Hi folks, welcome back to TaleSlinger! We're still talking about James Barclay’s Raven books, and we’re finally at the bit about breaking all the rules!
Looking back, we’ve seen how the magic system and the Colleges work, and how combat works in everything from small groups to armies.
Smaller groups, like the Raven, can focus their tactics around their mages, both to protect them and to allow them the space and freedom to do what they need to do. A well-drilled group needs only keywords to request a needed spell, or to duck out of the way.
A well-drilled army, keeps their mages out of the melee, using them to focus on the back lines and the shields of other mages.
The Colleges have the same setup—the Heart, the Bowl, the infirmary where the aspirants who lost their minds in the Bowl go to die, etc. And while higher level spells are well guarded and unique, lower level spells are the same.
Question: Why are those lower level spells the same?
Answer: Because there weren’t always separate Colleges.
Aside from Julatsa, which came later once the Elves realised they needed to have somewhere to send their own, Xetesk, Dordover, and Lystern were formed together a long way back. So let’s start there.
Once upon a time there were no Colleges, and magic was unbound. As differences of opinion grew, and three distinct and separate philosophies of magic emerged, Triverne Lake—then the centre of all magic—became the battleground between these three sects.
Eventually, but not after causing irreparable harm to the area, the Colleges managed to agree a ceasefire, and went their own way. The prequel trilogy, Elves, gives more detail here about the massively powerful cadre of Wytch Lords, and how defeating them was pretty much the last thing the proponents of these separate ideologies did together—and Xetesk created the spell to keep an eye upon the intradimensional cage they’d been shoved into.
But when they split, they built their Colleges, and the surrounding cities, and bound magic to their own way of doing things, intending to ensure that unbound magic could never rise again. They placed strict procedures, and issued propaganda against having children with people of other Colleges. They created Lore and language that (most) others couldn’t read. And they created the myth that the unbound magic—now called the One Magic—would bring about the end of days.
But of course not everyone actually believes that. Denser and Erienne, for example.
Erienne has the worst time of it. Her kids are killed by the Witch Hunters—a cult that believes all magic should die or at the very least be controlled by them. And when the Raven show up, it’s not without serious injury.
Ilkar, the Raven mage, and Denser, the Xetesk mage, wind up close to death. Denser, just about conscious, begs Erienne to help.
Ilkar gets quite upset, arguing that their different magic won’t work together.
Denser and Erienne, however, are believers in “One Magic, One Mage”. They know that the base of all magic is the same, and can combine.
After Denser agrees with Erienne that he will father a child of the One, they set up what’s basically a magical IV drip. Erienne drips her magic into Denser, who drips his magic into Ilkar, and it keeps them alive until more help arrives.
Denser of course keeps his word and soon Erienne is pregnant, and has a little girl: Lyanna.
Now here’s where Barclay starts breaking all the rules of College magic, whilst still keeping that side of magic intact. It’s pretty masterfully done.
The One magic is incredibly powerful, and can basically do anything the wielder can imagine. Provided they are able to control it. Because without a Heart as a focal point, it can’t be pulled into a shape, cast, and let go. It’s in the elements itself, and uses the body as a conduit, all the time. It’s nonstop. It cannot be cut off, only controlled and redirected.
So we have a magic that can literally do anything, but on the one hand it remains limited by the strength of the caster, and on the other it can also break free if the caster loses control. And if it breaks free…well…
Lyanna, at 5 years old, is struggling to control the One. Erienne allowed Dordover to take them in, at their promise they wouldn’t do anything without discussing it with her. Unfortunately, Dordover decided that the best plan was to Awaken their own magic in Lyanna. Why? Because they were terrified of not controlling her. Everyone else knows about her, and their only claim is that she is the daughter of Erienne. Even Denser doesn’t get a say.
But Awakening their own magic in an attempt to smother the One was a really, really, really, really bad idea. Now Dordovan magic and the One are in a pitched battle inside this poor kid’s head.
So, she has been taken to an island, where the remains of the Al Drechar live. Three very old elves who practice the One magic, and a handful of elves who serve them. They try to teach her control, but as they do so Balaia suffers storms, tidal waves, and other ongoing devastation. Because Dordover jumped the gun, teaching her that control has become about a thousand times more difficult.
Everything happening during the Nightchild book happens because Dordover fucked up. They didn’t understand the One, they acted in fear, and now their entire continent is slowly being destroyed while the Al Drechar try to keep a lid on Lyanna’s magic and just hope like hell she will pull through her Night before they all die.
This doesn’t go so well and Erienne winds up with the One magic, and though it takes her a while, we eventually get to see how it can be used. And it really is anything. She can cast any spell she can make up, so long as she balances the elements—and if she loses control a bit, her body quite usefully just shuts her down. But as she slowly grasps it, and plot continues, it turns out the One magic is the only thing that can save a lot of folk, a lot of times, simply because it can do all the things that College magic, bound as it is, cannot.
So if you need someone to rebind ancient statues so elves don’t all die, stop a Heart from dying, or remove mana from the air so demons can be killed—you need Erienne.
I love how the College and the One both counter and compliment each other. If Julatsa weren’t willing to allow Erienne to help, their College would have died. But when someone wants to try and fight Erienne because of her One magic, they’re pretty much fucked.
Also, she can still cast Dordovan magic as well.
All in all, the One magic just adds this rogue option to things. A way of accomplishing what College magic simply can’t, because they bound their magic away from that. I love that it manages to break all the rules, whilst still working alongside College magic. And some things the Colleges can do, Erienne still can’t, mostly because that amount of power would kill either her or everyone else.
But the One wouldn’t be as effective, either practically or just as a story, if it didn’t have the stricter rules of College magic to play against. Barclay manages to keep both intact, and balanced, by using both sides of the coin.
That’s all for this time! Next TaleSlinger will wrap this all up. I hope it’s been helpful so far.
Til next time, don’t forget to subscribe and share!