Liliana Vess (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deathsmajesty) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2024-06-27 02:02 am
deathsmajesty) wrote in fandomhigh2024-06-27 02:02 am
Entry tags:
Philosophy of Mana, Thursday, Period 2
Around them was a gigantic bayou, full of towering trees and long, hanging vines. Unseen things sometimes moved unseen below the dark waters. The scent of rich loam perfumed the air - the scent of decomposition, though most didn't realize that was so. The scent many people associated with rich life was, in fact, the scent of death. On such juxtapositions was Witherbloom founded. From the center of the swamp rose a kind of bog mansion that looked like it was grown out of Sedgemoor itself. It had a network of interconnected wooden pods with planked walkways leading out of it like the tentacles of some kind of swamp creature. Necroluminescence shone brightly throughout the swamp, giving it an eerie glow; though there were also fireflies and delicate golden moths that added to the bog's illumination.
Liliana sat on a tree root that had grown up out of the marsh, easily as wide as she was tall, with stones sunk into the side of the root closest to the mansion to serve as stairs of a sort. "Welcome to the Sedgemoor," Liliana said, giving the class a smile that held true warmth and fondness for their locale. "Home to Witherbloom College, part of Strixhaven University. It was here I attended college when I was little older than Cal and Illyana. That there is Widdershins Hall, where many classes of the College were held, our dorms were scattered around the Sedgemoor itself." Unlike last week, when their refreshments had been provided from various island restaurants with no explanation, today at the center of the ring of blankets and cushions was a fondue set, a large pot of cheese surrounded by smaller platters ofmoddable foods to dip within it, some quite familiar, others entirely foreign, native to the plane of Arcavios, where Strixhaven had been founded.
Power
• What does black mana desire? What is its end goal?
• What means does black mana use to achieve these ends?
• What does black mana care about? What does it represent?
• What does black mana despise? What negatively drives it?
• What is black mana's greatest strength? Greatest weakness?
"Welcome to the most challenging lecture of the color wheel," Liliana said, smile shifting from fond to amused. "Hopefully you have learned to let go of some of your inner kneejerk prejudices about what certain concepts mean, because today we're in for it." She sounded delighted by the possibility. "As we discussed, no mana has an innate morality system. White mana uses morality as a tool, but is, itself, amoral. However, through generations of social conditioning, most societies have used white or light to mean things that are good, and black or darkness to mean things that are bad. On this plane, I've learned that 'white hats' mean good guys, and 'black hats' mean bad guys. Though I don't understand the Force or its philosophy, I understand there is a Light Side and a Dark Side. Doves mean peace, crows are a bad omen--" so were ravens, but that was deserved and Liliana wasn't going to get into that right now "--daytime is the time of day for the hardworking and the virtuous, while nighttime belongs to the schemers and crooks and other unsavory people...like even the most charming necromancers"
Why yes, she was a nightowl, how did you guess? "So working against that dichotomy that sets black and white up as evil and good, most people also have a kneejerk reaction to the word 'power.' It's dangerous, after all. Untrustworthy. If you want it, you probably oughtn't have it, only those who don't seek it out can be trusted with it. If someone says their goal is power, they are likely a villain. That is because the phrase 'I want power' comes with the unspoken assumption that the rest of the sentence is 'over other people.' And that's the lovely thing about unspoken assumptions, no? You're free to deeply believe in them, but by never saying them, those assumptions cannot be challenged. Except, we all want power. Because power is simply another word for agency. Wanting power can certainly mean wanting to rule people, but at its most basic, want power means wanting to bring about change. Winning wars to free people from bondage and topple an evil regime requires power. Protecting innocents from those that would abuse them requires power. Working to change the way a culture thinks about certain peoples and topics requires power. There is a reason that -power is appended to many rallying cries of the marginalized of the society as they attempt to stand up for themselves. Pride was this past weekend and it could just as easily been called 'Power:' Pride suggests an inward look at your own soul and person and realizing that you are just as worthy as your peers; Power suggests looking outward and demanding others also realize that. Seeing the world as a place where every individual works for their own earned benefit and is responsible for their fate, black's goal is to acquire self-determination and power for oneself to ensure that one is never left helpless and powerless in the face of an enemy. Believe me, darlings, if you've ever experienced both power and true powerlessness, you will choose power every single time, because there is nothing that hurts worse than the utter helplessness of watching something you love deeply die - especially in agony - and being unable to stop it...unless, of course, it's the knowledge that the same thing will happen again and again and again."
