Copyright  ã by Michael Scott Friedli.  All rights reserved.

 

A Primer on Magic

Transducing Into:

The Ring of Eight Swords

 

Structural Theurgy: The Foundations of Magic,  by Michael Scott Friedli, textbook, TBD

Mazirian The Magician, from the stories as cited below, by Jack Vance, 1944

“Green Magic”,  by Jack Vance, 1956

 

I borrow the concept of green magic, as well a purple magic, from Jack’s eponymous story.  I borrow the idea of the ‘live’ sword and the god (of six arms) who cedes justice, both from the story “T’sais”.  The ultimate non-viewable amulet I usurp from the story “T’sain”.   I borrow the idea of a private sub-space and the flying steel blades at the command of a witch (Lith), both from the story “Liane the Wayfarer”.   I exert adaptation upon Jack’s wonderful neologism ‘Aumoklopelastianic Cabal’ from the story “Guyal of Sfere”, as well as Jack’s nimble semasiology in regard to ‘actinics’.   I arrogate ‘pervolve’ from The Eyes of the Overworld.   All are used with the permission of John Vance.

 

J'écris avec ma propre mode  – I write in my own fashion!  I never try Vance imitation, albeit I have lived & breathed Vance over my entire life, such that a slim Vancesque ‘vibe’ might appear;   it is a delusion!!

 

A Neophyte’s Synopsis Pertaining to Magic,

As Studied Under  Structural Theurgy

 

Given the nexus of our universe viewed as a single ovum, we may cast outward into arenas along the three dimensional axis’s of imaginary space.  Undecidable but limited extents contingent to the ovum along these directions become known in Structural Theurgy as lobes;  they are confluent and isochronal also as ‘domains’ or ‘realms’, and also in some perspectives as ‘cycles’, and additionally in a different context, as ‘fields’ or ‘impellent influences’.  Lobes are all these aspects at once.

 

The term ‘cycle’ is apt best towards a lobe’s similarity to a weather system, not as something that has recurrences or reiterations.   As with any defined weather system that roves across worlds, each retains its characteristic winds both in direction and strength, an overall air mass temperature, a borne level of precipitation or aridity, etc.   Each magic lobe, when termed a ‘cycle’, is analogous to its own weather system, as would be distinct from other weather systems roaming our world (known as Mundanaeum).

 

Lobes obtain to a telos, which is to say, they enact a set purpose.   For example, the Black cycle is often misunderstood to have Death as its ultimate goal, but in fact it is quite the opposite{!};  the telos  of the Black cycle is Agony Everlasting.  Rather, the telos  of the Orange cycle is Expungement (or death of living entities), as effected in a realm of fiends, gorgons and monsters.   Hence, the major ‘affect’ in encountering Black as a domain is Horror;   the ‘affect’ of the Orange domain is Terror.  Both of these are meant in their uttermost senses:  it is the most abject horror;  it is sheerest of terrors.

 

The color attribute of lobes is a perceptual  auxiliary, a perimetry upon the visual field (a peripheral halation or perimetrical nimbus).   Even a sufferer of deuteranopia – the defect of vision in which the retina fails to respond to the color green – is surmounted by Green magic, wherewith the subject will ‘envision’ the color of green – known as greenth (real word) – as a startling if not stunning new percept!

 

Sojourning to a domain or magic realm sharpens all one’s senses.  But upon leaving, one finds oneself affected with rückkehrunruhe  (rook-kair-oon-roo-uh) – the feeling of returning from an immersive trip only to notice it fading rapidly from awareness, as if one’s brain had automatically assumed it was all just a dream.   The inevitable result is to suffer from aulasy  (awl-uh-see) – a sadness that there’s no way to convey a powerful experience to people who weren’t present to experience it with you.

 

From our ovum, or cosmos, we can discover quixotically – via a drake furcula dowsing-like process not herein covered but a manifestation of Blue magic – up and down directions, and these encompass lobes which are the domains or fields of White magic (up) and Black magic (down), the oldest known ‘magicks’ in human history;   ‘up’ & ‘down’ easily do manifest a native self-evidence.   Though it is more nuanced, for humans Black is the magic of compelled outcome, White is of the magic of Surcease, with its adjuncts of Blessings, Charms, Beatifications, Fylfot of Luckiness, and Gammadion Ward-away.

