In a certain city state there was an ancient decree, “any sage with a hole in his head shall be put to death.” It was not a place with many sages. Those that remained confined themselves to the study of geography and history. This edict was put in place to prevent chimeras.
A
chimera is formed when a sage seriously applies himself to metaphysics and
tries to understand the process by which humans imagine:
When our soul applies itself
to imagine something which does not exist—as to represent to itself an enchanted
palace or a chimera— and also when it applies itself to attend to something
that is solely intelligible and not imaginable—for example, to attend to its own
nature—the perceptions it has of these things depend principally upon the
volition that makes it perceive them. That is why they are usually regarded as
action rather than passions. Descartes, Passions
of the soul Article 2, Steven Voss Translation.
Chimeras
grow inside the sage’s head when a sage begins to mix ideas of volition,
action, soul, and thought. His soul begins to fertilize his absurd fancies and
odd hypotheticals. As the sage struggles to imagine these new things they begin
to exist. They exist inside the sage’s head and they want out. As the chimera
gestates it grows inside the skull causing immense pain and madness. In order
to release the pressure a desperate sage will drill a hole in his head.
All
chimeras look different. Some are ghostly or invisible some are amalgamations
of creatures. They can crawl back into a sage’s head to hide. Once back inside
a sage’s head the chimera can regenerate and may even grow more powerful if the
sage continues his work. Some chimera will live inside a sage during the day,
leaving at night to hunt. Others will roam, coming back only periodically
The
best thing a sage can do once I chimera starts to form is end his own life. If
he can die before the chimera escapes his skull, the chimera is trapped. When
the time comes most sages are unable to go through with this.
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