The Weave
Most practitioners of magic throughout
Alemi hold some understanding of the
Weave. While there are other theoretic frameworks used to describe the functions of magic, spellcasting, and its effects (for example, the notion of
er'Agur in
Ma'ji Mysticism), the
Weave remains the dominant way to understand magical operations.
On the one hand, the
Weave is a simple metaphor: there are threads that represent various forces in the world, magic users manipulate those threads. Sometimes it gets knotty. Simple enough.
But there is more to it than metaphor. Well, more accurately, there is more to it, and more to the metaphor.
Bah! This is quasi-philosophic nonsense. Magic is a thread in the world, magicians pull on, cut, and knot the thread. If you understand, you understand. If you don't, no amount of babble will help you.— Loikiel
Loikiel was a second-rate transmuter. Change X into Y. Yawn. Change is everywhere, mastering it is a matter of brute force. You want to delve into the depths of real magic, read on.— Guattari
The Warp and the Weft
As metaphor, the
Weave deserves some more attention. A weave contains threads in two directions: the
warp goes lengthwise, from one end of the fabric to the other and the
weft goes across the warp, binding it together and making the weave more than a bunch of thread or a skein of yarn.
History as percieved by sentient beings forms part of the
warp of the world: these threads run the length of all creation, with the lives of all creatures occupying infinitesimally tiny lengths along it. There are longer threads--the lives of mountains and oceans, and there are even some that run the entire length of existence. Time flows along the warp.
Across the warp comes the
weft, those forces that bind the warp together, crossing beneath them, both supporting and thwarting their position. These forces range from the natural--gravity, the warmth of sunlight, the power of storms--to the supernatural powers of magic to the obscure physics of
The Outer Planes and
The True Realms.
The weft are the forces that impact the lives of the warp.
Taken together, the warp and the weft are the
weave, and in that sense, magic is an integral part of the world, and is somewhat equivalent to the other dominant forces of nature and of physics.
The second mode is simultaneously more metaphorical and more specific.
The Weave, Proper
Here, the
Weave refers to the actual operations of magic, which involves being able to perceive and manipulate botht the warp and the weft of reality, and especially the points and moments where they intersect. Individuals with access to magic can, through a mixture of verbal incantations, physical motions, and the manipulation of material elements, pull on certain threads of the weave, repositioning them to new effect.
A practical example may help.
There is a powerful, yet somewhat common spell that invokes the power of fire in a massive ball that explodes where directed by the magician. In casting this, the goal of the magic user is to access the solar weft (the power of solar fire), pulling it into and across the relevant warps (the life-threads of the creatures being targeted), and releasing its latent power. This is done by using the associative properties of a small ball of bat guano and sulfur and a verbal invocation to access the correct weft, and a physical motion to direct its energies as desired.
By all the gods of the True Realms! Can't you just say you're casting fireball?— Loikiel
Not all uses of the
Weave are as dramatic, of course: some spells merely enhance the perception of the magician. As an example, the ever-popular invocations to perceive the presence of magic itself may be seen as a way of making the
weave visible, pulling the pattern of warp and weft closer to the surface of perception.
I'm ignoring that.
This wasn't so hard, was it? It may be some time before you're ready to discuss the positionality issues related to irregular quadrants of interlaced knots, and the (k)not-regular foursomes they imply in p/lace. But you're on your way.— Guattari
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