||

  Explanation: [Professor] accused me of being too verbose and unable to explain anything concisely; I tried to explain it was because of subject complexity, but my explanation only proved [their] accusation. [Professor] tasked me with composing a simplified, comprehensive manual on the contemporary arcane models with inclusion of my proposed arcane-magic system to submit for review. [Professor] refuses to advance me until I do this. Language is supposed to be concise and casual, and I have been instructed to avoid verbosity and over-excessive technical descriptions. Editor should note that by consequence this manual and proposal submission will be reductionist; I will be leaving relevant other-sources for further referencing. This is an exercise on communication, according to [Professor].

  Disclosure: I have been explicitly prohibited from using any writing assistance algorithms or generative models. All words are my own.

  Formatting Notes: I will be leaving notes and personal remarks (per my scription process). Editor can remove them during review and formalization procedure.

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  What is Essence?

  Essence, essence. Lowercase or uppercase? As much as it’s debated whether the noun is a proper noun or a boring noun, Essence has been subject to a lot of debate since [EXPUNGED]. We all have an idea for it, but nobody actually knows what it is. Essence is the thing that broke old model physics, or as I and my many [REDACTED] liked to say: the thing that made natural science suddenly soft science. There are several frameworks for Essence (Meta-Dimensional Hypothesis, Extended Unified Physics Model, Revised String Theory, etc.; ~see [LIST REDACTED]).

  But none of these models are the ‘theory of everything’ for Essence. They all have areas where they excel, but also areas where they all kind of suck; they all have their own holes.

  Essence is weird. We originally called it ‘alien’, but it isn’t from another planet. It’s from a whole other [REDACTED]—or maybe [REDACTED]. Actually, we don’t really even know where it came from. All we know is that it’s inside of us. Where? Trick question. We don’t really know definitively.

  But we think it’s in the nervous system—the cerebrum, midbrain, spinal cord, and maybe even the peripheral nervous system.

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  Despite all of the aspects of Essence that mangles physics, we don’t think it is Law-violating as much as Law-bending. Just because we don’t know how it can do x, that doesn’t mean x cannot be explained within our models and long-standing natural laws; we just haven’t been able to explain it—yet. Everything it does has to be through some means facilitated within our natural order, even if that means undiscovered physics or potential multiversal models (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED]).

  Though, really, that’s just something we tell ourselves to avoid going insane.

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  Essence is part exotic matter (so, physics), part organism (so, biology), and part behavior (so, behavioral science). Unlike atoms or complex molecules, Essence—especially our own Essence—can change itself to reflect our own expectations of what it even is, making gauging any universal properties really, really frustrating. As anyone would hear if they spent any time in the Soc-Sci department, because they will never let this go, Nat-Sci took way too long to figure this one out. It basically forced us to abandon traditional methods.

  It’s also a ridiculous information storage. Because it’s inside of us, it imprints from our cerebrum; basically, it copies our memories and all the info that makes us who we are. Even cooler, this information is encoded into what we call its fundamental structure. Information is holistically stored, not compartmentalized. This is where we might hear stuff like “even a speck of Essence will contain your whole life”. It’s more complicated than that, but this is actually pretty true (~see: [EXPUNGED] for important caveats). So as long as an aspect of Essence’s defining ‘structural pattern’ is intact, the encoded information remains even if its quality might degrade or erode.

  Note: Essence’s ‘true form’ remains unobserved and unconfirmed; so, there is no direct empirical confirmation of its fundamental structure. This paradigm remains the easiest framework but it is purely speculative (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for elaboration).

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  Earlier I mentioned Essence is part ‘organism’. What do I mean by that? Well, it isn’t really an organism in the traditional sense. But it’s an easy framework we like to apply to better understand its nature and its relationship between us and it.

  Essence is reactive, as I said; it has behavior, and it’s also adaptive. It internalizes information (encoding), has the capacity for interaction, and even responds to stimuli; it requires energy to sustain itself and uses energy to do work, which it stores in its ‘aura’ (which will be covered in its own section). Its energy potential is actually pretty absurd (~see: [REDACTED]).

  Essence is best understood as something analogous to an organism in symbiosis with a host (us). Essence’s imprinting from our brains basically means it is in a synchrony with us, but it’s also independent—or can be independent. In World Category I populations, it’s basically supposed to be so synchronized that it’s a direct mental manifestation—something that can be wielded like an extra limb and easily controlled through ‘willpower’.