 

Based on up and down, we likewise can next quixotically designate left and right directions.  Right is the lobe of Blue magic, left is lobe of Red Magic.   Blue is the magic of divination, Red is the magic of actinics.   Denizens of the Blue domain are only three:  the Wyft (or Wypht), the Gant, and the Sepulchre, each having its distinct species appearance even though individual exemplars look identical.  The delicate Wyft can be enjoined as seeker through time, the robust Gant braces certain boundaries of Time (and can make to render certain outcomes impossible), and the Sepulchre provides the interface for sentience to interact with the field of Blue Magic.   Denizens of the roiling Red domain are its 14 thrones, which are a ‘demiurgus’  category of being emanating phenomenal force, potency and dynamism.

 

Based on up & down and left & right, we can lastly designate forward and back.  The forward lobe is the domain of Grey magic, and the back (or behind) lobe is the realm of Tawny magic, but also called Brown magic.  Grey is the magic of necromancy, and a realm that’s host to ghosts, specters, eidolon, wraiths, phantasma, and poltergeists;  it is behind all haunted artifacts & toys.  Tawny is the magic of Fairy and a large array of creatures of magic who dwell in that realm utilizing the unusual aspects of Brown magic inborn to them.

 

All denizens of the Tawny domain are 'otherkin' -- beings something other than entirely human, but on whole quite human-like.   Grey, on the other hand, hosts a varying array.   Discarnate ghosts are perforce anthropomorphically human, as are idealistic eidolon, but less so are wraiths, then another degree less are specters, and much less are phantasma;   clearly unhuman are poltergeists.

 

Structural Theurgy now becomes somewhat more complicated than the above six obvious ordinates.

 

From a what is conventionally called The Antinome Point Betwixt  only in the lobes of Grey magic and Tawny magic, a ‘strange-attractor’ knot of fixedness condenses the lobe’s excurvation, making it contort as if inside-out, or self-involuted (*) after which the lobe continues in the directions forward and back (as before) except that now the Brown lobe’s cycle pervolves into Purple magic, an extent without population (although it is the place of origin for the deriving of golems and all magical automatons), and the Grey lobe’s cycle pervolves into Yellow magic, a realm occupied by surreality, with a menagerie of surreal inhabitants.  The involute knot is also called a ‘node’, one each for the Brown and Grey fields.

 

(*  In mathematics, an involute is a particular type of curve that is dependent on another shape or curve, in this case, self-referentially the sheath of the lobe’s excurvation itself.)

 

Purple (as the reflected color, also called Violet as the spectrum color) is the magic of Nomism, the realm of Incarnate Symbols.  This realm is used by Wizardry to much greater effect than any fields of Witchcraft because with the employment of Nomistic ‘hands’ (metaphorically) it can manipulate most lobes of magic – all those that are fictile & pliant;  three lobes are not – as well as construct spellcraft out of varied sets of these lobes, and this is precisely what comprises the enterprise of Wizardry.

 

(In case you never knew exactly what Wizardry was about or did.)

 

Yellow magic is used out of Sorcery to do the same, but due to efficiencies brought on by an imposed teratoid conformation, it is the more efficacious of the two methods, but at a much greater cost to the practitioner’s personhood.   Sorcerers are always modified beings (which is to say, sorcery ineluctably modifies the operator, Wizardry does not), such as to now have skin entirely of thistles, or now have only one cyclopsian eye of fulgorous versicolor, and onward to all kinds & types of phantasmagoric conformations that sorcerers & sorceresses must take on, being inherent to their discipline.   Efficiency comes about from these modifications, as opposed to using the wizardly constructs of Purple ‘hands’ to manipulate and compose spells with the ‘impellations’ and integument from other lobes.  While a wizard’s hands go into contrived Purple-gloved ‘über-hands’ that can directly handle other lobal magics, a sorcerer uses no intermediary apparatus, but requisitely must be transmuted thereby personally.  Transmutations of the Yellow field are irreversible.  (A wizard may retire, a sorcerer:  never.)

 

By analogy, it is quicker to tie a shoelace with bare fingers than when wearing deep-winter gloves.  Both wizardry and sorcery are esemplastic – shaping separate things into one thing.  This is categorically different than witchcraft, the workings from one lobe, and warlockery, which simply is augmented witchcraft working from two to three lobes but each as separate conjurations, not embrangled.

