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valarltdI write this urban fantasy universe. And I got into a discussion today with a beta reader who has only been exposed to evangelicals and didn't know about infant baptism. So I'm thinking on the nature of religion, faith and magic, and how it all works together.
There is religion. People still go to church, all kinds of churches. Most faiths, including all but a few hardline Christian and Muslim sects have declared Nightsiders and human-born magic users to be a part of God's creation.
From "Illusions of Safety":
The news had said that all of the Protestant conventions, including the Baptists, had declared that magic came from God, “your old men shall see visions and your young men shall dream dreams, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy.” There were some churches who still held out.
Even many magic users have some sort of faith. Madame Azonka, the talismonger, is Orthodox. DeMarco Jackson, combat mage, uses some voudon protection charms and possibly follows that faith. Bran McKay is Presbyterian, as are his Ma, most of his 12 sibs and a fair few of his kids. (Shomari is Catholic, as is 24% of the population of Kenya). Bran also claims all Celtic combat mages belong to The Morrigan, no matter whether they are Christian or not.
But religion holds no actual mystical sway. It's all about belief. Holy ground means nothing to demons, who being interplanar travelers (usually not benign), don't recognize it. Holy symbols work for believers, because they provide a focal point for the innate mana every person has. Even ordinary people, who really believe, can make a cross glow in the presence of a vampire, or use a pentacle to ward off a fae or use a salt-circle to be safe from a zombie.
The rituals, and people's faith in them provide the protection. Up until the 60s, Mass was conducted in Latin. The idea was for the people to come, witness the mystery, and leave, spiritually edified if not mentally comprehending all the words. There was no emphasis on personal salvation or a walk with the Lord or testimony. These are things of the Protestant churches. The Protestants closest to Rome: Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists, practice infant baptism. Some contend it saves the child's soul and that confirmation brings the child into the church. Some believe it is symbolic, conveying grace until an age of reason when the child can make a profession of faith and join the church. The schisms started with anabaptists in the 16th century.
Belief is a powerful thing.
From the WIP:
"Sunflower seeds are a distraction. Never had to tangle with a vampire yet, but they're OCD bastards. I dump the seeds and they have to count all of them before they can continue the pursuit.”
“That's stupid.” She looked at me as if I was pulling her leg. “In fact, I'm dumber just for having heard you say that.”
“Tell it to someone six hundred years old and really set in his ways. The newly turned ones don't believe it, but older ones do.”
Magic, however, takes no belief, only talent.
Mana is rather like a magical magnetic field. It encompasses the Earth's surface, flowing along Ley lines. mages tend to cluster at the nodes, places where the lines cross. There is such a node in Memphis. I tend to treat it like The Force. It can control a mage's actions, but it also serves his will.
Magic talent, the ability to use mana, is inherent in humans. Everyone has some. It's like drawing or singing or writing. A lot depends on the inborn talent, and a lot depends on nurture. A low-powered mage born into a family of mages will be taught shortcuts and cantrips and encouraged to practice at every opportunity. They will grow up exploring various specialties, trying to find theirs. Just as a mediocre singer growing up in a musical family will get music lessons and become a decent vocalist.
On the other hand, even a moderately talented mage growing up in a family that represses magic--or even a generally non-nurturing situation--will damp the power, hide the abilities and let it fade. This is why some groups are pushing the Witan to test children at pre-school instead of early elementary age. There are also some racial tension and class issues about who gets trained as well.
From Spellbound Desire:
“It’s a sad and sorry way this country does its testing. Too many of you slip through the cracks to drink and drug yourselves to death, half trained, tasting power you can’t control.” He stroked my face some more. “You can’t be human. You aren’t mages. You lose yourselves in the Nightside and try to medicate away the nightmares. I’ve hated it since they sent me here. Who knows, I live through this mission and maybe they’ll let me retire to the Witan. Then I could fix it.”
I kissed him for that. There were too many of us, too many knowing about the Nightside and working in it, or dying from it. “Do you know what they said? I was eleven when they screened me. Do you know what they told me, when I was eleven?” I looked down into his eyes. “Not powerful enough to train. Indian breeds never are. Let her drink herself to death like all the others.” I slammed both fists into the bed. He didn’t even flinch. “My grandfather’s grandmother should not have been an issue. That’s not the side the mana comes down for my family.”
“Aye, and Jinx, he got rejected too, am I right? Mage wouldn’t wear all those charms like he does. Shame, since he does have enough to train. He’d make a passable, low-powered luck mage. And you should know how to control what you have. It’d make you happier.”
