“The people are disillusioned—I help them make believe.” – H .*:･ﾟ✧

We of the Red keep a close watch on the magically attuned. We like to know who’s who and what’s what—though the budget for our spy network has waned these past years, and so most of the reports our agents provide are dubious at best. (Side note: I’m not sure that paying more is actually helpful either, as our agents will simply feel the need to embellish their reports to justify the pay. A quandary.) Still, in any event the various entries on various fellow ‘wizards’ are entertaining to read. And given that there are no easy or economical ways to verify the veracity of the reports from our agents, I treat this ‘book of lore’ as an amusement.

My likeness, resplendently captured by the artist Ozzz (with by little help from Mafriends).

Japes aside: there are, by our estimate, at least seven thousand known magic users in this world. Perhaps more. If we exclude the non-hatted wizards, we of the Red find ourselves in amidst a heptagon of interests.

The Yellow Wizards continue to squander their secrets to eternal youth on frivolous parties and debauchery. If anti-ageing was commercialised properly, we (that is, the Red—perhaps in partnership with the Yellow) could heal much of what ails this land. Think of the power! We could certainly use it for greater purposes than simply ‘having a good time’. And yet the Yellow horde their chronomancy to themselves, revelling in the Dionysian decadence that ensues. Many of my fellow Red have dismissed the Yellow as hedonistic fools. Yet so many key figures in this realm find their way to the Yellow Wizard Haven and the eternal-parties held in the neighbouring Riviera. I went to attend one of their parties once—but I have no recollection of what happened, other than to say I awoke naked and covered in glitter. Most vexing.

The Blue are no better. They waste their time on quaint technological inventions that diminish the stature of how wizards are perceived by the populace. Now, again, if it were organised better—with the Red, of course—we could bring about such wonders in this world. But lo, they’re too busy waxing nostalgic and penning academic papers that only Blue’s can be bothered reading, like some insular cerebral circlejerk. My real worry is that the people start turning to technology again—we know how dangerous that can be. Ergo, it is once again up to the Red Wizards to ensure that magic is granted the respect it deserves.

The Green are fine; woodland hippies content in their domains. And The Brown are simple enough to manipulate (we typically just get them drunk).

The White, though. They remain an enigma—even to us. A largely humourless and austere bunch, the White. Very preoccupied with the Shadow. It’s a little unnerving, and I feel that the Red are missing key insight into their agenda. Is only we had more people on the inside!

Ultimately, though, it’s The Purple Wizards that remain my primary concern. On the one hand, they are an inspiring, living example of what wizards and wizardry can be. Paragon exemplars! On the other hand: one in five are insane—which is Not A Good Look for all wizards.

All of this would be fine if not for the growing tensions amidst the general populace. Alessar and his so-called ‘paladins’ seek to ‘cleanse’ our Runiverse of magic (or, more specifically: magic users, aka wizards). Ha! I would dismiss this nonsense as an utter farce if it weren’t for the political fervour he is stirring up. Most disturbing is talk of the clandestine ‘Inquisition’. I think this to be a clever fabrication. But, be that as it may, there are swathes of disgruntled folk who envy the power of wizards—and they are starting to band together into ‘witch-hunting’ militia. And that prick Alessar is encouraging it.

Of course we wizards can’t move overtly against it. We’re in a bind. Whilst we perpetuate the myth that folks are ‘born wizard’, the reality is that anyone has the potential to become a wizard, given the right exposure to entropy, privilege and luck. But can you imagine what our world might be if everyone believed this? Utter chaos. It would invite our very destruction. We might as well go back to the dark ages of Big Tech.

The world needs the guiding hand of aristocracy; ergo we need to maintain the myth (and in doing so, maintain the stature of wizards). But by the same token, wizards cannot be seen as ‘above the law’. We need to at least appear to be law adjacent. ‘Of and for the people’, and so on.

And this is where I—Illusionist Hadrian of the Plains, “The Greatest Fool”— come into play. As de facto Head of the Red Wizards (a jest, said in truth), I ensure that our Runiverse develops in a manner we Red consider to be meaningful progress.

The people are oft disillusioned—I help them make believe.

Additionally, I serve as ‘Captain’ of The Vermillion Vanguard—or “The Red Capes” as we are more colloquially known.

Officially, it was the idea of Wizard #3816. (It is important I note this). Illuminatus Iluzor spends much of his/her/their time as the high judge of the courts, wherein he/she/they have come to notice a disturbing pattern which we have dubbed as MODs—‘Magical Ontological Disorders’. In other words: wizard insanity.