 

Because of the discarnate (or disincarnate) eminence of the Yellow field, upon which no incarnate device or contrivance could ever work, including also the incarnate practitioners themselves, the adaptively surreal transmogrification of the adept is the only conduit operative and the only pathway obtainable, through which the Yellow field will enable sorcerous sway over the other manipulable lobes, just as do the Purple field’s pliable constructs.   Personal alteration is an ineluctable imperative in the discipline of sorcery, and for the conduct of any ensorcellment.

 

An Quick Side-box For Novices About the Classes of Practitioners:    Witchcraft uses single lobal portency whereby witches are thence known by their expertise in the one lobe:   either in Black Magic (as a diabolist), or White Magic (as a White Witch), or Green Magic (an enchanter or enchantress), or Blue Magic (oracle, diviner, augur), or Grey Magic (necromancer), or Orange Magic (dominie) etc.   There can be a witch (female) and a witcher (male), but warlocks in current times have been erroneously fixed upon only males;  instead, true warlocks (female & male) manifest a more advanced case in Witchcraft where two sometimes three lobes of magic are conjured in spellwork.  The most frequent dual use of lobes is Black & Grey, known by warlocks as goety:  it is Black magic in which the assistance of malign (goetic) spirits is further invoked.   Second most frequent in the warlock metier is gramarye, both Green & Grey magics, or enchantment plus necromancy.   Mastery of two or three lobes is the maximal capacity of all sentient beings indigenous to this cosmos {!};  to work with more requires the application of Wizardry or Sorcery.  A warlock with two lobes of magical expertise is termed formerly as a Warlock Mage;  a warlock of three magical lobes is given the formal honorific Warlock Magister  (or Master).  The power of Witchery to Warlockry (or Warlockery) is either 2-to-1 (Mage) or 3-to-1 (Magister). The power of Witchery to Warlockry (or Warlockery) is 2- or 3-to-1;  Witches to Wizards are 7-to-1 in power, which is one reason why covens of 7 witches are so ideal.  It takes 3 Wizards to equal  1 Sorcerer, or 3 covens of Witches, or from 7 to 11 Warlocks.  This is essential information of strategic consideration in time of magical warfare.

 

That now aside, onward to the further lobes of magic:   The entire Brown array of lobes (covered eftsoons) are all of the incarnate fields of theurgy;  the entire Grey array of lobes are of the discarnate fields of theurgy.   Wizardry is an incarnate application, Sorcery is a discarnate application.  This is a bedrock factor for why & how they differ.

 

Necromancy’s dealings with the array of discarnate entities is the one branch of ‘witchraft’ most closely allied to sorcery itself.   One necromantic cogency derived from a weft innate to the Grey lobe itself is Paranosis, a power to reveal invisible things;   it’s a tool routinely found in most any magician’s toolset, particularly those who are not irrefragably dedicated necromancers.  As a select skill by itself, it is independently & solely available to all branches of witchcraft (and all practitioners), having the most consilience with Green Magic (the enchanters) and Blue Magic (the oracles); it sharpens claircognizance.

 

From each involute knot (the Grey or the Brown) pullulate three further lobes of magic fields that are of equal expanse and cogency as all other lobes:    three further lobes arise on each side of the Brown and Grey extents that are the fore & astern directions of our cosmic ovum, and, thusly, six new lobes of magic come about altogether, three to each side of our cosmic ovum.

 

Relative to their respective knot, all new lobes range equidistantly away from each other, to include the original Brown or Grey lobe, while all still contingently touching their involuted nodal knot at their respective Brown or Grey base.  Combined, these six knot-contingent lobes, to be named soon below, are distinct from the six axis lobes of the cosmic ovum:  White, Black, Red, Blue, Brown, Grey.

 

Each ‘set’ of knot-contingent lobes  –  three pullulated lobes plus their respective original Brown or Grey lobe – point away from the nodal knot in angles that follow the exact four lines of axis that would exist inside a tetrahedron from its internal central point.  A Brown or Grey nodal knot would be at the center of this theoretical tetrahedron, one tetrahedron to each side (Brown or Grey) of the cosmic ovum.

