Editing Practitioner (section)

== Chronology ==
===Prehistory===
Practitioners of a sort have existed for millenia; they predate recorded history, and seemingly even human colonization of [[North America]].<ref>“The town will fall, just as it rose, two hundred and fifteen years ago. Before that, I was here. I watched people come and go. Settlements rose and fell. Not many, not large, but a number. Before that, I was here.”<br><br>“Been here a while,” I said.<br><br>Her eyes narrowed. “The man and woman who brought me into this world came to this place on a raft of reeds, and I was so small I had to be carried. We traveled from the west to here over my lifetime, following the deer and the hunt. When my parents passed, I stayed. I was one of the ''first'' to lay claim here, and I have never given it up.”<br><br>“Over the water to the west?” Peter murmured. “The lake?”<br><br>“Ocean,” Tiff said, her voice almost a whisper.<br><br>“I nurtured those who followed after me or passed through, offered them my hand and my amassed knowledge, so they could be communities, a ''people''. Many are ''mine''. Hundreds of years of work. I saw things follow in our wake, things stirred into existence by our ''being''.  Your Others, echoing our intelligence, echoing our pride and fear and pain, to join those Others that were here before the first people. I am familiar with them all. I know what ''man'' is, and I know that your love and law and fairness are ''invention''. Invention younger than I am." <br>[...]<br>“You know the power of your repetition. Three times, you do something. Three times you bind it to make it so. Agreed?”<br><br>“That’s the gist of it.”<br><br>“Invention. But at the core, there is truth. I have not counted, but I can still be utterly confident in saying that I have woken up in the same place for more than nine million of your days. I have gathered, hunted, cooked and eaten the same foods on those same days. I have been born, bled for the first time, and been reborn on more than one thousand occasions. The wheel of life and death turns forward and I am an indelible part of it, especially here. This is a pattern, this is my ritual. Now tell me, what is the truth of this. What does it make me?” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/16 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.6]]</ref><ref>There are ways of being inducted into the practices, those esoteric traditions that predate computers, cell phones, the engines industry, and even paper and bronze. [...] One of the common ways is to be born to it. [...] The second way is to stumble onto it. To find a book hidden in a library, or an object both strange and powerful at a crime scene where the deceased was killed by something not human nor animal. [...] The last way, the ''old'' way? The road ''we’re'' going down? To make that deal directly. Find or be found by the fey things, the goblin things, the things that used to be ghosts and became something more, the things that used to be human and became something less. Strike those deals. Make those compacts. Those strange Others can give up shares of their power and teach their secret knowledge. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/about/ Pale: About]</ref> In past eras, before the [[Seal of Solomon]], [[Wild Practitioner]]s serving Other patrons were the norm.<ref name=":5">“Alexander,” Mrs. Durocher said. “You ''do'' know where they come from? I’m not the only one who’s put it together?”<br>[...]<br>“They’re wild practitioners. [...] Practitioners of old ways, Zed. Patron Others and practitioners who are tied to them. The way things were done before Solomon, when they were formalized. Which leads to questions about who and what spearheaded the organization of this little triad of practitioners.”<br>[...]<br>Alexander smiled. “Knowing that you’re wild practitioners with multiple patrons helps me to make sense of you. It tells me you’re probably strong, with a wide base of power. It means I can expect you to be… interesting students.”<br><br>“Unruly and interesting,” Mrs. Durocher amended.- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/29 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.4]]</ref> As [[humans]] grew more powerful, many Others tried to bargain with or exploit them, but were concerned by their tendency to twist even the most formal deals and concessions to their advantage.<ref name=":6">“To try to formalize deals. To hitch their wagons to that of humanity, by striking deals that would establish them as Patrons. They teach their secret knowledge and ways of manipulating the world, in exchange for servitude… until mankind begins sharing that knowledge in ways few Others can stay ahead of, on paper and in tomes. Knowledge, instead of being taught from patron Other to Practitioner, becomes something kept in families. Others try to formalize a kind of equality, such as the familiar bond, and to make firm agreements about oaths, lies, and declarations, out of fear of being tricked again. But these things become their own weapon that humans wield. Humans sprawl, they work with concerted effort, and they establish and mutate patterns. [...] The Seal of Solomon, as it exists now, was essentially intended as one last concession. Or it was meant to be the last. A binding that would not be mutated further, that would be universal enough that it could be trusted by the Other, instead of having hooks and more traps attached to it. And as part of it, there was a deal that practitioners would manage the affairs of Others but select, powerful Others would have some say over the movements and dealings of Practitioners. Lords and judges. Roles above all other things.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/24 Excerpt] from [[Back Away 5.d]]</ref>

[[Isadora]] has also stated that those who often reigned in the past and possessed divine blood or the blood of kings were similar to practitioners and thus had the ability to change the world.<ref name="">“I’m a mortal man,” I said.  “Isn’t it our prerogative to screw with the status quo?”<br><br>“Just as it’s your prerogative to establish it?” she asked.  “I’m not making that a riddle either.  It’s a rhetorical question.  I will say that in the myths of my time and birthplace, it was traditionally those with divine blood who had the power to affect change.  All were at least somewhat Other.”<br><br>“I was under the impression that all practitioners were at least a little bit Other,” I said.<br><br>“You’re not entirely wrong.”<br><br>“I don’t like the idea that the ignorant, non-practitioner mortals are powerless, though.”<br><br>“Mere mortals are among the most powerful, in a sense.  But we could debate that for days or weeks on end, and that’s not why I’m here.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/05/17 Excerpt] from [[Subordination 6.9]]</ref>

With the creation of the [[Seal of Solomon]], the modern [[Awakening]] ritual was established as the means of going from [[Innocent]] human to Practitioner<ref>“Suleiman Bin Daoud took the first steps to establishing a new relationship between human and Other,” Miss said. “A lasting compact between human and Other. There are forms of this ritual where we recite old words in your language and in Suleiman’s. There are forms where we conduct old traditions. At the heart of it, however, lies an invitation. For you to join our world, and for us to cooperate with you in interacting with the world of man. Would you invite us in, Verona, Avery, and Lucy?” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/lost-for-words-1-2/ excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.2]]</ref> and Practitioners agreed to accept usually-Other [[Judge|Judges]] and [[Lords]].<ref name=":6" /> With the new relationship established, the once-standard Wild Practitioners became rare and increasingly little-known.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Mr. Belanger said you’re wild

practitioners. And I had to go look that up. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/cutting-class-6-3/ excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.3]]</ref>

Post-Solomon Practitioners and humans generally tended to view the world as a chain of being: God was above King, who was above Lord, who was above Man, who was above Animals, who were above Others. This may be the origin of [[familiar]]s taking on animal forms, as they grow "closer" to human and are "raised up" to a more trusted status.<ref>In old traditions, in the post-Solomon reformations, God was arranged above king, who was arranged above lord, above man, who ruled over animal, who were declared above Other. We know this redefinition of the anno Domini provenance was in part an effort to redefine the realm of man and mark out borders on a cultural and linguistic front. Put in simpler words, mankind, in order to both survive and thrive, declared a new order of things and placed Other at the lowest point. The familiar relationship originated in an era where this was the common mindset among men both practitioner and innocent, and the traditions established then include the translation of Other to the nearest step in the chain, in what was often viewed as ‘raising them up’ to be animals, close but still subservient to man. In this, the tradition of giving them mortality through animal forms was established early on. - Excerpt from [[List of Books#Famulus|Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref>


{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Basic Information]]
[[Category:Magic]]
[[Category:Humans]]