Book One – Chapter 11

Yves was content with that. He did not feel that the perfection of his craft lay in the perfect replication of beauty. This did not mean that he did not recognise physical beauty or how Twig diverged from the standard tairan-turned-shaman — there existed a strong consensus among wizards about which races and traits looked appealing and which did not.

During Yves’ student days, beauty had been a sign of progress, craftsmanship, and artistic skill. Once the creation’s functionality, flexibility, and mobility became a given, an appealing appearance served as a reference point to compare and evaluate the students’ various works. More importantly, you did not, for dear life, want to be known as the one guy who got off by purposely creating hideous female characters. That’s a reputation you could never live down.

In order to create credible illusions, Yves had learned to distinguish and show health, strength, and age through appearance, stature, and posture. He understood how to create imposing males and females for all major races’ eyes — which sometimes diverged quite drastically from the common wizard’s perspective. Interestingly, some aspects were nearly universally appealing, amongst them symmetry. There were illusionists who prided themselves on creating the most remarkable males and females, especially ker and tairan. They competed, performed, and, if you would like to believe the more controversial rumours, entertained.

Yves did not share these ambitions. Now that crafting beauty and perfection had become second nature to him, his focus had shifted. You could say that he was spoilt, because whatever ker or tairan you crowned the most beautiful on the continent, he could replicate them — and then make them even more beautiful. Any individual you found to be the most unique, he could multiply. He could create the love of your life and the lover of your most intoxicating dreams, as you would never find them in real life. He could design them exactly like you wanted them to be, with all the traits you wished to see.