 

How does tetrahedrality impinge upon Structural Theurgy?   A glimpse of an answer comes out of rudimentary metaphysics (assumed within Euclidian space).    A single Point in space founds Null-dimensionality;  shortest conveyance to a second point forms a straight Line of basic One-dimensionality;  a third point outside the Line posits a Triangle, the most elementary construct composed of straight edge-lines that’s possible in Two-dimensionality;   it’s an equilateral triangle when each edge-line is equal length.   If we lift only one apex of the triangle up to a fourth point residing ‘above’ in Three-dimensionality, while leaving the opposite ‘base’ edge un-lifted, such a pivoted triangle will form the outline of a tetrahedron, the most elementary construct of straight edge-lines possible in Three-dimensions.  This construct will have all equal sides if it is from an equilateral triangle having one apex raised an equal edge-length into Three-dimensions.  As the most basic of convex polyhedra, it has 4 faces, 4 vertices, and 6 edges.  From the center point of the tetrahedron, four internal axis-lines point away to the four vertices.  Each internal axis in this imagined tetrahedron is of equal dimension. 

 

The nodal knot finds itself at the internal center of just such a tetrahedron.  The Brown and Grey lobes themselves each follow along the abscissa of these axis-lines, the one which goes from the cosmic ovum then out each side to their respective Grey or Tawny vinculum nodes.   The three pullulated lobes follow the rest of the axis-lines out to the other theoretic vertices, and likewise retain a dimension of equal size within Structural Theurgy.

  

For the purposes of structural depiction in Foundational Magic, the extents of Purple and Yellow lobes are of zero geometrical impact to the tetrahedrons.  This aspect reflects for both of them an escalated (or ‘once-removed’) level of impellent influence, which obviates why Wizardry, based on Purple, and Sorcery, based on Yellow, have such effectual and always seemingly impossible manipulative powers.

 

On the Brown side, the three lobes radiating away from the involute nodal knot are the lobal extents of Green magic, Orange magic, and Gold magic.  Gold is the most ‘upward’ and most affected by radiants of the White cardinal field, Green is at least above the horizontal, and so likewise admits a lessor impact of the White field’s impellent influence.  Orange is below horizontal, angled downward more than Green is angled up from horizontal, but still of a lesser degree ‘downward’ than Gold’s ‘upwardness’, and thus so its bears influence by the Black field’s irradiation.

 

Gold magic, along with being solely vertical within White inducement, epitomizes a perfect balance between impellent fields from the Blue and the Red lobes, which is to say, between Time and Actinics (Energeia), two aspects of ancient physics known famously to be mutually exclusive (or dimensionally opposite extensions).  Gold magic can only be personified by entities of demi-godhood;   they may be beseeched for the perfection of Justice.  Green magic is in the White & Blue quadrant, with White’s impact shallow but Blue’s weightier, and thus aligns well with Blue in that all Green enchantments entail a set, sequestered time slice.  Orange magic is in the Red & Black quadrant, or the confluence of Actinics (strength) with Coercion (horrific tyrannizing), thence the domain of fiends and monstrosities intent upon carnage and slaughter.  Because of this character, the Orange domain is legendary for hosting castles, bastions, keeps & hideaways of magicians powerful enough to survive this realm’s particularly dreadful perils, whilst harnessing these very hazards as their defensive periphery.

 

On the Grey side of the cosmic ovum, these lobal extents are the magics of Mirror, Cadavoline, and Vantablack.   Or, in terms of color, Mirror is the next higher ultraviolet color above violet (named Phloxardens), and hosts a telos  of Ianua Vetitum (or forbidden door);   next, Cadavoline is the next lower infrared color below red (or near-infrared), enacting its telos  of Pulvis Exspiravit (or ghost dust);   finally, Vantablack is the absolute black of zero (or nonexistent) photons, in a set distinction to normal sensory black as might be used as a ‘color’ in painting, which is the absorption of all wavelengths;  ocular ‘black’ is in essence a perceptual color.  Vantablack instead is pure Anti-Color.  Vantablack is a darkness even below ‘eigengrau’, the gloom human eyes see in total darkness due to signals from the optic nerve.   This quality comes into play when its single use in magic is reviewed, bearing it a singular omnipotence.

