Profiles in Magic, Volume 17 (book) - Revision history

CRYPTODYNAMIC: Fixing property value

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Fixing property value

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	much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."		much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."

	[[Category:Book]][[page type is::book\| ]][[guild association is::~~moon~~ ~~mage~~\| ]]		[[Category:Book]][[page type is::book\| ]][[guild association is::Moon Mage\| ]]

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	much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."		much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."

	[[Category:Book]]		[[Category:Book]][[page type is::book\| ]][[guild association is::moon mage\| ]]

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	guildmaster of, in his own words, "a place just like home. Only		guildmaster of, in his own words, "a place just like home. Only
	much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."		much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."

			[[Category:Book]]

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Maintenance script: New page: ==Profiles in Magic, Volume Seventeen == ==Tiv : Through Discipline, Comes Power == '''PREFACE:''' Heritage Monographs, the official press of the Moonmage Guild, is proud to present the...

2007-07-10T06:15:11Z

New page: ==Profiles in Magic, Volume Seventeen == ==Tiv : Through Discipline, Comes Power == '''PREFACE:''' Heritage Monographs, the official press of the Moonmage Guild, is proud to present the...

New page

==Profiles in Magic, Volume Seventeen ==
==Tiv : Through Discipline, Comes Power ==

'''PREFACE:'''

Heritage Monographs, the official press of the Moonmage Guild, is
proud to present the seventeenth volume in the ongoing Profiles
in Magic series. The information within these volumes, often
obtained at great personal risk to our field journalists, has
been compiled by a dedicated staff of scholars and Guild
representatives.

This is the second volume in an ongoing series, spanning
monographs sixteen to twenty-two, featuring current and
historical guildmasters of note. We are pleased to present in
this manuscript a biography of Guildmaster Tiv, the enigmatic
teacher of Therengia Province.

Every mage knows that sacrifice is one of the keys of successful
magic: no, not the bloody husk of a sacrifical dove, or the
entrails of a thunder ram, but the sacrifice that every scholar
must make in order to perfect their art. The surrender of time,
of energy, of youth, to the endless work of a magical career.
Few can speak about this level of committment with as much
understanding as Guildmaster Tiv.

Tiv -- and that is his only given name -- spent his childhood as
a native son in a nomadic tribe of the northern steppes.
Learning to survive on the frozen wastes, through hunger and
bitter cold, taught him hard and early lessons about life; but
unlike his extended family, who simply accepted this life as
their lot and never thought far beyond the coming day, Tiv knew
that there had to be a reason behind suffering, a foundation of
order beneath chaos. A sensitive youth, many of his tribe
thought that he had the makings of a shaman. But, because the
tribe's own shaman had died some years ago without an apprentice,
there was nobody left to teach him the magical ways.

As the tribe migrated westward, they made camp near the
protective face of a sheer rock mountain. This was the Frostweyr
Spire, long before it had been placed on any known maps. In the
lean months that followed, Tiv worked and hunted with his tribe,
but hungered for more than a full belly: he longed for the art
of the shaman, not for power, but for the ability to reach his
true potential.

It is said that Tiv was out early one morning, listening to the
howling wind and looking up at the spire's cliff, when he
witnessed a most unusual sight: a man with shaved head and a
humble cloth robe -- no furs to protect him from the biting cold
-- walked to the edge of the cliff far above. He held in his
hands a pure white dove, which he released into the blizzard. It
circled around, spinning effortlessly through the snow, then
returned to the man's hands. The man turned and walked away,
vanishing out of sight.

The next morning, the scene repeated itself, identical to the day
before. Tiv's mind was beset with questions, his curiousity
insatiable. Who was the man, and how did he live atop the spire?
What was up there? Why did he enact this ritual with his bird?
Morning after morning, the bird flew, and Tiv at last resolved
himself to learn the answer to the mystery: he would climb the
mountain, and ask.

Early in the morning, before false dawn cast the first rays of
sunlight across the steppe, Tiv set out alone to conquer the
mountain. He took the thick fur gloves from his hands and
dropped them on the ground, knowing that he would need precise
control to find handholds on the near-vertical rock. Enveloped
by bitter, howling winds, he began to climb.

