Chp.10: An oral test about the shape of the world

In a classroom at the Academy of Magic, Maldor sat at her desk and was looking at a model that had been placed before her eyes. However, for once it wasn't her speaking: it was a slightly dark-skinned, black-haired girl who was accurately describing the strange model.

"This is our world" the student explained. "It is called in many ways according to different cultures, but in almost all known lands it is generally called by the name of Ramat, which in the ancient Elven language means 'all things'. Who give it this name was Avos Delorga, an elf who was the great court magician of the Vitruvian Empire, in the year 2318 of the Fifth Age. Delorga call it that because according to his thought the world contained precisely everything that exists, or at least everything that mortals could hope to know, and therefore it was natural to give him this name. Other famous names by which he is called are Afaran, means 'gift of the gods', and Kulombobarikata, means 'all lands and all seas'. It is still unknown today when these two names were born during the Fifth Age or whoever invented them, but it is common opinion that they are a legacy of the ancient elven cultures and therefore are not the invention of a single elf but the legacy of their tradition"

Maldor only nodded slightly from time to time. The girl who was speaking was called Elisa and what was happening at that moment was an oral test on the subject called philosophy of magic. Much like the history of magic, the philosophy of magic was also a very diverse subject and often introduced non-magical elements as well to which it was connected.

"During almost three-quarters of the Fifth Age, the common thought was that Ramat was flat; however, in the year 6310 of the Fifth Age this assumption was completely disproved. There had previously been other great philosophers, such as the elf Ramen Elysium, who had believed that the shape of the world was different from the one considered valid, but it was not an elf, but a human, Gianman Wutan, who proved for the first time that Ramat was actually not a flat table, but a round sphere. He placed two sticks in two very different parts of the world, and checked and cataloged the shadows they made each day. Since the shadows were different despite the times being the same, it was clear that the sun's rays must come at a different angle. And thus, Wutan understood that Ramat, our world, is actually a sphere"

Maldor could imagine Haku's reaction as soon as she revealed certain things to him. She already could see him asking himself a thousand questions: why don't the people on the sides of the sphere slide? Why don't those below fall down? He would probably make such a confused face that he would look stupid. The thought alone was enough to make Maldor smile.

"Following his discovery, Wutan fabricated the model we see reproduced here, known as the Wutanian model. Our world, Ramat, is at the center of everything, and around it revolve the sun, moon and stars. However, while almost all the stars have an orderly movement, the sun and the moon instead undergo oscillations. In some periods of the year, the sun is more inclined towards the southern hemisphere, while in others it is towards the northern hemisphere. This means that while it is summer in the south, it is winter in the north, and vice versa, because its rays heat certain parts more while they heat others less. The moon, for its part, in turn undergoes oscillations, albeit minor compared to the sun, and this means that sometimes its path crosses with that of the sun, creating the so-called eclipses. These oscillations are called 'ascensional movements', because they lead the two celestial bodies to rise or fall on the plane of their usual path"

Probably even Haku would have assumed such a thing after knowing that the world was round. Maldor was sure he had long wondered why the seasons change. Perhaps, she thought, Haku would have figured out by himself that the world was a sphere. Perhaps, if he had had enough time, he would have guessed it. Or maybe, if all of them had had enough time to grow, one day when they grew wings they could fly across the sky to the stars, and they would see the curvature on the horizon, and they would understand that the world was round…

"However, not all the stars perform an orderly movement. Some of them wobble themselves and move in very strange planes. They are called 'dancing stars' and there are five of them: Thrall, Ohroth, Vharagor, Nuncha and Kulon. These stars not only wobble in their planes, but they disobey the law of the circle, since their motions sometimes seem to go in one direction and sometimes in another: they slow down, speed up, go forward, backward, and sometimes even disappear. These absurd movements created many problems for Wutan, who was convinced that the law of the circle, that said that everything that moves around Ramat does so in circular movements, was universal. As a result, the dancing stars contradicted his thought. Sadly, Wutan was never able to discover how the dancing stars worked, as he died shortly after the first draft of his model, before he could fully devote himself to solving the problem. Other sages took an interest in the problem in the following centuries, but none ever managed to solve it... or perhaps some did, but the dark times caused by the collapse of the elven society erased their name from the historical books. We had to wait another fifteen centuries before someone finally managed to solve the mystery. His name was Thuron Quran, and he was a beastman, a lionman to be precise"

Yeah, the dancing stars. Even Maldor had to admit that when she first read them in a book she hadn't understood them at all. They were really absurd stars, which seemed to have a life of their own, so much so that someone in the past had even advanced the hypothesis that they were living creatures, and even some of the ancient cultures of the world (dating back to over 27,000 years ago, so barely starting the Age of the Gods) who imagined the stars as the souls of the deceased saw the dancing stars as disobedient girls, daughters of the sun and the moon, who had the task of accompanying the deceased to heaven but who at night preferred to spend their time in dance much to the disappointment of their parents.