 

On the Grey side, this theoretical tetrahedron is upside-down in orientation to that on the Brown side.  Instead of two axes up above the horizontal, one highest (Gold) the other nearer horizontal (Green), and one below horizontal (Orange) though not as absolute downward as Gold is upward, now two axes are below horizontal and one above.  Mirror is at the equivalent apposite angle as Orange on the Brown side except above the horizontal and thus basks in the radiance of White.  Cadavoline is equivalent in angle to Green except below the horizontal and thence subject to the impellent influence of Black.   Last, Vantablack has the same angle of orientation as Gold except downward, subjecting it to maximal Black field emission, just as Gold is subject to maximal White field emanation, and likewise Vantablack is in perfect balance with the Blue & Red impellent fields, or Time & Energy, but yet now Coercively, rather than in Surcease (or as implied in its application:  Justice).

 

Altogether, thus formed in structural theurgy are the 14 lobes of magic, which, as in all fullness of apodicticity, comprises the metaphysical, ontological, eschatological, pataphysical,  epistemological, phenomenological, anomalistical, paradigmatical, dialectical and dianoetical completeness of magic cycles in our cosmos, to its uttermost omneity (everything existent, allness).   Eleven of these lobes are of assorted elastic utility to humans.  All of these eleven are equipollent in power;   but in contrast, three others on the Grey/Yellow side are preeminent and insurmountable.

 

As touched upon above, all denizens of the Tawny domain are 'otherkin' -- beings something other than entirely human, but on whole quite human-like.   The same is true of the Green sprites.   The array of Grey entities has been covered above.   To a distinct lesser degree, plus in a variable range, and categorized instead as humanoid or ‘otherkin-ish’, are the angels & cherubs of White, devils & demons of Black, numen (or jinn) of Gold, ogres & goblins of Orange.  However, all of these stand in contradistinction to the inhabitants of Blue and Red, and expressly those surreal entities of Yellow, none of whom bear much concordance in being anthropomorphic.   This likewise applies to the Cthulhuians (covered eftsoon).

 

ALL beings belonging to these lobes – which is to say, ALL magical creatures – are not composed of matter (i.e., from this cosmos).   Rather, all are comprised of ylem – a primordial ‘matter’ that existed before the Big Bang, and before the creation of chemical elements.  As such, these beings may have bodily systems and organs, or they may have the functional equivalents to bones, but there is nothing about them involving biochemistry, nor that is compliant with physiology as we know it.   Evolution has never applied to them – there has never been an Australopithecus-fairy, nor an antediluvian-Green-sprite;   a proto-ogre would make no sense.   Lack of biological evolution is most easily grasped via demi-gods of Gold;   it so happens they are their own ur-gods, unto themselves;   in the realm of magical lobes this does not present a contradiction.

 

 

Of these three lobes that are not of utility (or put another way, can never form a basis for witchcraft), merely one aspect of each is utile.

 

What are these strange singular aspects?

 

Mirror universally reflects others magics*;   its name ‘Mirror’ is therefore more commonplace that referring to it by its ultraviolet color representation, were the electrifying color Phloxardens to become perceptible (as it does in the future, just as it now is to certain birds and insects).   Cadavoline magic dissolves all other magical forces & projections* into a strange non-matter dust not of this cosmos .

 

* But in both cases their cogency is not applicable to Vantablack.

 

Best reflecting the use of two of these lobes into one highly renowned, single theurgical contrivance is one of the pinnacle accomplishments in the History of Magic:   a supreme excantation (countercharm) based on the rarified Aumoklopelastianic Rune was discovered & developed by Arch-Magician Laccodel, and sometimes called in homage after him to be Laccodel’s Rune.   The odd meta-mathematics of this hyper-geometric glyph conjoins the monadic powers of Mirror and Cadavoline into one utility that will rout all other eleven lobal magics, whether amalgamated or not by Purple or Yellow manipulation, and transpires via the rune’s prompting forth the mode of one or the other of those two preeminent lobes.  To wit, this kabalistic arcanum will universally (1) rebound magic back to the caster, or (2) dissolve the force projected by these eleven other magics.   Either application, which the Rune itself regulates, is a titanic power no other magic can effect.

