Some years ago, my wife Anne and I have managed to write a full novel. We're very proud of it. I still love the story after re-reading it some seasons later.

The writing is in German, but we thought of having it revised and professionally translated.

It's a fantasy story and it all started with some ideas on how to transfer the "magicians" trope from the hyped "Harry Potter" into a topic for adult readers. Also, I found many of the decisions around world-building in Rowling's stories pretty weak. Additionally, I always wanted to do something with the "Secret Society" trope like Illuminati or the Free Masons. So we combined these two topics.

We came up with a backstory, a concept of how such a world would work first. Over time, we added more and more details about the story before we even started writing concrete chapters.

I can give you some details from that conceptional phase and the possibilities that appeared along the way.

Disclaimer: I'm just talking about a fantasy world, no real conspiracy theory inside.

Astral World

Magic exists and it is well researched, but is kept a secret by the "Hermetic Society". Please also don't ever call them magicians. They are Hermetics. The Hermetics.

In a nutshell, there are astral or immaterial representations of creatures and objects. In fact, any piece of matter in the universe possesses a more or less strong astral core. If you divide an object (e.g. a liquid) into two parts, the astral body also gets divided.

The astral force behind that is called "Mana" and it is spread very randomly, but also very unevenly throughout all the matter of the universe.

The only major rule seems to be that life attracts more Mana than dead matter. On top of that, the mind connected to a living being can handle Mana generally better than water or rock. They can make much more use of it. Already in the early days - even before we formed civilizations, we've recognized that force.

Nowadays, the phenomenon is well researched. Every human has a more or less large astral body. But only a small percentage have an at least significantly measurable amount of Mana - about 1.5 to 1.7% or ~120 Mio people worldwide. That's what the scientists call stage 1. Just like with the Richter Scale, there's exponential growth in power built into the scale.

Hermetics get registered in a central registry, which is mandatory when you're in stage 5 or higher. Worldwide, there are only 15.000 stage 10 Hermetics registered in that database. The strongest living Hermetic is a man from Mexico, registered at stage 19.

Activities

We all know magic at least from fairy tales and movies. All of the stories have a true core, but most of them have added some exaggerations along the lines of history.

Magic is the interaction with the Mana of other persons or items. It is not capable of physical effects like teleportation or telekinesis or force fields coming out of nowhere.

What actually works is the connection between the different astral bodies. A stage five hermetic can feel another hermetic when entering a building. On stage 8, you can even sense the other one's strength.

When a hermetic is strong enough, they can intrude into the other's astral field and influence them.

While the own capabilities can't decline, the body itself can get exhausted while using mana.

With so much impact on the privacy of other beings, it is clear that the grand Hermetic Society has postulated a set of ethical guidelines.

The Hermetic Society plays an important role in the life of every registered magician. We will surely get into much more detail regarding this.

But one main duty of the Society is to monitor and enforce ethical guidelines. In the last post, we learned, that Hermetics can enter and influence the mind of others. Passing through the guarding Aura of another person is obviously considered very intrusive and of course, can lead to massive abuse that must be prevented.

The rule is simple. It is forbidden to cross others' aura. But its enforcement is as complicated as the proof of other abuses.

The Hermetic Society, therefore, has established an independent council called "the Observers". They are as independent as regular courts in normal society, but they also have an attached intelligence service, which is almost as powerful and spooky as Big Brother.

The Hermetic Society has not survived aeons by being the good guys.

There is one more feature of magicians that is worth discussing. Our perception of time is a subjective construct of our mind. It happens in our brain and therefore it can be manipulated. Hermetics have that capability. No, not what you think, as said, they can't go beyond physical laws. But they're good manipulators and that includes the subjective impression of time passing by. Who has never thought that in some situations time passes slower than in others?

It is one of the easier tasks. Even weaker Hermetics can twist the time of their surrounding fellows to a certain degree. As usual, a well-trained or more powerful mage has better and more refined possibilities.

Slowing down the time for one person or a small group next to a magician is doable even for stage 5 Hermetics. Almost stopping the time or restricting the effect to only some individuums is already a greater task. Affecting a whole town or region is the master class.

Physiological Background

The human body defines itself by a trinity of properties. Firstly, physical strength, muscle power, stamina and mobility. Secondly, the intellectual capabilities of the brain. And thirdly, the spiritual power represented by the mana. All three are separated from each other but they also interact. Influencing someone's astral body affects them just like a hit in the face does.

The astral body is wrapped by a halo called "aura". If somebody wants to enter someone else's mind, they have to pass through the opponent's aura. The aura can be compared to encryption. The stronger it is, the more difficult it is to get to the data. Stronger Hermetics can build up a perfect shield while regular people might be defenseless.

A well-trained Hermetic can let their astral body free for a virtual trip. While this is an extremely powerful feature, it also makes them vulnerable as the astral body leaves the guarding aura behind.

