《龙之纪元起源》部分Codex翻译之三（魔法与宗教篇）

Codex Entry 74: A brief description of the fraternities of enchanters

Another aspect of Circle life is the fraternity. When a mage becomes an enchanter, he may ally himself with a fraternity. These are cliques that cross Circle boundaries, mages of common interests and goals who band together to ensure that their voice is heard within the College of Magi in Cumberland. The largest fraternities currently are:
the Loyalists, who advocate loyalty and obedience to the Chantry.
the Aequitarians, who advocate temperance and follow a distinct code of conduct which they believe all mages should hold themselves to.
the Libertarians, a growing fraternity, publicly maintaining greater power for the Circles but secretly advocating a complete split from the Chantry--a dangerous opinion, naturally.
the Isolationists, a small group that advocates withdrawing to remote territories in order to avoid conflicts with the general populace.
the Lucrosians, who maintain that the Circle must do what is profitable first and foremost. They prioritize the accumulation of wealth, with the gaining of political influence a close second.
So far, an alliance between the Loyalists and Aequitarians has prevented the Libertarians from gaining much headway, but there are signs that the Aequitarians may throw their support in with the Libertarians. If that happens, many mages predict it will come to civil war among the Circles.
--From The Circle of the Magi: A History, by First Enchanter Josephus

第七十四卷：附魔师互助会的简介

在魔法师议会中的生活的一个部分就是互助会。当一个魔法师成为附魔师的时候，他可以选择加入互助会。这是一个跨越了议会本身边界的小组织，一些拥有着共同爱好和目标的法师组织在一起，并使得他们的声音能够在Cumberland举行的法师大会上被人听见。目前最大的互助会有：

忠诚者互助会：集合了那些完全服从和听从教会智慧的人。

节制者互助会：这里的法师提倡节欲，并遵从一个十分不同的信条，并且他们相信所有的法师都应当村从这一信条。

自由主义互助会：一个正在成长的团体，表面为了议会而隐藏了真正的实力，而私下却主场应当从教会中脱离出来—这确实一个非常危险的想法。

孤立主义互助会：一个小组织，他们推行在可控制的范围内通过逃避来避免和普通大众产生冲突。

奢华主义互助会：他们认为议会应当以追求利益最大化为先为重。他们优先地考虑如何囤积财富，并将掌控政治权利作为第二位的目标。

到目前为止，忠诚者和节制者互助会组成了联盟，防止了自由主义互助会过于强大，但有传言说，节制者们有可能会转为支持自由主义者。如果这件事真的发生，许多法师认为议会的内部将会产生一场内战。

--源自“法师议会：一段历史”，作者为首席附魔师Josephus。

Codex Entry 75: Meditations on the Circle

It is no simple matter, safeguarding ordinary men from mages, and mages from themselves. Each Circle tower must have some measure of self-government, for it is ever the Makers will that men be given the power to take responsibility for our own actions: To sin and fail, as well as to achieve the highest grace and glory on our own strength.
You, who will be tasked with the protection of the Circle, must be aware of its workings. The first enchanter is the heart of any tower. He will determine the course his Circle will take, he will choose which apprentices may be tested and made full mages, and you will work most closely with him.
Assisting the first enchanter will be the senior enchanters, a small council of the most trusted and experienced magi in the tower. From this group, the next first enchanter is always chosen. Beneath the council are the enchanters. These are the teachers and mentors of the tower, and you must get to know them in order to keep your finger on the pulse of the Circle, for the enchanters will always know what is happening among the children.
All those who have passed their Harrowing but have not taken apprentices are mages. This is where most trouble in a Circle lies, in the idleness and inexperience of youth. The untested apprentices are the most numerous denizens of any tower, but they more often pose threats to themselves, due to their lack of training, than to anyone else.
--Knight-Commander Serain of the Chantry templars, in a letter to his successor

第七十五卷：法师议会沉思录

这可不是简单的事情，不但要守护普通的人免受法师的侵害，还要守护法师免收他们自己的侵害。每个法师塔都必须都拥有一定自我管理的能力，因为这是造物主的意识---人们必须能够为自己的行为负责：用我们自己的力量应对无论是辉煌的胜利和荣耀，还是深重的罪孽和失败。

你，将会被委任为法师议会的守护者，必须要注意它的运作方式。首席附魔师是任何法师塔的心脏。他的想法最终决定了法师议会的行为，他会去挑选并测试学徒，使之成为真正的魔法师，因此你的工作必须紧密地和他结合起来。

首席附魔师的助手将会是资深的附魔师，他们是以塔中最值得信赖和资深的法师构成的小议会。下一任的首席附魔师总是从这个小组中选拔出来。在这个议会之下则是塔中普通的附魔师。这些是塔中的导师和教师，你必须了解他们才能够把握法师塔的脉搏，因为附魔师们总会知道在孩子们当中发生了什么事情。

所有那些继承了他们的苦闷心理却还没有开始渡过学徒生涯的人就是魔法师。这是整个法师议会中最麻烦的部分，作为年轻人他们常有理想主义和缺乏经验。那些没有被考验的学徒是整个法师塔中人数最多的一部分人，而由于他们缺乏训练，常常会做出伤害自己以及其他人的意外事情。