She paused to let that sit with the class for a moment. From what she'd picked up from various members over the workshop is that many of them knew that feeling quite intimately. "Power is everything to black, because power and agency determines who wins or loses, who suffers and who is saved, who has and who has not, and even who lives and who dies. Black mana users, like myself, want the final say in our own lives, fates, and ultimately deaths--" at least for those poor saps who didn't figure out a way to skip death altogether, tch, couldn't be Liliana "--and see our own wills as something so precious that the idea of losing it or giving it up is reprehensible. I can choose to change my mind, I can choose to accept the whim of the group, I can choose to relent and not get my own way, but it is that choice that is paramount. Thus, to ensure that I can ensure my free will and autonomy, I must be willing to increase my personal power as much as I possibly can, because that is how I can guarantee that my agency remains undiminished. As I frequently say, I do not wish to rule, I simply refuse to serve.
"Now, of course, this is not to say that black mana is actually some poor, misunderstood darling that only want every person in the world to have agency and it is only because of malicious propaganda that it has its dark reputation. On a philosophical level, this power search can be positively motivated, from the recognition of one's individuality and free will as the basis of human dignity and happiness; or negatively, from a deep fear of defeat in all forms that leads to a mindless obtaining power for power's sake, losing identity and humanity in the process. And thus we have the two sides of black, and, let's be honest, darlings, while all colors can lead to monstrousness, black wears its monstrousness most openly, rather than hiding behind pretty masks and illusions and the pretense that what its doing is for the greater good. Furthermore, because of black's innate philosophy, black is often seen as evil because for two reasons: because it's often willing to do evil and it's competent at it."
Like blue, black found competence very compelling. It was one of the reasons the two colors made such excellentpartners allies. "The first rule of black is that there are no rules. Press your advantage, take every opportunity that you can, always be moving forward. Don't let outward rules and limitations constrain what you do. It is not that some things are bad and should be avoided and other things are good and should be embraced, it's that everything has a cost and the question is, 'are you willing to pay it?'" Or, possibly, 'is there a cost and can you wiggle out of paying it?' "And so black philosophies look at resources that other colors reject out of hand and instead sees acceptable tools to get what they need. What makes a tool better or worse is not some objective morality, but a simple cost benefit analysis. Everything is up for consideration. For example, I could assure your attention in my class by making a brutal example of the first student whose attention wanders and ensuring your attention with fear. However, that's a stupid idea, it only works in the short term, and it creates a whole host of other problems. Furthermore, it's inefficient, wasteful, and also, far less satisfying to me personally than creating interesting and dynamic lectures that you want to pay attention to.
"Let me be very clear. Black has no problem doing evil to others if it considers that to be the best - or perhaps only - way to achieve its goals. But black doesn't do this because it believes that "evil" is inherently superior or desirable to "good." Black is not immoral, it's amoral, and that amorality must be understood as a way to legitimize the right to choose between Good and Evil and to benefit from the power of both. Neither are glorified or invalidated, they are both simply options to choose between like any other. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. Some of you may only ever be aware of one path. Some of you may be aware of both, but refuse to take one. Black requires that you to be aware both - well, all paths, really - acknowledge them all, and take the one that is most advantageous to your goals. Which, for the record, does not necessarily mean the shortest, most direct, or even easiest path. If those paths will cost me more than I will gain otherwise, then they are not the most advantageous.
"You see, despite all the things it's capable and willing to do, black is not free of necessity and responsibility. We do not reject responsibility, but rather, the exact opposite. Our main focus is increasing those things that are within our locus of influence and control, because we understand that those beyond that locus can only be accepted. Therefore, the things within our locus are responsibilities we must see to; because to abjure them means pushing them outside of our locus, which is the polar opposite of what we must do to succeed. We understand very well that our all-consuming need to have our freedom of choice does not also grant us freedom from consequences, which means we need to be very careful about our choices and diligent in our responsibilities, because to do otherwise is to potentially ruin the work of a day, a year, or even a lifetime. Because we must look candidly at all the possibly options, we must also look candidly at all the potential consequences and decide which ones we will be willing to pay if it comes to that."
Or, again, which ones they thought they could manage to avoid, not that Liliana had ever done such a thing, how dare.
