Patreon Insights - Magic Part 2 - Resonance

It's a little late but here is my deep dive Insight into Resonance. As I mentioned yesterday, Resonance is essentially the result of metaphysical interactions between the physical and divine realms causing a feedback loop. Now admittedly, explaining exactly what that means in detail is going to be a challenge. I understand the mechanics as well as anyone can, but a lot of what Resonance is and how it works is highly abstract despite being the basis of a hard magic system. As such it's fairly challenging to explain it in a concise manner that is relatively easy to understand. Even so, I am determined to give it my best shot, so here goes.

First, I think I will start with how Resonance came to be in the world. To do this we need to venture back in time a fair ways to around 500 million years after the birth of the solar system where our story takes place. At this point, the divine realm and physical realm were fairly separate and distinct. The physical realm at that time was much like ours. The divine realm, however was a place where concepts, possibilities and ideas took form. Alas, with the universe still young and nothing  to focus and solidify these ideas besides physical laws, many of these entities were weak and lacked sapience.

Two of these entities, however, had a slight head start and found themselves drawn to our solar system. Why exactly this solar system? It was the one that had the highest chance of creating life at the time which was the idea they represented. To be more exact, it was at this point that the initial chemical reactions were happening that would lead the way to first single-celled organisms. These entities knew instinctively that the existence of life would make them more real and that was something they craved. With this in mind, they reached and reached until they were no longer entirely in the divine realm, but more in the liminal space in between realms. 

Without the security of the divine realm, they started falling apart. If they stayed in the liminal, they would cease to be. Alas, they didn't know the way back, so they had no choice but to carry on and anchor themselves into the physical realm. The one that went to become the Heart of the Sun succeeded first. The other tried to anchor themselves to the planet with the potential for life. They failed and instead became bound to the two moons that were forming around the planet. It wasn't what they were seeking, but it was enough to save them from annihilation.

Now at first glance, this might not seem overly important, but it changed everything. With two entities entities from the divine realm anchored in the physical realm, there was now a direct bridge between the two realms.  It was this bridge that enabled the metaphysical interactions that went on to create Resonance. Furthermore, the genesis of life and beings that could experience the world helped solidify the various entities in the Divine Realm. In time, life also gave rise to new Divine entities.

Each one of these factors contributed to the existence of Resonance but there was one last step to make it a universal reality and that was the union between the Goddess and the Heart of the Sun which created their daughter, Illyria. Illyria was a divine being that was born into the physical realm. Of course, she is still all of those things, but it was her birth that that created Resonance Crystals whilst also changing the very nature of life on the planet to make it slightly divine.

So, with me having now explained the origins of Resonance, I'll fastforward back to today. With us back in the present, I feel like there is one question about Resonance that I have to answer. Why do the same/similar metaphysical interactions have the same/similar results and why those specific results? To those of you asking this question, I very much understand why. As it stands, the abstract system I have presented doesn't exactly suggest consistency or predictability beyond the name "Resonance".

My answer lies in the idea of the shared zeitgeist or collective consciousness of the two realms. The initial interactions resulted in effects that were related and within said zeitgeist and as these effects were discovered and witnessed, their existence was anchored within the zeitgeist. As the zeitgeist belongs to everyone, it doesn't depend on an individual being aware of what could happen for it to happen. This is why Resonance is as consistent as it is. Of course, there is still some slight variance, but the only way for significant change would be to fundamentally alter the zeitgeist, which is, as I'm sure you can imagine, nigh impossible.

As for what is possible with Resonance, you will need to read and find out, but rest assured, I intend to be consistent with how I use it. If Resonance is used in a way that is easily repeatable and there is no reason why people wouldn't try and repeat it, they will try.

With that said, I will end this insight here as it is already late and I need to start planning out the next one. I look forward to you all joining me tomorrow.