Preface: A Wizardly Soliloquy
We are the makers of magic. And we are the tellers of tales. —Willy Wonkalog on the fire. Gripping in one hand a staff as tall as he
is, with a glowing crystal atop, he waves his other
hand over the flames, which suddenly blaze up in
bright sparkling colors. Now that he has your atten-
tion, he says something like this:“This is a place between the Worlds, and this is a
time outside of Time. It is not by mere chance that you
have come here this night, for there is a larger pur-
pose, a grand design, a great task that awaits you:
“For this is a time long prophesied, when the op-
posing forces of Evolution and Entropy have come to
a head. The world has fallen out of alignment, and the
eternal balance of Light and Dark has become dis-
rupted. The Dark Lord has begun to extend his do-
main of death into the world of the living.
“This has happened before, and you know the
legends of such previous times. But each time the
cycles bring these opposing forces into confronta-
tion again, the stakes get higher. Now they have
reached the ultimate: We stand on the threshold of
planetary illumination, or planetary annihilation. The
outcome is by no means certain.
“It is for this very mission that you have been
born on Earth in this lifetime. You have been guided to
this very place, on this very night, for this very pur-
pose. At such momentous times as these, the forces
of Life and Death call forth their eternal champions. It
is your destiny to be the noble Heroes of your time—
a time that will be sung of in all future ages.
“Your Mission, should you choose to accept it, is
to journey to the Fortress of Ultimate
Darkness. There you must confront
the Dark Lord and restore the
Great Balance... If you fail, the
world will be plunged into
a new age of darkness. If
you succeed, the con-
scious lifestream of
Earth will be free to
make the greatest leap
in evolution since the
first lobe-finned fish
crawled out of a stag-
nant pool onto dry
land.
“But be warned:
The Dark Lord is im-
mensely powerful. He is
supported by legions of
armies, and his influence is
felt in every facet of the world.UMANS ARE STORY-TELLERS. WE live
within our stories. We are all be-
ings of myth and legend—and
future generations will sing
songs and tell tales of us just as
we sing songs and tell tales of
the Argonauts, the Knights of
the Round Table, and the Merry
Men and Maids of Sherwood Forest. We come into
this world bearing dreams of former lives, and we each
create our own story as we grow, learn, travel, and
share our lives and dreams with others. And so each
of us lives our own personal mythology.
The main difference between a Wizard and others
is that the Wizard knows the importance of stories and
myths, and seizes the power to tell the story in a way
that shapes the future. All Wizards are storytellers—
and their stories tell us who we are, where we came
from, and where we are going.
In the legendary saga of The Hero’s Quest, the
Wizard’s role is to mentor the young Hero, teaching
him to see beyond the appearances of the world. He
helps the hero learn to perceive the patterns which
underlie and connect all things. Just think of the way
Obi-Wan Kenobi teaches Luke Skywalker about The
Force, and you get the picture.
The Wizard is also the one who explains the situ-
ation to the Hero before sending him out upon his
Quest. At the point in the Story where it comes time
for the Hero to take up his Mission, the Wizard takes
him aside and tells him what he will need to know. The
Wizard explains what’s going on in the
world that a Hero is needed;
what forces are gathering;
what journey must be under-
taken, and to where; what
powers must be con-
fronted and overcome;
and what must be done
to restore the Balance
of the world.Imagine, if you
will, that you are sit-
ting around a campfire
at the edge of the Un-
charted Lands. With
your companions, you
have journeyed far and are
weary. Now the old man who
has accompanied you here
gets up and places anotherCorrected pages 3rd printing.1.p65 4 6/10/2004, 2:59 PM