Mage society has its structures and groups. There are loners, like Madame Azonka and Saraphina, who have their little shops and their lives. There is the Witan, the wizard council who run the society. There are academic societies and bureaucracies. There are magical cops in almost every city. There are combat mages, called to defend humanity against the more dangerous Nightsiders.
The CMs have organized along the lines of motorcycle clubs: Ladies From Hell (Glasgow, Aberdeen), Delta Bluesmen (Memphis), Legba's Bastard Sons (New Orleans, La Place), Diamond Dogs, Keelboatmen (St Louis, Quad Cities), Moonshine Mountain Boys, Paul Bunyan's Boys, Salem One-Niners, Mama Lilith's Rebel Daughters, Arkansas Amazons, Latter-Day Boadiceas, Dark Queens, Hell's Belles, Las Quatras Brujas, Lone Star Brigade.
No-Talents are those with some mana talent but not enough to train or specialize. DJ and Jinx are officially No-Talents. Jinx, in another living situation and with better testing, would be trained. DJ is borderline. If she had been born into Clan McKay, she might be a modestly-powered but competent mage. If she had simply been trained, without a change in family, she would be a low-powered mage, maybe. Instead, she's stuck on the nightside.
From "Illusions of Safety":
No-Talents didn't have enough magic to be mages or witches or anything. They just had enough to feel the magic all around them. I thought it must be like standing on the bank of a river, able to see everything you wanted on the other side and having no way to get across.
Magic users don't consider themselves human. There's a bit of homo superior thinking that everyone from a sorcery undergrad to the head of the Witan indulges in. Some are more obnoxious than others. But most of them feel a noblesse oblige, a responsibility to take care of the humans. They also tend to cluster together, forming villages. Hence tales of places you can find once and never again, and that sort of thing.
In such villages, even the local minister is likely to be a mage. "...a good shield will keep you sane in the face of things that make the local priest go gibbering.” Another swallow. “Come to think of it, Reverend Donald back home had himself a pretty good shield. He had to, living in a town of mages and being one himself. Fine healer, old Sorely Donald is.”
Religion fills a very human need for the human-born magic users: the need for myth, story and explanation. So far, we haven't encountered any pagan or Jewish magic users. But I'm sure there will be. Any city whose Jewish Community Center has "Shalom Y'all" written on the bus NEEDS to be hosting classes in traditional Kabbalah and other Jewish magic.
Nightsiders We Have Known is probably the next post in the series
There is religion. People still go to church, all kinds of churches. Most faiths, including all but a few hardline Christian and Muslim sects have declared Nightsiders and human-born magic users to be a part of God's creation.
From "Illusions of Safety":
The news had said that all of the Protestant conventions, including the Baptists, had declared that magic came from God, “your old men shall see visions and your young men shall dream dreams, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy.” There were some churches who still held out.
Even many magic users have some sort of faith. Madame Azonka, the talismonger, is Orthodox. DeMarco Jackson, combat mage, uses some voudon protection charms and possibly follows that faith. Bran McKay is Presbyterian, as are his Ma, most of his 12 sibs and a fair few of his kids. (Shomari is Catholic, as is 24% of the population of Kenya). Bran also claims all Celtic combat mages belong to The Morrigan, no matter whether they are Christian or not.
But religion holds no actual mystical sway. It's all about belief. Holy ground means nothing to demons, who being interplanar travelers (usually not benign), don't recognize it. Holy symbols work for believers, because they provide a focal point for the innate mana every person has. Even ordinary people, who really believe, can make a cross glow in the presence of a vampire, or use a pentacle to ward off a fae or use a salt-circle to be safe from a zombie.
The rituals, and people's faith in them provide the protection. Up until the 60s, Mass was conducted in Latin. The idea was for the people to come, witness the mystery, and leave, spiritually edified if not mentally comprehending all the words. There was no emphasis on personal salvation or a walk with the Lord or testimony. These are things of the Protestant churches. The Protestants closest to Rome: Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists, practice infant baptism. Some contend it saves the child's soul and that confirmation brings the child into the church. Some believe it is symbolic, conveying grace until an age of reason when the child can make a profession of faith and join the church. The schisms started with anabaptists in the 16th century.
Belief is a powerful thing.
From the WIP:
"Sunflower seeds are a distraction. Never had to tangle with a vampire yet, but they're OCD bastards. I dump the seeds and they have to count all of them before they can continue the pursuit.”
“That's stupid.” She looked at me as if I was pulling her leg. “In fact, I'm dumber just for having heard you say that.”
“Tell it to someone six hundred years old and really set in his ways. The newly turned ones don't believe it, but older ones do.”
