After reading the latest Dresden Files book (a pleasure for any who have not yet picked it up), I found myself wondering, "How do wizards survive (in their fictional worlds)?"
In fantasies, RPG's, and video games, wizards are often hunted by vast malignant forces, fell armies, and fierce legions. Against insurmountable odds, wizards are usually on their own or allied with a mere few. These and other wizards are asked to guide even less prepared heroes through a gauntlet of horrors that would leave Dante cringing. Many times poor wizards are the targets for other's advancement, their magical lore and relics the focus of quests, missions, and injunctions. In these instances and others, wizards are almost always outnumbered and generally outgunned.
So how do wizards survive?
Aside from minor concerns like actually leaving an author, game maker or GM with a tale to tell, how do the wizards do it?
The answer, obviously, is thanks to generous, far-seeing wizards like Mulogo who provided good advice and even better training!
After finishing The Chronicles of the Fists, a fantasy trilogy that is a blend of western fantasy and eastern mysticism, I wanted to do something unlike anything I'd read but loosely related to the world of Ea'ae created in the Fists trilogy. The Fists trilogy had humorous and poetic elements along with comical takes on traditional fantasy.
I wanted to take these themes to another level.
The idea of a wizard's guide to wizardry seemed perfect, especially one where the vaunted wizard's advice was undermined at every turn by the scribe transcribing his words. I also liked the idea of a book written as an indirect dialogue between teacher and student through footnotes. Both were unlike anything I'd read.
Mulogo's Trestise is the type of manual found in an arcane library on Ea'ae... probably ignored but there nonetheless.
I hope you have as much fun with it as I did!
*Reader submitted question.
In fantasies, RPG's, and video games, wizards are often hunted by vast malignant forces, fell armies, and fierce legions. Against insurmountable odds, wizards are usually on their own or allied with a mere few. These and other wizards are asked to guide even less prepared heroes through a gauntlet of horrors that would leave Dante cringing. Many times poor wizards are the targets for other's advancement, their magical lore and relics the focus of quests, missions, and injunctions. In these instances and others, wizards are almost always outnumbered and generally outgunned.
So how do wizards survive?
Aside from minor concerns like actually leaving an author, game maker or GM with a tale to tell, how do the wizards do it?
The answer, obviously, is thanks to generous, far-seeing wizards like Mulogo who provided good advice and even better training!
After finishing The Chronicles of the Fists, a fantasy trilogy that is a blend of western fantasy and eastern mysticism, I wanted to do something unlike anything I'd read but loosely related to the world of Ea'ae created in the Fists trilogy. The Fists trilogy had humorous and poetic elements along with comical takes on traditional fantasy.
I wanted to take these themes to another level.
The idea of a wizard's guide to wizardry seemed perfect, especially one where the vaunted wizard's advice was undermined at every turn by the scribe transcribing his words. I also liked the idea of a book written as an indirect dialogue between teacher and student through footnotes. Both were unlike anything I'd read.
Mulogo's Trestise is the type of manual found in an arcane library on Ea'ae... probably ignored but there nonetheless.
I hope you have as much fun with it as I did!
*Reader submitted question.
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