Pale (Extra Materials)
Finishing up this month's fast lane slot are some supplementary texts and images accompanying some chapters of Pale's first and second arcs. These seem to be individually short, but altogether they might add up to a full-sized post or two.
To start with, the chapter that I read earlier this month came with an attached extra called "Notes on Practices." So, let's read some notes about some practices.
1.4 Extra Content: "Notes on Practices."
The "notes" description turned out to be literal. We're looking at a scan of some handwritten notebook pages, ostensibly written by one or more of the girls. I think it's Verona as the main writer, with occasional interjections from Lucy and Avery.
Interesting information. I'm kind of surprised at the overwhelmingly tactical focus of this page, though. How to break someone else's glyphs. How to neutralize another wizard's spells. True, they've been told to solve a murder, which puts them in the crosshairs of the murderer, but I still would expect there to be much more going over the basics before we get to magical combat using said basics.
Anyway, the perimeter of a glyph forms a boundary, but its a boundary that absorbs rather than repels. If a glyph gets overtaxed and stops working, it's more analogous to a floodwall overflowing than a barricade collapsing. So, the obvious question: is there a way to "dig deeper" when you're drawing your circle? Concentric lines seem to have a multiplicative effect, and border segmentations/inscriptions compartmentalize the array so that it can kinda keep working even if one or two sectors fail, but is there a way to actually improve your efficiency per millimetre of line (or whoever you measure this)? Something to think about.
Too many "kinds of energy" being pooled in one spot is dangerous. Hmm. Wonder how many "kinds" there are, and how different two forces need to be in order to count as different? And, given the subjectivity of magic and what all the symbols etc means, could one wizard manage to "interpret" multiple forces into a single base element where another, less imaginative wizard couldn't? How many actual "hard" rules are there anyway?
The next image just goes into more detail about how to garnish the edges of your circle to create different effects.
Hmm. For the circles that "repel" something rather than attracting it or providing power for it, is it a matter of filling your proverbial ditches with an opposing force? Creating a sort of magnetic repulsion effect?
I think I need to hear a few examples of "oppositional" forces. Is it stuff like "hot vs. cold" and "light vs. heavy," or is it weirder than that?
...now I'm wondering if Paleverse wizards have their own version of the troll physics meme, using deliberate misunderstandings of universally agreed upon oppositional forces. "Magnets, how the fuck do they work" etc. Hell, maybe trolls are creatures that actually exist, and they have the unique ability to make these joke glyphs actually work. :V
Ohhhh, you can offload some of the "flood" into those smaller buttressing circles. Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Just space them symmetrically to avoid destabilizing the array and creating a Titanic effect with one side of the ship getting too heavy for the other parts to counterbalance, heh.
Not sure what is meant by the writing acting as a "support pillar." Making the glyph more resistant to those kinds of "weight" imbalances? Does it matter what you write, and what language you write it in? Or does it just matter to *you,* with the spirits comprehending and following the instructions as long as you're consistent with what you think each of your symbols means?
The glyph at the bottom is an approximation of the one they held their welcoming/activation party in. The circles within circles make a lot of sense in the framework we've just been given, since the party guests all had different kinds of mojo in them, and they were exchanging the symbolic tokens in a way that mixed a little bit of a lot of different stuff. No intersecting lines, because they don't want to send things bouncing around to different Others whenever someone takes or gives something.
Anyway, that's a fun, informative little interlude. The next one comes early in the second arc, and seems to mostly be expanding on the same concepts.
2.3 Extra Content: "Spell Notes #2"
"Spell Notes." Is this part of the same series as "Notes on Practices?" Is this part one and part two? Or did we skip Spell Notes #1? Mysteries.
Anyway, it looks like more of Verona's notes, mixed with what might be excerpts from an actual grimoire. Or at least, from the notes of a more experienced magician with better handwriting. The first page is all Verona, though:
There are quite a few chapters between the last comissioned bit and this one, so obviously I'm missing a lot of context that would help me understand some of this.
Are these glyphs for illusion magic? Something to do with light, or maybe color specifically? Or are "light" and "dark" being used metaphorically here? Or maybe as aspects of the day-and-night cycle? Hard to tell. Apparently, inscribing certain symbols inside of a Star of David signifies specific celestial bodies. Are we trying to manipulate the effects of starlight on a certain area? "High End - Cosmic" in that case might mean actually turning the glows of Mars or the Sun off entirely, while "Low End - Simple" might be making them light up brighter or darken somewhat from a highly specific angle or when viewed from a highly specific patch of ground. The "sun" glyph has a break in its side that corresponds to the "make it lighter/heavier" symbol, so maybe that's an intensity adjuster?
Dunno, I'm just spitballing. Like I said, it could all be metaphor for something completely different.
If I'm interpreting this correctly, these symbols are basically executable statements in the spirits' proverbial coding language. There's a way to place them between "object" or "type of force" symbols to form spell instructions.
The ankh and mars symbols for "be acted upon by other object" and "act upon other object" correspond to traditional gender roles, but I'm wondering what the story behind that is. In the world of PactPale, did the thousands of years of these patriarchal traditions cause the association between gender and power dynamics to be ingrained into the spirit world, or did these originally genderless occult symbols for "passive" and "active" get appropriated by patriarchy?
The parallel lightning bolts are for fucking with other people's spells. I guess there's that offensive rune the girls were craving in the last interlude.