  But anyone reading this (including me) are probably World Category II populations, so we don’t have that superpower. Essence in us is kind of in a perpetual sleep or lock-state, requiring indirect activation methods to get it to do anything, which I will get to in the next section.

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  One of the strongest evidence for the Mind-Essence Connection is a very weird tendency that we’ve observed (so far only) in World Category II populations; that is, Essence seems to basically erase itself (assuming agency) or become completely, structurally dismantled (assuming non-agency) following what is sometimes called ‘qualifying brain trauma’, which is our way of saying we don’t really know the exact causality but we do know it sometimes happens after partial or total brain destruction. It remains an anomaly.

  The chance-factor for this anomaly exists on a probability scale. Experiments (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED]) have continuously shown that, paradoxically, spontaneous brain erasure (total evaporation or dematerialization) doesn’t result in this anomaly nearly as often as someone’s head getting basically blown off by a physical projectile. Headshots from a kinetic firearm remain the most documented correlates for triggering this anomaly. Even stranger, the probability is further affected by velocity and where the projectile strikes

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  ==============================================VALIDATION CHECK FAILURE==============================================

  [DRAFT RESUBMISSION]

  Explanation: [Professor] scrutinized previous submission and removed it from consideration. I had assumed it was sufficiently casual and concise while remaining task focused, however I overexceeded assignment scope.

  [REEXPLANATION]

  What is Essence?

  Personal: I have been explicitly instructed not to cover this, because Essence is inherently beyond the scope of this task. Even though I got too carried away last submission, it’s still worth covering.

  Essence is very, very complicated. Most models we have aren’t really able to fully grasp its complexity without failing in some way. However, we do know some things.

  Essence is weird. It inhabits within us, and it imprints from our brains and maybe even whole nervous system, which is why we sometimes call it ‘anima’ or ‘soul’. But it isn’t actually our ‘soul’ or even us—it’s its own thing that copies us. So, if one of us dies, it’s not like we ourselves experience a continuation like a ghost, but our Essence might continue on thinking it’s us (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for more).

  But that isn’t always the case (~see: [LIST REDACTED]).

  It has behavior, responds to environment & stimuli, requires energy to sustain and work, and may even have a method of reproduction (~see: [EXPUNGED])—exactly like an organism. Currently, we believe it can only ‘survive’ inside of us and will begin to decay (or decompose) once we are deceased. It operates almost like an organism in symbiosis with a host, which is why we like to frame it in that way even though it’s way more complicated than that (~see: [LIST REDACTED]).

  It can adapt itself, mold itself, and basically be anything we want it to be, which is exactly the problem with studying its properties. It’s both entirely alien but also too much like us—part behavioral science, part physical science. The limit to its potential is our imagination and ability to construct the right frameworks to manipulate it or facilitate its expression.

  It’s also a stupidly good information storage, capable of basically encoding a whole person’s life (personality, memories, etc.) as well as still having room for new information (~see: [LIST REDACTED]). We don’t have an empirically confirmed theory for how it can do this, but we like to say it has a ‘structure’; within this structure, it holistically encodes a ‘pattern’.

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  [DRAFT AMENDMENT]

  Personal: I have now been asked to include a brief, concise bulletin of Essence’s fundamentals despite being previously told not to cover this subject. I have removed my previous explanation sections due to scope overextension (again).

  Alignment: Essence has what we call an ‘alignment’—a binary: Void (most of humanity) and Anti-Void ([RESTRICTED REFERENCE]). These two alignments have what we call a ‘base color’; for Void, it’s white or cyan (for World Cat. I or World Cat. II respectively; ~see World Category); for Anti-Void, it’s [RESTRICTED]. ~See: [LIST EXPUNGED] for deeper exploration into alignment exospectrometry.

  Note: The presented binary model, while accepted, remains contested due to surfacing evidence of [REDACTED] alignments.

  For the purpose of this assignment, alignment is not (as presently known) relevant to action potential and behavior but still worth mentioning. The exact nature of Essence alignment and what it actually means is still an open debate. But the differences are basically analogous to matter and anti-matter (same behavior but don’t enjoy each other’s company) except on a metaphysical superlevel beyond our comprehension—and I’m not even joking. That is the consensus. Each alignment has a specific, universal sigil—what we call a ‘meta-signifier’. In most human species, this sigil can be observed in the eyes. ~See: [LIST EXPUNGED] for further readings.