"Quran formulated his theory in the year 862 of the Sixth Age. He completed the Wutanian model by adding a valid explanation to the absurd movements of the dancing stars. According to his measurements, in fact, the dancing stars don't disobey the law of the circle, but perform a double circle, one around the world and one around themselves; for this reason it seems that they make strange movements and even accelerate or decelerate. Thanks to his intuition, the mystery was finally solved and thus we could obtain a clear representation of the celestial bodies that surround us. In his honour, the Wutanian model was renamed the Wutanian-Quranian model, since both the philosophers had helped create it"

Maldor had to admit that the newcomers were truly extraordinary: they could find answers to incredibly complex problems, even if they took centuries or even millennia to do so. However, she still felt that this time was too long. She was sure that if the dragons had thought carefully about it instead of spending their time lounging in their territories and thinking only of survival, they could have reached the same insight in less than a decade. But after all, this was just her personal opinion... since, as she explained during history lessons, unfortunately there was almost nothing left of the time when dragons spent their time doing something useful instead of living as solitary and wild monsters, and consequently it was impossible to know if they too had intuited the Wutanian-Quranian model and in how long.

"However, the Wutanian-Quranian model, while explaining how the cosmos is structured, brings up a further question: how is it possible that people on the southern side of the world do not fall? Many have asked this question, but the one who was solved by Namon Ismov, a human who lived in the year 1265 of the Sixth Age. According to his thoughts, in reality there is no 'above' or 'below' in the cosmos, and they are just illusions of our frame of reference, and we we extend to what surrounds us. But if we went south and asked the locals to build a Wutanian-Quranian model based on their perception, they would build it upside down, because for them the 'above' would be precisely the south. For Ramat, and consequently also for the rest of the cosmos, there is no 'above' and a 'below', but only a 'center'. Ismov in fact theorized the existence of a powerful force, called 'universal centralization', which would so that everything on the world is drawn towards its center. Since, as already mentioned, the world is a sphere, it has a very specific center, and everything on its surface is drawn towards that center. Even the celestial bodies would maintain their positions thanks to this force: in fact, if there were nothing to bind them they would be thrown away from Ramat, but thanks to the force of centralization, they remain stable on their paths around it. However, they don't fall on it because they move extremely fast (since they have to go around the world in a single day), enough to partially counteract the centralizing force that will draw them towards the center of the world, just as it draws us. The delicate balance between these forces is what keeps the whole cosmos stable, and thus allows our existence"

That was another thing Haku would probably freak out about, Maldor was sure of it. A calculating mind like his that continually sought to understand the phenomena of the world around it could not but be delighted at the discovery of such a force that was capable of holding the entire cosmos in place. And then, this force also provided the explanation to another question...

"The discovery of the centralizing force is what allowed about three centuries later, in the year 1163 of the Sixth Age, to solve the mystery of how mana was formed. This theory was advanced by an elf, Helira Philissia. She had in fact noticed that the more an object is compressed, the more that object generates heat; and in fact, the deeper she dig, the more the temperature rises. Helira tried to use magic to reach the center of the world, but was unable to descend for more than a dozen kilometers before being forced to stop due to the high temperature. This demonstrated that the center of the world must have been extremely hot, so much so that the rock had to melt and at the same time remain solid due to the enormous weight above it. Helira, the center of the world is subjected to such pressure that it generates unimaginable amounts of heat, and the only thing we could compare to it would be the lava of a volcano. But not only that: Helira hypothesized that the center of Ramat was so much crushed to generate not just heat, but actual mana. Helira was in fact a follower of the 'basical theory', advanced many centuries earlier, according to which everything in the world can be traced back to extremely small basic parts, including mana, and that by putting together they created everything that existed. Combining this theory with her discovery, Helira hypothesized that at the center of the world the pressure and heat were such that matter not only melted, but also split apart into its most basic parts; of these parts, the mana, that is lighter, would be pushed upwards, while the other heavier parts would be trapped in the center of the world. For this reason the mana is stronger the further one goes underground, and for the same reason certain stones and metals retain it, as well as the deep water springs"

Maldor smiled even more at hearing those words. That was the answer to the question of the 'mana theory' that Haku had formulated and that he so much wanted to have an answer. Thanks to the 'mana theory', Haku had been able to understand almost completely the principles of mana, but he had never understood how it was formed; he knew it came from underground, but he didn't know what produced it. Now, finally, he would have the answer!

"In conclusion, it is due to the combination of the shape of the world and the force of centralization that mana exists, or rather that it is freed from matter, and consequently that we can all use magic. Although we have no way of proving it with absolute certainty, and some philosophers contradict Helira's thesis, this is currently the most convincing explanation we have and is therefore considered valid in almost the whole world" Elisa finally concluded.

Maldor clapped her hands. "An excellent explanation, Elisa, which shows that you pay attention in class and that you are committed to studying. You deserve a good grade" she said with a smile. Elisa seemed over the moon to hear those compliments from her teacher, and took a half bow of thanks before returning to her seat.

"Good, enough with the oral tests for today. We will continue tomorrow, but remember: that this isn't an excuse for those who have already passed to not study anymore, because I will always be able to ask you some questions in any moment" Maldor warned the students, and some of them looked discouraged while others (probably those who still had to face the oral test) grinned instead. "Now let's start the lesson. Today we will talk about an important topic, namely the effects that mana has on life, and how it affects the change of living species"