The Five Rings system -part 4-
Okay. Time’s up. Hopefully, I don’t appear to be a total loon after this post. We shall see! :)
If there is enough matter, just like with a rain drop, it forms into the most energy-efficient arrangement possible.
Welcome to the Five Rings System.
The Five Rings is simply recognizing a pattern of energy efficiency.
THE ELEMENTAL ARRANGEMENT: We need five concentric rings to arrange the ‘classic elements’ as a visual aide: (Thanks again to Photoshop)
from the inside-out:
Red is Fire.
Brown is Earth.
Blue is Water.
Light Blue is Air.
And White is ‘Ideal‘.
We live and work with the elements and typically strive for the ‘Ideal’; the after-life. We suspect ‘Ideal’ is what makes the miracle of life possible.
As an aside: Whether you like it or not, when you start reading or writing fantasy—-and when you get into magic, you’re getting into ‘metaphysics’. The more I learned about it, the more I could see its influence in the majority of the high fantasy books I’ve read.
THE VARIOUS STATES OF MATTER: Everybody knows the states of matter are solid, liquid, and gas.
Heat solid enough and it becomes liquid (Even rocks have melting-points). Heat it more and it becomes gas. Fire is a physical manifestation that occurs anywhere too much energy has been applied beyond a material’s threshhold. And light cannot be heated. Light operates outside of these rules, becoming the ‘Ideal’.
Red is Fire.
Brown is Solid.
Blue is Liquid.
Light Blue is Gas.
And White is ‘Light‘.
THE PLANETARY RINGS: All specks of matter have their own gravitional pull. In free space, matter naturally closes in and creates its own center of gravity. This is where matter is most dense. With enough mass, the center of gravity becomes super-heated due to geo-thermics. Some of it liquidifies. Gasses escape the confines of the solid and liquid matter, but do not escape the center of gravity. They usually cannot exceed the stratosphere into the ‘Ideal’, space.
Red is Inner Core/Outer Core.
Brown is Mantle/Crust.
Blue is Water.
Light Blue is Atmosphere.
And White is ‘Space‘.
We’re standing on the second of Five Rings! :)
THE CELESTIAL BODIES: Scientists have observed a progression of states in the celestial bodies as you get further and further away from the central star in any given universe (so far). Close to the sun, we have mostly rocky planets, and they are very small. Water is introduced a little further away. Planets increase greatly in size when we get to gas. Outside of the “gas” ring, we start to see strange anomalies like ice balls due to the extreme cold. Between the universes … an infinetly widening gap of empty space.
Red is the Sun.
Brown is Mercury-Venus.
Blue is Earth-Ceres.
Light Blue is Jupiter-Neptune.
And White is ‘Void‘.
My very eager mother just served us nine pizzas. :)
ETHEREAL: Is it a coincidence, then, that many of us aspire to go to the afterlife and fear damnation?
Red is Hell.
Brown is Pergatory.
Blue is World.
Light Blue is Etheric.
And White is ‘Heaven‘.
My story examines that society—-supressed somewhere, deep within—-knew this all along. They just … lost touch with it.
THE PLANAR ARRANGEMENT: This gives us a new way to look at the planes:
Red is Demonic.
Brown is Remedial (Anima Mundi).
Blue is Physical.
Light Blue is Astral (Anima).
And White is ‘Celestial‘.
Magic-users are called ‘mystics’ in my story. Mystics understand this structure, but whatever they cannot reach (beyond the Astral plane, outside of the connected planes into the ‘Void’, or into the future) is seen as a ‘veil’ (or barrier) to overcome.
People (and animals) have always been able to tap into the power of the elements, but both power and awareness greatly increased immediately following the ‘Day of Discord’.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PLANAR> CELESTIAL> PLANETARY> STATES> ELEMENTAL> ETHEREAL> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Celestial> Void> Space> Light> Ideal> Heaven>
Astral> Jupiter-Neptune> Atmosphere> Gas> Wind> Etheric>
Physical> Earth-Ceres> Water> Liquid> Water> World>
Remedial> Mercury-Venus> Mantle> Solid> Earth> Anima Mundi>
Demonic> Sun> Core> Fire> Fire> Hell>
Does all of this really mean anything? I don’t know. But it sure does make one heck of a basis for a story and magic system.
Still with me? Cool! Hopefully you don’t feel I’m flirting with madness.
Next time I’m going to get more into what all this means for my book and stop with the scientific diatribe.
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Wow… I might call myself a writer too, though not of your detail when considering and creating my worlds. I have played with the support for the ideals my stories strive for, but not to your lengths. Impressive, and indeed interesting.
Reminds me a little of the high fantasy novelist, Adam Roberts. He too has a somewhat ‘intricate’ view of his domains. I, myself am playing with shorter stories – mainly to subtract from the epic-levels I usually try to attain in writing (bad habit sometimes).
Found you through BlogCatalog ;)
My goodness, you have put a lot of thought into this! And just so’s you know, I did smack myself in the forehead when I read your explanation. Doh!
