Chapter 9: Introducing Ancient Magic
There are several things necessary to establish a solid colony in colony sims.
Access to resources, shelter, manpower, and food sources is basic.
Volatile or hostile terrain tiles will require players to use equipment to withstand environmental hazards and sudden changes.
And, most relevant to the problem at hand, there is the capacity to neutralize threats through force, leverage, or coercion.
Leverage and coercion aren’t too important in the early game.
Usually, in such games as colony sims, unless you’ve tweaked your game settings, factional threats come much later when you’ve sufficiently strengthened your colony into its own standing faction.
Force, however, becomes an immediate necessity once thrown into an environment full of entities that want you dead or as food.
“So you’re considering creating guardians for your followers?”
“That is right.”
Esphera pulled me over to talk with her in private regarding an idea she had.
The village wasn’t exactly the best place to talk about such topics at length, so we went over to the nearby river, where there were a bunch of four-horned bison-like creatures grazing on the grass.
The basic idea was to spawn guardian spirits using ashes to protect her followers while their civilization was still in its infancy.
This way, she could naturally utilize her divine aspects of flame and creation, ensuring civilization’s short-term survival while maintaining their faith in her.
Those guardians would, after all, be servants of their revered deity, and servants working hard to protect the faithful would inspire more faith in return.
It was a decent idea for starters, but…
“There are a few problems with that idea.”
“There are? What could…”
“The first is that you have no established method of creation yet.”
“However, the ashes…”
“The ashes idea is not the problem in itself. It is the problem of whether or not your followers know that ashes can be used to create spirits.”
“...I am sorry, but I simply do not understand.”
“I will explain.”
What Esphera is trying to achieve is, in effect, a form of miracle to her faithful.
In various theologies and mythologies, people have recorded various methods by which gods and goddesses performed their miracles.
Stories where people are molded from clay, water is turned into wine, the moon is split in two, and more.
What’s important here isn’t the stories themselves, or the method itself, but the fact that these stories exist.
It is the perception that a constellation can perform a specific miracle—by imaginable means—that enables it to do so in the first place.
In the simplest terms, what determines the constellation’s abilities is the lore behind the constellation.
Without the mythology to back it up, a constellation would not be able to perform such miracles to begin with.
“Try performing that miracle you just thought up now.”
“With the ashes?”
“Yes. Do you have any right now?”
“I do. I wrapped a pile up with leaves and kept it with me. Egg and the others helped me gather these.”
Just as I had told her to, she began attempting the miracle she had thought up.
Pulling the pile of wrapped ashes from her sleeve, she poured the ashes onto her palm and attempted to set the pile aflame with her divine powers. However…
“... It is just as you said, Lord Yvell.”
As expected, it didn’t work.
“The reason you can unleash powerful flames and fly around is that you are the personification of this world’s sun. The sun is hot, and decorates the sky with all its glory.”
“You flatter me, Lord Yvell~…”
“What? Fu— I mean, no. That is not what I meant.”
“I know! I am just teasing! Hehe~”
That made me jump for a second. I didn’t expect that.
“Then, Lord Yvell, what about my abilities to teleport objects, make things disappear, and alter the essence of my followers?”
“The former is, once again, due to you being a personification of the sun. The sun disappears at night, does it not? Or at least, that is how your followers perceive the sun. The sun also somehow emerges on the other end of the sky by the next morning.”
“Oh!”
“As for the latter… That is a byproduct of being their creation deity.”
“I see!”
That’s all just a guess from me, though.
It’s not like I’m an actual constellation myself, but as far as I could tell, that’s what makes sense.
It frightens me to think what would happen if I turned out to be wrong, but I need to make shit up to keep the act up.
“Then, Lord Yvell, what is the second problem?”
“Practicality.”
“Practicality?”
“Yes, practicality. Tell me, Esphera. Do you plan to make a guardian spirit by yourself every time a follower requests one?”
“Ah… Indeed, that would grow into a more cumbersome task as the number of my followers grows.”
The very action of a goddess lowering herself to grant a follower a guardian spirit may be loyalty-inspiring, but it isn’t practical.