"Again, because free will is paramount, there is no such thing as a 'slippery slope' whereby using more black mana will somehow condemn you to become a power-hungry monster or to see the rest of the world as a toy to play with. Black does not provide a set of goals that black-aligned individuals have to pursue; we are not required to chase political, martial, or financial dominance. Abyss, we do not even even need to pursue selfish goals. Blac provides only only a method - do not abide by needless restrictions - and a worldview - power enough to secure our own free will is mandatory. Beyond that, one can choose any goal they desire, for whatever reasons they desire. To have it any other way would be anathema to free will itself. Of course, black encourages people to take care of themselves and discourages putting others first, but - and this is vital - it neither commands the former nor forbids the latter. Black is not above being humble or empathizing with others, or radically changing its self-image and priorities when it's necessary. Black's goals can include finding love, true friendship, and happiness within a community, even living out a life of self-sacrifice or servitude to another without any difficulty at all. The only, only intolerable thing for a black mana philosopher is not being able to decide the course of their own life, everything else is negotiable.
Liliana sat on a tree root that had grown up out of the marsh, easily as wide as she was tall, with stones sunk into the side of the root closest to the mansion to serve as stairs of a sort. "Welcome to the Sedgemoor," Liliana said, giving the class a smile that held true warmth and fondness for their locale. "Home to Witherbloom College, part of Strixhaven University. It was here I attended college when I was little older than Cal and Illyana. That there is Widdershins Hall, where many classes of the College were held, our dorms were scattered around the Sedgemoor itself." Unlike last week, when their refreshments had been provided from various island restaurants with no explanation, today at the center of the ring of blankets and cushions was a fondue set, a large pot of cheese surrounded by smaller platters of
• What does black mana desire? What is its end goal?
• What means does black mana use to achieve these ends?
• What does black mana care about? What does it represent?
• What does black mana despise? What negatively drives it?
• What is black mana's greatest strength? Greatest weakness?
"Welcome to the most challenging lecture of the color wheel," Liliana said, smile shifting from fond to amused. "Hopefully you have learned to let go of some of your inner kneejerk prejudices about what certain concepts mean, because today we're in for it." She sounded delighted by the possibility. "As we discussed, no mana has an innate morality system. White mana uses morality as a tool, but is, itself, amoral. However, through generations of social conditioning, most societies have used white or light to mean things that are good, and black or darkness to mean things that are bad. On this plane, I've learned that 'white hats' mean good guys, and 'black hats' mean bad guys. Though I don't understand the Force or its philosophy, I understand there is a Light Side and a Dark Side. Doves mean peace, crows are a bad omen--" so were ravens, but that was deserved and Liliana wasn't going to get into that right now "--daytime is the time of day for the hardworking and the virtuous, while nighttime belongs to the schemers and crooks and other unsavory people...like even the most charming necromancers"
Why yes, she was a nightowl, how did you guess? "So working against that dichotomy that sets black and white up as evil and good, most people also have a kneejerk reaction to the word 'power.' It's dangerous, after all. Untrustworthy. If you want it, you probably oughtn't have it, only those who don't seek it out can be trusted with it. If someone says their goal is power, they are likely a villain. That is because the phrase 'I want power' comes with the unspoken assumption that the rest of the sentence is 'over other people.' And that's the lovely thing about unspoken assumptions, no? You're free to deeply believe in them, but by never saying them, those assumptions cannot be challenged. Except, we all want power. Because power is simply another word for agency. Wanting power can certainly mean wanting to rule people, but at its most basic, want power means wanting to bring about change. Winning wars to free people from bondage and topple an evil regime requires power. Protecting innocents from those that would abuse them requires power. Working to change the way a culture thinks about certain peoples and topics requires power. There is a reason that -power is appended to many rallying cries of the marginalized of the society as they attempt to stand up for themselves. Pride was this past weekend and it could just as easily been called 'Power:' Pride suggests an inward look at your own soul and person and realizing that you are just as worthy as your peers; Power suggests looking outward and demanding others also realize that. Seeing the world as a place where every individual works for their own earned benefit and is responsible for their fate, black's goal is to acquire self-determination and power for oneself to ensure that one is never left helpless and powerless in the face of an enemy. Believe me, darlings, if you've ever experienced both power and true powerlessness, you will choose power every single time, because there is nothing that hurts worse than the utter helplessness of watching something you love deeply die - especially in agony - and being unable to stop it...unless, of course, it's the knowledge that the same thing will happen again and again and again."
