"Even the simplest word of the lingua praestantia is incredibly complex."
- —Verspasian Kant Magister Patriarch to the Order of Light[2a]
Verspasian Kant.
Verspasian Kant is the present day Magister Patriarch to the White Order, described as a tall man of Tilean descent.
History[]
Born in Miragliano, Verspasian's merchant parents moved to Marienburg while he was still a young boy. Originally intending to follow in his father's footsteps as a trader in antiquities, Verspasian showed more interest in the origin and history of the items his father sold rather than their monetary value.[1a]
It was only a matter of time before the boy discovered the library of Marienburg's main university. Though he was too young to pass himself off as a student, Verspasian managed to gain favour with the motherly old librarian. Despite his father refusing to pay for an education beyond allowing Verspasian to learn how to read and write, the boy spent years reading his way through most of the books and scrolls the library had to offer, especially those concerning the ideas of great thinkers from across the world. Verspasian was enthralled by the quantity of words spoken and meanings found, all in the pursuit of truth.[1a]
Then came the day when his father's ailing business failed. Hard times followed. The tale turns tragic, ending in the death of his mother through sickness and the suicide of his father. Verspasian was sent to one of Marienburg's strict workhouses for orphan children where he stayed for a year, forbidden from leaving the premises, from reading, and from having any time alone.[1a]
After a year of appallingly hard work in miserable conditions, Verspasian was picked out of a line of other orphans to go to the Order of Light in distant Altdorf to study to become a Magister. Though he had never shown any supernatural abilities, the Hierophants who chose Verspasian sensed a latent, undeveloped Aethyric sensitivity and an inquisitiveness and passion for learning that could make him a valuable Apprentice to the Order. But Verspasian exceeded all expectations.[1a]
Apprenticed to Master Chanter Elrisse, a senior Magister of the Order, Verspasian quickly learned all the chants and invocations required of him and much more. But this was a dark time. An apprentice called van Horstmann, two levels up from Verspasian when he first joined, began to rise meteorically through the Order, shocking and impressing the Masters with his skill and insight. Eventually, Horstmann was made a Magister, and in another two years, he was accepted as a Lord Magister of the First Level. In time Horstmann, whom Verspasian had long respected as a role model, became the youngest-ever Patriarch of the White Order. Verspasian, who had striven to stay hot on van Horstmann's heels, was accepted as a Lord Magister of the Order less than a year later.[1a]
But all was not as it seemed. By chance, Verspasian learned Horstmann was a secret worshipper of the Chaos God Tzeentch, the source of his incredible rise to prominence. Verspasian felt utterly betrayed. All the respect and trust he had put in Horstmann over the years had been for nothing — worse, it had aided the powers of darkness to infiltrate the very upholder of light. But such was Horstmann's skill at turning the minds of others to his will, many within the College had been corrupted and could not be trusted. So Verspasian took the unprecedented step of going outside the authority of the Colleges altogether and approached the Grand Theogonist who had been surprisingly even-handed in his dealings with the Colleges of Magic, something unknown among Sigmar's Theogonists until then.[1a]
With Volkmar's help, the aid of the highest-ranking and most experienced Witch Hunters, and his own considerable skills in White Magic, Verspasian managed to undo much of the damage wrought by Horstmann and drive him from Altdorf. After that, the remaining Lord Magisters of the Order elected him as their new Patriarch.[1a]
Theories About The Lingua Praestantia[]
According to Verspasian Kant, a spell is the process by which a magister, sorcerer, or any other magic-user, binds Aethyric energy to his will and sculpts it into a definte form with a specific purpose. Magister Kant maintains that a spell, at its most basic, is the imposition of mortal will and certainty upon the infinite possibility and uncertainty of Aethyric energy (most often called magic). For, he says, the Aethyr and the 'energy' that forms it is the metaphysical existence of infinite and raw potential, or perhaps more specifically, the existence of infinite, unfulfilled and largely unrealised potential. To Magister Kant, the Aethyr is both the 'Potential Reality' that is the opposite of what he describes as the 'Actual Reality of the Mortal Realms, and is also the catalyst for and by-product of, all change and growth within the Mortal Realms.[2a]
Magister Kant goes on to say that is precisely because of the Aethyr's complete opposition to the Mortal Realms that the Aethyr's energies are drawn to the certainties of their mortal opposites. This is perhaps related to the reason why mortals are drawn so acutely to the uncertainties of dreams, possibility and therefore magic. Indeed, Magister Kant believes that the one certainty of the Aethyr is that as a natural product of its existence it seeks to draw its opposites, (being reason, purpose and certainty) unto itself, and thereby fulfil, or at least realise, the infinite and unrealised potential that it is formed from. This is demonstrated most obviously when Aethyric energy seeps into the Mortal Realms and acquires for itself laws and provisos that it almost certainly does not possess within the infinite uncertainty of the Aethyr. For example, its refraction into the eight colours of magic as soon as it crosses the metaphysical boundaries between the Metaphysical and Physical Realms.[2a]