 

Ingress into the Mirror lobe is impossible.  The infrared lobe is another story.   Cadavoline dissolves & annuls ingress of magical potency but hosts properties that can allow entry of an incarnate living entity out of this cosmos, who, alas, is decarnated irreversibly into ghost dust (a metaphorical depiction).  The indigenous Cadavoline entities, who are termed the Cthulhuian Overpowers, gather such transformed particles and adhere them into a what is known as a ‘miasmic pall’, whereby the absorbed entity’s cognizance of  ‘Self’ or ‘Beingness’ stays fully preserved and intact, though now enjoined into an effluvium of agglutination, (which is of such an inseparably coagulated degree that bears its own theurgy special term for jargon lovers:  Obnubilate Inspissation).   This is so because independent motes of sentience (Life) are an abomination to Cthulhuians:   incarnate ‘zoetic-motes’ must be dis-incarnated;   a mote’s exclusive ‘locality’ is intolerably despicable in the context of this sub-red lobal realm.   (One can perhaps intuitively surmise why this lobe dissolves all other magical power.)   Transmogrification amounts to an endless nightmare of being assimilated inside a malformed, compacted and ever-churning miasma, and compressed next to other sentient beings likewise absorbed, and all subject to the insane or ludicrous whims of Cthulhu masters;   its effect understandably produces the extreme of Woefulness.   Contrast is often made to Black’s telos  of Agony Everlasting (albeit woe without agony).

 

Finally, from Vantablack is a singular magic of an Inescapable Imbibition  –  a magical ‘black hole’ of magic onto itself – be it anything of all 13 other lobal magics, be it (1) any physical or supernatural entity, be they any incarnate magus, arch-magician or mysteriarch emeritus, or any discarnate ghost-king or phantom potentiate;  and (2) of any degree, depth, clout or mastery:   neither angel, arch-angel, seraphim (and all high-hierarchs) of White, nor arch-devil, demon-cazique or daemonic hellion of Black, nor demiurgic Red throne of entelechial energeia,  nor infrared Cthulhuian suzerain, nor Orange’s ‘Occultanic Ultimum Magicae Draco’ [Dragon], nor even Gold’s numina who hold to demi-godhood.

 

It’s accidental physicality (which became expressed in this cosmos as a non-viewable nugget) resulted from a Colossal Spasm induced from Vantablack from an erratic sorcery-wizardry misconjunction that was of suicidal obliteration.  Still, a node of Vantablack’s domain was netted by the always resourceful Wizard Onofre Loxofestes, and appended (blindly) into an amulet for human use.  This non-viewable amulet is such that it may only be tactilely handled, which of itself induces jitters and panicky revulsion.   The reason for its non-viewability is that Vantablack is Anti-Color;   as has been related, all magic lobes impress a color periphery intrinsic to their perceivability, thence the magic of ‘anti-color’ can only manifest as something that is ‘anti-viewable’ or ‘sightless’ in the logic of theurgy.   The mere act of viewing this piece of Vantablack instantly launches a conduit of inexorable absorption into Vantablack’s domain.  It is omnipotent, and out of its telos  it realizes a devouring supremacy over any & all magics.  It is the endpoint of all magic.   It has incalculably more potency that any supermassive -blackhole in our cosmos.

 

/o0o\

 

The Ring of Eight Swords

 

A ring of eight faces.  It is worn on the dominant hand wherewith holding the sword for parlaying would be enacted.   One activating word must be spoken once the ring is first worn.  As long as the ring is continually worn, it remains active to materialize its swords, even for a lifetime.  Were the finger or hand hypothetically to be chopped off by an enemy and the ring stolen, it cannot be used without knowledge of the activant.

 

Because of that attribute, it is clearly understood as an artifact made via the means of Purple magic.   The Ring of Eight Swords is an exemplar of Wizardry and its facility to handle other lobal magics;  derivation of these eight swords out from their respective lobal domains is an exhibition of that facility.

 

When worn on a finger, a mental construct comes forth spontaneously into the mind as if one is putting on a glove instead of a ring.

 

Out of its own modality in working, this ring supplies a teletactility as follows:

 

In one’s mind whenever attention is brought to bear, the set of eight sword hilts can be mentally perceived in the vicinity of the ringed hand, and thence can any be clasped by mentally turning one’s hand to grasp that of one’s choice.   Which sword is which is intuitively known to the ring wearer, as served to the mind by the ring.

