Rules of Magic
TAUR02 - Jack Octo
From the Notes of Jack Octo, ~1980-1985
Magic’s got rules, but no real limitations.
Magic can do anything with enough effort, careful planning, and understanding of how it works. But, for magic to do its thing, it’s gotta be accepted by the Universe first. Think of magic as a tweak or an upgrade to the Universe. Some sorta modification, addition, or rewriting. Lucky for us, the Universe is pretty chill about being messed with like that. Messing up a spell won’t get you anywhere, but it won’t get you outright banned from magic either. Most people end up experiencing this… y’know, it’s a kinda like prayer. You pray, and pray, an pray for something to happen but it doesn’t. Usually. Sometimes you find the right words, in the right order, in the right place, and boom—the Universe provides.
Now, if you really screw up—like, majorly—the Universe might hit you with a full-on Magical Removal. That’s basically like the ultimate no-no, where you can’t do magic ever again. It’s the Universe’s way of saying, “You’ve crossed the line, and I don’t want you even trying to cross it again.” So, how would you know if you’re going to cross that line? Well, there are fourteen known rules of magic to keep things in check. And, who knows, there might be more out there, still waiting to be discovered :)
The Rules of Magic (That I got From Somewhere Else)
Nothing can be split into less than it is.
Nothing can be called upon that doesn’t already exist.
Nothing can exist outside of what is.
Nothing can be what it cannot be.
Nothing can fill more space than exists.
Nothing can last forever.
Nothing can draw unlimited energy from the Universe.
Nothing can extend beyond the Universe.
Nothing can be more than it is.
Nothing can depend on another thing.
Nothing can be without what is.
Nothing can be the same.
Nothing else can be.
Nothing else will be.
I know, it’s kinda esoteric. English, or any human language I guess, doesn’t really capture the full scope of what magic is, can do, and more importantly can’t do. And it seems like the more rules we discover, the vaguer they seem to get. And, sure, there’s a lot of debate on how to word the rules, but their meanings are clear to those in the know. I personally lifted these off of… damn it… who was it again? Carroll? Hine? Oh, maybe it was V.D. Eh, doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that magic has rules, but it’s all about bending them. Take rule ocho, for instance. It’s technically broken by places like the Topside, Underside, and, well, the general Outside. But it still holds true because magic within the Universe can’t mess with stuff outside of it and vice versa. Makes sense, right? How could something that isn’t even in the Universe affect something that is in the Universe? It's a bubble. A sphere. Everything that is—is within it. And everything that is not? Is not.
If I were to perhaps rephrase these a bit I’d probably go with something like…
Can’t divide by zero. Don’t even try it.
You can’t access null pointers. You’re trying to find something that isn’t there. What happens when you find it?
Accessing an array index that is out of bounds. You are part of what you are, and you can’t go beyond that.
Invalid type casting. A lotta things can be many things… but nothing can be more than what it is.
Buffer overflow. We’re given x amount of space to use, we can’t use x+1.
Stack overflow. Excessive recursion is a no-no.
Anything that’d cause a memory leak of the Universe is a no-go. Can’t just have everything collapse in on itself.
Simple access violation. There IS stuff outside of the Universe, but you can’t ask the Universe to help you get it.
Infinite loops. Everything has to come to an end at some if, else, or then.
No deadlocks. You can’t cast something that requires itself to resolve.
Uninitialized variables. Gotta assume the Universe already has everything sorted out in that regard.
Sorta like a race condition. Can’t have two things trying to do the same thing… it becomes a race, and not one the Universe would care to sort out.
Unwanted code injection from outside of the Universe.
Unwanted code injection from across another Universe… if one exists :)