She paused to let that sit with the class for a moment. From what she'd picked up from various members over the workshop is that many of them knew that feeling quite intimately. "Power is everything to black, because power and agency determines who wins or loses, who suffers and who is saved, who has and who has not, and even who lives and who dies. Black mana users, like myself, want the final say in our own lives, fates, and ultimately deaths--" at least for those poor saps who didn't figure out a way to skip death altogether, tch, couldn't be Liliana "--and see our own wills as something so precious that the idea of losing it or giving it up is reprehensible. I can choose to change my mind, I can choose to accept the whim of the group, I can choose to relent and not get my own way, but it is that choice that is paramount. Thus, to ensure that I can ensure my free will and autonomy, I must be willing to increase my personal power as much as I possibly can, because that is how I can guarantee that my agency remains undiminished. As I frequently say, I do not wish to rule, I simply refuse to serve.
"Now, of course, this is not to say that black mana is actually some poor, misunderstood darling that only want every person in the world to have agency and it is only because of malicious propaganda that it has its dark reputation. On a philosophical level, this power search can be positively motivated, from the recognition of one's individuality and free will as the basis of human dignity and happiness; or negatively, from a deep fear of defeat in all forms that leads to a mindless obtaining power for power's sake, losing identity and humanity in the process. And thus we have the two sides of black, and, let's be honest, darlings, while all colors can lead to monstrousness, black wears its monstrousness most openly, rather than hiding behind pretty masks and illusions and the pretense that what its doing is for the greater good. Furthermore, because of black's innate philosophy, black is often seen as evil because for two reasons: because it's often willing to do evil and it's competent at it."
Like blue, black found competence very compelling. It was one of the reasons the two colors made such excellent
"Let me be very clear. Black has no problem doing evil to others if it considers that to be the best - or perhaps only - way to achieve its goals. But black doesn't do this because it believes that "evil" is inherently superior or desirable to "good." Black is not immoral, it's amoral, and that amorality must be understood as a way to legitimize the right to choose between Good and Evil and to benefit from the power of both. Neither are glorified or invalidated, they are both simply options to choose between like any other. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. Some of you may only ever be aware of one path. Some of you may be aware of both, but refuse to take one. Black requires that you to be aware both - well, all paths, really - acknowledge them all, and take the one that is most advantageous to your goals. Which, for the record, does not necessarily mean the shortest, most direct, or even easiest path. If those paths will cost me more than I will gain otherwise, then they are not the most advantageous.
"You see, despite all the things it's capable and willing to do, black is not free of necessity and responsibility. We do not reject responsibility, but rather, the exact opposite. Our main focus is increasing those things that are within our locus of influence and control, because we understand that those beyond that locus can only be accepted. Therefore, the things within our locus are responsibilities we must see to; because to abjure them means pushing them outside of our locus, which is the polar opposite of what we must do to succeed. We understand very well that our all-consuming need to have our freedom of choice does not also grant us freedom from consequences, which means we need to be very careful about our choices and diligent in our responsibilities, because to do otherwise is to potentially ruin the work of a day, a year, or even a lifetime. Because we must look candidly at all the possibly options, we must also look candidly at all the potential consequences and decide which ones we will be willing to pay if it comes to that."
Or, again, which ones they thought they could manage to avoid, not that Liliana had ever done such a thing, how dare.
"Again, because free will is paramount, there is no such thing as a 'slippery slope' whereby using more black mana will somehow condemn you to become a power-hungry monster or to see the rest of the world as a toy to play with. Black does not provide a set of goals that black-aligned individuals have to pursue; we are not required to chase political, martial, or financial dominance. Abyss, we do not even even need to pursue selfish goals. Blac provides only only a method - do not abide by needless restrictions - and a worldview - power enough to secure our own free will is mandatory. Beyond that, one can choose any goal they desire, for whatever reasons they desire. To have it any other way would be anathema to free will itself. Of course, black encourages people to take care of themselves and discourages putting others first, but - and this is vital - it neither commands the former nor forbids the latter. Black is not above being humble or empathizing with others, or radically changing its self-image and priorities when it's necessary. Black's goals can include finding love, true friendship, and happiness within a community, even living out a life of self-sacrifice or servitude to another without any difficulty at all. The only, only intolerable thing for a black mana philosopher is not being able to decide the course of their own life, everything else is negotiable.
Question #2 - Allies and Adversaries
Can you think of anything black would agree with or respect about its enemies? Anything it gets frustrated by with its allies?
Re: Question #2 - Allies and Adversaries