 

Once a choice of sword is made, one merely grabs the hilt’s grip and the ring brings it forth, fully materialized.   Once finished, one need only mentally think of replacing the sword into its invisible scabbard, and the ring accomplishes that action, depositing the sword back into a private sub-space, which the ring generates for each sword.

 

No sword can be lost to the ring, which magically tethers indissoluble attachment to each of the eight swords with their respective domains.  Were a drawn sword somehow dropped or put down, or in battle the arm lopped off, the sword immediately dematerializes and goes back into the ring to sit invisibly, available always again.   One need only to switch hands, or generate a new arm.

 

The Ring’s Eight Swords of Magic

 

The Sword of Black Magic.

 

Description:  Shiny black but unsmooth blade.  A meter long, straight, thumb-length at its base and tapering gradually to a point.  Looks made of obsidian but is crinkly rather than smooth all along its length.  It is fissiparous;  chips and slivers of it may fly off during battles to make horrific further cuts and embedded intrusions.  One must guard against it evilly sending chips or slivers even to the wielder.  Cuts and stabs from this Black sword are magically of elevated pain and difficult to heal, in consonance with Black’s telos  of anguish.

 

Best Use:   The sword-of-choice against all monsters and any denizens of the Orange realm, as well as all entities of its own Black realm.  It abides by the dictum:  ‘Evil ultimately attacks itself’.   Of course it can find use as any common sword.  Unlike other swords of Black magic, it does not absorb the soul of a vanquished opponent;  (nor consume blood).   Neither is this sword inhabited by a demon.

 

The Sword of White Magic.

 

Description:  Crystalline & white, having a scintillating, smooth blade.  The blade fluoresces a faint rainbow halo along its length.  A meter long, straight, thumb-length at its base and tapering gradually to a point.  It is always easy to handle, and seems ‘blessed’ somehow to innately ‘know’ some optimal approach, which miraculously becomes realized by the wielder ever often to ‘save-the-day’.   It has the power to not tire its wielder no matter the duration of battle.

 

Best Use:  The sword-of-choice against all denizens of Black – demons, devils, afrits, lamia.  Strikes from this sword explodes them into black dust.  Is ALWAYS superior to ANY weapon of Black magical power.  Cannot be defeated by Black magic.   Its very appearance brings fear to any being influenced by evil, be they mundane of origin or magical.

 

The Sword of Blue Magic.

 

Description:  Upon grasping a proffered hilt or stave, it manifests as the supremely optimal weapon needed for success in the battle at hand.  This might be a longsword, a curved scimitar, a rapier, a mace, a throwing dagger, an assassin’s karambit, a chopping akrafena or jungle machete, a poleaxe, a spear to throw, etc. from an unlimited library of hand-battle weapons.   Appearance is always of a ‘blued’ metal.  If a spear, its throw will always hit its target (under the power of Blue magic) as had been sighted in battle by the thrower, no matter the distance, no matter through a maze of turns and hidden routes, no matter if now inside a sealed sanctuary, for this Blue spear travels through walls.  These factors are equally true of it as a throwing dagger.  Upon accomplishing its thrown mission, it will rematerialize within the ring, ready for instant reuse.

 

Best Use:   Any conventional battle, especially when needed for a distantly sighted enemy, such as the opposing general or the captain of the host, and also when fighting one-on-one, for which a longsword, scimitar, mace, poleaxe, etc., might be optimal against a specific enemy.  Blue magic governs this.

 

The Sword of Red Magic.

 

Description:   A crimson metal, thumb-length at its base, then in a gracious curve bows out to hand-width two-thirds out to its full length, then tapers back to the point at its end, overall a meter long.  When first extracted from the ring, for 10 or less seconds it swings, veers, swishes of its own accord at such speed as to appear a cloud of flashing crimson metal.  After this initial self-activation, it thence is its own master at swordsmanship, completely alive to the touch.  It ‘knows’ every possible technique, assault, defense, feint and trick in sword fighting, and flawlessly responds, always spontaneously and appropriately;  the wielder need only hold on!   If it flies from one’s grasp, it need only be recalled instantly again from its sub-space home in the ring.