But, just as Aethyric energy is drawn to, and seeks to interact with, the physicality and actuality of the Mortal Realms, it also pulls concept unto itself, and so it is that spellcasting can come to be. Magister Kant is suggesting that the art of binding magic and casting a spell is the art of imposing a definite idea or concept upon the entirely indefinite and chaotic potential that is the Aethyr and its energy, with the goal of harnessing that force, to achieve the specific end that is encapsulated within the concept of the spell.[2a]
To postulate within the paradigm proposed by Magister Kant, one could say that, despite the fact the force we call magic is drawn to physical things and seeks to interact with them, it is still entirely random and uncertain in its nature. Although will and intellect can gather, bind, and order magic into a spell, magic is so diffusive and powerful that it takes very specific and crystalline thoughts, concepts and directions to bind it without leaving any loophole through which it can seep out and therefore ruin the spell. If the concept of any given spell could be considered a kind of metaphysical container, then magic naturally flows to towards the weakest point in the container. So spells must be absolutely precise in structure and specific in purpose, otherwise the magic begins to unbind itself and run amok.[2a]
To prevent this from happening, spellcasters must use incredibly specific formulae to bind and weave magic into spells - formulae that leave no room at all for the magic to leak free. In order to create these flawless conceptual traps to bind magic, the magisters of the Colleges of Magic use a language they call the 'lingua praestantia' to enunciate their spells - a language that was taught to them by none other than that great High Mage of myth and history, the founder of the Great Colleges of Magic, Teclis of Ulthuan.[2a]
Though it is said to be an even more complicated language than the tonal language of distant Cathay, is told that the lingua praestantia still only a simplified and dialectical version of the Asur's own language, Eltharin, which is in itself is fabled to be a devolved and very simplified version of the language spoken by those ancient, godlike beings the Asur call the 'Old Ones'.[2a]
Many blasphemous texts, have suggested that the language spoken by these near mythical sorcerer-mystics is in fact Anoqeyån, the language that, according to legend, is spoken by both gods and daemons. If this is true, then the language that Empire's sanctioned magisters use to cast their spells is related to the hellish language of daemons, and also the divine language of the gods.[2a]
However, the relationship between these languages must surely be a tenuous one, and there is considerable debate amongst the scholars of the Colleges of Magic as to whether these 'Old Ones', learnt their language from the gods and daemons of the Aethyr, or vice-versa. For himself, Magister Kant believes that Anoqeyån was indeed the creation of these 'Old Ones', and that they were the first and only beings to fully identify and quantify every single thing, state and process within the mortal plane of existence, and almost every single thing, state and process that was possible through and in the Aethyr. In addition to this, Magister Kant also believes that Anoqeyån, the divine-tongue, has a life of its own, contracting and expanding with every dream and every thought, of any and all mortals and immortals, even as the Aethyr does.[2a]
The vast majority of the academic community, had assumed that Anoqeyån was just a myth. However, if Magister Kant is correct in his beliefs regarding the lingua praestantia and its genealogy, it could be said that to possess a knowledge, of even a considerably devolved and dialectical version, of Anoqeyån (as the lingua praestantia is said to be), would denote a grasp of concepts and processes that are otherwise, unknown or inexpressible, in and through, the mortal languages - hence the lingua praestantia's pre-eminence as the language of spell-casting, precisely because it is so exhaustively specific.[2a]
Canon Conflict[]
In the novel Van Horstmann by Ben Counter, Kants' first name is given as Heiden.[3a]
In Realms of Sorcery, Kant turns to Grand Theogonist Volkmar to reveal van Horstmann's treason. Volkmar only took office in 2512 IC, while van Horstmann's treason is either dated at 2457 IC[4a] or 2507 IC,[5a] long before Volkmar became Grand Theogonist. In the account in van Horstmann and Winds of Magic, Kant instead turns to the Templar Witch Hunters.
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Realms of Sorcery (RPG)
- 1a: pp. 87-88
- 2: Inferno! 45
- 2a: pp. 33-39
- 3: Van Horstman (Novel) by Ben Counter
- 3a: Ch. 3
- 4: Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (8th Edition)
- 4a: pg. 15
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Altdorf: Crown of the Empire (RPG)
- 5a: pp. 16