Sympathy Magic

I hope this isn’t common knowledge. If so, just give me a “duh” in the comments.

Sympathetic Magic and a Brief Application to Mantling/the Towers.

Sympathy is the connection between like things. The more similar two things are, the more “sympathetic” they are, and the greater the connection. It is an old, old concept humans have held onto throughout history. For example, has anyone heard (or possibly told) the joke about punching one twin and having the other feel it? If that actually happened, it would be a sympathetic connection. Of course, in the real world sympathy doesn’t exist, which is lucky for all those bosses who have their pictures on a dartboard somewhere.

Sympathetic magic is when a mage uses magic to bolster this innate connection in order to transfer energy. I believe, as a magic technique, it is not only pervasive throughout the aurbis, but is one of the most powerful types of magic therein.

Pretend you are a mage, and you want to kill a king. Now, of course, you could just throw a fireball at him, but that’s obviously messy. So you decide to use more subtle means.

You grab a candle. Sympathy magic allows you to form a connection between it and the king, so that when you light the candle, the king starts on fire. Sounds pretty simple. EXCEPT, that candle and the king are nothing alike, so the amount of magic/willpower you would need to create and maintain a connection is impractical if not impossible, not to mention, most of the energy you tried to transfer through such a connection would be lost.

Being a smart mage, however, you warm the candle between your palms and shape it into a little wax king. Now the two objects are more alike. You aren’t done, however, as you pluck a long blonde hair from your pocket—the king’s hair—and place it on the doll’s “head”. Now, the two points, the candle doll, and the king, are close enough alike for you to use your considerable magic power to create a connection. You’re going to get some energy loss, because the objects are different materials, and size….but you get the idea, right?

There’s a few keys to how sympathy works (none of this is from TES lore, but pieced together from other sources that use sympathetic magic).

1. The more alike the two points, the easier it is to create and maintain a connection, and you lose less energy in the transfer.

2. The connection goes both ways. In the above mage vs. king example, if you were to throw the king-shaped doll w/king’s hair into a roaring fireplace, the king would burn, but likewise, if you were to throw the king into the fire, the doll would melt.

3. Energy is conserved. Again, using the above mage vs. king example, if you were to hold a match to the doll, the king wouldn’t erupt in flame. Rather, the king’s body temp would slightly rise because the heat from the match, while melting the doll, is spread all over the king’s larger body. Remember, the mage isn’t creating any energy here. The mage just creates the link. The energy transfer is a physical one. Make sense?

So...what's my point?

“Walk like them until they walk like you”

Where sympathy magic gets really interesting is when there is a connection between two people. I posit that “Mantling” is simply sympathetic magic expressed between two beings rather that two objects or an object and a person.

The best real-world example I can think of is a Catholic Priest. Now, I don’t know how many are familiar with the catholic mass, but at the end, the priest mantles Jesus, and uses Jesus’ power to turn bread and wine into body and blood. In the eyes of a catholic, this really happens. He does this by going through the same motions and using the same words Jesus did during the last supper. No priest would tell you that he has the power to change wine to blood, instead he is creating a sympathetic link to allow for Jesus' power to make the change.

Now, my lore is foggy when it comes to specifics, so feel free to correct me if I get some of the facts wrong. I’m hoping others can plug in better game examples than me.

The Nerevarine — he/she is obviously nothing like Indoril Nerevar—different race, possibly gender, etc. But as the Nerevarine goes through Nerevar’s steps, the two become more and more alike until a sympathetic connection is created and the Nerevarine can access Nerevar’s power. However, as the connection goes both ways, Nerevar can access the connection as well, and possibly influence the Nereverine.

Much the same way, the CoC mantles Pelinal by going through his steps, and even donning his armor, so that they become so alike, they can influence each other. Some here even say that the CoC was so influenced that he became insane like Pelinal, which made the CoC enough like Sheogorath to allow for another mantling.

So, one who mantles doesn't actually become someone else, or "put on" their mantle, they create a wide connection through which power and influence can travel both ways equally.

“As above, so below”

Now say you’re a monkey that hates elves. If only you could somehow create a connection between you and the universe, and rip all the elf out of Akatosh. Hrm…you would need something that is like the universe, say, a tower, and you’d have recreate the moment of convention with a ritual. With enough power and sympathy, you could create a connection between that ritual and the moment of convention and change the very creation of Akatosh.

So, I guess my point is that mantling and the towers use the same type of magic, and that sympathy magic is used throughout TES all the time from simple quest rituals in ESO to Tower-Mantling Monkeys. My hope is that may explain, at least a little, how it works.

also re: enantiomorph --- Thief/Warrior/Mage - two things that become so alike that the mage (usually the one making the connection in sympathetic magic), is the only one who can decide? Is there something there? I dunno.

I’ve got a lot more swirling around in my head, but I’ll just leave it here until I can wrangle it into coherance. This is my first contribution. Be gentle. I'll get better.

TL:DR - Mantling is sympathy magic and the towers are little Aurbis voodoo dolls.