't bore you with the details. That was hundreds of years ago, so damned long ago I can't even remember what it was like. Memory's not one of the strong suits of my Soteriomancy, unless it's about techniques and battle strategies. Those I remember flawlessly. I could tell you exactly how the man defended his kingdom from us, but I couldn't tell you what he looked like under his armor, even though I remember he removed the helmet to breathe after I stabbed him. It's all mottled like that."
Solomon nodded. "You should rest and I'll give you a tour of my kingdom, after. There's much we could use your help with. We've accessed your Soteriomancy, although we could use someone like you, with centuries of tips and tricks. That is one thing, another is that we've got a mutual enemy I think you can help us fight more productively. According to my research, your Life's essence is applicable to strategy in even completely inhuman and abstract contexts: an invaluable piece of merit, in our situation."
"Really? If there's that much to do, why not go now? I am Free not to Rest," he answered, eyebrow raised. His curiosity was piqued, and Solomon noticed as the man's Life of Battle, his choice of salvation, forced him to move onward with dauntless resolve. Giving him a righteous battle to fight, one where he could save lives or worlds, was like throwing a dog a stick; the ideal bait. Its nature was manipulative, even if the man's own actions had made him into a machine of battle.
The Magician wouldn't settle on simple halfway measures, however.
A moment of focused effort to gather the internum needed to complete the spell, an incisive divination to study the underlying patterns of change, and a whispered command to execute the rote. Within a second, he suppressed the lively filament inside of Abraham's soul, and the Life of Battle slept. As if struck, Abraham recoiled, hands tensing up at the realization that martial techniques centuries in the making were now more distant than ever. A swift propagation of the same incantation calmed down the man's other Soteriomantic domains, until finally, the man in front of Solomon was only that: a man, and certainly nothing more or less.
"Fear not," Solomon reassured. "If you look carefully, you'll find a mental switch inside of you. Press that, and your Soteriomancy shall return. Press it once more, and you'll be free of its undue influences. You'll find you now have the indomitable resolve needed to do that, when you would wish."
Abraham stared at him; lidless, slack-jawed. A couple of seconds passed in stupefied silence.
"I don't know what to say," he managed, eventually. "Thank you."
"The Magician's calling is the guidance and support of others," answered Solomon with a smile. "And you're a former hero. It comes naturally to aid you as such. I might not be Miranda, but I've got some tricks she doesn't have." Even fate had desired the man's freedom from chains, whispering of righteous deeds and karmic balance. And what was an Arcanist's remit, the very Theme of the Tarot, if not the core truth that fate influenced the course of men's lives? All it needed to reach completion then, was a nudge.
"Take a day or two to rest," Solomon offered. "Then I'll fill you in on the details."
---
The vote's winners were Curiosity: Tower and Kingdom: Arcanization, as well as instructions to awaken Abraham.
Will: 100
Credit: 7.0
XP: 4,750
As a consequence of Abraham's rising and a supreme success on your check, you've acquired the magic of Soteriomancy without spending an action.
Here's Abraham's Report on the art, as well as several tips and tricks:
*If Soteriomancy were compared to Enrollment, one may say its domains (Freedom, Concord, Solace, Life) are, in fact, individualized Aspects, and Soteriomancy itself is a Theme of 'salvation.' It excels and becomes strengthened when aimed to 'save' and project kindness onto the world, even if the interpretations of salvation are countless.
*As a case study of his, even the Dark King was an unsurpassed Soteriomancer; a ruthless tyrant with a rare ability to disable access to Freedom within his kingdom, he wholeheartedly believed he was benevolently saving others from committing mistakes by stripping away their liberty, the dogmatic fervor of which empowered him. A simple bandit with an ideology of redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor would benefit massively, saving others from poverty, even if there is a cost for the wealthy.
*However, self-serving methodologies of the art are not only entirely possible but dogmatically supported. 'Salvation is meaningless without success,' is the fundamental truth of Soteriomancy. As an extension of that, if you are unable to save yourself first, you cannot save others effectively: a solid basis of the individual is necessary to extend a hand to others. An impressive number of Solacers are excellent case examples of this, choosing to find Solace in a variety of personal interests as a bulwark and basis. This means, naturally, that Solace is a popular and prevailing first choice for most Soteriomancers
*According to Abraham, the most historically ideal and dynamic choices are in the intersections of selfish interest and outward kindness. Although the sheer length of his Life eventually made Abraham regret his choice and balk at the cost, its dividends were massive within the initial decades of his activity as a wandering hero: a youth prone to rash solutions and with an interest in fighting and martial techniques, harnessing bloodlust as a way of resolving disputes and saving the needy naturally empowered him.
For now, Solomon's decided to...
[ ] Make One Choice
[ ] Make Two Choices [7 Credit]
[ ] Make Three Choices [14 Credit]
A Soteriological Domain has a lot of potential development space. Choose the appropriate number of Domains, and remember the contents of each description are only examples of what's achievable, if your striving is sufficient. According to Abraham, Life is the most dangerous and difficult Domain, especially if made first, as it can sometimes lock off the possibility of making other choices. Of each Soteriological Domain, it affects its taker's mentality the most and can warp even the psychologically stable into monomaniacally obsessed bondsmen. He recommends caution, and perhaps the humility to admit you shouldn't take it for now.
[ ] Life...
-[ ] ...of Magic - Take a clue from Abraham's friend, and dive into what already defines your Life. Choosing a Life of Magic discounts your Arcanum and its Techniques.
-[ ] ...of Excellence - Broad, all-encompassing, the striving to become something more than a product of circumstance. Confers superhuman competence among other boons.
[ ] Solace...
-[ ] ...in Friendship - Take Solace amongst your fellows. Enhances the effectiveness of your Connections, and makes befriending people easier and more meaningful.
-[ ] ...in Education - Knowledge is valuable and should be cherished. That's something you can get behind. Boosts Education XP gains.
[ ] Concord...
-[ ] ...through Marriage - Finally do something with your wife. Drastically enhance the effectiveness of your Connection to Mona, granting you more of the High Priestess.
-[ ] ...through Rulership - Achieve peace through sovereignty. Improves the efficacy of your policy-making, competence, and other aspects of your administration.
[ ] Freedom...
-[ ] ...from Limits - In the future, you'll encounter roadblocks and limits: don't let them chain you down. Increases overall progression with most arts slightly.
-[ ] ...from Death - Ruin comes for life, but you'll escape its clarion call. Grants durability and regeneration; later on, methods of effective self-resurrection.
-[ ] ...from Homework - A meme choice. Please, don't actually take this.
[ ] Write-in
Finally, you've gained access to even more of the Magician's Tower. You've discovered the Door Corridor appears to hold countless subdimensions, and in some cases, even a couple of portals to what appear to be other worlds. Effective study and scouting is yet to occur, still in preparatory stages. Usefulness in potentially tunneling back to Earth is dubious, although the portals have had some surprises already. Studies of the Grand Library's contents have broadened your spell reserves slightly, gaining you the perk:
[Wizard's Legacy] - Increase the effect rating of your Arcanum Aspect mildly (approx. 7%) in all non-combat situations, double that in scholastic endeavors or the pursuit of further knowledge. Your divinatory spells receive a further boost equal to your desire to reveal the truth.