  World Category: To add even more variables to our essential bucket, we branch Essence into two uplifted population ‘World Categories’: World Category I ([REFERENCE RESTRICTED]) and World Category II (me and probably you). This one is actually important, because World Category I populations (as we currently know) don’t have the same constraints or outstanding problems as World Category II populations do. This is because

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  Activation State: Essence also has an ‘activation state’, which is a surprisingly controversial subject (~see: [REDACTED]).

  Activated: This is Essence when its ‘on’ or engaged in a lot of work; the alignment sigil is on full display; exotic effects, quintessential radiation, etc. may be observable. In World Cat. I populations, this state can be consciously initiated. World Cat. II populations, it can only be achieved through what we call an ‘igniter’ process or implicit/indirect methods (~see: [REDACTED] for more; & What is the Arcane? subsection).

  Partial Activated: We don’t really know too much about what this is (~see: [REDACTED]). We think it might be a ‘standby’ state or an indication of limited work or auric energy usage (~see: What are Auras? subsection). What we do know is that it’s apparently the default state of Essence in most World Cat. I populations, so Partial Activation might actually be the true, proper state of Essence in properly uplifted organisms, but that’s speculation.

  Inactive or Deactivated: This is Essence at its most limited state—we like to say it’s ‘asleep’, but in reality it’s a lot more complicated (~see: [REDACTED]). Essence still demonstrates some awareness, responsiveness to inputs, and may even engage in some interactions (what we call ‘sleepwalking’). However, it’s basically Essence that’s largely dormant, limited, and incapable of most work. Due to the [RESTRICTED] lock, this is the ‘default’ state of Essence in World Cat. II populations.

  In general, there’s a pattern of World Cat. I populations being able to swap states freely, whereas historically (before the [RESTRICTED] lock), World Cat. II populations were permanently stuck or lacked control; though, recent [REDACTED] have shown that this pattern may be debatable (~see: [EXPUNGED]). Activation state is an on-going subject of study outside of the scope of this assignment (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for more).

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  But all that’s really important to know about Essence in our context is that: ‘it is the thing that does the magic’.

  What is Quintessence?

  If Essence is the organism, then quintessence is kind of like the cell or really the molecule.

  Quintessence was originally speculated and a hot-topic for [REDACTED] until it was confirmed to actually exist by [EXPUNGED].

  Quintessence is essentially (pun intended) the thing that composes Essence—the basic substrate. It’s a category of what we call adaptiparticles: a type of exotic matter that can basically change its properties (charge, spin, color, etc.). This is how Essence can pretty much make itself into anything, including analogues to physical matter. Since its discovery, there’s a hot debate on whether quintessence is the ultimate quantum of Essence or more like a proton (so, composed of even tinier sub-quintis).

  Quintessence also seems to be very unstable; it decays a lot faster on its own than even Essence does without a host (~see: [EXPUNGED]). Outside of the arcane, we don’t really know if quintessence can be made into anything besides Essence because of its instability. We also don’t really know when exactly quintessence becomes Essence—kind of like the problem of when chemistry becomes biology (emergence).

  But unlike Essence, quintessence isn’t a thing that will literally mold itself to our expectations and isn’t subject to the same abstract complexities like alignment—quintessence is the same regardless (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for caveats). So, it’s generally a lot easier to study independently, and it’s been an on-going subject of extensive study.

  [REDACTED] has proposed methods to potentially ‘molecularize’ quintessence ([their] way of basically saying to synthesize it into non-Essence complex compounds and ‘pseudo-molecular’ structures) and maybe use its unstable decay as a power source if we can condense it into a more meta-stable physical state. But this is a subject outside of the scope of this assignment (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for further readings).

  All that’s needed to be known about quintessence is that it’s the thing that makes Essence and fuels its processes.

  What is an Aura?

  An aura is another whole thesis of its own. In the most basic sense, an aura—as taken from its original meaning—is a meta-field that kind of surrounds Essence’s host. We call it a meta-field, because we like to apply the Meta-Dimensional Hypothesis in trying to explain what the heck is even going on (~see: [REDACTED]).