 

Best Use:   The sword-of-choice for complex, close-quarters, entangled battles, where eyes are needed in every direction at once:  front, both sides, rear.  The Red Sword will pull the wielder through with all best success that is calculably possible – of note, the Red sword has never been defeated.  It is effective, too, against monsters and creatures of the Orange realm, and the demons & devils and all hellions of the Black domain, who cannot comprehend its Red magical efficacy;  thereby they too are defeated.

 

The Sword of Gold Magic.

 

Description:  Manifests either as a double-handed great-sword, or as a two-handed battle axe.  Spectacularly gold in color, though not of gold metal, and brilliantly shines a soft golden light.  Can find use in every conventional battle because its power is the ability to cleave in two, either as the great-sword or as the axe, any material no matter how hardened.  It is cogent against all matter (other than neutron star matter, as if!).   Its power is almost the same with supernatural adversaries not made of matter, depending on the power it faces:  particularly as to the Black domain, it will magically cleave all afrits, most devils and many demons, but some demons have greater non-material potency than the Gold swords wields, as do arch-devils and various hellions.  In cases like this, the Sword of White Magic will always prevail.

 

Best Use:   All conventional battles (those of physical matter), and many battles of supernatural opponents.  As to the later, it can triumph against all Orange, Green, Brown and Yellow domain entities.  One best use for it is that when imprisoned – in any fashion whatsoever – then one can hack away the bars or walls of any material composition, as well as tunnel through mountain rock, etc., to win one’s freedom.   It is the only sword of the eight with such herculean capability.

 

The Sword of Green Magic.

 

Description:   A vivid green, translucent emerald sword, though thousands of times stronger than the mere mineral, thumb-length the entire length of its blade, a little less than a meter long, and double-pointed at the end, much like a snake’s tongue.

 

Best Use:   This is a most perilous instrument, introducing poison at every touch of its blade, be it a tap, scratch, cut, slash or stab.  Thru the utter cogency of Green Magic an optimal poison is dispensed specific for the contacted creature or entity;  exceptions are angels of the White domain, tenants of the Black realms, demi-gods of the Gold domain, and entities of the Grey, Blue and Red lobes, none of whom can be ever poisoned.  Highly lethal to all cosmos creatures as ourselves, and to all entities of the Green, Orange and Brown domains, and of the surreal Yellow field.

 

The Nine Knives of Brown Magic.

 

Description:  A set of nine flying two-sided blades, tapered to a point at each end, all just slightly larger than the length of a hand from palm base to longest fingertip.  They may be utilized for fighting forward and backward, being double-pointed.  They are the color of dull bronze (although are not bronze).  The ring gives the wearer the mental faculty to command at will each knife independently and simultaneously  –  the ring fosters a specialized mental capacity to ‘see’ and ‘control’ each blade separately in clear mental focus (something impossible to do without the ring), called the Ennead Foci (the nine-fold focus).  Thusly they may be made to defensively circle the wielder, for example,  each independently at the ready to stab any of many encircling aggressors;  or all of them may be made to collectively confuse and attack via viciously swarming against a giant behemoth.

 

Best Use:   A day-to-day defensive article, producing a sufficient shock impression to offending never-do-wells, reprobates and other accosters, and also other prosaic activities as one would use any knife.  This weapon is especially good for covert attacks and secret fighting.   These are the blades of choice were the ring-wearer to be bound & knotted, or entangled, or physically ensnared.

 

The Sword of Grey Magic.

 

Description:  This is the most esoterically ethereal of swords, given it is a rare discarnate instrument;  it appears like a ghost sword, the shaft being one of mist in a sword’s shape that can be seen through.  It is a phantasmal weapon.  It feels as weightless as it looks.

 

Best Use:   The one ‘must have’ sword to combat malevolent denizens of the Grey domain, where a matter cleaver like the Sword of Gold Magic is useless.  It is the only dependable counter-necromancy armament.   Similarly of no use in counter-necromancy are the Swords of Blue, Red, Green Magic, nor the Knives of Brown Magic.  Whether the Swords of Black or White Magic would have any effect on spectres & ghosts cannot be guessed – they might in some ghost-battling cases, but certainly would not universally.  ONLY this sword is efficacious in battling all Grey Magic entities, and reliably has effectiveness superior to the only other two contenders against inimically cast necromancy, the Swords of White Magic or Black Magic.