When their numbers inevitably grow, there will be too many for her to make at a time.
There is also the growing issue of entitlement that the followers themselves may feel if the goddess continues to give and give with no return or conditions attached to her blessings.
Given a few generations, her followers may grow conceited and may start seeing Esphera as beneath them due to her actions mirroring a form of servitude.
“The last issue I have with your proposal is memorability.”
“Ah! I get it! For such a power to continue to exist, my followers must continue to perceive me as capable of this power!”
“Yes, you learn fast, Esphera.”
Just as miracles have been immortalized on Earth through documentation, the same or something similar must be done here in this magical world. The problem with that, however, is that writing technology is still far away.
I thought about teaching them the ability to write, however…
The image of the bald idiots, Rock and Stone, hitting each other on the head with sticks comes to mind.
So far, I have not witnessed these primitives create any pictograms or ideograms, so introducing them to writing right away might be a stretch.
People need to learn addition first before learning multiplication, don’t they? Same deal there. And getting to that point might take too much time.
“Then… What do we do, Lord Yvell?”
“The answer is simple. Presentation.”
“Presentation? Will we have to perform a play?”
“Not quite, but you are close. Take a guess.”
“Mhm…”
While Esphera scratched her still-flaming head in thought, I took this time to enjoy the scenery.
The river was calm and clear. So clear that you could see the strangely-shaped fish swimming by.
I watched as a four-horned bison took a fat shit on a small bird that was pecking on a nut in the grass. Ah, the beauty of nature.
“I think I know the answer now! Perhaps, could it be…”
At Ignacia Academy, the most renowned educational facility in the Agnician Empire, a basic magic class was being held.
“Ritual magic is the most ancient field of magic and predates agriculture, or so scholars believe.”
An aged professor of the arcane arts stood at the podium before a class of sixty, conducting his first lecture of the year.
“Before agriculture, professor? Is that right?”
“Isn’t that strange? How did a bunch of barbarians figure out ritual magic before something as simple as planting grass in the ground?”
Though he had been a professor for over a decade now, his commoner origins meant that, whenever students of noble birth, especially those from foreign countries, started trouble in his class, he would find himself lost as to what to do.
“Clearly, it must have been we elves that made ritual magic. Much of ritual magic mirrors a lot of the foundations of our ancient druidic magic~”
“Elves often claim they started everything. Prideful, lying bunch.”
“What did you say, you miserable dirt-eating dwarf?!?”
“You dare?!?”
Often, the best that he could manage to do was to signal some of his more cooperative students for help.
Cough. Cough.
“...! Ahem. You two, won’t you please consider taking these arguments elsewhere?”
“Not until I put a few holes through this damn mole’s skull. A couple of arrows sticking out from your forehead would look good on you, don’t you think?”
“Give it a try, bark for brains. We dwarves, throw twigs like you in the furnace for fuel.”
“Oh, for the love of god, you two! Cut it out!”
After the commotion died down, the lecture finally continued from where it had last left off.
“Anyway, that is what current studies in arcane academia believe, yes. For proof, look no further than the oldest recorded ritual circles. Does anyone here take any classes in theology?”
A student with short, pink braided hair raised her hand.
“Ah, Priestess Runoa. I recall that you belong to the Order of Fates and Twisted Futures. While this is iconography from a different denomination, I take it that you are familiar with this sigil?”
The magic professor, using a unique combination of fire magic and wind magic, drew a circle surrounded by several layered rings and waves.
“That… How could anyone not know this sigil, professor? This is the holy sigil of the Ringed Star Mother, the mother of all life.”
“What mother of all life? Clearly, that title belongs to our most revered Graille, the World Tree.”
“Won’t you shut your trap, elf?”
“You dare!”
Cough. Cough.
“Enough, you two…”
“Ahem! Anyway, indeed. It is. Now, if you take a look at this ritual circle, perhaps you will notice something important.”
The magic professor once again utilized the same magic combination to reproduce the image of an ancient ritual circle. It was then that a realization dawned on the young priestess.
“They are… quite similar. In fact, the resemblance is almost uncanny in some areas.”
