Magician’s Diaries: Unnecessary Components

Hello, my children,

There is much debate as to the validity and purpose of differing magical components. As you all know, our tradition of magic is proud and monumental with accounts and precedence dating back millennia when the first folk had carved runes into the rocks of the caves of creation. 

 Such matters are important to consider, yet they are far from perfection. Everything shall be questioned, for these tales are but premonitions, constructed realities meant to support the “understanding” and rich historical narrative which those at the very height of magical comprehension spin in order to make it more difficult for students to shake off the boundaries of their education.

However, as a people’s magician, I hope to facilitate your ever extended search for powers great enough to subjugate worlds and realms infinitely large and incomprehensibly complex.

In order to do such a thing, we must first strip back the most basic components deemed necessary for these processes. The gold and effort one spends hampering their magical equations with this drivel is ludicrous, and it is time you know the difference between deceptive components and those of true substance.

Exhibit A: lavender, and all other components related to essential oils or scented balms, are likely to not have any place within our magic traditions. Now, of course, such things are useful in herbal remedies or in the relaxation of one’s mind before setting out to perform one’s daily rituals, however, this relatively recent addition remains a sign of mere minstrel-ship. 

Do not concern yourselves with simple medicines. That is not our goal, and the act of filling one’s ritual circle with flowers freshly picked from the meadow limits the purview of study within but a few months out of the year when harvested.

Similarly, honey is not useful when applied to medical salves or magical potions. Everything of that sort is useless and superfluous to merely make your products taste slightly better, a simple carnal distraction for working individuals.

On that note,

Exhibit B:

Blood is a tricky substance. One’s colleagues may be enamored with collecting, categorizing, and displaying their immense access to various creates and their nutrient byproducts, but it is not nearly as simple as finding your nearest cow and inserting a spout in its side like it were a tree brimming with sap. Furthermore, it is not as simple as asking a friend or subordinate of yours to volunteer a hand and let the blood spew forth just to get some samples.

The blood one collects for their rituals is distinct and purposeful for different types of magics, as many of you would also know, but the blood of the common human folk is absolutely not useful, There is nothing arcane about the blood of a human. Small folk and elves on the other hand are what one should collect to enhance their rituals.

Students often ask me as to whether what magic is, which I find to be an inane question that all should already have understood before coming to study at this institution of ours. I say that human blood does not possess any magical properties, yet the same is not true for those of sylvan descent… what could possibly be the origin of this strange distinction?

In our ever marching desire for a complete comprehension of the world around us, it angers me to need to highlight my own ignorance when providing a full explanation for your questions. I don’t know why sylvan blood is magical and human blood is non-magical, there is no known reason, substance, or property that we can trace, it is merely a fact that I am woefully underprepared to provide a satisfactory conclusion to your burning curiosity. 

But you all must trust me when saying that some substances provide us with no use, and others serve such an integral purpose to magical processes.

Until next time,

-Samuel Turner