tohubohu
[toh-hoo-boh-hoo]
1. chaos; disorder; confusion.
*****************************************************
“Now then, today we will be discussing a rather touchy
topic. Chaos.” Professor Valdin said. He continued before the class could react to
the topic, “Now then, who can tell me about chaos? What is it exactly?”
One of
the students raised his hands right away.
Professor Valdin acknowledged the student.
“It’s
the force of evil, violence and destruction.”
The young man said.
“That
is incorrect. Well, perhaps not entirely
wrong. While it can be associated with
all violence and destruction, and the forces of evil do seem to gravitate
towards chaos, that is not the only thing it represents. In simple terms, chaos as we are talking
about it is the opposite of order. That
means it’s the metaphysical force of change.
It represents progress, conflict, and evolution. It opposes stagnation and decay, and promotes
growth.
“Without
chaos, no living thing would exist.
Chaos is the force that allowed us to evolve in the first place. It is what allows us to develop as a
species. It is responsible for every
single technological and magical advancement since the dawn of time. It is music, poetry, creativity.”
Another
student raised her hand. Mr. Valdin
liked this class. They were
inquisitive. They asked questions
without his prompting, which led to more in depth lessons. He just wished all of his classes could be
like them.
“But
you said it’s also conflict. That means
things like war, doesn’t it?” The girl
asked.
“Yes
and no. Conflict is not just physical
battle. A debate can be a form of
conflict. Trying to finish school work
is a form of conflict. Anything you do
that poses a challenge is a form of conflict.
War is definitely a form of conflict, but it’s not the only one. And, in a grand scale, even war is not all
bad.
“Now,
don’t get me wrong, war is, from our point of view, a terrible thing. It brings confusion, death, disorder, and
many other negative things. But on a
grand scale, it has its benefits. The
chaos inherent in war gives humanity a large boost in knowledge and
progress. Have you ever wondered why so
many new technologies and magics arise soon after a war has been fought? That is because war is one of the biggest
sources of chaos we as humans can create.
“Now, I’m
sure you’re asking yourselves about the loss of life that comes from a
war. While that is truly tragic, even that
has value. Think of it in terms of chaos’
primary element: fire. When fire burns
down a forest, is the forest dead?
No. Everything that was burned
down returns to the ground and new life replaces it. For us, war is the forest fire. It reduces the population, which means those
left have more resources available to them, allowing new life to flourish. Without war and other such means of death, we
humans would choke the planet with sheer numbers. War should by no means be celebrated, but neither
should it be scorned.”
A few
more questions were asked about the benefits of chaos, as well as the
opposite. Prof. Valdin was quite willing
to answer the questions as best he could.
In fact, he was almost disappointed when he had to move on to the next
pat of the class.
“Now
then, I’m afraid I can’t answer any more questions on this particular subject
today. But if you wish, we can continue
tomorrow. Now don’t be upset. The reason I’m cutting this short is so we
can get to something more interesting.
We’ve talked about chaos, now we move on to chaos magic.”
He heard the scraping of chairs as the entire class moved forward
slightly. Talking about a subject was
one thing, but using it in magic was another.
Even the worst students perked up when there was magic involved.
“Chaos
magic is one of the trickiest magics to use
I say tricky, not difficult, because to put it bluntly, chaos magic is
one of the easiest magic to use. Magic
itself is a force of change, so chaos magic comes naturally to any mage,
regardless of specialties and natures.
What makes it so tricky is it’s unpredictability. You can tell the magic to follow some rules,
but when chaos magic is used, you can never know the exact outcome. It will tend to be in your favor more often
than not, but there’s no guarantee. The
question then becomes why do we bother?
Why learn chaos magic at all? Any
ideas?”
After a
few moments of thought, several hands went up.
Prof. Valdin selected three of them, and called them out one at a time.
“It can
help in battle, since if your opponent can’t figure out what’ll happen, he can’t
defend properly.” Said one.
“It can
help with inspiration for art. You can
use chaos illusions and use what you see for a drawing or a story.” The second
said.
“You
can use it with sound magic to make music no one’s ever heard before.” Said the
third.
“Very
good, all of you.” Prof. Valdin said, nodding his head as he spoke. “Yes, those are all fine examples of
practical applications of chaos magic.
Unpredictability is its greatest strength. It can sew confusion amongst your enemies, grant
your allies great strength, and create great beauty for all five senses depending
on what you temper it with. But, this
very quality can also be its biggest drawback.
Who can think of why, using the examples from earlier.” He called on
three different students for this one.
“In
battle, it has a greater than normal chance of backfiring.”
“An
illusion could be a solid color, or something ugly.”
“Sounds
could be too harsh, or inaudible to our ears.”
“All
correct again. When using chaos magic,
you must always be prepared for something to go wrong. Chaos magic has the greatest chance of
failing or backfiring out of any of magic field, and that includes the highly volatile
death magic. It’s easy to use and takes
little power, but since you can only tell it what kind of effect you want, it
might not be what you need.” Prof Valdin
paused to let his lesson sink in. It was
time for every student’s favorite time in class. “Now then, who’s ready to give it a try?”
*****************************************************
Who wouldn't want to be in a class like this? It sounds great. Might be a bit dangerous, but still.
No comments:
Post a Comment