Truth to tell, I envy your ability to outline your world in such detail. I just make mine up as I go along, which leaves me with major plot holes and real pain-in-the-rear-end second draft!
Hiya Cirellio,
Interesting set of posts you have here. The best expositions of this sort of magical philosophy that I’ve found (and in a practical/applicable context, no less) are possibly in the books of Franz Bardon. Maybe you’ve heard of him?
He was a hermetic magician from the early-mid 20th century in Europe supposedly killed by the Nazis. His three or four works have been translated into English and republished in the last 5-10 years or so. They’re a bit pricey ($40 a pop) but well worth picking up even if you’re not into the applicable sorcery of these things.
There are certainly other guys who have discussed this stuff, but to me Bardon lays out all the classical heremeticism and magic (divination, astral projection, crystal balls, charging mirrors) in clear language and without any fat.
Incidentally, have you ever read any occult fantasy? I’m not such a huge fan, but there are a number of folks outside of the mainstream fantasy circles who write serious occult fantasy based on their experience in the stuff.
RG Sanders: Thank you very much. Very flattering coming from a fellow writer.
I guess I’m pulling out all the stops with world-building because I’m worried. I am afraid because I feel my actual story has valuable meaning and has a valid ‘platform’, (Platform is a relatively new term used by a lot of agents and editors. Excellent writing isn’t enough to sell fiction any more, so books also have to have a ‘platform’, which is some sort of strong angle, bringing something different and new and relatively non-MFA to the board.) so I don’t want to screw it up. After all, on a first book, there’s a very high chance of a misfire.
I haven’t checked out any of Adam Robert’s stuff. I’ll have to give him a try. Any recommendations for a first book to read?
(BlogCatalog rocks :D)
Steph: Ah, so you are a ‘by the seat of your pants’ writer. I usually am, too. At least, I have been so far with my papers and short-stories and poems, and even with these posts. But with this particular story, it feels like I’m playing with a ball of mercury: I’m afraid of batting it around too much ;)
Oh, and it’s okay that you smacked your head. I smacked my head when I first realized this theory. Then I started wondering why the heck nobody else has thought of this yet. It seems so obvious, now.
wizardsmoke: Actually, as far as practical use is concerned, I only intend to use this theory for my book. :)
I didn’t know ‘Occult Fantasy’ was a genre. I think I may have read some of what you are talking about in APEX magazine, where they simply classify it as ‘Horror’. I’ve heard that House of Leaves is possibly occult fantasy? But I’ve not read it, yet. I’ve also come across a few ‘true’ stories of demon possesion on the internet. But the snippet I wrote at the end of this post features charging objects with essence.
And I’ve only just heard of Franz Bardon now.
I checked him out on Wiki, and luckily for me, there are many major key differences in the Five Rings system versus what he believed.
First of all, the obvious: Like with many cultures, he put “Akasha” above the four elements, but did’t put the elements themselves in any order.
He believed that Air and Earth are “pseudo-elements” because they are born of Fire and Water.
Secondly, he saw the world as three co-dependant planes: First Mental, then Astral, and finally, Physical; the Mental plane being the ultimate destination. I agree with him on the co-dependant part.
But if Mental is the highest plane … well … that’s only the fourth of five rings. And it is the fifth ring that is people’s ultimate destination. Flying like the birds was pretty cool, but when mankind reached space, we reached a fifth ring.
When we someday reach the void between universes, it will again be achieved. Obtaining a ‘higher state of being’ or ‘mental enlightenment’ is directly connected to the astral self in my system, which travels through the fourth plane: the Etheric/Astral plane. Furthermore, the fourth ring is the Collective Unconscious, a ’server’ that we are all connected to; that stores the information of everyone that has ever lived, and the way we live our lives help govern instincts, and the very rules for evolution. It is how ducklings know to imprint when they are born and babies get their ‘babinskis’. It is how butterflies know where to migrate and people are still naturally afraid of or fascinated by images that haunted them thousands of years ago, such as dragons. It is how the Suriname Toads have spongy backs, and is how completely different ancient tribes of people wrote of (and painted) giants or aliens, yet never came in contact with one another during their entire histories.
The fourth ring is where our fantastic ideals exist, such as the ‘Fiddler’s Green’, or ‘Tir Na Nog’. It is where our Animas reside, which are literally containers of our life experiences. They are directly linked to the mysterious electrical charge that lets us live in the physical plane, our ’souls’. ‘Something’ decides what is ‘good’ or ‘evil’ based—-mostly—-on survivability. Therefore, when we die, our information is incorporated, and what is seen as ‘good’ and what is seen as ‘evil’, according to the Collective Unconscious, is constantly being redefined. It is why what was acceptable when your father or father’s father was your age may or may not be acceptable now. The fourth ring is all this, and much more.
Thirdly, Franz sees people as ‘tetrapolar’, or an alchemic mixture of the four elements.
Bah! I’m revealing too much here. More on the fourth ring later. My next post will be talking about the first ring, ‘Fire’ and its importance, and work my way up the rings. Posting this should be fun and hopefully will trigger some interesting discussions like this one.
I really enjoy water