| Book Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Source: | Substack | ||
| Writer(s): | Douglas Goodall | ||
| Publication Date: | 8 November 2023 | ||
| Up | The Soft Doctrines of Magnus Invisible | ||
| Prev. | Doctrine Three | Next | Doctrine Five |
IV. The Tower
(Sense Verses Sense)
The Tower is the first word, spoken by the second. It is a wall and a stair, a fortress and a prison.
When a monkey finds The Tower, he tries to knock it down, leap off, turn away. Leaving him defenseless. The Daedra dance.
When a mer finds The Tower, he tries to climb it, build it, make it larger than the world. Leaving him alone in his loft. The Aedra love him as he loves himself.
When a man finds The Tower, he makes it his home and cares for it as he would a helpless child. When such a man yields to beauty, The Tower drifts and bends and stretches...but stands.
All who find The Tower are infected with tyranny. Some succumb.
All who find The Tower are condemned to transcendence. Some succumb.
Whether tyranny or transcendence, the Lie comes from the life of the mind. Aetherius always makes way for Mundus. Do not judge harshly by abstraction.
Would you build a tower to heaven and pull it up behind you?
Would you pull the stars down to earth and force your neighbor to live in your sky?
Whether you free only yourself or enslave all the world, in the Lie you are incomplete.
The Tower is the memories of all guests, built stone by misshapen stone. An impossible edifice, crystallized chaos, a mountain of custard, a paper that spits flame but is never consumed, a dread glory to all climbers. Those who rip out chunks and replace them with patchwork words are the greatest criminals.
The Tower is the axle, the spear through the starry heart, the magne that line the lodestones. The Tower is the one place that lies within all the wheels of heaven.
And when a tower falls? The wheel is unchained, spinning wildly, stirring up wheels within wheels. And when one of those wheels stands upright? There is your tower. The wheel obeys.
And when a wheel breaks? The towers split, wander, grow, shrink, spin. And when one tower encompasses the rest? There is your wheel. The heavens are painted on its walls.
Nirn is bound in secret knots.