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Introductory Thaumaturgy Theory and Society

The bell rang as a large wolftaur, wearing a tweed fest and white shirt, closed the lecture hall door and strode to the blackboard, pulling down a projector screen as the class finished getting to their seats. He powered on the projector and stepped from behind the table up front, looking out at the class. The rows were stacked close and high, the lecture hall small and old fashioned. Students of every species and gender sat, some opening notebooks and readying pens and pencils, where some were still putting away their smartphones. The wolftaur, Guest Lecturer Taris Quickpaw, adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat, getting the classes attention now that the period had begun.

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to Introductory Thaumaturgy Theory and Society; I will be your professor this semester. This course will combine general history, sociology, anatomy, and metaphysics. Your final grade will be made up of written assignments, classroom participation, and group projects. I am a fair professor, and so long as you put in the effort, you should have no trouble passing this course. However, If you do not put in the effort, I will have no trouble passing you. You should have already taken the required prerequisites for this class, and if anyone for any reason has not already had your 316a form approved by the Office of Student Affairs, get the hell out of my class and get that done, now. Are there any questions before we begin?"

The students sat there, mostly quite, as they looked at each other. Not a student had a question, until a particular student spoke up. "Yeah teach, I got a question for yeah. How'd you get stuck teaching a boring class like this?" A groups of students laughed at the question, as the person asking the question seemed to be from one of the campus frat houses. He leaned back in his chair as he received pats on the shoulder for the remark.

The wolftaur scrutinized the bulky lion sitting in the front row. Taking two steps forward, he retorts, "Like this," and lunches forward, his jaws open wide. The jock had no warning as the jaws slammed down around him, the wolftaur's throat gliding around his form until his lips stopped just above his waist. The shocked lion froze, unsure of what just happened, before he was bodily yanked upwards from his seat. The wolftaur reared back as he opened his jaws wide again and swallowed hard, his jaws cresting the pelvis. His front bulged out as he gulped over and over, in short order swallowing up knees, shins, feet, and finally with a mighty slurp, the lions tail tuft vanishes between his teeth. The Jock quickly slid down into his taur half to slightly distend the wolftaur's guts, where he thrashed about, only barely managing to tent the belly surrounding him. The entire incident took barely a minute.

"I am an expert in my field, and have been working.." He pauses to belch heartily before continuing, "...in some sort of vore related industry for several decades now, including everything from entertainment to volunteer work, and even some research projects. Believe me when I say that i know what I'm talking about. Oh, and..." the wolftaur has walked back to his desk, and flips open a planner. "Jeremy, was it? You'll be able to get notes from one of your classmates if you ask nicely, i'm sure." He flips the planner closed with a flick of his wrist and walks across the stage to where a laptop is set up, connected to the projector that has finished warming up. The class can clearly see the lion still struggling under their professor's pelt.

The jocks buddies nearly jumped out of their seats as their frat brother was swallowed whole by the wolftaur. They looked at each other as the wolftaur took to the stage and remained quite. Other students snickered to each other, a few were laughing at the lion as he struggled in the taurs gut, whereas others just looked on like nothing had happen. After a moment, the class quieted down and watched the wolftaur as he prepared to teach today's lesson.

Near the back of the class, as the professor looked to begin his lesson, two demure bunny girls continued to giggle and snicker about what they had just seen. One would hold her hand up, pretending that it was the lion, while the other quickly grabbed it to reenacted what they had just seen. The two continued until the wolftaur loudly burped. "Quiet down you two, unless you'd like to join your classmate in there," he said to the girls as he patted his body. The bunnies giggled again as they now looked towards the professor.

The door to the lecture hall swung open with a clamorous sound as a disheveled spotted cat made his way into the middle of the lecture, crudely disrupting the goings on. He was panting, having dashed across the campus to make it on time. He failed on that part. His university jacket was a little tight around the waist, the leopard sporting little bit of paunch, perhaps his lateness was less due to his tardy nature and the fact that he stopped on the way to get to know some of the underclassmen. He tried his best to slink into a seat in the back, but it was much too late to go unnoticed. He had no idea what just occurred but broke the attention of the professor, if not for a moment. He promptly got out his notebook, and tried his best to blend in before opening his mouth "Uhm..sorry professor...the bus was late and...well..", he said nervously..then belched up a bit of mucus covered fur onto his desk.

Taris looks over at the latecomer as the door bangs open, watching him get to his seat and using an age old staredown known by all veteran educators to work on all but the most hardened delinquents. After the leopard had opened his notebook and made his excuses, the professor waited another few torturous moments before speaking. "Don't let it happen again. If anyone else finds themselves late, just try to sneak in without disrupting class." With that, the wolftaur started up his presentation and turned to the first panel, displaying the name of the class in large bold font.

"We'll begin with a brief history refresher, focusing on early warring tribes and the introduction and development of primitive thaumaturgy. It was the gaelic tribes that first brought thaumatic forces to the attention of a then middle-aged Rome. Expeditionary forces that set out into the heart of Gaul brought back captured slaves, some of whom were Magi; individuals skilled in the manipulation of these metaphysical forces. The Romans had to, at this point, manage their population and the population of their considerable slave populations with controlled breeding farms, and rose to their power because they were able to feed the majority of their population with these slave farms. When Magi were brought back, scholars immediately saw the vast potential of harnessing these misunderstood powers. The Gaelic tribes were not as established as the Romans, yet still had managed to thrive and control large areas of land with few warriors. This was because they had harnessed the ley lines and other energy wells in their region to allow their warriors to consume one another in ritualistic feasts, but reform the consumed the following day, there by fueling their forces, without suffering the losses that the roman centurions often faced when supply lines were cut."

Throughout the presentation, slides scroll across the screen. Some depict artist renditions of roman slave farms, and even a renaissance era roman feast, with a long table piled high with various dishes, and many bound and unbound slaves being ingested by roman elite. Other slides depicted the roman centurions, many canine and feline forces alongside tauric cavalry, charging into battle, as well as gaelic shamans and tribal warriors. One scene depicted a battle, with gaelic warriors consuming several outnumbered roman soldiers. Interspaced between these images were maps of ancient Rome and Gaul, arrows drawn to show the roman's advance into Europe.

"Excuse me Mr. