A Treatise on Harmonic and Discordant Magic · 7:00pm Mar 27th, 2018
The twin powers of Harmony and Discord are the most powerful forces and defining features of the world of Equus. But in modern Equestrian society their associated magics are an obscure art at best. Most academic focus is on the innate magic of Unicorns, neglecting even the powers of Pegasii and Earth Ponies. This treatise seeks in some way to remedy this, giving an overview of the uses of Harmony and Discord in magical practice. To begin, though, we must define our terms. Just what are Harmony and Discord?
Harmony
It is said that Friendship is Magic, but it would be more precise to say Friendship is Harmony. Harmony is the principal of bringing things together, and of making the whole greater than the sum of it's parts. It is seen in every work of collaboration, every positive social interaction. It is in the cogs in a ticking clock, the dance of the sun and moon, even the cells of your body. In a sense, Harmony is the magic of life and civilization itself.
Although it is an easy mistake to make, Harmony is not a poetic synonym for Order. And, despite certain confusions of nomenclature, neither is Discord a synonym for Chaos. Certainly it has an orderly bias, but to focus on this really misses the point. Harmony does not demand uniformity or stasis. To use a musical analogy, a choir has many parts and the song can change over time. Harmony does express a tendency towards having 'a place for everything, and everything in it's place'. But even then, these places need not be permanent.
If there is a dark side to Harmony, it is excessive unity. To have excessive Harmony is to lose yourself in a group and define your identity only in terms of others. Going along with peer pressure or misguided social mores, becoming absorbed in a corporate identity, and even some of the worst atrocities of war are all negative manifestations of this principal. Though Harmony is ubiquitous, necessary, and generally benevolent, it is important to remember that it is not universally good.
Discord
Discord is the opposite and counterpart of Harmony. However, before we go further, a point of nomenclature. Referring to Discord, the magical principle, is easy to confuse with referring to Discord the Draconequus. Probably deliberately, knowing him. Worse, they are both proper nouns. For this reason, Chaos will at times will refer to the principal of Discord where clarity is needed. Even if that is wrong in every important way. That covered, we can move on.
Just as Harmony brings things together, Discord breaks them apart. And while Harmony brings out the qualities of the group, Discord brings out the qualities of the individual. Discord has a reputation as universally negative, and this is understandable. Argument, anarchy, war, disease, and more can all be justly laid at Discord's doorstep (see?!?) But it is well to remember that the most ubiquitous manifestation of Discord is identity itself.
Discord divides us, one from another. Discord brings us individual hopes, dreams, goals, and everything that makes us distinct from our society and the universe. A discordant individual may be the stereotypical bomb throwing anarchist. But they may also be a social revolutionary, bringing change and progress. They may be a researcher who challenges conventional wisdom and develops a groundbreaking theory. They may be an artist with a unique vision that gives birth to an entire new style. Or they may simply an argumentative jerk trolling online. Discord is a magic of mixed blessings and curses. But, for better or worse, Discord defines our experience of the world. In fact, it is how we can be said to have an experience of the world at all.
Just as Harmony is not Order, Discord is not Chaos. Again, Discord has a chaotic bias, but orderly Discord exists as well. There are few things as fractious as fanatical organizations, or that cause more rudeness and anger than bureaucracy. A rigid cult that promotes uniformity can be predominantly Discordant because of the conflict it causes within larger society, and the damage it causes to the member's lives and relationships. Referring to Discord as Chaos gives the wrong idea, however necessary it may be at times.
Manifestations
In Equestria, Harmony manifests in the form of the Tree of Harmony, while Chaos manifests as a Draconequus named Discord. And it is extremely appropriate to their natures that Discord is a dynamic being with personal quirks and a strong personality while Harmony takes a form that is more abstract. These manifestations are by no means in control of their principal: if anything it is the other way around. But they are the most powerful known expressions of this universal power, and each act dynamically according to their nature. Discord acts directly, and proactively: as an individual with his own goals and values, Discord directly uses his power to accomplish those ends. The Tree of Harmony, on the other hand, is reactive. Circumstances arise, and it's power responds. It doesn't want, it is.
Synergy
In any situation, there is both Discord and Harmony. They are by no means exclusive, and a situation that can be seen in different ways depending on your level of analysis (eg: a war with both sides strongly united) is not a paradox. For someone working with Harmonic or Discordant magic, it is critical to identify what aspects of a situation you are drawing on or manipulating. Attempting to encompass all aspects of the situation will simply not be practical.
Discord and Harmony are complementary even as they are in conflict. While Harmony does not fight diversity and change, it doesn't demand it either. Discord improves the quality of Harmony through division and identity: to continue the musical analogy, it literally jazzed things up. And infinite Discord is just as boring in its way as undifferentiated Harmony: a sea of unique snowflakes.