He was fifteen feet up when vertigo began to take hold of him:
the nomads were natives to the flat, endless plains, not given to
climbing more than a slight incline. He steeled himself against
fear, forcing himself not to look down. The wind provided ample
distraction, howling like banshees in his ears and making his
skin burn with pain. The exposed flesh of his hands turned a
sickly rose-white, and he was beginning to lose feeling in the
fingers, but he kept his grip fast.

Halfway up, one of his boots snagged on a rock and pulled from
his foot, falling into the snowy mists far below. Barely
catching his footing in time, he grunted as he shrugged off the
other boot, his bare feet finding smaller and better holds on the
treacherous rock. Sharp rocks sliced his flesh, trails of blood
mingling with the snow as he forced himself upward, inch by
agonizing inch. Far above his head, what seemed an eternity
away, he saw the man come to the edge and release his bird.

Tiv's muscles screamed as he continued his ascent, every instinct
urging him to just let go, to fall away from the mountain and
find rest in death. He swallowed these feelings as well, staring
upward at the man's silhouette with his teeth clenched, raw and
bloody hands scrabbling for the next handhold, the next inch
upward.

At last, he took hold of the cliff's edge, using his last reserve
of strength-- more than he ever dreamed he possessed-- to haul
himself up to safety. He laid in the snow at the robed man's
feet, gasping for breath, struggling to keep consciousness as the
dove landed gracefully in the man's hand. Behind them, a
monestary of yellow basalt rose up to touch the ashen sky.

"I need," Tiv gasped, "To know--"

The man just nodded, and looked at the bird. "It is a magical
hunting bird," he said, smiling, "It finds apprentices."

The monestary, and his new mentor, were wards of the Order of the
Crystal Hand. Well-known to students of Moonmage history, the
Hand was a hermetic sect of warrior-mages who, fearing their
knowledge would be lost in the chaos of the Late Imperial Period,
signed the Lunar Accord and joined the guild's ranks. While this
effectively ended the order's existance as an independant entity,
some far-flung outposts of the sect had been cut off from
civilization for so long that they did not receive the news.
This was one of them.

Saying a tearful goodbye to his tribe and becoming reborn into
the order's ranks, Tiv poured his heart and soul into the work of
an apprentice monk. Every day was filled with ceaseless
training, in the arts of magic, of war and, more than either,
philosophy. The Hand's credo is one of attaining personal
perfection, in all ways and in all things-- and of maintaining
personal integrity and humility, always remembering how far from
that goal any mortal must be.

Decades passed, and Tiv became the housemaster of the monastery
after his own mentor passed on. Surpassing all the other monks
in prowess, he presided as their leader for years, never
forgetting to take his master's bird to fly at the cliff's edge
every morn. Eventually, he did meet someone upon that icy peak,
but not a young climber like he had been so long ago. It was a
small group of mages who had teleported to the monestary's door
via a strange, shifting gate in space, requesting to speak to
him.

They were emissaries of the Moonmage High Council, who had
detected the powerful energies given off in the barren wastes,
and came to investigate. Tiv spent a long evening with the
foreign mages, exchanging stories and lore, until one made a
hesitant request: the guildmistress of a chapterhouse to the far
south had recently died, with no apprentices ready to replace
her, and the house in question was in a crucial area for the
guild, a very dangerous and unsettled province. It required a
powerful and learned master to supervise it, and Tiv was
qualified-- if he said no, they would be forced to look
elsewhere, taking up valuable time and risking losing the
territory altogether. Would he help them?

This was the hardest decision Tiv had ever faced, and he slept
fitfully on his decision. The monestary had been his home for
the greatest portion of his life, and the northern wastes for all
of it. These men had asked him to leave his home, his family--
for a second time-- and his life, to learn and teach strange ways
in a strange land. Yet, if he refused, what would become of the
apprentices there, who needed guidance? He woke with the dawn,
and wrote this missive:

