The Peridexis | Alt OCs (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
peridexion) wrote2020-01-01 05:53 pm
peridexion) wrote2020-01-01 05:53 pm
Entry tags:
Application History
Wizardry, in a sense, is the Speech - the language in which the Powers made the worlds. But there is more to a spell than just words and power (or enacture, as the series puts it); there have to be wizards, to provide intent and direction.
If one says something wrong in a spell, the spell will still work - but reality will change to match. Like programming, if you write a spell wrong you will not get the answer you want, or expect. Sometimes, however, these mistakes can be lethal; misplacing a decimal point when calculating your air to take to the Moon is just one example.
But wizards aren't expected to do everything by hand - or in their heads, as the case may be; wizardry, and to a certain extent the Wizards' Manual, is sentient, acting upon intent and exact phrasing.
While we meet various incarnations of the Powers over the series, we don't become acquainted with wizardry itself until partway through Wizards at War. Appearing first in Nita's dream about (what turns out to be) the Hesper and the Pullulus, it sticks around to give her advice. Specifically during this book, it aids Nita in defending the Crossings from mercenary Tawalf during the Pullulus War, and later snaps Nita out of Lone Power-induced brainwashing. Later still, when the Lone Power fully manifests on the planet Nita&crew end up on and suspends all wizardry on the planet, Nita can still hear the peridexis - and while it protests that it 'is of no use' to her while like this, its presence is enough to keep her sane, as she puts it.
Once Ronan enacts a sacrifice of his own, allowing the One's Champion to reverse the Lone Power's machinations, the peridexis also helps Nita put Ronan in stasis long enough to get him proper medical care. When she explains to the rest of the crew who she's talking to, however, Dairine reacts with something akin to dread at Nita's 'invisible friend', in reference to the last time Nita had an invisible friend, way back in her childhood.
And thus, the peridexis gains the nickname "Bobo", though we don't see this used until the next book, A Wizard of Mars.
That book takes place at least a month after the Pullulus War ends, just at the end of Nita and Kit's school year - most of the plot is split between Kit's obsession with Mars (caused by a remnant of an alien race latching onto his soul in an attempt to free the rest of that species from a terrible fate) and Dairine's own obsession with finding Roshaun (who also disappeared during Wizards at War, after making his own sacrifice; he's not dead, as Nita confirms, affirming for Dairine that she's not crazy.). We do get some moments from the peridexis, however: its presence in Nita's head is doing something to her own perception of spells, though she doesn't get to speculate much on just how that's happening; it helps Nita catalog her dream-visions (and, specific to AWOM, auditions); can run spells for her (and prefers to, though Nita gets veto rights, much as it seems to baffle it that she prefers doing 'the fiddly stuff' herself); and provides advice, particularly when Kit goes off and Nita seriously considers bugging his Manual to try and figure out if her friend's been compromised somehow.
Near the end of the book, when Nita gets embroiled in a wizard's duel to save Kit (if not the well-being of the whole population of Earth), the peridexis helps Nita save herself from both Mars' released oceans and from a particularly vicious alien seer.
The peridexis gets some screentime in the Interrim Errantry books - identifying the nature of the zombies (yangshi) in Not on My Patch; worrying about the severity of the snowstorm coming in How Lovely Are Thy Branches - but seems to have the most fun in Lifeboats, where it speaks to Kit (and is mentioned as having previously spoken to Ronan Nolan) and helps Kit pull off some seriously amusing blackmail on Ronan, without ever letting on to Nita what the deal was.
And in the latest novel, Games Wizards Play, we see the peridexis tease Nita some more, help catalog and analyze further dream-visions, but otherwise it is mostly relegated to the background.
If one says something wrong in a spell, the spell will still work - but reality will change to match. Like programming, if you write a spell wrong you will not get the answer you want, or expect. Sometimes, however, these mistakes can be lethal; misplacing a decimal point when calculating your air to take to the Moon is just one example.
But wizards aren't expected to do everything by hand - or in their heads, as the case may be; wizardry, and to a certain extent the Wizards' Manual, is sentient, acting upon intent and exact phrasing.
While we meet various incarnations of the Powers over the series, we don't become acquainted with wizardry itself until partway through Wizards at War. Appearing first in Nita's dream about (what turns out to be) the Hesper and the Pullulus, it sticks around to give her advice. Specifically during this book, it aids Nita in defending the Crossings from mercenary Tawalf during the Pullulus War, and later snaps Nita out of Lone Power-induced brainwashing. Later still, when the Lone Power fully manifests on the planet Nita&crew end up on and suspends all wizardry on the planet, Nita can still hear the peridexis - and while it protests that it 'is of no use' to her while like this, its presence is enough to keep her sane, as she puts it.
Once Ronan enacts a sacrifice of his own, allowing the One's Champion to reverse the Lone Power's machinations, the peridexis also helps Nita put Ronan in stasis long enough to get him proper medical care. When she explains to the rest of the crew who she's talking to, however, Dairine reacts with something akin to dread at Nita's 'invisible friend', in reference to the last time Nita had an invisible friend, way back in her childhood.
And thus, the peridexis gains the nickname "Bobo", though we don't see this used until the next book, A Wizard of Mars.
That book takes place at least a month after the Pullulus War ends, just at the end of Nita and Kit's school year - most of the plot is split between Kit's obsession with Mars (caused by a remnant of an alien race latching onto his soul in an attempt to free the rest of that species from a terrible fate) and Dairine's own obsession with finding Roshaun (who also disappeared during Wizards at War, after making his own sacrifice; he's not dead, as Nita confirms, affirming for Dairine that she's not crazy.). We do get some moments from the peridexis, however: its presence in Nita's head is doing something to her own perception of spells, though she doesn't get to speculate much on just how that's happening; it helps Nita catalog her dream-visions (and, specific to AWOM, auditions); can run spells for her (and prefers to, though Nita gets veto rights, much as it seems to baffle it that she prefers doing 'the fiddly stuff' herself); and provides advice, particularly when Kit goes off and Nita seriously considers bugging his Manual to try and figure out if her friend's been compromised somehow.
Near the end of the book, when Nita gets embroiled in a wizard's duel to save Kit (if not the well-being of the whole population of Earth), the peridexis helps Nita save herself from both Mars' released oceans and from a particularly vicious alien seer.
The peridexis gets some screentime in the Interrim Errantry books - identifying the nature of the zombies (yangshi) in Not on My Patch; worrying about the severity of the snowstorm coming in How Lovely Are Thy Branches - but seems to have the most fun in Lifeboats, where it speaks to Kit (and is mentioned as having previously spoken to Ronan Nolan) and helps Kit pull off some seriously amusing blackmail on Ronan, without ever letting on to Nita what the deal was.
And in the latest novel, Games Wizards Play, we see the peridexis tease Nita some more, help catalog and analyze further dream-visions, but otherwise it is mostly relegated to the background.
Abilities
- Intervene in execution of spells (only when the wizard is in-between states of consciousness, apparently)
- Feed spell diagrams to a wizard in a direct-to-mind visual
- Execute spells without them requiring a full recitation (usually only with a spell that's been used before)
- Reproduce general Manual functions (recording information/storing it, alarms and notifications as needed, mathematical calculations (but only for use in spellwork), etc.)
- Analysis, of spells or otherwise. (When in doubt, assume there's a Manual subroutine for it and that the peridexis can reproduce it by its own means.)