The Hermetic Society

I need to tell you more about the Secret Society that stands behind everything. In fact, it's the biggest organization of mankind that you've never heard of. It was founded 10.000 years ago. At that time, only 2 million human beings existed in the world. And so only a handful was strong in Mana.

Still, some of them met in the thriving Middle East and founded the society that grew ever since. They had been influencing life and politics long before the term politics was invented. But they have managed to stay hidden since the beginning. They are the puppet masters of the world.

The Society splits up into decentralized and rather independent cells or lodges that spread worldwide. The hierarchical structure is not necessarily tied to magical strength. As usual, it's a composition of the will to organize and lead, the strive for power and the actual hermetic capabilities. So it's not always the most capable who leads the pack.

Once a year, representatives of the lodges meet for several days and discuss the state of the Hermetic Society. The Convent has been organised for around 8.000 years. In the beginning, it was a massive once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage for attendees and only a small selection could follow the calls to the table. At that time, the lodges had endless power.

When travelling became easier, more magicians from different parts of the world could join. Today, the convent is like a gigantic fair with a lot of meet and greet. There are so many Hermetics, that the lodges can only send some representatives.

The Convent is well organized and forms several committees that discuss matters from world politics to internal organisation.

Additionally, there are three central committees called councils that are constituted through the convent but form permanent institutions: the Academic Council or Academy, the Council of Observers and the Registry.

Science is a process of understanding the world. The Hermetics had started to form networks millennia before for example, the people in Europe had settled. And studying their own capabilities, studying magic and handing over knowledge represented an early core aspect of such communities.

In the year 6021 BC, the Hermetic Society founded the Academy (or with its full name the Academic Council). Other than common universities, It is an independent organisation with subsidiaries on all continents. The Academy works based on a sophisticated knowledge exchange system, that had worked ages before the first telecommunication devices were invented.

Among others, the Academy includes the following faculties:

• Hermetics: The physical and philosophical aspects of magic
• Hermetic Anthropology: researching and categorising the phenomenon of magicians
• History: Analysing the detailed chronicles of Hermetics and their effects on humans

Bureaucracy, just like science was an invention by the Hermetic Society. They call their Offices the Registry. Its first task is to record history and manage all past records. But its main duty is to collect information on all level-four-plus hermetics in the world.

Right now, a bit over 6 million living people are registered in the huge database, which is these days, of course fully digitised and searchable if you have the right clearance.

Even in old times, long before the first canonical scripts had spread through the rest of humanity, the Registry had collected data on stone boards and aggregated them in a structured way.

Everything is ordered hierarchically and therefore centrally. On the top, the registry is led by a board called Register's Council, the second of three Councils that support the organisation of the Hermetic Society. From there, the structure spreads like a fan through all continents, regions and cities.

The third and last council of the Hermetic Society call themselves The Observers. The official name is "Council of Observation and Justice". Just like the other three, this organisation is centrally organised as well and spawns countless subsidiaries around the world.

It is also the oldest of the three councils. Its foundation dates back to 7.500 BC proven by a piece of slate called the Stone Charter of Horon. It contains the constitution for all Hermetics and the fundamental laws they must adhere to.

The Observers have two tasks, which you would nowadays call executive and judicial power. They are the Court and the Secret Service of the Society combined in one organisation, which forms the most powerful independent organisation you never heard of.

Some of their duties are:

• investigation, enforcement and jurisdiction in acts of mind terror
• unallowed hermetic activities
• surveillance of factions that act outside the society

The Outside View

The success story of the Hermetic Society lies in its fanatic secrecy on the one hand and its exertion of influence and power on the other hand. However, you can't keep a secret for 10.000 years without leaks.

There have been bigger and smaller factions and cults who wanted to run things differently, inform the world about magic or strive for secular power. Others had simply been cut off from the world for a while. The observers have dealt with each of these cases.

But you can never wipe out all traces. Witnesses continued telling their stories. Some outsiders believed them. For others, they were too fantastic. And witness reports turned to rumours and rumours turned to legends.

Some of these legends were the spark of religion. Voodoo is only one example. Others turned into stories that changed so much that you wouldn't recognize their origin anymore. Think of Dracula and the vampires.

In modern times, visualize everything after the stone age, humans follow five motivations. Love and its antipode hate, wisdom, striving for power and ambition. The last two are not the same. For some extreme examples, Einstein had wisdom and ambition while Hitler strived for power and hate. You might think of money as another motivator. These days, it is a means for power.

Mana is the sixth substance in this game. So it does not play the major role in the world. But it combines well with any of the other motivators. Therefore the most gifted Hermetics are not always the most influential ones.

But especially the most gifted Hermetics can see balance in nature. Talents and motivators are spread evenly. Mana is spread evenly and without any preference. This balance is not as fragile as we might think. Many of those gifted Magicians can see the big picture and the connections behind it and especially its power to heal.