''My Bretheren, '' 
''I have spent my life with you, growing from a child to an old
man under the auspices of the Crystal Hand. I must suppose I
have learned your ways tolerably well, for you have seen fit to
call me 'leader'. Your trust in me is profound, and I fear
betraying it more than anything. '' 
''We faithfully follow the teachings of the First Master, striving
for that quintessential moment of true perfection, our lives laid
on the altar of that ideal. Truly laudable, but I must now ask
the same question of you that I ask of myself: for what end?
When we lock ourselves away from the world, because it is an
imperfect soul, do we not deprive that world of what we have
learned to be true? And if we do, can we blame any force but our
own selves for its condition? '' 
''I have been asked to sacrifice... Not only my home, my way of
living, but my own ideals, by these foreign mages. Were I to
join these "moon mages", I would teach not the Hand's ways, but a
syncretic blend of ancient paths; while troubling to me, I must
confess that their philosophies are honest and just ones, and
their methods valid. What they do know of our art is
incomplete-- I would have opportunity to add to their stores of
knowledge and, in doing so, insinuate more of the Hand's ways
into these young minds.'' 
''And there is the key. Were I to stay on this rock for another
hundred years, I might come another fraction of an inch closer to
Perfection. Were I to leave, I might bring a hundred students
that far. Without our brotherhood, without our ways, I know that
I will never attain the goal I have strived for since childhood--
but I do know that I may guide others on their own paths. '' 
''So it is done, an honest trade: my life for the world's, my
dream for theirs. I leave you now, not as a housemaster, but as,
I hope, still a friend. I do not think that you will hear from
me again. Please think of me kindly, and do not give up your
work for a heartbeat: honor my departure by staying true to the
ideal, where I would not. '' 
''Tiv.''

Over time, Tiv touched far more than a mere hundred students:
travelling from province to province, wherever he was needed, Tiv
has resided as a Moonmage Guildmaster for well over seventy years
as of this writing. His supernormal longevity has been
attributed to secret diets and rituals performed by the Crystal
Hand, practices he has shared with only a select few students and
colleagues.

While he has been offered a position on the Moonmage High Council
time and again, Tiv steadfastly refuses, insisting that his
calling is to teach apprentices rather than "indulge in the
luxury of politics". Despite this, it is known that he has the
ear of at least two councilpeople, who rarely make a major
decision without consulting him first.

He has raised a generation of students who proved to be leaders
in their own right. Among his noted progeny are the flamboyant
Guildmistress Cherulisa ("I knew she would have her own
guildhouse someday. I decided this the day after she stole
one."), the infamous Ivory Mage of Aluandi ("As a magician, a
triumph. As a person, a failure. I will speak no more of
him."), and the redoubtable Guildmaster Kssarh ("My greatest
student, despite his...quirks. Does he still light fires and
bite people?").

Most recently, the guild found another way to reward him for his
long and honored service: in the province of Therengia, the
abandoned ruins of a Crystal Hand chapterhouse were found in the
heart of a dormant volcano. Devoting a regiment of engineers and
mages to reconstructing it, Tiv has been instated as the
guildmaster of, in his own words, "a place just like home. Only
much, much hotter. We will fix this, after study."

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:19, 19 November 2007
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	historical guildmasters of note. We are pleased to present in		historical guildmasters of note. We are pleased to present in
	this manuscript a biography of Guildmaster Tiv, the enigmatic		this manuscript a biography of Guildmaster Tiv, the enigmatic
	teacher of Therengia Province.		teacher of [[Therengia]] Province.

	Every mage knows that sacrifice is one of the keys of successful		Every mage knows that sacrifice is one of the keys of successful
Line 38:		Line 38:

	As the tribe migrated westward, they made camp near the		As the tribe migrated westward, they made camp near the
	protective face of a sheer rock mountain. This was the [[Frostweyr]]		protective face of a sheer rock mountain. This was the [[Frostweyr Spire]], long before it had been placed on any known maps. In the
	Spire, long before it had been placed on any known maps. In the
	lean months that followed, Tiv worked and hunted with his tribe,		lean months that followed, Tiv worked and hunted with his tribe,
	but hungered for more than a full belly: he longed for the art		but hungered for more than a full belly: he longed for the art
Line 136:		Line 135:
	him.		him.

