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In Marrishland, magic is the source of all power, so it isn't surprising that it plays such an important role in its history and culture. It also lies at the heart of the conflict in the book. To find out how, read the book.

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"Weard's First Spell"

WARNING: The content of this essay is restricted to literate Mar only. Reciting or summarizing its contents to illiterate Mar is a violation of Bera's Unwritten Laws.

Today's apprentices have it easy. Before they even begin their apprenticeship, they know that magic exists. They know some of the things it can do. If they have wizard in their family, they have likely even figured out how to make torutsen. Even if an apprentice had never been told which color motes can create fire, they can use the process of elimination to figure it out for themselves. Given how readily Energy heeds a wizard's call, they are even likely to get it right on the first try.

To these apprentices, it seems quite obvious that magic is easier to learn than magocrats made them believe. They have learned to read, studied their history and science, and composed enormous essays on magical theory. And when their masters finally give them leave to taste torutsen and ignite the first fires of their wizarding careers, they are often disappointed to find that all that learning has not prepared them for this moment.

Learning to wield magic has often been compared to the process of a child learning to walk or talk, but apprenticeship more like having your tongue cut out at birth. Then your parents force you to learn how to read and require you to write essays on how to speak clearly. Sometimes, they will talk in front of you to show you why it is so important for you to learn the importance of a word's pronunciation. Then, when they are satisfied that you know enough about how to talk, they give you back your tongue and tell you to put what you've learned to use.

In that moment of triumph, you know they have been wasting your time. If they had given you your tongue at the beginning, you would have learned to speak in a matter of a few years. At the least, all the abstract concepts and analysis could have waited. In fact, all that education would have made more sense if you had already learned for yourself what it is like to speak.

Why require apprentices to spend about five years studying theory in hopes of eventually being permitted to do the magical equivalent of saying "mama" for the first time?

Simply put, apprenticeship is designed to control the population of wizards. The necessity of this is the unfortunate consequence of the undeniable existance of the Mass — a force of Drakes that inexplicably and unfailingly invades Marrishland whenever the population of magic-wielding Mar becomes too large. If teaching magic to anyone willing to learn did not cause countless thousands of guer, kobolds, goblins, and insero to slaughter many tens of thousands of innocent Mar, many wizards might be at least tempted to follow the course of Weard Darflaem. As we must endure the harsh reality of the Mass, however, it is necessary to control the number and type of people who become wizards.

Every master has standards for determining whether an apprentice is worthy to become a wizard. The academies are no different in this. They simply have institutionalized these standards. You won't find a slow-witted graduate of Nightfire's Academy, for example, and you won't find an apprentice with no magical kin at Domus Palus Academy. At Pidel Palus Academy, no apprentice who lacks religious zeal ever wields magic, and at Flasten Palus Academy, apprentices only graduate if they swear to serve as magocrats for at least the first few years of their careers as wizards. Producing magic-wielding Mar is an easy a task. Producing wizards who will build on foundations you lay during your lifetime is much more difficult. When a wizard can only teach a relative handful of apprentices how to use magic, it is not surprising that masters are so particular about who they allow to taste torutsen.

The treatment apprentices endure in hopes of one day wielding magic is unfair and sometimes even a bit cruel. The trials of traditionally selected apprentices are far worse. But the struggle of Mar seeking magic now is as nothing compared to what Weard Darflaem overcame to be the first wizard. Weard discovered that Mar could walk after never believing they could do more than crawl. Weard invented language when no Mar had ever known that humans could speak. Weard metaphorically discovered that boiling water could kill konig worms by drinking water he knew was infested with konig worms.

Had Weard's faith been wanting, he would not have believed a Mar could wield magic. Had he not studied the mysticism of the Zeden and the Cult of Marrish, he never would have seen the myst. Had he not been extraordinarily intelligent, he would have failed to recognize the connection between myst and magic as surely as many of his peers had. Had he not worked diligently to bring his discoveries to other Mar, he would have carried his knowledge in secret until his body became ashes in the hearth.

When Weard Darflaem first tasted torutsen, he did not see motes of potential magical energy swirling around him. He saw a sea of colored specks. He learned to exercise control over the flow of those motes, but he certainly could not have known what they represented. Even if he had heard rumors of Mar mystics creating fire from nothing after consuming torutsen, Weard could only have suspected a connection. He touched the green motes of Energy, visualized a flame, and exerted the silent act of will wizards now consider so familiar.

Even when every Mar knows what feats magic can accomplish, it is extraordinarily rare for any mundane to discover how to use magic without the aid of a teacher. It took the Mar 300 years to learn they could wield the myst at all. Five years of study and an appreniceship intended to weed out all but the most qualified candidates seems a reasonable price to pay for the wisdom of nearly 6,000 years of magical scholarship. Despite what your master might have told you about how important it is for a wizard to learn patience, it is not the reason you have not tasted torutsen, yet. Your teacher is trying to find out whether you deserve to learn magic, using criteria that you may never learn.

It is not fair, but it is the way of apprenticeship. Some things have not changed since the time of Weard Darflaem, and one of them is that magic is Marrish's Gift, not the Mar birthright. The master chooses the apprentice. The apprentice never chooses the master.

(Contributed by Weard Oda Kalidus)