Objective One, Objective Two (Solo)

[Rayage]

Spring 5, 512 AV

Rayage sighed as he entered his lab, a pile of books in his hands, five to be exact, all written by different authors. Though the subject was not Alchemy, rather Animation. Having learned about it earlier, it was not until now that his curiousity to the subject got the better of him enough for the nuit to pause his research and do a little investigation into this discipline.

The lab door closed as he made his way to his desk and set the books down, carefully, on them. Grabbing the first one he looked it over “Objective One, Objective Two: The Principles of Animation” Unknown or Unlisted Author. Ray smirked to himself, inwardly laughing, he remembered when he read such books on Alchemy, and now… Well, he was way past this elementary stuff, but in Animation, although he was explained the basics before, it was always good to go over the basics again and again until one got it down. Opening the book he began to read careful when flipping the pages of the ages old book:

Animation, the discipline of life, allows the user to breathe intelligence and transfer movement and knowledge to otherwise unknowing objects. The field uses what the wizard knows and what the user needs to accomplish his goals with automata that respond just how they are built to, no more, no less. This book covers all the nuisances that a beginning practitioner might encounter, a step by step guide on how to animate, and of course a comprehensive vocabulary list of those words commonly used by Animatiors today…

Ray found that all funny, especially the last part where the author stated that he or she had a vocabulary list for Animators today. This book was easily pre-val and written in the ancient tongue, no less. Much like all the other books one could find in the library. It was a wonder that such a basic book survived, no less that Sahova of all places decided it was worth keeping. The basics… they were nice to refer to, he guessed, as his eyes glossed over the rest of the page. Turning the page he skipped over the history section of it and soon encountered on the beginning of the next section a huge number two on the center of the paper and written under it was “Animation Basics”. Turning the page…

In this section of the book the reader would learn the very basics of Animation. First the basic principles of Animation will be gone over and then a step by step guide will be provided for the readers first attempt at Animation. Without further to do, why not jump right in? At the core of animation is the Life Principle. Mages, fickle things that we are, love our shortcuts and so in most notes you will see the Life Principle shortened to LP that is not uncommon. Everyone knows that ‘LP’ is faster and easier to write than Life Principle, and save the wizard precious time when he has something great and more imposing to write about. So now you are probably wondering what is the Life Principle? The LP, or Life Principle, is an artificial soul created by the wizard to put in the inanimate object which carries all the directives, the intelligence, and mannerisms which the wizard chose to impart. The LP is an artificial soul, but at best it is a highly simplified one. The soul of anything living is highly complex and consists of four distinct layers, the Soulcore, the Persona, the Astral Body, and the Aura. To better understand the Life Principle one should understand the soul. Soulcore is the deepest part of the soul; it is what gives the soul the property of being this soul. This part is responsible for the concept of self but carries no other information. Persona is the second layer, containing the soul's personality, feelings, skills and memories. It is more subject to modification that the Soulcore, and is usually shed entirely - though perhaps only temporarily suppressed - during reincarnation. Astral body is the third layer, which is responsible for interacting with the world. The astral body maneuvers the physical body like a puppet, and is synchronized with it. There is a magic discipline called Projection that allows the user to move the astral body independently of the physical one. In ghosts, the astral body is replaced by a substance called Soulmist that gives them different powers. Other undead might have yet different substances. Aura is not so much a layer as energy that is constantly radiated by the soul and can be felt and read in several ways such as Auristics. Auras are not limited to souls, however. All parts of the soul are equally important to each of us. It is, in essence, who we are. The LP in Automata is no different, and the properties which can be bestowed on the Automata is all based on the object itself and the skill of the Animator. Beginners can only do basic things while those more skilled, with years of practice can make complex Automata that replicate nearly every aspect of life. It should be noted also that different principles within the LP, such as the Astral Body, the Aura, and the Soulcore, are easier to replicate than the Persona for obvious reasons. The Astral body is that which allows the animated object to move around. The LP automatically possesses that. Though, again, it is limited to its movements by design. What I mean about by that is something with no limbs, no joints, no way of moving, such as a statue carved from stone, will not be able to magically move just because the animator put the Life Principle in it. The object already has to have the capability to move in order to be granted movement by the animator. A classic example would be the horseless carriage. Since the carriage already had the capability to move all it needed to be is animated for the effect to take place.