	They were emissaries of the Moonmage High Council, who had		They were emissaries of the [[Moon Mage Council\|Moonmage High Council]], who had
	detected the powerful energies given off in the barren wastes,		detected the powerful energies given off in the barren wastes,
	and came to investigate. Tiv spent a long evening with the		and came to investigate. Tiv spent a long evening with the
Line 210:		Line 209:
	decision without consulting him first.		decision without consulting him first.


	He has raised a generation of students who proved to be leaders		He has raised a generation of students who proved to be leaders
	in their own right. Among his noted progeny are the flamboyant		in their own right. Among his noted progeny are the flamboyant
Line 222:		Line 220:

	Most recently, the guild found another way to reward him for his		Most recently, the guild found another way to reward him for his
	long and honored service: in the province of Therengia, the		long and honored service: in the province of [[Therengia]], the
	abandoned ruins of a Crystal Hand chapterhouse were found in the		abandoned ruins of a Crystal Hand chapterhouse were found in the
	heart of a dormant volcano. Devoting a regiment of engineers and		heart of [[Lesser Fist\|a dormant volcano]]. Devoting a regiment of engineers and
	mages to reconstructing it, Tiv has been instated as the		mages to reconstructing it, Tiv has been instated as the
	guildmaster of, in his own words, "a place just like home. Only		guildmaster of, in his own words, "a place just like home. Only

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:56, 3 November 2007
Line 1:		Line 1:
	==Profiles in Magic, Volume Seventeen ==		==Profiles in Magic, Volume Seventeen ==
	==Tiv : Through Discipline, Comes Power ==		==[[Tiv]] : Through Discipline, Comes Power ==

	'''PREFACE:'''		'''PREFACE:'''

	Heritage Monographs, the official press of the Moonmage Guild, is		Heritage Monographs, the official press of the Moonmage Guild, is
	proud to present the seventeenth volume in the ongoing Profiles		proud to present the seventeenth volume in the ongoing [[Profiles in Magic]] series. The information within these volumes, often
	in Magic series. The information within these volumes, often
	obtained at great personal risk to our field journalists, has		obtained at great personal risk to our field journalists, has
	been compiled by a dedicated staff of scholars and Guild		been compiled by a dedicated staff of scholars and Guild
Line 39:		Line 38:

	As the tribe migrated westward, they made camp near the		As the tribe migrated westward, they made camp near the
	protective face of a sheer rock mountain. This was the Frostweyr		protective face of a sheer rock mountain. This was the [[Frostweyr]]
	Spire, long before it had been placed on any known maps. In the		Spire, long before it had been placed on any known maps. In the
	lean months that followed, Tiv worked and hunted with his tribe,		lean months that followed, Tiv worked and hunted with his tribe,
Line 109:		Line 108:

	The monestary, and his new mentor, were wards of the Order of the		The monestary, and his new mentor, were wards of the Order of the
	Crystal Hand. Well-known to students of Moonmage history, the		[[Crystal Hand]]. Well-known to students of Moonmage history, the
	Hand was a hermetic sect of warrior-mages who, fearing their		Hand was a hermetic sect of warrior-mages who, fearing their
	knowledge would be lost in the chaos of the Late Imperial Period,		knowledge would be lost in the chaos of the Late Imperial Period,
Line 214:		Line 213:
	He has raised a generation of students who proved to be leaders		He has raised a generation of students who proved to be leaders
	in their own right. Among his noted progeny are the flamboyant		in their own right. Among his noted progeny are the flamboyant
	Guildmistress Cherulisa ("I knew she would have her own		Guildmistress [[Cherulisa]] ("I knew she would have her own
	guildhouse someday. I decided this the day after she stole		guildhouse someday. I decided this the day after she stole
	one."), the infamous Ivory Mage of Aluandi ("As a magician, a		one."), the infamous [[Ivory Mage of Aluandi]] ("As a magician, a
	triumph. As a person, a failure. I will speak no more of		triumph. As a person, a failure. I will speak no more of
	him."), and the redoubtable Guildmaster Kssarh ("My greatest		him."), and the redoubtable Guildmaster [[Kssarh]] ("My greatest
	student, despite his...quirks. Does he still light fires and		student, despite his...quirks. Does he still light fires and
	bite people?").		bite people?").