Although a hypothetical feat of supreme Harmony would be to fully unify all aspects of Harmony and Discord into a coherent whole, such an all encompassing and recursive effect has never been achieved.
Harmonic Magic
We know far more about Harmonic Magic than Discordant, primarily through study of the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Harmony are of course powerful artifacts, but they represent something deeper about Harmonic Magic as well. These six elements are the 'periodic table' of Harmonic magic, which combine in different means and proportions to produce magical effects. Harmonic Magic requires attunement to the elements being utilized. The magic of Kindness requires acts of caring and empathy, and Generosity requires selfless giving, for example. The magic of an element can also never act against it's nature. Honesty magic can never be used to aid deception, Loyalty can never be used to betray, and so on.
Honesty:The magic of Honest most obviously involves penetrating illusions and detecting lies. But there is far more to it than that. Honesty magic requires introspection: honesty with yourself. Honesty magic can thus counter mind control. It can also be used to enhance memory: to call forth the true facts in your mind, and destroy any confabulations or false memories after the fact. Honesty magic can also force others to be honest: either in words or, in more advanced applications, in forcing them to confront themselves with no illusions. Finally, Honesty is a magic of expression and communication. Making yourself clearly understood, in speech or even through artwork, is a hallmark of Honesty magic.
Generosity:Naturally, this is the magic of giving to others. All magic has cost, one way or another. And in the case of Generosity the cost is very direct: you give what you grant. With Generosity you can lend your strengths and resources to someone: magic, strength, voice, memory, and even more abstract concepts can be lent out through this power. Additionally, Generosity allows you to shoulder another's burdens. Healing someone by taking their wounds is a classic, but you might also take up a magical cost or consequence. A true master might even take up abstract burdens: literally taking the blame that would fall on others for example. Note that Generosity can never take a burden unwillingly, as it's not yours. And it especially cannot give a 'gift' out of malice. Generosity requires you to genuinely mean well. And you may only accept a burden if the donor sees it that way. To exchange blessings requires both parties to use Generosity. It can, however, give without permission if you truly believe you are helping.
Kindness:First and foremost, the magic of empathy. This is more than Honesty, which simply sees facts. This is more than Generosity, which provides a means to help. Kindness provides understanding of what someone wants and needs, which are often not the same thing. It allows you to see from their perspective, and understand them on a deep level. In some ways the power of Kindness seems weak and limited. You cannot, for example, force someone to like you or even to be kind themselves: that would be acting against it's nature. But without care the help of Generosity will be misguided. And without Kindness, Honesty and Laughter can hurt. The magic of Kindness thus tells what needs to be done to help someone. Kindness is also another element tied to communication: Honesty lets you be understood, but Kindness tells you what to say and how to say it.
Loyalty:The magic of Loyalty allows you to tap deep into your reserves for those you care about, doing more than you ever thought possible, and then going even further. It empowers you when working for those you care for. It allows you to inspire, and be inspired in turn. Like Honesty, loyalty foils mind control and mundane manipulation. Loyalty cannot be compelled, and you cannot force others to be loyal to you: this would be an act of betrayal. But loyalty can be used to remind people of the loyalty they already have. Loyalty is also the magic of the bond between leaders and followers. A leader can stand in for all their followers in a tangible magical sense. And it combines powerfully with Generosity, allowing the power of the group to be shared. The magic of Loyalty is also the magic of binding oaths and compacts, which empower those who follow them in addition to any consequences for betrayal.
Laughter:Laughter is an uncomfortable element, and perhaps the one closest to Discord. This is because Laughter is a way to deal with pain and confusion. It's often said 'it's funny because it's true', but what they mean is that the truth is painful and so you have to laugh. And it is the element of Laughter, not joy or happiness, for a reason. Laughter is how you deal with painful, scary, or uncomfortable situations and make them a bit better. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads us to laugh at those in hardship: a way to deal with the pain of our own empathy. Nonetheless, Laughter is often something that is often desperately needed. The magic of Laughter breaks down barriers, metaphorical and literal. It prevents harm, mental and physical. And it often does it in a way that is, itself, humorous. The current Bearer of Laughter, Pinkie Pie, is a master of this form of magic and was long before they attuned their Element. She is also unusual, in that most of the Bearers have not in fact studied the corresponding form of magic.
Magic:The 'je ne sais quoi' and the secret sauce. 'Magic' in this context is a bit of a misleading term: it is neither pure magical power nor simply Harmony as a whole. The element of Magic refers to the way all the other elements combine in permutations and combinations to create something greater. It is the essence of Harmony: combining disparate things to produce a new whole. In practice this can take a number of forms. Alchemy is the most obvious. But uniting different fields of magic is another. Combining Laughter and Generosity for incredible protective power, for example, or Loyalty and Generosity to empower a champion.
