Ranma and the Defender of the Light

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Author's Notes:  Although I have included it under the series title, 
this is not actually part of the series.  Its purpose is to introduce 
and explain the character of the Defender of the Light.  Yes, this 
character can be considered to be an SI.  If my web page still existed, 
I would have created a section there for this series.

Disclaimers:
The magic system described here, except for the concept of the elite 
mage (which is mine), is taken from Mercedes Lackey's _Valdemar_ novels.

The novels of _Darkover_ are written by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

The idea of an infinite series of dimensions, each dependent on the one 
below, was taken from William Sleator's novel 
_The_Boy_Who_Reversed_Himself_.  All other aspects of the Unified Theory 
of Dimensional Phenomena are mine.

Telepathy exists in many Fantasy/Science Fiction novels that I've read.  
I can not think of a specific one to which I need to attribute the ideas 
presented on that subject.

_Dune_ was written by Frank Herbert.

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           introduction:  The Defender of the Light:  An Interview

The Defender of the Light occasionally asks me to edit and publish 
manuscripts that relate some aspect of his adventures.  Unfortunately, 
he never seems to realize that many of my readers are not familiar with 
him or his exploits and do not understand many of the references he 
makes.  It is generally known that he is a mage dedicated to the fight 
against evil, and that he does his best to protect numerous universes 
from its depredations.  As for the rest-well, I will answer as many 
questions as I can here, and include this as an introduction to 
everything he has me edit.  He has granted me an interview in an attempt 
to clear up some of the confusion.  However, before we started, he told 
me that there would be questions he would not answer.  "As a general 
rule," he said, "I will answer just about anything that's already common 
knowledge to the Bad Guys."

A general overview of magic would be appropriate, I think....  Magic, as 
it is practiced by the Defender, is a type of energy that flows through 
the Earth itself.  Everyone has the ability to use magic to some degree, 
though few realize it.  Those born with the mage-gift instinctively 
sense magic and will use it, whether they realize what they are doing or 
not.  On Darkover, it is said that an untrained telepath is a danger to 
him/herself and all others around him/her.  This is certainly true for a 
mage.

Magical energy exists in several forms.  First, there is the magic that 
resides within the mage.  Then, there is ambient magic that exists 
wherever there is life.  Like water gathering at the source of a stream, 
ambient magic collects into ley lines that run through the Earth.  The 
place where ley lines meet is called a node.  Ambient magic, in and of 
itself, can not be directly utilized by a mage.  Instead, it gradually 
replaces any power that a mage uses.  There are three classifications of 
mages, depending on what form of magic they are capable of using.  A 
journeyman can use his or her personal magic, but nothing else.  A 
master can tap into ley lines for extra power.  An adept can utilize the 
highly-concentrated magic at nodes.  Just to make sure I had everything 
correct, I showed him this section and asked for comments.  Masters and 
Adepts are also capable of creating and using power reserves to store 
aditional power.

"Just one thing," he replied.  "This form of magic exists in all known 
universes, except two where it has been suppressed by a major 
catastrophe.  There are, however, forms of magic that only work in 
certain universes.  We refer to magic of this type as Special Magic."

A new class of mage has been created for the Defender of the Light--the 
elite mage.  When asked how one becomes an elite mage, he responded, 
"Well, basically, you have to develop a revolutionary way to use magic.  
In my case, it was doing things that had been assumed to be 
impossible...."  Of course, I asked what he meant by that.  "Well, the 
first time was fairly early in my training.  I had been learning about 
moving objects around--telekinesis--and asked if it was possible to move 
yourself by this method, and was told no.  I believe the exact phrase 
was 'No matter how you grab hold of yourself, you can't pick yourself 
up.' [1]  I accepted that for the time being and thought about it on my 
own.  A few days later, I presented myself before my teacher and slowly 
rose into the air....  The idea wasn't to lift yourself up, but to use 
the same force to push down on the ground.  It seems obvious, but 
remember, my teachers had never heard of the three Laws of Motion....  
Most of the things I came up with were similar--simply applying 
knowledge of basic physics to magic."

"So you became an elite mage by astounding other mages with the 
application of a discipline they had not had the opportunity to learn?  
That's cheating."

"Of course it is.  Most magic is cheating.  Although, in this case, I 
also revolutionized the writing of spells..." Spells are essentially 
programs for performing complex tasks with magic.  "...and I suppose 
developing the Unified Theory of Dimensional Phenomena might have had 
something to do with it...."

