Ordeal

The initial test of power and "proof of commitment" laid in a probationary wizard's path by the Powers that Be.

No two Ordeals are alike: each one is founded in the concept that there is some one problem to which a given wizard -- or that wizard's Ordeal -- is the answer. Contrary to popular belief, an Ordeal does not necessarily have to threaten the probationer's life. Some Ordeals might seem quite gentle, even anticlimactic, to wizards whose own Ordeals seemed to them more severe or robust. But only the Powers that Be, and (sometimes) the wizard in question, are equipped to make this evaluation.

The other participant in nearly every Ordeal, either in a personified form like an avatar or in some less obvious and personal form, is the Lone Power. It is perhaps understandably unwilling to allow new wizardly power to come unopposed into the world, and the enthusiasm of Its opposition to any given wizard's debut is often thought to suggest how effective or dangerous that wizard will be in his, her or its later career.

However, there are Ordeals in which the Lone Power does not participate, for reasons which will probably never become clear. These abstentions are excessively rare, as are the abstainee wizards involved, who frequently seem as confused as everyone else as to why the Lone One should desire to spare them Its attentions. The only hint is that Abstainees do often turn out to be some of the most powerful wizards, or some of the most unusual ones.

Ordeals normally take place over a relatively short period in the candidate-wizard's life -- a matter of (for a human beings) days. There are, however, exceptions, and Ordeals can sometimes be either arrested or unusually prolonged, for obscure operational reasons (such as Rhiow's Ordeal in TBONWM) or due to personal or developmental issues (as in the case of Darryl McAllister).