@Ominous said in 2E Mage-focused Game:
Scientists claim there are four fundamental forces of the universe - gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. As they try to zoom in and understand how these forces work, their unintuitive behavior results in theories like quantum mechanics, chromodynamics, and string theory, which, when one thinks about it, seem like black mystery boxes that scientists are shoving things that they don't understand into. How can two identical particles end up behaving in different manners? Because they chose to. Particles and forces behave the way they do because they have a will - they are spirits. Spirits govern both the natural and the supernal world on a fundamental level. Those who follow Maestros know this and beseech these spirits to control not only the spirits themselves but the fabric of reality that drives everything. Other mages may talk about the Prime as the source of magic, but those of Maestros smile and laugh to themselves with the secret knowledge that that too is driven by spirits. It's spirits all the way down.
Other mages talk about Prime as the source of magic, the arcanum that governs the nature of Universal Truth. To the Maestros, this notion is naive at best, and more likely dangerously reckless.
How can magi talk about "universal truths" or "fundamental characteristics" when every Order acknowledges that the Fallen World can change the very nature of these ideas in the Supernal? How much of a "truth" can something so mutable really be? The idea of some grand, unchanging law that governs the truth of all things may sound good on paper, but when put into practice, it breaks down easily. Predictable behavior is predictable, not pre-ordained -- the particle collapses down from a wave function because it helps mankind acknowledge its existence, as all spirits seek, not because it must. Prime is the arcanum of tearing apart magic because of the flaws in these so-called truths, trying to overlay an imperfect idea over something to the point where it collapses.
Where the Obrimos will tell you that there exists the idea of a triangle, three sides whose internal angles always measure one-hundred eighty degrees, The Maestro draws the triangle on a ball, and says 'measure now', showing that this isn't always the case. While this 'truth' might be convenient, following it without knowing its limits can lead one dangerously astray, as sailors have known for centuries, despite the best assertions of academics.