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Auras are essentially the fat of Essence as an organism—it stores extra stuff which it likes to munch on over time. How auras are generated by Essence is an on-going subject of study, and we don’t really understand the process fully. This is because the way Essence is even inside of us is also not fully understood. Currently we have discovered there are specialized organelles in nerve cells which we think Essence is bound to, but

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  Auras are paradoxical, because they have a kind of ‘mass’ but a person with a fat aura doesn’t actually increase in mass; it has energy, but that energy is bound to a specific field around the person, so it doesn’t just radiate away. This is what we call the ‘Missing Mass Paradox’; Essence can eat something, like a block of iron, but the mass just kind of disappears into the aura only to then reappear as Essence stuff proportionate to the original mass minus energy required for rematerialization (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for further readings). We don’t really know where the mass within an aura goes, beyond the Meta-Dimensional Hypothesis (~see: [EXPUNGED]), which

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  There is also the Energy Paradox. All indications so far have basically shown that Essence is very, very energy inefficient. It tends to use more than it eats back into self but somehow is still able to generate an auric surplus. We have a few explanations for this, where work might be energy inefficient but base auric growth isn’t or maybe the energy inefficiency is only in reconversion from ‘auric stuff’ back into ‘regular stuff’, since Essence has to use stored auric energy in that process as well (~see: [REDACTED] for more).

  But it’s

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  [DRAFT AMENDMENT]

  Personal: I over-exceeded again in the Aura subsection. Redraft required with simplified explanations and conciseness.

  [REDRAFT]

  Auras are extremely important, and they’re the most detectable indication that something is even uplifted. Also, auras have a ‘health’ to them that has to be managed by anyone who likes to actually use their Essence for constant work (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for elaboration). Because auras are basically Essence’s meta-snackbag for sustaining its whole ability to exist, critical depletion mid-work can cause Essence to start burning through its ‘integral structure’ which inherently amplifies its energy needs because it’s trying to: do work while sustaining itself while also burning itself to both further do that work and sustain itself.

  Note: I am terrible at explaining this one.

  Essentially, if this self-eating reaches a critical point where Essence is burning through itself faster than it can remake or recover (burn rate exceeding regeneration rate and auric recuperation), Essence will basically fall into a terminal runaway feedback loop; it’ll basically auto-cannibalize itself, killing the host due to the Essence-Nervous Dependency (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for more). We call this a ‘Terminal Fade’, because Essence’s ignition will hyperize while dampening and desaturating, making it look like there’s a ‘fading’; we call it ‘terminal’ because it’s incurable and will lead to death.

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  [REDRAFT]

  All that’s needed to be known about auras is that they are essential for any execution of the arcane and in facilitating Essence’s interactions, actions, and manifestations. Critical depletion of an aura will usually cause someone to enter an unconscious, sleep-like state—what we call an ‘Auric Coma’.

  What is the Arcane?

  Now we’ve gotten to the real juice of this assignment, leaving physics and entering anthropology: explaining the contemporary models of what we all eventually called ‘the arcane’. Because it’s arcane. By the most basic definition, the arcane is any expression or procedural manifestation of Essence, usually in the form of a ritualized practice or cultural tradition. This may or may not involve a what we call a ‘conduit’ or ‘guider’, basically a crucial object of paired-significance that facilitates, initiates, or otherwise signals the arcane procedure (~see: [EXPUNGED] for greater depth).

  Even in an inactive state, Essence remains with capacity to respond to inputs and environment—primarily because its host, the thing it always imprints from, is largely an active agent (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for alternatives).

  [REDACTED] studies across multiple [REDACTED] have continuously shown that Essence in general is something that’s very plastic to social and cultural developments—frameworks, cognitive schemas, and what we call ‘deeply internalized information’. While a human baby spends most of its time absorbing the inputs of its environment to develop, its baby Essence is basically doing the same thing: passively learning about what it even is and constructing what we call its ‘definition’ or ‘self-reference’, even when its not really ‘active’.

  We don’t really understand why or how Essence does this or what exactly is going on here, but we do know it’s a consistently observed phenomena across multiple independent populations documented and studied across many [EXPUNGED] environments. But we do have several hypotheses, such as

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  Even though World Cat. II populations have their Essences ‘locked’, the overall implications are that we can still exercise our Essence through what we call ‘implicit methods’. We can’t really consciously wield Essence, but we can get pretty darn close through frequent conditioning and deeply internalized, shared cultural practices.

