QM: Blog

I was asked how the Mage society in my work actually works, there are one or two spoilers in here, so if you don't wish to know, look away. :-)
This is part of a full glossary and index which will be published at the end of the tale.

There are five grades of Mage.

Apprentice.
An apprentice is bonded to a master for twenty years, during which period he/she is fed, clothed, housed, trained and given a small allowance. They are constantly supervised and monitored to prevent them from breaking the rules and/or killing themselves.
Journeyman/woman.
A journeyman/woman is bonded to the same master for a further one hundred years during which they are expected to find work within and without the magical community and pay back their debt of training (not necessarily money, but time and obligation). Many end up in the world of scientific academia where control of the elements and power manipulation helps them reach fairly high levels in universities and research laboratories throughout the world. They are warned not to become too conspicuous. Many also do research within the magical community as well as in various disciplines; magic is too much fun not to play with it.
A few end up working for the Council's enforcement groups around the world and essentially make sure that as few people as possible come into contact with real magic and/or clean up the mess in cases where it goes wrong or there has been a confrontation with the Coalition. It normally requires a high level of discipline to work in enforcement, though there are exceptions and the casualty rate can be quite high.
Mage.
A Mage is a fully qualified magic user. He or she is financially independent and free of ties to a master, though most retain ties of affection and respect. They can more or less live where they want and do as they want so long as they follow the Councils rules.
High Mage.
Though not a title as such, a High Mage is a one who has mastered the hidden higher magics in the iso depth and quantum layer fields. Whilst many Mages will touch upon one area or another (power, spells, healing, etc.) only a High Mage is master of all.
Seer.
A Seer is a specialised Mage, highly intelligent and capable in gestalt of correlating masses of information. Specifically a female genome trait, they are very rare and treasured by those races and organisations that use them.

Conduct between the various levels would appear to an outsider to be old-fashioned with a lot of formal greetings and respect. Juniors are always expected to address a senior with the formal title on a first greeting though many Mages are relaxed about it from close acquaintances and friends amongst journeymen and women. This is mostly due to the relationships being feudal in nature with obligations and responsibilities clearly defined between one rank and another.

Hierarchy.

Council of the Wise.
This is the ruling council of the vast majority of the Mages on our world. It is highly secretive and spends most of its efforts making sure most of the planet never notices Mages and magic.
It's led by Simon Magus who was the first (on our world) to discover longevity spells and has an inner circle of approximately twenty Mages. There is an outer circle who can call for a meeting of the Council of ten Mages, though they are not permitted to vote. The inner circle oversees the activities of the Continental Bureaus who regulate the magical users in Council territories. They are also the judge, jury and executioner (if necessary) of any Mages who step out of line, though a death penalty is very unusual.
The Continental Bureaus have been known by various names over the centuries, though have been around since about 1,000 AD, save only for the now former Council of the Magi who were the original pre-500 BC Council of the Wise and who became its enforcement arm and worked mostly in what is known as the fertile crescent, China and India, where the early great civilisations grew and kept tabs on civilisation as a whole.

Coalition of the Pure.
The ruling committee of those Mages in opposition to the Council who believe that, as on many other worlds, Mages should be in charge and lording it over the rest of mankind. Whilst many in Council territories have sympathy with some of their aims, few if any have sympathy with their methods. Cruel, avaricious, misogynistic and violent, they tend to treat lesser Mages in their territories as servants or, in the case of female Mages, sex slaves and the vast majority of mundanes as slaves to do their bidding. The lesser Mages of the Coalition, though most assuredly not female Mages, are trained very much in the use of power spells to deal with Council members they come across, though none are as powerful as any High Mage. The High Mages of the Coalition spend a lot of their time trying to keep control over the politicians and rulers of their territories, who often enough resent the Coalition, though are unable to do much other than passively resist them. They are very strong in Russia proper and have influence over various ex-Soviet and former communist bloc territories though oddly not China. Generally though, the numbers game of humans to Mages works against the Coalition. Their empires fall in ruins as people generally do not take well to being ruled over in anything other than a benevolent manner. The number of Mages is estimated at 5,000; though not all are active or even involved with the Coalition.

I've been writing a story now for a while but never gave any thought to publishing it here or anywhere else for that matter.
It's called Magician and it's about our world where some people can do magic, live amongst us, but for obvious reasons don't advertise the fact that they can (organised religion)
It's up to chapter 26 now, but is very slow going as I tend to leave it for a while before going back to it.
I am considering publishing it here, but only possibly the first three chapters as I keep rewriting it as later chapters keep throwing up necessary edits in the early ones.
If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll start the process, but after the first three over the next three months it'll be down to once a month at the most frequent as there are at least another 20 chapters left to write.

One of the things I like to do is play with words, as an artist uses brushes to paint a scene on canvas, I try to use words to paint a scene in peoples minds, to try and involve them in the characters.
The success, or otherwise is for you to judge, not me, some stories seem more popular than others though again the why of it or the reasons for the votes remains somewhat obscure, certainly the highest ranking story 'Geek' is a personal favourite of mine, though it's not the story that I had the most fun writing which was 'Emma' closely followed by 'A New Approach'
Yet there are some words I'm not comfortable with and do not use them in certain contexts. I never use 'cunt' as a description of the female sexual organs. This is mostly to do with my upbringing where the 'c' word is grossly offensive to the ladies in my life and is only used as a term of extreme abuse when aimed at males who do not abide by the rules of civilised behaviour.
Yet being an avid reader (of all types of work, not just erotica) it's not for me to judge a story or the author by his/her use of the word, a good story simply being that, a good story. Same with grammar and spelling, meaning is everything, if I can understand it and enjoy it, then the breaking of the rules isn't a major issue with me.
Still, at last I've come to use a proofreader and editor and he (Spin) has at least opened my eyes to some of the flaws in my tales and has offered to re-edit all my stories over the coming months.
Anyway I'll end this random scribbling for now and get back to writing another tale...
Wherever it may take me.

QM

I'd like to take the time to thank those who commented on my stories via email. I can assure you it's much appreciated even or perhaps especially so the critical ones. I have been writing now for several years but still think of myself as serving an apprenticeship of sorts and have much to learn, criticism helps there, both negative and positive.
As for the stories themselves, well mostly they are about cheating and getting away with it, sometimes involving family members, sometimes not. That's not to say I approve of cheating, just that I believe it goes on and that those caught are only the tip of the iceberg so to speak. That's one of the reasons why I don't write revenge stories, nor about people being caught, though I know some people prefer stories where infidelity does not prosper.
All my stories are set with UK protagonists, as I'm based in the UK I find it easier to relate stories from places and people I know. This occasionally puts across the odd bit of slang or colloquialisms in the way the story is presented, words like Mum instead of Mom simply because in the UK we don't use Mom and it doesn't quite sound right to our ears as it trips off the tongue. If I were to be writing a story about German protagonists I'd use Mutti or perhaps Oma, it all adds colour (not color) to the tale and lets you into a an illusion created by words where the people are real to the extent of being placed where they are in the tale.
None of my tales are true, but they all contain elements of truth and I believe the mind or imagination is the best place to play around in, there's less chance of someone getting hurt. That said, there's nothing better than real life and grasping an opportunity when one comes along.
Just never forget the Rules as given by Dave in 'A new beginning'
Rule 1) Don't get caught.
Rule 2) If in any doubt about any situation, refer to Rule 1)
Just remember these are only stories meant to entertain, never presume they are true or that I condone what's going on. Simply enjoy or if not, let me know why and I'll try to improve on the next one.

QM