"The Unified Theory of Dimensional Phenomena?  What's that?"

"This gets complicated.  Let me see if I can simplify it somewhat....  
Okay, here goes.  We live in a world composed of three 
dimensions--length, width, and height-"

"What about time?"

"I'm getting to that.  Although, I suppose I should have said three 
SPATIAL dimensions....  Now, picture a world that surrounds this one 
that's composed of four spatial dimensions.  This is what we call the 
fourth dimension.  And, surrounding that, there's a world of five 
spatial dimensions, etc.  There's no theoretical limit to the number of 
dimensions, although we have no experimental evidence for any past the 
seventh."

"I see what you mean about it being complicated."

"It gets worse.  This is where we get to time.  Our world has three 
axes, commonly referred to as x, y, and z, each at right angles to the 
other two.  The fourth dimension has a fourth one at right angles to all 
three of those, that we perceive as time.  The fifth dimension has a 
fifth axis at right angles to those four that would be perceived as time 
by hypothetical four-dimensional beings, etc.  Also, this is not the 
only three-dimensional universe.  The fourth dimension contains numerous 
three-dimensional universes.  Also, the fifth dimension contains 
multiple four-dimensional universes, each of which has its own 
collection of three-dimensional universes, etc.  Well, we don't know 
that the seventh dimension contains multiple six-dimensional universes, 
as we have yet to explore the seventh dimension.  But theory states that 
it should...."

"That would also imply that our universe would contain multiple 
two-dimensional universes, each of which should contain multiple 
single-dimensional universes...."

"Quite right.  However, we haven't found any, and I doubt it would 
benefit us to look for them.  It's possible for us to enter higher 
dimensions, but I don't think a three-dimensional object could enter a 
two-dimensional universe."

"You mentioned the ability to enter the fourth dimension...."

"And, theoretically, any higher dimension, though no one has gone past 
the seventh and returned....  I have, however, bounced Bad Guys who 
followed me through teleports up to the eleventh....  Now we get to the 
practical applications of this theory.  A simple teleport is merely 
entering the fourth dimension at one point and returning to the third at 
another.  Time travel involves entering the fourth dimension and 
traveling along that fourth axis.  And, of course, it's possible to 
combine the two and end up at a different place in a different time.  
Also, this is how we get to other universes--simply enter the fourth 
dimension and go to the one we want."

"I think I almost get it...."

"You might also want to mention that it's possible to store items in 
higher dimensions, so that they can be readily accessible from 
anywhere."

"Okay, right.  Next topic.  Are there any other elite mages?"

"Only one--I trained her.  She developed an interesting application of 
Gates that no one had thought of.  By the way, a Gate is simply another 
method of getting from one point to another via magic.  Basically, it 
takes two places--or times, and the places don't necessarily have to be 
in the same universe--and brings them together across an opening.  Once 
the Gate is completed, one simply needs to step through.  The main 
advantage to a Gate is that one can leave it open and toss stuff 
through--there is a limit to the amount of mass that can be taken on a 
teleport."

"And what, exactly, is your relation to this other elite mage?"

"You didn't tell me you would be asking personal questions....  Although 
I suppose there is no reason not to answer it.  In some cultures, we are 
considered to be married, although we have never formalized the 
relationship according to the laws of this universe."

"I see.  Just a few more things....  I'm afraid this question will be 
highly controversial.  Some of my readers are concerned about your 
ability to read their minds."

"The complete answer to this question can be found in 'Ethical 
Telepathy, as compiled by the office of the Defender of the Light'.  I 
doubt most of your readers would have access to that reference, so I'll 
give a short recap.  Of course, I'll have to explain the different types 
of telepathy as well."

"Go right ahead."

"We'll start with the simplest and least controversial form.  Few people 
realize it, but whenever someone speaks, that person is also making a 
telepathic broadcast containing their words.  The range of that 
broadcast is dependent on who the person wants to here them--for 
instance, a whisper would have much less range than a shout.  This is 
extremely useful for communication purposes, as I will understand 
anything said to me, whether or not it's in a language that I know.  To 
respond, of course, I'd still have to use a language spell of some sort.  
Also, I will usually know if the person speaking believes what they are 
saying--lying to a telepath is highly counter-productive.

"The next level of telepathy is ethically challenging.  Sub-vocal 
thoughts are also sometimes sent out as unconscious telepathic 
broadcasts-"

"Wait a minute, what do you mean by sub-vocal thoughts."