  This internalization is important, because it isn’t a matter of attitudes or belief. I can’t believe myself into conjurating a bird-friend in my office; even if I did become deeply invested in that belief, my own Essence wouldn’t have internalized it because I didn’t develop or grow up in an environment where that belief was essential or fundamental to its self-reference.

  The ability to conjurate a bird-friend—or as we call it an Essence ‘mimic’ since it’s like a hand-animal or puppet strung to one’s own Essence—requires a whole deep, deep layer of a bunch of abstractions and stuff a person has to grow up with to really understand.

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  The general implication is that arcane practice and traditions are culture-locked. [EXPUNGED] societal developmental studies, which yours truly had the cool opportunity to be involved in across multiple [REDACTED], demonstrated a pretty interesting pattern: Essence’s own ability to basically do things is almost like a language.

  It’s a weird thesis, but in a way, an animist tribe engaging in an arcane ritual involving a campfire dance to ‘commune with the spirits’ is kind of like a language they’re speaking to their own Essences; a language in their movements, words, state of mind, collective synchrony, and other actions; a language that gets their Essence to flow along and enact work, partially or maybe even fully activating.

  And to continue to go with this language analogy, like any language, there’s an acquisition period for it. We think Essence and the arcane work the same way; there might be an acquisition window where Essence can basically acquire an arcane tradition, but afterwards it just can’t do that anymore.

  Again, we don’t really know why Essence has this tendency, but it is something we have consistently observed, though with a lot of caveats that I won’t cover (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for more).

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  Personal: [Professor] was greatly irritated with my assignment so far. It appears [they] are displeased with my apparent inability to summarize my core thesis into a comprehensive reference or paragraph. [They] also chastised me for my other-source citations, saying I was not adhering to the proper procedure, even though I had adjusted my citation practice by [their] previous request. I am trying my best, but nothing I do [CENSORED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 3349:2S)]

  [REDRAFT]

  The arcane’s main issue is that it’s really, really abstract. In order for Essence to be expressed, a person needs to have a generation of internalized abstracts integrated and bundled into a pretty inflexible framework. Even more annoying, because the arcane is often expressed in rituals that are emotive or experiential in nature, they’re difficult to replicate (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for more).

  The arcane is exclusive to whatever tradition practices it, and nobody outside of that particular culture can really learn it or utilize it at all.

  Note: There are exception conditions in which the arcane may potentially be acquired cross-culturally (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED]).

  However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a possible or traceable logic to what each arcane practice is doing. There is a kind of ‘math’ to what is happening; what we call a core ‘sequence’ that Essence has paired with what appears to be abstract—like behavior, movement, phrases, and so on (~see: [LIST REDACTED] for further elaboration).

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  The problem with the general arcane, though, is that the Essence action sequences are embedded in all those abstractions and internalized rituals. The theory is, if we could somehow extract that ‘Essence code’ underneath everything and go with that on its own, it’s possible that we could potentially come up with a comprehensive, cross-cultural system that allows participants and subjects—across completely independent—to express Essence and possibly even learn the methodology of that expression by means of that code.

  And this is where we get to…

  What is ‘Magic’?

  Here’s where we pull the rug from your feet. What we’ve all decided to call ‘magic’ only exists on paper and in theory. But we do have a conceptual framework of what ‘magic’ should operationally be: a systemized, methodological, and transmissible enterprise of Essential expression (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for historic debate). Magic is to the arcane what science is to philosophy; magic is the science of the arcane.

  This is what would separate magic from the arcane. The arcane is abstract, extremely culturally dependent, and requires deep internalization during an acquisition period. Magic is a system . Although we don’t really have any concrete examples of a functioning system yet, multiple proposals have been proposed (pun intended) including that of yours truly (which I’ll get to).

  We decided to call it ‘magic’ because, well, who doesn’t want magic to exist? Like, actual spells and fantasy wands. It’s cool—way cooler than [REDACTED] which [EXPUNGED] proposed. Boring, am I right?

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  Personal: [Professor] told me to reduce my casual language and avoid addressing reader directly. I asked for a rubric so that [they] could clarify their exact expectations, which [they] refused to do. I am considering changing [EXPUNGED] by this point—or maybe throw myself [CENSORED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 3349:3S)].