“No way…”
“This must be some human fabrication!”
“I’ve seen this ritual circle before, but I never noticed the resemblance until you put the two together, professor.”
The aged professor simply nodded his head.
“Many people often fail to realize the resemblance. This is because they’re always drawn on the ground, and the sheer size of these ritual circles makes it difficult to see it whole. However, when you look at these circles from a bird’s eye view, you’ll quickly notice the similarities.”
Runoa’s gaze glued itself to the two circles floating next to one another in the air. Her mouth hung open as curiosity bored its way into her mind.
“Priestess? You may sit down now.”
“O-Oh, of course!”
Some of her classmates laughed as they noticed the cute face she made when she was embarrassed. The elf scoffed at the sight of the dazed priestess, while the dwarf’s attention remained directed to the professor’s words. Then, the dwarf raised his stubby arm to ask a question.
“That ritual circle, did it not originate from the nomadic barbarian tribes of the Evergreen plains?”
“Close. While the shamans among the various tribes of the Evergreen plains do use similar ritual circles, this particular circle was actually discovered in the ruins of an ancient shrine dedicated to the Ringed Star Mother. The shrine was hiding in the Deepgreen peaks north of the plains, close to our Empire’s first settlement and old capital city, Starfell.”
Runoa widened her eyes at the professor’s words.
“... Does that mean that ritual magic… might have been a gift from the Great Goddess, the Esphera herself?”
“That is what most scholars are speculating at the moment, but if you want my personal opinion, I believe that the chances are quite high.”
“Then, could all magic be?...”
“Ritual magic is said to be the root of all magic, so the possibility is…”
“Preposterous. To dare think that magic originated from humans is…!”
Stirred by the professor’s words, the classroom naturally grew noisy as students began discussing the topic with each other.
Despite this chaotic scene, however, Runoa appeared even more stunned than her peers.
Gears started to turn in her head.
The image of a similar ritual circle appeared in her mind for a brief moment before a thick, rough hand gently shook her back to reality.
It was her dwarven classmate, still young and thus without a beard, but still stubby in his overall form just as all dwarves were.
“Priestess. We have our clue.”
“Yes, Ruger. Perhaps if we visit this shrine, we might finally find ourselves an answer.”
The ancient ritual circle beneath an old ruined cathedral.
Surrounding the circle were twelve statues, all shattered beyond recognition.
At the center of the ritual circle was a similarly broken tablet inscribed with incomplete ancient text.
LINK ____ WORLD
Once upon a time, four children happened upon this cathedral while playing in the nearby forest.
When an earthquake had suddenly struck, one of the children tripped onto the circle before disappearing into a flash of light.
Once the earthquake had subsided and the flash of light with it, the child was gone, leaving the remaining three shocked at the sudden disappearance of a friend.
Runoa stared into the ritual circle in the air once more, determination hardening in her eyes.
“I will find my sister.”
“Yes, that is correct, Esphera. Rituals are the answer.”
“Forgive me for asking, Lord Yvell, but how do rituals solve the problem?”
“That’s simple.”
Rituals establish habitual practices that get ingrained into cultures.
They can stand the test of time through word of mouth, personal experience as witnesses to these rituals, and continued practice.
So, on the matter of immortalizing rituals, that much is a non-issue.
So long as their cultural importance remains strong to those practicing said rituals, we won’t have to worry about the memory of these rituals dying quickly.
As for practicality, so long as rituals are established as a method to borrow power from Esphera to perform miracles—such as summoning guardian entities—Esphera wouldn’t have to do all the work herself.
And so long as the summoned guardian entities don’t come out too powerful, her followers won’t grow complacent about their survival or become unfaithful towards her, thereby allowing for their continued faith and devotion.
And lastly, as for creating the mythology that would enable such a practice to work with Esphera’s divine powers, I have my own ideas in mind.
“Hahaha…”
“Lord Yvell? Is everything alright?”
“Oh, it is nothing, Esphera. Worry not.”
I tossed a pebble into the river, creating ripples across the water.
“I am simply excited for what is to come.”
Get ready, you primitive apes.
I’ll be sure to give you a show to remember for generations.
