Benedict Jacka's Blog, page 82

Encyclopaedia Arcana #21: The Concord (Part Two)

The Concord is long and confusing, but most of its length is basically filler and the main content can be boiled down to about five clauses.

The First Clause:  Light Authority

This clause recognises the Light Alliance as the governing body over the magical world, which as far as most mages are concerned means the planet Earth.  Essentially this clause states that the Light mages and their associated Councils rule the world.  It’s the first and most important clause, because it’s the justification for all the others:  “we can pass these laws because we’re the ones in charge.”

Although supreme authority officially rests with the Light Alliance (the old wartime alliance of international Light factions) the mages who drafted the Concord knew that the individual Light factions were too independent to submit to central control for long.  As such, the Concord delegates individual authority down to the individual governments of the magical ‘nations’ that form the Alliance.  A national-level decision can be overruled by a sufficient vote of Alliance members, but this virtually never happens.  Effectively, the Light Councils of each nation have authority over their territory, subject to the Concord.

This first clause is also the one that gets broken the most.  Dark and independent mages don’t recognise Light authority – if they did, they’d be Light mages.  From a certain point of view, everything that a Dark or independent mage does breaks the Concord.

Recognition Problems

The issue with mage laws has always been getting mages to agree to them.  Mages are, generally speaking, a wilful lot.  They don’t submit to control easily, and in the case of the Concord there are a lot of reasons for a mage to ignore it.  The Concord was never signed – it was imposed by force, and even if it had been signed, it would have been in the middle of last century.  The majority of mages currently alive weren’t even born back then.

The real problem is that even if the Dark and independent mages were interested in following the Concord, they aren’t a unified group.  There’s no Dark leader, which means there’s no-one to sign the Concord on their behalf even if they wanted to (and if someone did it, no other Dark mage would listen to them).  The same applies to independent mages, although in their case their lack of participation is less ideological and more a matter of disinterest.

The result of all this is that when it comes right down to it the only thing that really keeps the Concord any authority is force.  Dark and independent mages obeyed the Concord because the Light Council would have beaten the crap out of them if they didn’t.  While the might-makes-right approach has the merit of being straightforward, it only works when the enforcers are clearly more powerful than everyone else.

Balance of Power

It’s now the early years of the twenty-first century.  With a few exceptions, the mages who fought in the Gate Rune War are gone, and a new generation has grown up in relative safety.  The Dark mages have rebuilt their numbers, and the Light mages have grown accustomed to peace.  Light mages are more organised and more numerous, but their Dark counterparts have far more combat veterans.  If the Gate Rune War was fought all over again, it’s no longer clear who would win.

Fortunately, at the moment neither side has much of a motivation to try, since both are reasonably happy with the status quo.  Smaller factions of both Dark and Light oppose the Concord, but the majority are willing to accept it for the simple reason that by and large, it allows them to do what they want.  And so for the most part the mages of Britain accept the Concord, not so much out of devotion to its ideals but because it’s convenient to do so.

Cursed Blog Tour, First Stop – Candace’s Book Blog and the SciFi Chick

And the blog tour for Cursed is underway!  First up, SciFi Chick did an interview with me which is now up on her website, and Candace from Candace’s Book Blog is running a guest post of mine on how a book goes from idea to first draft and writing process (well, my writing process anyway).

Both of them are also running giveaways of Cursed, so drop by if you want the chance to win a free copy!

Cursed US release today!

And it’s finally here!  The second book in the Alex Verus series, Cursed, is out in paperback in the US as of today!

Here’s a link to the PW starred review, and the first chapter.  And you can buy it from the book’s sub-page, here!

Watching a new book go out always feels a little weird – by the time a manuscript is ready for publication, it’s been out of my hands for so long that it feels like something produced by a space alien.  Still, I picked up Cursed yesterday just out of curiosity and took a look, and I was happy with it.  I think if you liked Fated, you will be too!

Cursed Blog Tour

For the release of Cursed (whose US edition comes out tomorrow!) I’m going to be doing some interviews and guest posts on a spread of book blogs, all of whom have been nice enough to invite me along.  The current list of blogs I’ll be visiting is:

SciFi Chick

Candace’s Book Blog

Night Owl Reviews

Seeing Night Reviews

Book Faery

All Things Urban Fantasy

Dark Faerie Tales

Under the Covers

That’s What I’m Talking About

My Bookish Ways

The Qwillery

Bea’s Book Nook

Tynaga’s Reviews

. . . and possibly one or two more, or that’s the plan.  This assumes I’ll actually manage to get all these guest posts and interviews written, but at least I’ve kept up with it so far . . . The tour is scheduled to begin tomorrow on May 29th and run until June 22nd, and I’ll try to post regular updates as they come out!

Encyclopaedia Arcana #20: The Concord (Part One)

The Concord is a treaty between Dark, Light, and independent mages, and forms the main common foundation of international mage law.  It lays down rules that all mages are required to follow, no matter their nationality or faction, and was established at the end of the Gate Rune War.

How It All Began

The Gate Rune War devastated magical society.  Although the Light Alliance won, the destruction was so total that by the time the fighting finally ended it didn’t feel like much of a victory for anybody.  All sides involved took massive casualties.