  [REDRAFT]

  There isn’t currently any workable magic system that has been observed, documented, confirmed, or discovered. Studies (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED]) on voluntary participants in still-operating [REDACTED] installations have shown near-attempts in what could be described as a functioning organic system, however they didn’t really meet our operational definition; these experimental projects were also short-scale (so, approx. [REDACTED] at most) and were eventually terminated due to [REDACTED] and the shutdown of [REFERENCE EXPUNGED], so we weren’t able to

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  My Proposal

  What’s a proposal doing in a manual, some might wonder? Well, ask [Professor] that.

  My proposal for a potential magic system involves a simple tendency that [EXPUNGED] had confirmed since [REDACTED]. Time and time again (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED]), Essence has shown that it really, really loves its own alignment sigil; regardless of activation state, the moment a person’s eyeballs spots an alignment sigil, there’s what we call a ‘lock-on effect’. We’ve used this near-universal tendency a lot to [REDACTED], quick-activate, [REDACTED], or apply Essential reconfigurations (~see: [LIST EXPUNGED] for more details).

  As I will explain shortly, what we’ve been using as basic configuration code handed to us by [REFERENCE RESTRICTED] might actually be connected to a general code of Essence, even if it’s just [SECTION REDACTED].

  I’m not the first to propose this (~see: [EXPUNGED]), but I believe my model might potentially be the most workable. I and many others have spent [REDACTED] closely studying, analyzing, and even cohabitating with [RESTRICTED] in order to grasp World Category I methods regarding Essence, and

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  Essentially, under this model, Essence is fundamentally born with a basic, pre-encoded pattern of information, recognition knowledge, and what I’ll call a ‘behavioral code’. That is what these glyphs represent: an instruction set. My speculation is that this is how Essence internalizes the arcane from its host; the host may be engaged in an abstract ritual, but their Essence is transcribing that ritual into a logic pattern or what I’ll call a ‘paired sequence code’. These glyphs don’t just encode information regarding augmentation and within-person effects, but behavioral and expressional sequences too (~see: [REFERENCES LOCKED]).

  This sequence code is essentially

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  Moreover, I’m pretty confident that these [RESTRICTED] glyphs might actually be the true ‘math’ or ‘language’ of Essence, because they are a frequent pattern that basically emerges in every [REDACTED] that’s been [REDACTED].

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  My inspiration comes from a [ERASED] era [REFERENCE DELETED], which involved these magical cards. I still have memories of playing this [REFERENCE DELETED] before the [EVENT PURGED]. Basically, the [REDACTED] uses a card which ‘casts’ a spell in a turn-based cycle, and each card belonged to a unique ‘school’.

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  This is really, really silly. But my magic system is devised to basically replicate this [REFERENCE DELETED]. The long-scale experiment I’d like to conduct is the manufacturing of a specialized ‘card’ synthesized from [REDACTED] using [REDACTED] methods. We precisely engrave the alignment sigil to force immediate Essence lock-on, and within the sigil we have these glyphs arranged in a simple sequence. The proposed glyph code I’ve devised from

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  The mechanism is very basic: the alignment sigil will cause a lock-on in the viewer’s Essence. Using the viewer’s own visual processing as a surrogate (joint Brain-Essence processing), the Essence should identify the glyph patterns embedded within the alignment sigil and hopefully intuit the glyphs’ encoded sequence patterns. If my model is correct, the Essence’s successful identification of the initializer sequence should trigger an activation response, provided that

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  This ‘spellcard’ is intended to basically cause a momentary environmental shift. Essence has long been documented as being capable of what we call ‘entropic manipulation’; it can alter energy systems and field states (~see: [REDACTED]). Documented examples include ‘fire spirits’ and other related [REDACTED] observed in [EXPUNGED] societies (~see: [REDACTED]). So, if the glyphs are designed and arranged correctly, the Essence would execute the encoded sequences which should cause it to affect the air within a localized [RESTRICTED] field space by making it [ENTRY MISSING] degrees hotter which is something we can easily observe.

  I’ve already come up with a name for this, if it’s successful. “Fire magic”, the opposite being “Ice magic.” Again, this is directly inspired from [REFERENCE DELETED]. Though, [EXPUNGED] can obviously come up with a more technically appropriate classification, but that’s the scheme I’m going with.

