Flumpertist vs. Eirellian Theories of Magick

a theoretical map of a human's aether in the 4th dimension

A war currently wages in the field of magickology concerning the actual physical properties and manifestations of magick itself. A good amount of descriptive analysis has been conducted on the expressions of magick, allowing for the classification of different types of magick and the establishment of magick-related neuroanatomical stuctures. The theroetical aspects and the processes through which magick has such obsevered effects, however, are still not well understood. Two schools of thought have developed in recent years¹, each with strong models of magic, and the magickological community is currently embroiled in sorting out this heated debate.

Both views generally agree on a number of things. Namely, both theories take for granted that all objects - both animate an inanimate - exist in a 4 dimensional conceptual universe. Magickologists further posit that these objects have features which exist in the magickal dimension - called aether, after the magi concept of a 'magickal element' - which when manipulated, may have an effect on its appearance or functioning in the other three dimensions as well. Both views also agree that the existence and size of Flumpert lobes determines an individual's awareness of the aether of those around them and their ability to cotrol their own aether in various ways.

Flumpertists claim that time itself is a separate vector, or perhaps a physical force, which affects all dimensions simultaneously in a linear fashion. Time, then, is a factor which is independent of magick. The separateness of these two things, along with magick's close relathionship with the physical dimensions, requires users of magick to be relatively close to objects they manipulate, and that such magickal manipulations must fall in a temporally close and logical order. Fruthermore, Flumpertists explain the differences between ethereal beings (such as spirits) and corporeal as a function of the direct proportion of their aetheric matter to their physical matter, and suggest that a higher degree of aetheric composition can be used to sculpt the physical in self-directed ways and to minimize physical needs.

The Eirellian view challenges many of these positions. Eirellian scholars, led by the supposedly (but as yet unsubstantiated) halg-mage, half-human magickologist Silva Eirelle, propose that mgaick and time are fused at their very core. The 4th dimension in this model is referred to as aether-time, which is essentially a plane of infinite probablities. Here, time is not presupposed to have a linear structure, and can manifest as circular or curvilinear given certain conditions. The great divergence between Eirelle's theory and Flumpert's centers on how magick is actually performed: through the direct, tangible influence of one aetheric being on another in the Flumpertist's view or by using one's aether to choose a course (from an unending set of possible courses) for another's in Eirelle's. The close linkage between time and magick has led Eirellians to question Flumpert's classification of the Art of Seeing as a non-magickal pheomenon.

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¹It should be noted that this debate rages within mundayne circles only. Leading scholars' repeated attempts at gain insight from magickal beings on this matter has proven unsuccessful due to reluctance or inability for elves, mages, and gnomes to discuss magick scientifically.