In the aftermath of the war, there was a widespread perception that the old treaties and agreements had failed.  Most of the old guard and the leaders who had been active in the prewar period were dead, and the survivors had become generally disillusioned with the prewar ethos.  It was agreed that a new treaty was needed, and the surviving Light leaders from around the world assembled in London to draft the Concord.

Although the Council records the following process as a negotiation, “negotiate” is a little misleading as the bulk of the treaty was written by the Light faction with zero input from anyone else.  Even the independents in the Light Alliance didn’t get much of a say.  Seven months after the conclave’s official beginning, the Concord was presented to the magical world, and members of the Light Alliance dispersed back to their home countries to establish the new order.

The Reactions

To say that not everyone was happy with the Concord would be an understatement.  Members of the different factions considered it an imposition, a tyranny, a betrayal, a waste of time, or a piece of useless posturing, respectively.  It didn’t help that not only were the other factions not consulted, they weren’t even asked to sign it – the Concord was just declared as law.  The Dark factions saw it as a peace imposed under duress, and many planned to break it as soon as they rebuilt their strength.

However, the Light mages who drafted the Concord were not idiots.  They knew that trying to force a treaty too harshly would have strained their political capital to the breaking point – while the Light Alliance was the only real cohesive force still standing, its members were war-weary and reluctant to fight.  Instead, what the Light mages did was more subtle:  they made sure that the terms of the Concord were in line with what they predicted that the bulk of the factions would want to do anyway.  Their predictions were good.  Despite a few initial skirmishes most mages found themselves following the Concord even if they’d never supported it, until it became a habit.  Habit turned into custom, and custom became law.

The Present

Nowadays, the Concord is generally accepted worldwide.  Individual magical nations can (and do) make their own laws, but the Concord forms a larger framework of international law which takes priority and which all mages can rely on.  It’s this usefulness, more than anything else, which has made the Concord last.  It acts as a kind of diplomatic protocol:  mages can travel between countries and factions and have a certain level of legal protection while doing so.

The amount of respect the Concord gets varies.  Some mages take it seriously, some pay it lip service, and others break it on a regular basis.  However, even the mages who do break the Concord are careful not to get caught.  The Light Council might not enforce the Concord consistently, but they do enforce it, and while it isn’t common for a mage to be hunted down and executed for violating the Concord it happens often enough to send a message.

In Britain, the organisation responsible for upholding the Concord are the Keepers of the Flame, otherwise known as the Keepers.  Anyone charged with a violation of the Concord can be placed under arrest to be formally tried before the Council.

One Week To Cursed!

Cursed will be released in the US a week from today, on May 29th!  A large box full of author copies just arrived by post a few days ago and they look excellent.

One thing I really like about the US covers is the small number of colours they use.  Fated was orange with a touch of black and white, and Cursed is the same except with the primary colour being blue.  It makes the picture stand out at a distance.

And another early review of Cursed, this one by BookSwarm!  From now on I’ll have two books to track the reviews of instead of one (which hopefully will stop me paying quite so much attention to each when I should be working).  Now I just need to figure out how to change that ‘Latest Book’ image on the sidebar . . .

Encyclopaedia Arcana #19: Fire Magic (Part Two)

Part One of this article described the powers of fire magic:  this part will look at the nature of fire mages, and their place in the magical world.

Why So Much Fire?

Elemental magic is the most common family of magic, and fire mages are the most common type of mage, so much so that some people think there are more fire mages than any other two types of mage put together.  Nobody’s quite sure why there should be twice as many fire mages as air, water, or earth mages, although a simple explanation could be that the particular personality traits that attune a mage to fire just happen to be really common ones.  Another theory is that it’s something to do with fire being a symbol of humanity’s dominion over the natural world.  And some people say that it’s because fire’s the most destructive of all the elements, and humans are really good at destroying things.

Because fire magic is so common, fire mages are very much a known quantity.  Pretty much everyone in the magical world knows a fire mage, or at least has seen one, and their abilities are very well-known . . . as are their weaknesses.  As always, though, there’s enough variation within the type to make sensible mages careful about assuming they know everything about what a fire mage can do.

Nature and Demeanour

Fire mages have a reputation for being spontaneous, passionate, and creative.  If mages are making up a story and want a romantic young lover, they usually make the character a fire mage.  Of course, fire mages also have a reputation for being dangerous, violent, and destructive, so if a fire mage isn’t being cast as the hero there’s a good chance they’re being cast as the villain.

Both reputations have some truth to them.  Fire mages do tend to be intense and charismatic, and they do tend to attract a lot of attention (even if it’s not always the good kind).  On the other hand, an awful lot of thugs, tyrants and killers in magical history have been fire mages, too.  Fire magic is just so very good at causing fear and destruction, and a fire mage always has to fight the temptation to get rid of their problems by burning them.

If there’s one thing all fire mages have in common, it’s activity.  There’s practically no such thing as a passive fire mage.  No matter their interests, fire mages are doers, people of action, and a fire mage with nothing to do is a recipe for trouble.