Spontaneous Harmonic Magic
Harmonic Magic can be performed deliberately, although it is an obscure art in modern Equestrian society that focuses almost exclusively on the innate magic of Unicorns. The Zebrican culture focuses more on Harmonic magics: Zecora, for example, uses the element of Magic to produce alchemical potions. The Tree of Harmony also manifests effects as expressions of the current zeitgeist or in response to visions. However, Harmonic magic can also manifest spontaneously even without it's intervention.
Heartsong
This is the technical term for a rare, but hardly unheard of, phenomenon where groups of Ponies will spontaneously break into coordinated song and dance with no planning or rehearsal. They are a manifestation of Harmony in an already strongly Harmonic species. Heartsongs are most likely to occur when a particularly harmonically attuned individual, ideally one who has strong ties to the group they are a part of, is expressing passionate emotion. Pinkie Pie is again the foremost instigator of Heartsongs currently known, due to her passionate and social nature combined with her mastery of Laughter magic.
The Fires of Friendship
The most famous historical example of spontaneous Harmonic Magic. The Fires of Friendship manifested to drive away the Windigos that were harrying Ponykind when their feuding leaders finally made peace: this much is widely known. But an analysis of the specific mechanics is instructive.
The first thing to note is that the ponies in question were the leaders of their societies. This matters because of Loyalty: in Harmonic magic, a leader that truly represents their people can stand in for them magically. This leader does not have to be a head of state, they must merely be the one the people ultimately have allegiance too. In fact it is a testament to the founders leadership that despite their feud with each other their people universally stood with them.
The reconciliation of the leaders, then, was not merely six individuals overcoming their deep seated differences. They stood for their followers uniting: not just symbolically, but in a very real and tangible way. Not only uniting with, but forgiving, their enemies was a powerful act of Kindness and Generosity enabled by Honesty and Laughter. This created an incredible Harmonic potential. And, with the other five elements present, Magic was summoned and created a direct manifestation of the new peace.
This manifestation, the Fires of Friendship, was directly anethema to the Windigos: spirits of Chaos empowered by betrayal and deprivation. Not only that, but the entire situation was directly Harmony triumphing over Chaos. Since Harmony had prevailed, the manifestation of Harmony was naturally stronger than the manifestations of Chaos. If it hadn't been, it wouldn't have appeared at all.
Cutie Marks
Cutie marks are an odd duck, in that they include aspects of both Harmony and Discord. They are Harmonic because they are tied to destiny, and thus to a Pony's place in society. But they are also tied to Chaos, in that they're a manifestation of unique identity and what makes YOU special. To complicate things further, Cutie Marks are woven in with a Pony's innate magic as well. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Cutie Marks are the closest phenomenon to the hypothetical Harmonic Synthesis of Discord mentioned earlier. Research is ongoing.
Discordant ("Chaos") Magic
Although we have already discussed how Discord is not Chaos, the name stuck in the literature. This is partly because of the Draconequus's personal love for chaos, to the point of styling himself Lord of Chaos. And as the greatest user and primary source of information on Discordant magic, the name stuck. Referring to Discord (the principle) as Chaos is also convenient, since it gives a means of distinguishing the cosmic principal from it's primary manifestation, but it is misleading. Scholars are looking into the problem.
This is emblematic of how Chaos Magic actively resists categorization. While general facts about it can be known, and specific feats of Chaos Magic planned and accomplished, categorizing something that is dedicated to uniqueness is likely doomed to failure.Indeed, perhaps the most consistent rule of Chaos Magic is that if you have accomplished something once, you can never accomplish it the same way again.
Chaos Magic is also different from Harmonic Magic in that it seems at first glance to have no cost. The use of Honesty magic requires Honesty from the user, Generosity actively gives something of yourself to another, and so forth. In fact this is deceptive.Chaos Magic does indeed have a cost, but that cost is usually fulfilled by the end you are accomplishing.For example, Chaos Magic could make an attack spell more powerful. The cost of this is that you are using an attack spell in the first place. By using magic for Discordant ends, you are in fact attuning yourself to it further. The other cost, of course, is that attunement to Chaos disrupts your connection to Harmony.
Now, this has certain practical limits. Using Chaos Magic for Harmonic ends incurs the full cost, unless you are very clever about it. And you don't get Chaos to infuse into your magic for free beyond the level of Chaos the spell will actually create. Since the mana of any caster is limited, even Discord, it is (so far as is known) impossible to create a Chaos Singularity Spell that enhancing with Chaos beats diminishing returns. If such a spell was discovered, the calamitous implications are obvious.
Another limit of Chaos Magic is it's nature. Just as Loyalty cannot be compelled since attempting it would be a betrayal, Chaos is ontologically unable to play nice with itself. Any Chaos effect will in some ways be working at cross purposes to itself and have weaknesses. Discordant effects require constant maintenance to not fall apart.Because of how cheap powerful Chaos effects are, it is usually more productive to trick the magic than fight it.