"Exactly that.  Thoughts formed of visualized, but unspoken, words.  The 
most common type, really-"

"And you're saying that you automatically hear such thoughts?!?"

"Not necessarily.  It depends on a lot of things, primarily the 
telepathic faculty of the person doing the thinking.  It's not exactly 
rare, but it's not all that common either.  I take it you can see the 
inherent problems.  Some telepaths believe that we should deliberately 
not act upon knowledge gained in this way.  The Ethics Committee has not 
made a ruling to this effect, primarily because deliberately not acting 
on certain knowledge is, in and of itself, acting upon that knowledge."

"Huh?"

"Didn't you ever read _Dune_?  The Bene Geserit have a saying that 
failure to make a decision is, in and of itself, a decision.  This is 
similar.  If you refrain from taking a particular action because you 
possess certain knowledge, are you not acting upon that knowledge?"

"Yeah, I guess so.  So, what's your take on this debate?"

"I keep very powerful mental shields up at all times.  These shields are 
strong enough to filter out all but the strongest of sub-vocal 
thought--after all, it is significantly less powerful than the spoken 
word.  And, yes, should I happen to inadvertently pick something up, I 
will use it in whatever manner I deem appropriate.

"The next form of 'mind-reading' is forbidden by the Ethics Committee 
unless permission is obtained from the person it is to be used on, 
except in certain rare circumstances.  It is the ability to consciously 
enter someone's mind.  Once a telepath has done so, he or she will have 
access to that person's memories, emotions, thoughts, everything.  It's 
possible for such a telepath to learn things that the person being 
probed isn't consciously aware of.  I'm sure you can see why it's 
forbidden.

"And, of course, using telepathy to force someone to do something is the 
worst telepathic crime imaginable.  Well, it's about on the same level 
as telepathically altering someone's memory, although there are 
circumstances in which a telepath is allowed to make someone forget 
something.

"That's the brief summary.  I haven't begun to cover the full topic."

"I think that will do.  What can you tell us about your enemies?"

"I have sworn to fight evil, though I rely on local aid wherever 
possible.  There are, however, two groups whose plans to take over 
universes I've been ruining for the past couple centuries--before you 
ask, I've been alive about three centuries, and yes, I do use magic to 
maintain my health and appearance."  His appearance is that of a man in 
his early twenties.

"About these two groups of enemies...."

"Ah yes, the Dark Alliance and the Evil Coalition.  Two groups who have 
decided that they should each have a universe to rule as they will.  I 
really don't like people like that.  Anyway, the Dark Alliance is 
composed of twelve master-class mages-well maybe two of them are 
Adepts-who barely trust each other.  The only reason they are working 
together as much as they do is to kill me.  Their basic strategy is to 
clone themselves, and then send all the clones after me at once.  
Fortunately, their cloning method only allows them to each have one 
active clone at a time.  Still, facing twelve clones of master-class 
mages is not the easiest thing in the world.  The only reason I'm able 
to do so is because I can apply the Unified Theory of Dimensional 
Phenomena far better than they can (after all, I did develop it).  Oh, 
yeah, and the fact that they don't trust each other.  Of course, they 
never face me directly, only through their clones, so I can't actually 
win unless I manage to discover where they're hiding and mount an attack 
of my own.

"The Evil Coalition is similar.  The main difference is that it's a 
smaller group--only four mages, each an Adept--and they trust each other 
a little more.  They have similar tactics, in that they clone themselves 
and send the clones after me.  However, they trust each other enough to 
work together to provide their clones a little assistance from afar.  
Their normal plan of attack is to send the clones after me, and then 
join to establish a fourth-dimensional barrier around my location.  This 
means that I have to meet the clones in combat, and can't teleport away.  
It also prevents anyone from teleporting to my assistance...."  
Fortunately, I've gotten very good at improvising and using the 
surroundings to my advantage.  That, by the way, is another part of 
being an elite mage."

"One more thing....  What can you tell us about the organization that 
supports you?"

"It exists.  It's composed of mages, those with other psychic gifts, and 
those who merely act to provide me with information about the area the 
live in.  And that is all I'm going to say about it, lest the Bad Guys 
read this and learn more than I want them to know."

"Thank you, I believe that will cover everything."

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[1] Disclaimer:  This quote is from Robert Jordan's _The_Wheel_of_Time_.


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