Mundane Boredom

Fire mages often find that the aggressive nature of their magic makes it hard for them to fit in.  They’re great in high-stress high-intensity situations, but in quiet, peaceful settings they can feel like a fifth wheel.  On top of that, the ability to burn things doesn’t qualify you for many jobs.  It does however make you very good at extorting money from people who do have jobs, meaning that all too often the easiest way for a fire mage to earn money is by violence.

The Council’s traditional solution to this problem has been to recruit fire mages as Keepers, soldiers, or both, presumably in the hope that if fire mages have a place in society and a job to do then they’ll be more likely to expend their energy in ways that are helpful rather than randomly smashing things.  Sometimes it works, but it’s very common for fire mages to drift into predatory lifestyles with high risks and high rewards.  It’s an open secret that many fire mages are involved in illegal activities, and the Council generally turns a blind eye as long as they don’t directly harm the Council’s interests.

Matt Johnson liked this post

Alex Verus on TVTropes

I’ve been a fan of TVTropes for a few years now.  If you like books, films, TV series, or games – most things, really – then once you start browsing it’s hard to stop.  I’ve long since lost count of the amount of hours I’ve spent reading through the pages, and I’ve found a good number of new authors and films that way, too.

So I was very happy to see that the Alex Verus series now has its own TVTropes page!  (Okay, technically I was on the site before with my Ninja books, but it was exactly one reference and you wouldn’t find it if you didn’t search for it.  This one actually has content.)  Go take a look, and add your own!

Dian Haryaty liked this post

Encyclopaedia Arcana #18: Fire Magic (Part One)

Fire magic is probably the most iconic type of magic out there.  It’s common, widely known, and very very noticeable.

Playing with Fire

At a basic level, fire magic gives control over heat:  creating it, manipulating it, and moving it.  The most obvious use for this is of course burning things, and unsurprisingly that tends to be exactly how most fire mages get started.  A master taking on a fire mage as an apprentice is well advised to hold lessons in a non-flammable location.

As they gain experience, fire mages learn to use their magic in less destructive ways.  Their ability to control heat can be used as a protection as well as a weapon, moving and dissipating a fire away from things it might threaten.  In the same way that they can start fires, they can stop them.

Fire mages can also protect themselves against heat, and they’re very good at it.  Trying to burn a fire mage is a lot like trying to drown a fish – they can survive unbelievably high temperatures and there have been confirmed reports of fire mages walking through bonfires, furnaces, and even lava.

Infravision

Like most elemental mages, fire mages can sense the presence of their chosen element.  A common way this manifests is in a kind of thermal vision, letting a fire mage ‘see’ heat in a similar way to a thermal imaging camera.  Warm objects stand out in their sight, while cool areas fade into the background.  The spell has a wide variety of uses – seeing in the dark, telling if someone has a fever, noticing malfunctioning electrical components, knowing when the roast is done, etc.

Their ability to see heat makes fire mages better at subtle operations than most people would think.  A fire mage can spot a warm-blooded creature in pitch darkness more easily than most people can see them in broad daylight.  Unless a person gives off no heat at all (difficult to do) it’s almost impossible for them to avoid a fire mage’s notice.

Combat Magic

Fire mages can do a lot of fancy stuff, but it’s their combat magic that they’re really famous for.  Fire magic has a horrendous amount of destructive power and can burn through buildings, armour, or flesh with equal ease.  Other types of magic can destroy as well (if not quite so effectively) but fire magic has a psychological impact that air or earth magic doesn’t.  Nearly all living creatures fear fire, and when used as a weapon fire kills in a particularly horrifying and agonising manner.  The sight of a human being turned into a screaming, flailing torch is quite terrifying, and one glimpse is usually enough to instil a deep fear of what a fire mage can do.

Fire mages, however, have one major Achilles heel when it comes to combat.  While their magic is great on the attack, it’s very bad at defence.  Fire shields can hold off spells and ward away people, but they’re terrible at stopping physical objects, particularly very fast ones (such as oh, say, bullets).  If a fire mage is about to be hit by a bullet travelling at 2,000 mph, then the only thing a fire shield is going to do is ensure that they’ll be hit by a red-hot bullet travelling at 2,000 mph, which really isn’t much of an improvement.  Some fire mages deal with this by developing spells or foci to include a kinetic element to their shields, but at a fundamental level fire magic just isn’t designed for defence.  Tactics with fire magic usually come down to some variant on ‘kill them first’.

Traffic Wars

Since I started this website at the beginning of the year, I’ve kept an eye on the traffic stats via a program called AWStats (I’ve heard a lot of people use Google Analytics for the same purpose, but AWStats came with the setup and it does the job).  To begin with the majority of the traffic came from the UK, which is pretty much what you’d expect given that’s where most of my friends live.  Over the months, though, the US traffic has been climbing and somewhere around the end of last month it overtook the UK.  This site now has more US visitors than UK ones!

    

So, what does this mean?

Nothing at all, as far as I know.  It’s a completely irrelevant bit of trivia.  I just thought I’d write about it anyway.

While I’m here, though, here are some new reviews of Fated from Fantasy Book Review, Bookgeeks, and the SciFiChick, and the second review of Cursed, this one from SFRevu!