The Elements of Strife
The nature of Harmony is to synergize. The nature of Chaos is to turn things against themselves. And because of this, Chaos Magic twists and amplifies with Harmonic Magic to produce an oddity: Strife Magic, a subset of Chaos Magic that acts like an inverted and soured form of Harmony. A practitioner of Strife Magic works in the same method as a Harmonic practitioner, but using a different set of elements. It has been recently hypothesized that the Chaos-twisted magics of Changelings constitute Strife Magic as well.
Deceit:The magic of Deceit is the casting of illusions and spreading of lies. At it's most basic level it makes the subject see or hear what isn't there, or makes lies supernaturally convincing. But Deceit can go deeper: just as Honesty can force someone to confront their true nature, Deceit can warp someone's self image and provide justifications for almost any actions and beliefs. A practitioner of Deceit can also implant false memories, or make someone convinced of a 'fact' in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Discord is especially fond of Deceit magic, and Queen Chrysalis is an experienced practitioner as well.
Greed: On the surface Greed Magic is about theft. Greed can be used to steal the qualities of people and things, such as magic or beauty. Greed magic also enables hoarding. Greed Magic will warn if a hoard is threatened, track stolen items, and can even empower the caster based on the size of the hoard. And a practitioner of Greed is empowered when fighting to protect what is theirs, like a twisted form of Loyalty. It also allows you to seek out what you value: whether gold, power, or beauty, Greed magic can let you sniff it out. Greed magic is woven into the innate magic of Dragons. But it is also believed to be how Changelings are able to steal emotions and duplicated forms.
Cruelty: Kindness seeks understanding, but Cruelty hunts for weakness. The magic of Cruelty gives insight into the mental and physical vulnerabilities of it's target, and will enhance any efforts of cause pain. This is in fact a weakness of Cruelty: it wants to cause suffering, and so is bad at going for the kill. As a concrete example, Cruelty would guide and empower a strike to break a target's collarbone (a crippling and painful injury) but would do nothing to help in turning them to stone. It would, however, aid in turning an innocent bystander to stone if doing so was the best way to hurt the target of the Cruelty magic. Cruelty does not reveal WHY indirect targets like this cause pain. If someone is highlighted as a target to hurt someone else they could be anyone from their sister to their girlfriend.
Treachery:The magic of Treachery combines very well with the magics of Deceit and Cruelty, but goes beyond them. Certainly on it's own Treachery can substitute for, or complement, either: sensing the perfect time to strike, making the victim unable to perceive your machinations, and so forth. But treachery is also the only other Strife magic that reveals hidden truths. Cruelty shows how to hurt someone, Treachery shows that what someone values. It can also reveal any truths that would chip away at someone's Loyalty or would be suitable for blackmail, which unlike Deceit cannot be countered with Honesty. Instead, they would have to be countered with Laughter. Finally, Treachery is exceptional for charming people and gaining their trust or getting them to reveal secrets. This is as opposed to deceit, which simply convinces them your lies are true.
Anger:Laughter is one way to deal with pain: Anger is another. The magic of Anger gives strength when you feel wronged, and can spread that anger to others. Interestingly, just as Laughter is close to Chaos so Anger is close to Harmony. Laughter can be at others and Anger can be FOR others: a powerful complement to Loyalty. And passionate Anger over a legitimate grievance is a great inspiration for change. With the magic of Anger, you can stir a crowd into a mob or become an unstoppable juggernaut on the path to your target. Anger also provides a form of counter-magic: through projecting your malevolent hate at the target, it is possible to shatter their will and concentration. And naturally Anger will empower any attacks or destructive magic against the subject of your rage.
Division:Magic represents the essential quality of Harmony, and Division is the essential quality of Discord: breaking things apart and breaking them down. Division Magic can simply break things, of course. But advanced applications of Entropy will separate things and break bonds. Turning Water into Hydrogen and Oxygen would be Division Magic, but so would sealing a portal. Magic that highlights differences, ironically, make Entropy magic very useful for scientific equipment: in this case the division is breaking the world into delineated, measurable chunks and neat categories. Sloppy entropy magic is very easy to detect: mixed substances, such as different colored sands, will spontaneously separate in the presence of this power. In this sense Entropy magic is ironically one of the most orderly forms of Chaos, and heightens the problems with terminology when discussing Discordant magic.
Curious. Atlthough this feels like a preamble to something huge, which would be way too time-consuming and difficult to formulate.
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Yeah, following up on this would be on how to combine things for different effects that aren't covered by the basics (Greed plus Generosity plus Magic = Trade, say) and brass tacks on how to get a particular effect. I don't have time to write that all down but if I do more writing it may come up.