S3E12: Weird Mixed Messages

Summary: Unfortunately most of what I have managed to find is not from works on natural philosophy or magical theory - those seem to be the ones that were targeted - instead it comes from folkloric and mythic contexts. The texts tend to be opaque, whimsical and whatever truth they contain is often buried under layers of storytelling. There are however consistencies across stories and ballads and even the inconsistencies can provide us with information. For example “The Man Who Fell In Love With The Sun” and “Seaheart And The Westering Waters” both give accounts of people falling in love with elemental powers and having offspring who inherit both power and humanity but “Silver Handed Poko” describes elemental affinity being won in a bet and although“Turnabout Feng And The Windmill” is closer to an extended joke the titular character’s mastery of air is the consequence of being trapped in a windmill at a troll’s bidding for at least a year, presumably having little else to study. This lack of correlation or even unifying theme across these and other accounts I have found suggests to me that the origins of the bloodlines are lost to time. The earliest historical fragments we have refer to the founding of the Stone Empire by Zeres Stonefoot and these include some references to the power of the empire’s “Landwielder” magicians - I conjecture this power may well reflect the lineage of earth. If so, whatever created the lineages lies far beyond the reach of our records.