---教会圣殿骑士指挥官Serain，在给他的继任者的一封信中如是说

Codex Entry 76: An account of the foundation of the Circle

It is a truth universally acknowledged that nothing is more successful at inspiring a person to mischief as being told not to do something. Unfortunately, the Chantry of the Divine Age had some trouble with obvious truths. Although it did not outlaw magic--quite the contrary, as the Chantry relied upon magic to kindle the eternal flame which burns in every brazier in every chantry--it relegated mages to lighting candles and lamps. Perhaps occasional dusting of rafters and eaves.
I will give my readers a moment to contemplate how well such a role satisfied the mages of the time.
It surprised absolutely no one when the mages of Val Royeaux, in protest, snuffed the sacred flames of the cathedral and barricaded themselves inside the choir loft. No one, that is, but Divine Ambrosia II, who was outraged and attempted to order an Exalted March upon her own cathedral. Even her most devout Templars discouraged that idea. For 21 days, the fires remained unlit while negotiations were conducted, legend tells us, by shouting back and forth from the loft.
The mages went cheerily into exile in a remote fortress outside of the capital, where they would be kept under the watchful eye of the Templars and a council of their own elder magi. Outside of normal society, and outside of the Chantry, the mages would form their own closed society, the Circle, separated for the first time in human history.
--From Of Fires, Circles, and Templars: A History of Magic in the Chantry, by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar

第七十六卷：法师议会建立之初的故事

众所周知最得意的事就是某人在被告知不许做某件事的时候而偏偏故意进行一下恶作剧。很不幸，神圣纪元时代的教会便与一些明显的事实存在麻烦。那时它并没有取缔魔法---恰恰相反，教会需要依靠魔法来燃起每个教会火盆内的永恒之火---有时还要让法师屈尊去负责点燃蜡烛和灯。偶尔的时候还需要他们为椽子和屋顶除尘。

我在此先给予我的读者们一段时间去想象一下这一工作否能让当时的魔法师满意。

当Val Royeaux的法师开始进行罢工抗议的时候，没有人感到惊讶，他们扼杀了神圣的永恒之火，并把他们自己反锁在了大教堂唱诗班的小阁楼上。当时只有教皇Ambrosia二世一个人感到无比地愤怒，并差点要求对她自己的教堂发动一场圣战。但当时即使是她最忠诚的圣殿武士也不太认同这一主意。这一闹剧持续了整整21天，永恒之火在这期间一直是熄灭的，而这期间他们举行了正式的谈判，据传说，谈判方式就是通过在阁楼的内外大声地向对方嚷嚷。

法师们最终被放逐到首都之外的一处城堡，但是他们感到很满意，在那里他们虽然被圣殿武士谨慎地观察看守了起来，但终于拥有了他们自己的法师长者。脱离开了普通社会，脱离开了教会，法师们自己组建了一个完全封闭的社会，这就是法师议会，第一次在人类历史上的诞生。

--摘自“火焰，议会和圣殿武士：一段教会的魔法历史”，作者是教会学者Petrine修女。

Codex Entry 77: An explanation of the Fade and its relation to dreams


The study of the Fade is as old as humankind. For so long as men have dreamed, we have walked its twisting paths, sometimes catching a glimpse of the city at its heart. Always as close as our own thoughts, but impossibly separated from our world.

The Tevinter Imperium once spent vast fortunes of gold, lyrium, and human slaves in an effort to map the terrain of the Fade, an ultimately futile endeavor. Although portions of it belong to powerful spirits, all of the Fade is in constant flux. The Imperium succeeded in finding the disparate and ever-shifting realms of a dozen demon lords, as well as cataloging a few hundred types of spirits, before they were forced to abandon the project.

The relationship of dreamers to the Fade is complex. Even when entering the Fade through the use of lyrium, mortals are not able to control or affect it. The spirits who dwell there, however, can, and as the Chantry teaches us, the great flaw of the spirits is that they have neither imagination nor ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like the reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own. Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarize the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life.
--From Tranquility and the Role of the Fade in Human Culture, by First Enchanter Josephus

第七十七卷：一种对于暗物质界与梦境之间的解释

对于暗物质界的学习时间差不多和人类的历史一样长。在这么长的岁月中人们一直在作梦，我们在梦中走过它那扭曲的道路，有些时候在它的中心看到黑暗之城的一瞥。就像我们的思想一样离我们如此之近，但却不可能同我们的世界相分离。

Tevinter帝国一度花费了巨量的黄金，lyrium物质，以及人类奴隶去测绘暗物质界的地图，然而这最终是一个毫无意义的尝试。虽然暗物质界的一部分属于强大的灵魂，而暗物质界确是一个不断变化的非实体世界。帝国在探索中成功地找到了许多名各不相同的，变幻莫测的恶魔领主，以及数以百计的灵魂， 直至他们最终无奈地放弃了这一计划。

梦游者和暗物质界之间的联系是十分复杂的。即使是通过使用lyrium物质进入暗物质界的时候，凡人也不能够控制或试图影响改变它。那些居住在那里的灵魂却可以，正像教会告诉我们的那样，这些灵魂最大的瑕疵既不是他们的想象也不是野心。他们通过看透这些睡梦中的来访者进行创建，模仿建造出和我们完全一样的复制品，像我们的城市，人群，以及其他事件，就像是镜子中的倒影一样，却缺乏他们自己独立的生命力。即便是最强大的恶魔，也仅仅是仿制出了凡人们内心最恐怖和糟糕的思想和心灵，籍此塑造出他们的现实世界，而他们这么做仅仅是为了体验一下生命的滋味而已。

--来自“暗物质界在人类文化中的宁静与角色”，出自首席附魔师Josephus

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