Whilst this is slower to affect wizards who exist in near perfect affinity with our powers (such as myself), some wizards experience a dramatic ontological refactoring in perspective once they attain (or use) the higher limits of their power. It’s almost as if... conventional reality becomes too boring (or easy?) for them. And because peak experience exists when challenge rises to match the skill or power we have, some wizards (subconsciously?) seek to modify their experience of reality to bring about this sense of flow.

For most of us, altered reality is readily achieved via the mostly harmless use of intoxicants, psychedelics and so on. Each of us wizards have our myriad vices.

But sometimes wizards attain a more permanent sense of altered reality via magic itself. These wizards are thus considered to be living within a MOD.

It’s insidious, and very hard to notice in others. Even harder (impossible?) to notice in your own self. Why, it could lead to a wizard writing an entry in a so-called ‘book of lore’ for an imagined audience in another realm of existence altogether! Hoho! That’s an inappropriate meta-jest. I really shouldn’t. It is permissible as I am the only one with access to this book, as far as I know, though I am sure Wizard #8102 keeps a similar record. {Side note: Corvin’s “Unkindness”—a roving band of actual ravens—have been intercepting some of our noöspheric flows. I need to look into this.}

How would you notice if—through the use of magic (shorthand for phenomena emergent from the generative tension betwixt order and chaos that exists at a level of complexity considered by most to be ineffable)—your sense of reality is shifting? How could you track your own grasp of reality, even as it slides further from the accepted ‘norm’? Would it not seem that the rest of the world were increasingly detached from reality—and you, the sane one? Would you not begin to feel as though you were somehow more enlightened than the rest?

As far as I know, we can’t intervene against our own ontology. And yet! Having a keen sense of (dis)illusion—as all illusionists have—means having a keen sense of what is ‘real’. Or at least: what is collectively perceived to be real (the intersubjective memetics that fuel the most powerful illusions we co-create for ourselves)—aka The Consensus Reality. I suspect the Illuminati have an advantage here, too. Them and their Validators.

Now, where was I? Ah yes. And so, Illuminatus Iluzor of the Court noticed the emergence of magical ontological disorders (MODs). Her/his/their role is to ensure a level of perceptible ‘Order’ is maintained across the Runiverse—or at least, the illusion of such. Iluzor’s astral snail familiar is competent enough at sensing the 5-dimensional emergent threads of confluence amidst the primordial chaos—yet the process is frustratingly slow. And so thus the people think the High Court to be too abstract; too elitist and aloof—and too entwined with the motives of the Red.

The populace need something else to believe.

And so thus we created the Vermillion Vanguard—the Redcapes—a diverse group of ‘superhero’ wizards. Overtly, these are the paragon wizards meant to display all the virtues of wizardry—and to ensure that all wizards Do The Right Thing (ie: don’t go insane). The Red Capes are the ones who protect wizards (and thus the people) from themselves.

But covertly: they are yet another propaganda project of the Red.

We chose the most ridiculous costumes possible: white silk pyjama button-up onesies—which were easy for Iluzor to get her/his/their head through) with pink pleather boots and gloves, replete with a cliché superhero red cape. It’s perfectly camp and at once thoroughly endearing, distracting and disarming.

Each of the 49 Vermillion Vanguard (bah, I will just call them Redcapes for now—VV never stuck) were chosen for their personalities and prominence amongst the communities. We have a kobold, a couple of corvids, witches, tengu priests—and we even managed to convince representatives from the Brown and the White (!) to join.

It remains to be seen how effective this project is, but it certainly has bolstered Iluzor’s reputation—he/she/they can finally be seen to be ‘doing something’ (a desire held by common folk who can’t comprehend complexity and thus love a bias to ‘action’). And it certainly has been fun for to prance about with my chaos butterflies, wreaking tidbits of havok here and there.

But most importantly: it’s a narrative wedge most of our rivals weren’t anticipating. And we might even manage to mitigate or quell the rise in MODs, whilst simultaneously counterbalancing Alessar’s witch hunter mob. We’ll see.

We are genuinely now in the best place to proactively—heroically?—intervene in the fate of the Runiverse. (Or so we like to promulgate).

Anyhoo; there’s a glimpse into my world. Disturbingly—and somewhat refreshingly—nearly all of this is true, too. Or at least, true for me, at this moment. Let’s see how events unfold. This place tilts precarious; yet somehow we of the Red (or well: I and a select few) might just be able to keep this place from falling apart.

With warmth and an ironic level of sincerity, H

PS: Once upon a whim I had a poem commissioned for me by the lorepunk bard. Since forming the Redcapes I’ve had to suppress this artwork—but still; it’s fun. And I do so love to confound. ♥

Entered by: 0x9534…61eb and preserved on chain (see transaction)