Grammarian School of Thought
The Grammarians were one of the three great Schools of Thought in the golden age of the Rasian Academy. Grammarians believed that words and languageplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigLanguages
List of human languages and dialects, contemporary and extinct.
Language
language
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topics sidebar cult1 were the key effective magic, and sought the purest, most concise and elegant words and structures. Grammarians also studied human languages of all kinds.
Rasian Academyplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigRasian Academy
Topics related to the Grand Academy of Rasia.
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This is in a series of articles about the Rasian Academyplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigRasian Academy
The Rasian Academy is the common name for the Grand Academy of Rasia, the greatest institution of magic and learning in the Anrel Isles.
See also:
- Magicplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigMagic
Magic, also called thaumaturgy is the art and science of harnessing elementals, and instructing them to carry out simple or complex tasks.
Invoking more powerful spirits or gods is a related but much more dangerous art, called theurgy.
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topics sidebar beliefs - Schools of Thoughtplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigSchools of Thought (Category)
The Rasian Schools of Thought were various different approaches to academic philosophy and thaumaturgical practice which flourished during the golden age of the Grand Academy of Rasia. Of these various schools, only Magistry survives today, so that
Philosophy
Grammarians believe that everything in the universe is governed by a set of intrinsic rules that explains their behaviour, from the movement of the stars, the imperatives of gravity, to the instincts to hunt or to fall in love. These rules can be reduced to and expressed in logical terms.
Grammarians are dedicated to formulating and understanding these rules by reducing them to a fundamental linguistic code: the language of creation.
For example, in Grammarian thought, a seed contains a set of instructions to absorb water and put forth a shoot, to branch and put out leaves, according to calculable algorithms. An ant has orders to search for food following 'chaotic' patterns, to find the right kinds of food, to eat and return to the nest. All life, even mankind, is composed of these instruction-sets, which they call sequents, which together form programs.
Programming
A program is therefore a set of rules which explains a complete pattern of behaviour. In nature programs are both intrinsic and instinctual to everything from rocks to plants to stars in the sky. More complex creations can create and vary some of their programming, learn new ones, and passed them on to others.
It is the exclusive gift of Creation to humanity that Man has the ability to learn and to understand his own programming - and even to change it.
Universal Grammar
The philosophy of the Grammarians goes further: that all thought and behaviour are in fact patterns of the words Yes and No, meaning “to be” or “not to be”. Every thought is the constant sifting of information with a multiplicity of decision trees. The deep philosophy states that the universe was called into existence by a single word of creation, the ultimate word which said Yes to all matter and life. The search for this single of word of creation, reverently called the Logos, was the highest goal of Grammarians.
Structure and Practice
The School had an effective monopoly on the teaching of many disciplines, and governance of colleges which carry out research and teaching, most particularly:
- The Programmarians work closest with the Magisters, and their discipline is so important and so generalist that it is considered important in its own right. Their general field is analysis of the instruction-sets of life, including all of the natural world from stars to plants.
- Most programmarians however are Logicians of the Eridai, who study the instruction sets of the Erida elementals imprinted by the Ancients. Magisters create sequents of their own, but the most elaborate are constructed and maintained by the Logician Programmarians. Many Magisters also specialise in this field.
- Ancient & Modern languages: trained grammarians made excellent teachers of both modern and ancient languages. The provision of language tutors to merchants and the nobility was a key external revenue source for the school.