Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 464 The Fall of Glory

what is this?
Necropunk? Industrial alchemy?
The rows of control buttons were neatly arranged yet dazzling, leaving Mr. Zhang, who couldn't figure them out, at a loss as to where to begin, and he had no choice but to skip them again.

It feels like going to an exam hall, getting the paper, seeing that you don't know the first question, skipping it, not knowing the second, skipping it again...

Fortunately, there was plenty of time, and the monk was not short of patience. His eyes swept around, and a peculiar object in the scattered equipment room caught his attention.

It was a black stone obelisk standing amidst a multitude of complex metal instruments.

The obelisk is not very tall, about five meters high. All four sides of the obelisk are covered with stone carvings and inscriptions. What is particularly special is the structure of its spire.

The four-sided prism tapers to a point from bottom to top, and on the top of the point floats something that looks like an inverted pyramid, hanging upside down but unable to fall. The two are very close to each other, with a gap of only an inch or so, like a needle pointing at a wheat awn.

The pyramid shape is extremely regular, and the surface material is dark and smooth, like thick and rounded jade. Even without touching it, the mage can tell that this is a quality that only top-quality obsidian can possess.

The inverted pyramid and the obelisk stand opposite each other at their top, forming an hourglass-like structure, but it's hard to tell what it's all about.

Unaware of the monk's intention, the monk began to study the inscriptions and images on the obelisk.

Fortunately, Zhang Yuan's accumulated knowledge over the years finally came in handy. He was able to barely guess the meaning of the inscriptions on the pagoda stele, half by recognition and half by speculation.

It is Lorossian.

This ancient and refined script, resembling runes, has long since disappeared from the everyday language of various civilized societies and is considered a dead language.

Just like Latin in the previous life, it was not completely lost, but it only existed as a research and academic language. Even worse, with the decline of the civilization that used this language, no, it perished, there are not many people who can even accurately pronounce it.

Fortunately, the script of that language was also derived from Dragon Language, which can be said to be a compulsory course for spellcasters. In addition, Zhang Yuan himself had read a lot of books from his teachers' collections, so he had some understanding and knowledge. He managed to decipher the general meaning of the inscription through trial and error.

Incidentally, the lost civilization that speaks Loross originated from an insignificant fishing village and later acquired an unremarkable name—Nesseril.

The inscription on the obelisk is about the life of a monk, which should be the autobiography of the tomb's owner.

This fellow traveler was no ordinary person; he was from the City of Shadows.

That's not surprising. Who would use a Loroswen to carve their own epitaph?
Even the Netherworld people of the Bison Desert have long since lost their language and civilization.

Drezan Ananok was born in the city of Shadow City, which is currently located in the Shadow Plane. He is considered a second-generation descendant of the ancient Nether Empire.

His birth occurred after the Year of Cataclysm, when Shadow City, the only remaining floating city, had vanished into the Shadow Plane. The glory and power of the Arcane Empire could only be glimpsed through its remaining embers and the history passed down through generations. As flesh and blood beings, the consequences of living in the Shadow Plane for so long were self-evident. Even with the protection of Lady Shar, which allowed them to retain basic human characteristics, the daily erosion and permeation still left irreversible distortions and changes on the remnants of the Netherworld.

Fortunately, Drezan's parents were both high-level spellcasters before entering the Shadowlands with the City of Shadows, so the negative effects of the Shadow environment did not have too much of an impact.

The story of Drezan's healthy birth, his growth, education, and arduous journey after embarking on the path of arcane magic is now condensed into the words on the stone tablet, telling the life story of an arcane mage.

This story is neither grand nor particularly moving; it is simply about perseverance in obscurity, the exuberance of emerging talent, the maturity gained through experience, and the melancholy of reaching the end of the road.

Not every arcanist has the opportunity to become an archarantor, a supreme being. Compared to the current spellcasting system, the arcanist path, which relies on one's own spiritual wisdom to navigate the magic network, has much more demanding requirements for talent.

Although the path of magicians never shows favoritism to fools, those with mediocre talent can at least linger outside the low-level magic network. Even if they have no chance of going deep, they can at least get the title of spellcaster and master a few tricks to make a living.

The threshold to entering the path of the arcane sorcerer is even higher and steeper, like an insurmountable chasm.

What does it mean to not have a fixed spell slot?
More flexible casting methods? More complete spell preparation? The exhilarating feeling of having all the magic at your fingertips?
Perhaps so, but even so, this only applies to a small group of people who stand at the pinnacle of human intellect. For most "ordinary" geniuses, the reality is that they have to face the difficult task of concentrating on the incantation when casting spells.

Without a spell slot, it means that the spell structure cannot be completed and stored in the connection node between the magic network and one's own mind the night before. It means that every time a spell is cast, one must rely on one's own mental intelligence, that is, call the Arc to temporarily outline the entire spell model!
Even in a calm and composed state of mind, this is difficult enough, let alone in actual combat, where life and death are at stake.

Without the aid of spellbooks and spell slots, to accurately control one's own thoughts and drive mental energy to construct complex nodes, runes, and circuits...

Let alone getting inside, even getting in is a major problem.

Of course, the absence of spell slots also means that arcane mages don't have to worry about painstakingly planning their spell memorization for the next day every night, nor do they have to worry about encountering unexpected situations that are out of their control.

This casting method, which abandons spell slots and directly draws magical power from the magic network using mental arcs, is very similar to the ubiquitous mana bar casting in online games from my previous life. Its flexibility is undoubtedly far superior to the current system.

As for which is better or worse, that's a matter of opinion, and it's hard to give a precise answer if you really want to delve into it.

There is no need to favor the past over the present, nor to be arrogant. The development of arcane magic has certainly not been a linear, steady improvement. It is normal for history to reverse course and fall from its peak to its trough. The fall of the two ancient arcane civilizations, Netheril and Imaska, is a case in point.

Even the most arrogant spellcaster must admit one fact: with the current power and spellcasting level of the mages in Faerûn, it is absolutely impossible to replicate a magical civilization like Gnatheril or Imasca, and to apply magic to that extent.

This is not a difference in individual talent or ability, but a degradation of civilization and environment as a whole, which is irreversible by human effort.

Thank you to Eric Jin, Ssczy, and the screaming witches for your monthly ticket support!
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(End of this chapter)