Mysticism: The Unfathomable Voyage
By Tetronius Lor
Mysticism is the school of magic least understood by the magical community,
most difficult to explain to novices mages. The spells effects commonly
ascribed to the School of Mysticism are as wildly disparate as Soul
Trap -- the creation of a cell for a victim's spirit after death
-- to Silence -- the extinction of sound. But these effects are simply
that: effects. The sorcery behind them is veiled in a mystery that
may go back to the oldest civilizations of Tamriel, and beyond.
The Psijics of the Order of Artaeum's term for Mysticism is the Old
Way. The phrase becomes bogged in a semantic quagmire, because the
Old Way also refers to the religion and customs of the Psijics which
may, or may not, be part of the magic of Mysticism.
There are few mages who devote their lives to the study of Mysticism.
The other schools are far more predictable and fathomable. Mysticism
seems to derive its power from its cunundrums and paradoxes; the
act of experimentation, no matter how objectively implemented, can
influence the magicka by its very existance. Thus, the Mystic mage
must regulate himself to finding consistant patterns in an imbroglio
of energy. In the time it takes him to find a source with a consistant
trigger and result, his peers researching in other schools may have
researched and documented dozens of new spells and effects. The Mystic
mage is a patient and uncompetitve scholar.
For centuries, mostly during the Second Era, scholarly journals publishes
theory after theory about the aspect or aspects of magicka that we
call Mysticism. In the tradition of the Mages Guild to find answers
to all things, respected researchers suggested the energy source
as coming from Aetherius or the Daedra themselves to explain the
seemingly random patterns of Mysticism; some ventured to guess that
Mysticism comes from unused elements of successfully or unsuccessfully
cast spells; discussion with the Order of Artaeum after its reappearance
has led some scholars to postulate that Mysticism is more spiritual
in nature, either the intellect or emotion of the believer influences
the energy pattern and flow.
None of these explanations is truly satisfactory. For the beginning
student of Mysticism, it is best to simple learn the patterns distinguished
in the maelstrom in the centuries past. The more patterns are found,
the clearer the remaining ones become. Until, of course, they change.
And then the journey begins anew.
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