Malphegor
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LOTR: TMCP Ch. 128
🕑 Added 2025-07-26 00:42:57 +0000 UTC"Did I not feed it enough meat? Or does it really just prefer eating plants that much?"
Garrett was genuinely baffled by Wormi's peculiar dietary preferences.
Oh well, since it loves eating grass... let it eat. As long as it's not starving, it's fine. Besides, grass isn't harmful, might even be nutritious for a dragon, right?
Shaking his head, he opened the gate of the tall tower and stood on the steps without going any further.
Because there was nothing beyond.
At this moment, the tower was still just a shell: the outer structure existed, but the interior was completely empty, literally nothing, not even a floor to walk on. It was like a massive, hollow stone cylinder.
Only the outermost layer had been built, and the inside was pitch black.
Of course, normal buildings wouldn't be like this. But since he was the one building it, and since it wasn't going to collapse anyway, he could construct whatever part he wanted first.
He had never seen Sauron's Barad-dûr and didn't know what it looked like or how massive it was.
But this tower before him was certainly no smaller than Saruman's Orthanc, and possibly even taller.
Either way, from now on, the world had gained another magnificent tower worthy of a name, though he hadn't thought of one yet.
Putting aside the naming for now, he sent Wormi off to go play elsewhere. He returned to the warehouse, retrieved a supply of materials, and began planning the interior layout of the tower's ground floor.
The flooring had to be laid first, then lighting, a library, a reception hall, stairs leading to the upper levels...
A few days later, the first floor of the tower was divided into several large areas. Most of them remained empty, though. Only a library was fully furnished and put to use as his research area.
There, he crafted his first greatwood staff, then created his first research table and arcane worktable beside the bookshelves.
This was the first step into the arcane, and a foundation for all future research.
The arcane worktable was for crafting magical items, while the research table was used for unlocking new knowledge and recipes.
To research new knowledge, you needed research points. To collect more research points, and discover more aspects, the same kind as the "Water" point he obtained earlier in Orthanc.
You could only gain a research point from any given object once, and using them in research would consume them. If you ran out, you couldn't continue researching.
Therefore, progressing in thaumaturgic studies would inevitably require traveling far and wide, using a thaumometer to analyze everything the world had to offer.
Snap.
Garrett tapped with his staff, and a square bookshelf transformed into a floating tome suspended in midair.
"Thaumonomicon."
It recorded many unknown arcane studies, all waiting to be revealed and decoded...
After feeding Wormi some meat, he sat down at his desk, picked up his pen and ink, and began studying the fundamental principles described in the floating tome.
The Thaumonomicon's opening passages were illuminating:
[Every item, object, or creature possesses varying mystical elements known as aspects. These aspects describe the object's essential nature and its relationship to the magical forces of the world. A simple stone may possess the aspect of Terra, while more complex items such as trees or living creatures can be composed of various different aspects in different quantities. There are nearly fifty known aspects, with new ones being discovered regularly.
There are two main categories of aspects: Primal and Compound.
Primal aspects are the most fundamental types, and there are only six of them: Aer (air), Terra (earth), Ignis (fire), Aqua (water), Ordo (order), and Perditio (entropy). These form the basic building blocks of all other aspects.
Compound aspects are created from the combination of two other aspects. The simplest compound aspects are formed from two primal aspects, but it is possible to create incredibly complex compound aspects through successive layers of combination.]
Understanding these principles, Garrett began playing a kind of "elemental combination puzzle," well, it was actually just a matching game.
[The world's earliest life was born from minerals and water.]
[Terra (earth) + Aqua (water) = Victus (life)]
[The earliest civilizations discovered, ordered, and used fire. The energy released by this controlled flame lit the path of progress.]
[Ignis (fire) + Ordo (order) = Potentia (energy)]
[When water becomes chaotic, it turns into poison.]
[Aqua (water) + Perditio (entropy) = Venenum (poison)]
As new aspects were uncovered on the research table, the base research points he had accumulated through thaumometer scanning during the tower-building phase were gradually consumed.
He didn't stop his research until all the aspects he could recall, from basic to compound, had been fully unlocked.
By that point, most of the research points had been exhausted. There was no way to proceed with further research like this, he needed to go out and find new materials to scan.
Thaumaturgic studies always involved exploration.
Time to head out and investigate.
"Perfect timing, after all this time, I should also check how that other project is coming along."
Bringing his thaumometer with him, he stepped into the Nether portal and headed toward Dale, under the reverent and admiring gazes of the residents.
But he hadn't gone far before he stopped and looked at a glowing, translucent wisp floating in the air by the roadside.
An aura node.
It represented a singular point where the all-prevalent mystical energies of aura gathered and concentrated. This concentrated aura could be tapped into as a source of magical energy to charge wands and power various arcane devices. Aura harnessed in this way was known as vis, aspects that had been separated from their objects and purified.
If you wanted to use magical energy, whether to craft things at the arcane workbench or to cast spells, you had to do it through a wand or staff. The vis channeled through these implements didn't appear from nowhere; it had to be drawn from somewhere.
There were many ways to obtain vis, but during the early stages of development when resources were scarce, most thaumaturges relied on two main methods.
The first was the use of naturally occurring aura nodes. These were stable concentrations of magical aspects. A node usually contained multiple types of vis and would slowly regenerate after being drawn from.
Normally, aura nodes were very hard to detect, barely a faint shimmer to the naked eye, and you needed a thaumometer to clearly see them.
Their biggest advantages: nearly zero cost, and reusable.
The downside: time-consuming.
In comparison, the second method of obtaining vis was much simpler and easier to understand: Killing.
When a living being died, its internal aspects were released and could be directly absorbed by a staff.
However, this method could be wasteful. Most thaumaturges preferred the sustainable method of drawing from nodes.
To note again: there are six primal aspects that can be directly absorbed by a staff, Terra, Ignis, Aer, Aqua, Ordo, and Perditio.
The node in front of him contained two basic aspects: Ignis and Terra.
He memorized the location and placed some marker blocks on the ground.
Due to the different rules of the world, aura nodes couldn't be found at all in Middle-earth, only in the Nether. They seemed to spawn dynamically based on his own progression.
In Middle-earth, magic primarily stemmed from the strength of one's own spirit, an extension of will from within.
Whereas the magic revealed in thaumaturgy came from external sources, relying on the manipulation of "vis" and "primal aspects."
Many effects between the two systems appeared similar, but their principles and logic were entirely different and couldn't be treated as the same thing.
After marking the spot, he picked up his thaumometer and continued on his way. Along the road, whenever he saw something glowing, he would stop, mark the spot, and recharge his greatwood staff.
In this stop-and-go fashion, it took him more than half a day to reach Dale. But now, his staff was fully charged, and he had a whole inventory filled with charged backup staves.
That should last him for quite a while.
By the time he stepped out of the Nether portal, the sky was already darkening, with sunset rays shining through gaps in the mountains, casting a red glow across the stone paths.
Even at dusk, Dale wasn't quiet. The streets were still bustling, full of people coming and going, and children were running about with no intention of heading home to rest.
He hadn't been here in a while, and it was clearly even more prosperous now. Not only were there Men in the city, he spotted quite a few dwarves roaming the streets as well.
The most immediate consequence of this was: He'd better watch his step from now on.
Comments
Malphegor
This chapter took me so long. I never played with Thaumcraft, so I had to do some research in order not to choose wrong terms. I added explanations for those who, like me, didn't use the mod to know what some terms mean. I actually wanted to do more chapters, but I'm too tired...