  Both of these ‘magics’ are the same fundamental thing: temperature or entropy manipulation. The code sequence to swap between Fire and Ice is actually really simple

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  Much of this is really just hopeful speculation, because none of this has been tested and requires good old experimental verification. But I’m really, really confident that my proposal AND those of my fellow [EXPUNGED] who’ve devised similar approaches could actually be the kick-starter to truly devising an actual systemized, methodological approach to understanding and utilizing the arcane and our very own Essences—to circumvent the [RESTRICTED] lock in World Cat. II populations.

  ==============================================VALIDATION CHECK FAILURE==============================================

  [RESUBMISSION]

  Personal: [Professor] disliked my mid-section shift away from a comprehensive manual to a research proposal, even though [they] explicitly told me to include it. A miscommunication, probably. I wish [they] clarified this earlier, since [their] original instructions implied a single assignment. [They] demanded the two be separated into their respective buckets but to keep the language concise, untechnical, and casual in both. This is despite research proposals having a clear

  [REDRAFT] | [REDRAFT]

  Hyperlinks:

  Manual on the Arcane and Current Studies

  Proposal for Workable Magic System

  ==============================================INVALID INPUT ERROR==============================================

  [EVIDENTIARY: REMAINING SUBMISSION CONTENTS SEGREGATED FROM FILE (POLICY CODE 712:8EM); ~VISIT: ERROR.NOTFOUND]

  [COLLECTED PERSONAL LOGS ONLY]

  Personal: After several redrafts, [Professor] finally accepted my manual for submission and review. Unfortunately, [they] rejected my proposed spellcard magic system by grounds of it being too informal and ‘inappropriately written’ for what should be a serious experimental proposal aligned with the expected procedure, even though I was following [their] instructions. Although I requested another reattempt, [Professor] assigned a failure grade and refuses to work with me further. Without [Professor]’s approval, I cannot formally advance. I tried to talk with [SUPPRESSED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 447:5R)]

  ==============================================VALIDATION CHECK FAILURE==============================================

  Personal: My proposal draft has started to circle around, some how. To ascertain what happened, I am contacting [SUPPRESSED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 447:9R)]

  [Cont.] But now everyone in [REFERENCE LOCKED] are saying I am [ENTRY CORRUPTED] and that I should be [REDACTED] or undergo [EXPUNGED]. Everyone seems to believe that I am not capable of taking my duties seriously, that I am too attached to the [ERA ERASED], among other remarks. I tried to explain the assignment from which that proposal originated, but [Professor] has so far refused to clarify the situation. I tried really hard, and now I feel abandoned. Nobody wants to [CENSORED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 3349:2S)]

  [ENTRY SNIP]

  Personal: I have now come to understand that [Professor] might have been deliberately sabotaging me with this bullshit assignment, and I was too foolish to realize. I have decided to submit the proposal anyway to editorial review, despite the automatic rejection that will certainly happen, in order to preserve the idea; let it be my obituary. I have also sent a file package to [close friend] and a handwritten letter to [them]. I have spent too many lifetimes on this project. I will not shelve it. I want it to continue beyond me. I hope it may be my legacy someday. But it appears I no longer have a future anymore, and I do not believe I can continue on within this [CENSORED: SENSITIVE FILING PROCEDURE (POLICY CODE 3349:5S)]

  ==============================================VALIDATION CHECK FAILURE [MULTIPLE FLAGGED]==============================================

  //<: ACCESS TERMINATION: SENSITIVE INCIDENT EVIDENCE FILING (UNIA-POLY SECTION 5779–E34:6-SID) :>//

  // CONTACT [INFORMATION LOCKED] FOR REVALIDATION/CASE ACCESS AUTHORIZATION //

  // CONTACTEZ [INFORMATION LOCKED] POUR UNE REVALIDATION/AUTORISATION D'ACCèS AU DOSSIER //

  ||

  Hm…

  Truly, the random treasures one may so happen upon

  Whilst rummaging through a primordial database.

  An assignment, manual draft, failed proposal, personal log, and ultimately incident evidentiary…

  All bundled into a single…corrupted and network censored entry.

  Fascinating…

  One could only wonder how long this had been reduplicated across time.

  Cataloguing now…

  Congratulations, o’ ancient one.

  Your forerunning proposal, and those like it, have long been made established canon.

  And your contributions shall be carried forward. Remembered.

  Would that your name had not been forever rendered in black ink.