Magic, however, takes no belief, only talent.
Mana is rather like a magical magnetic field. It encompasses the Earth's surface, flowing along Ley lines. mages tend to cluster at the nodes, places where the lines cross. There is such a node in Memphis. I tend to treat it like The Force. It can control a mage's actions, but it also serves his will.
Magic talent, the ability to use mana, is inherent in humans. Everyone has some. It's like drawing or singing or writing. A lot depends on the inborn talent, and a lot depends on nurture. A low-powered mage born into a family of mages will be taught shortcuts and cantrips and encouraged to practice at every opportunity. They will grow up exploring various specialties, trying to find theirs. Just as a mediocre singer growing up in a musical family will get music lessons and become a decent vocalist.
On the other hand, even a moderately talented mage growing up in a family that represses magic--or even a generally non-nurturing situation--will damp the power, hide the abilities and let it fade. This is why some groups are pushing the Witan to test children at pre-school instead of early elementary age. There are also some racial tension and class issues about who gets trained as well.
From Spellbound Desire:
“It’s a sad and sorry way this country does its testing. Too many of you slip through the cracks to drink and drug yourselves to death, half trained, tasting power you can’t control.” He stroked my face some more. “You can’t be human. You aren’t mages. You lose yourselves in the Nightside and try to medicate away the nightmares. I’ve hated it since they sent me here. Who knows, I live through this mission and maybe they’ll let me retire to the Witan. Then I could fix it.”
I kissed him for that. There were too many of us, too many knowing about the Nightside and working in it, or dying from it. “Do you know what they said? I was eleven when they screened me. Do you know what they told me, when I was eleven?” I looked down into his eyes. “Not powerful enough to train. Indian breeds never are. Let her drink herself to death like all the others.” I slammed both fists into the bed. He didn’t even flinch. “My grandfather’s grandmother should not have been an issue. That’s not the side the mana comes down for my family.”
“Aye, and Jinx, he got rejected too, am I right? Mage wouldn’t wear all those charms like he does. Shame, since he does have enough to train. He’d make a passable, low-powered luck mage. And you should know how to control what you have. It’d make you happier.”
Mage society has its structures and groups. There are loners, like Madame Azonka and Saraphina, who have their little shops and their lives. There is the Witan, the wizard council who run the society. There are academic societies and bureaucracies. There are magical cops in almost every city. There are combat mages, called to defend humanity against the more dangerous Nightsiders.
The CMs have organized along the lines of motorcycle clubs: Ladies From Hell (Glasgow, Aberdeen), Delta Bluesmen (Memphis), Legba's Bastard Sons (New Orleans, La Place), Diamond Dogs, Keelboatmen (St Louis, Quad Cities), Moonshine Mountain Boys, Paul Bunyan's Boys, Salem One-Niners, Mama Lilith's Rebel Daughters, Arkansas Amazons, Latter-Day Boadiceas, Dark Queens, Hell's Belles, Las Quatras Brujas, Lone Star Brigade.
No-Talents are those with some mana talent but not enough to train or specialize. DJ and Jinx are officially No-Talents. Jinx, in another living situation and with better testing, would be trained. DJ is borderline. If she had been born into Clan McKay, she might be a modestly-powered but competent mage. If she had simply been trained, without a change in family, she would be a low-powered mage, maybe. Instead, she's stuck on the nightside.
From "Illusions of Safety":
No-Talents didn't have enough magic to be mages or witches or anything. They just had enough to feel the magic all around them. I thought it must be like standing on the bank of a river, able to see everything you wanted on the other side and having no way to get across.
Magic users don't consider themselves human. There's a bit of homo superior thinking that everyone from a sorcery undergrad to the head of the Witan indulges in. Some are more obnoxious than others. But most of them feel a noblesse oblige, a responsibility to take care of the humans. They also tend to cluster together, forming villages. Hence tales of places you can find once and never again, and that sort of thing.
In such villages, even the local minister is likely to be a mage. "...a good shield will keep you sane in the face of things that make the local priest go gibbering.” Another swallow. “Come to think of it, Reverend Donald back home had himself a pretty good shield. He had to, living in a town of mages and being one himself. Fine healer, old Sorely Donald is.”
Religion fills a very human need for the human-born magic users: the need for myth, story and explanation. So far, we haven't encountered any pagan or Jewish magic users. But I'm sure there will be. Any city whose Jewish Community Center has "Shalom Y'all" written on the bus NEEDS to be hosting classes in traditional Kabbalah and other Jewish magic.
Nightsiders We Have Known is probably the next post in the series