The remaining scans for this interlude are the grimoire excerpts that I mentioned. Or...actually, not a grimoir. A letter, written to Avery by someone more knowledgeable. Okay, close enough.
The forest ribbon trail is the layer of the spirit world that the girls saw into during their ritual, though I think they had a glimpse at the "ruins" too. Anyway, the ribbon trail - and other "path" realms, though it sounds like those might just be different HUD's for the same realm rather than multiple different ones - is your classic "space between." You go through it to travel between the physical realm and all the weird whacky magical dimensions.
The weird whacky magical dimensions include the Shadowfel, the Feywild, the Feywild But Like All Metal And Full Of Goblins And Stuff, and the Abyss. Ironically, the Abyss sounds less like it has a clear DnD analogue, despite the name. It's supposedly a place where the basest elements of the *physical* world break down into nothing, rather than the more expected spiritual equivalent. This might be a spot where the magical and the mundane are much more interdependent than most urban fantasy treats them as. Does the Abyss have to do with entropy? A cosmic heat sink that fills with waste energy as the rest of the universe decays? Physicists might actually be able to theoretically triangulate this place's existence, if so.
Also, if I'm right about what the Abyss is, and wizards can access the Abyss and potentially channel forces out of it and into other realms, then that means that wizards might be able to reverse entropy. That's pretty cool. Granted, it's just as likely that the Abyss is full of langolier type things that'll come swarming out to cause even more entropy as soon as someone pokes it.
Erm...does the prey animal have to be a mammal?
I ask because beetles and cockroaches are both prey animals, and they would be much easier to catch and pacify within the parameters set.
Anyway, you need to turn an animal into a spirit-guide to navigate the Paths safely. Or, "safely." You might not actually *need* one of these things, but it seems like going without one would be much, much more dangerous. There's a "wolf" apparently.
Is the Carmine Beast related to this wolf? A local avatar or surrogate of its? Seems likely.
Huh. Now it seems like the wolf might be something much more abstract, and that embodies much more abstract forces, than what the Carmine Beast has to do with. Almost like its a manifestation of the caster's own fear and uncertainty.
And, the wolf is the thing that actually brings you INTO the realm as well. Hmm. Okay, that complicates things considerably. There are a lot of things the "wolf" could potentially be a manifestation of now, and the caster's uncertainty is only one of them (and probably not the most likely).
Hmm. These hazard objects sound like versions of (some of) the tokens that the girls brought to their initiation ritual. And the ribbon path was visible to them while they were doing that ritual.
Were they setting traps for themselves?
Maybe that's a necessary cost for traveling into the spirit world. As part of becoming a wizard, you need to provide materials that the spirit world can use to make weapons against you. If you don't open yourself up to those threats, you can't enter. Strange and fascinating.
The Others encountered along the path having their behaviour so contingent on the circumstances of the ritual definitely raises questions about how much actual individuality and independent consciousness they have. Or maybe not; maybe those circumstances just effect which Others are able to find their way to you, rather than actually changing those entities' behavior and personalities. Which of those two is more likely? It really depends on the degree to which Others are *people.* That seems to be a major question hanging over this whole setting, honestly.
So the animal "guide" is also a sacrifice. Kind of a dick move, ngl. Does this spell actually endow the guide with sapience before you sell its soul to the astral wolf demon? If so, that's pretty effing dark. Then again, there's no mention of the animal actually saying or doing anything; just it giving you certain benefits and drawbacks for your astral journey. So, maybe not actually existential horror and murder, heh.
What's the difference between the wolf "harming" you versus "chasing" you? Those seem redundant. Unless the "harm" option bypasses the chase entirely and lets the wolf just injure you without having to catch up to you. Unlucky card to draw.
The last paragraph is confusing. Is it saying you'll never know where you're going to end up, if you walk the Paths? That kind be right, there'd be virtually no point in that case. Or does it mean "any destination" as in "any destination you choose?" That would make more sense. Anyway, you have to make an initial visit into the pathways to get the wolf used to you or whatever before you can actually go through it to get someplace else.
The no memory part at the end is definitely unnerving. Makes me wonder if the wolf actually kills and eats you and then a copy of you is created at the destination. Or something like that. Then again, that's pretty much the same argument that people have about Star Trek transporter beams ad nauseum, heh.
Hmm. You HAVE to negotiate with the wolf? What if you don't want any of these things? Can't you just negotiate for it to not bother you, instead of giving you one of these weird boons that you might not want?
Then again, you have ways of skipping some of these obstacles, so I guess you'd just choose to skip the coin one if the wolf shows up nearest to it in that case. I think.
Anyway, the "lost" are people who strayed off the path or fucked up their methodology, but rescuing them isn't safe unless you bind them to the Seal of Solomon as well. I guess you just might not have any control over WHOSE souls you're freeing, so it pays to be cautious. Or else becoming one of the lost just changes you in a way that makes you inherently dangerous.
So, if you screw it up, you can try and ditch the wolf and escape through the service corridor with as many goodies as you can steal along the way, but he's never going to let you back in again after that.
Weird. Many different kinds of weird. For some reason I'm picturing this guardian as Insanity Wolf in a business suit.
There's one more bit of Pale material left in this month's commission, but it's a longer one and has a bunch of unfamiliar names exchanging dialogue in it, so I think it would be best to make it its own post. It'll be up tomorrow or the next day, along with my general thoughts about what this worldbuilding info does for the story.