[Rayage]

Creating a soul from scratch would take too long and usually the time done by doing so could have been better spent doing something else. This being said the LP, the artificial soul, is almost never created from scratch. Instead the LP is a simple copy of another’s soul, be it the animation wizard or some other animal. The specimen from which the soul is usually copied is that which will best suit the project at hand, though copying the wizards own soul is not unheard of. It is important to realize that all knowledge and behavior come from the source soul which is copied and put into the animated object. Though it is possible for the animator to modify the LP to better suit his need, or he can very well mix and match behaviors from many different sources. What the animator does, however, should always suit the project at hand. The basic animation ritual and the basic transfer and copying of the soul takes place in two circles connected with a single line between them. One circle represents the source, which is the thing whose soul is going to be copied and modified. The other circle represents the destination, or the circle in which the object to be animated is to be placed. Just like any other world magic the circles are activated with the practitioners blood. The circles can be further modified and enhanced in various ways with the understanding and application of Glyphing.

The nuit was not without his faults though. As he read he found his thoughts currently on something not animation. Although the art interested him he was more concerned with not only acquiring a new skill, but also making sure the ones he possessed were developing as well. His thoughts drifted aimlessly though the seemingly endless amount of research he has done and the numerous topics which he has left unexplored up till now.

Unable to battle the urge he grabbed a loose sheet of parchment and started scribbling with a quill and some ink. This time he wasnt taking notes, no, his memory was sharp enough for that! Yes, he started with a simple circle. A circle was all that was needed to start a glyph. He then drew a triangle inside the circle, the three edges connecting and touching the edges of the circle. From the inside of that triangle he drew another one, upside down, again the edges touching the sides of the triangle to which it was drawn inside. From there he drew three circles within the circle overlapping the two triangles and then drew lines bisecting each of the circles within the circle. After some time he added some more lines, coming from where two circles edges met, and drawing outward. This entire process took a while and thoroughly distracted him from reading the book. Now all that was left was to draw the outer circle of runes and his glyph would be complete! And he did just that. The final product looked a little like:



Satisfied with his practice he stared at it for a while. These little distractions were quite good if he did not say so himself. Nothing like taking a break to rest the mind and do something else only to come back to the subject at hand. Putting the quill down he would allow time for the ink to dry. In that time he would continue his book where he had left off.

Again blood is required to activate the circle and with the sacrifice made by the animator they gain mental control over the information, behaviors, and motivations entering the destination circle. The Source can be the Animator himself, or another being, and though much experimentation I have found that it is easier to achieve the desired behavior if the animator, or person or thing within the circle, concentrates on what they want to put into the automata at hand. It will be easier to flow and edit out by the animator. Animation is not an endeavor to do half-hazard. It is a serious art and any great application of automata will take week, and even months for some of the more complex automation. To successfully animate an object there is usually multiple sittings depending on the complexity of the automata at hand. At each sitting the source may be different, but the practitioner must be careful if he chooses to go this route. For if caution is not observed and accounted for then the automata may act like a pile of random movements and behavior will seem awkward. It takes great care, planning, and precision to put together something that will seem seamless in the end if the use of multiple sources is employed. Below is a short vocabulary list which the animator should have learned by reading this section: Animation Life Principle Soulcore Persona Astral Body Aura Automata Source Destination

Below each word, written in an unfamiliar hand, were the definitions of each of the vocabulary words. Someone was practicing. Though Ray thought he had it and so he turned the page, and again was greeted with a huge number centered in the page, the number being a giant 3, and under that was written “The Animation Process”