The Sleeping began at the end of an era. I don't know which. There is some history that was hidden from me, some history that was revealed. I will try to record what I know, but I don't know much.

  Once, Enlightenment was different. In the old age, we could become Enlightened by gaining Knowledge and Wisdom. Perhaps those Qualities were once quantifiable, as Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance are today. Perhaps Enlightenment was always an ephemeral concept. Certainly it has become ephemeral. Such matters are disputed and confused in the common conversation. Yet this I have learned: once, long ago, Enlightenment was a path to true Powers, like the powers of Magic today. Today, it is Intellect and Will that govern the Powers of Magic, along with other Qualities like Creativity and Empathy. Perhaps the full range of quantifiable Qualities has not been discovered.

  We call it The Sleeping. Somehow, long ago, the powers of Enlightenment were shorn from Humanity. Some say we are no longer Enlightened, we can no longer gain Wisdom, we can no longer achieve true Knowledge, while once it was possible. Others say that the nature of Wisdom changed, while we remained the same. Still others say that nothing has changed metaphysically, but the Powers of Magic no longer respond to certain Qualities. The Magic of measuring Qualities has always been strange and fickle. Some call it Analysis or Status. This magic seems very reliable at first glance, in the sense that it produces readable numbers within normal ranges. Yet this Magic is subject to unquantifiable nuances. Normally "Strength" refers to physical brawn, yet sometimes it refers to Strength-of-Heart, dedication and bravery, discipline and passion, and other characteristics which are normally quantified by "Will." Strength Magic is usable by paralyzed people, for example, and often they are quite proficient with it.

  I am talking about The Sleeping. Once, the rules of Magic were different. Something was taken away from us. We don't know the details, because so many of the ancient texts have been lost. Ever since the Age of Ice, we have been slowly falling away from something. We have been slowly forgetting. We all know this. It seems that Nature weeps. We weep also. Something was broken in our souls or in our societies. The stars hang like tears in the eye of the sky. Why does it seem that Magic poisons us? Why do our discoveries all take us farther from God? Who is God, and why does she linger beyond hearing, beyond seeing? Once, God was with us on Earth, and her Facets were with us also. The Many Gods, her Multiplicity, now shepherd us in their various ways. Was their behavior once different? Some theorize that God once embodied all Facets at once, unified, and the Facets all embodied her Grace. They say that she divided, somehow, and now is permanently broken. There is no record of such a thing occuring, if it had any impact on Human society.

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  Let me explain differently. Grace is the perfection of God, the sign by which we know her Presence. Angels embody Grace, and therefore we trust them and we love them. Demons invert Grace, so we revile them and fear them. Some say that Grace, both its manifestation and its inversion, is fading from the world. Some say that Magic is Grace, and Magic is dying. Others argue that Grace remains manifest in Nature. To me, this much is clear: the disappearance of God coincides with the end of Enlightenment. I think, perhaps, she realized that certain things should not be quantifiable and certain things should not be revealed. Therefore she left us alone with Gods of our own creation and Magic which suited our own scale, our depth and breadth of knowledge. Lower-case knowledge, unquantifiable and undefined. In a way, she gave us a blessing, delivering us into an era without certainty, without the Absolute. I think the Absolute must have been terrible, because the ones who seek it seem always so tragic, so desperate and weighty, so pathetic and murderous, so narrow-minded and cruel. Certainly, we have invented new Absolutes, false ones, perhaps influenced by Demons, to replace the Englightenment we lost. I think however, that we were also given a new Magic, a secret one, to replace what we lost. A part of that secret Magic remains undiscovered to this day.

  - First Scroll of Hergerit, Aescetig of Herroground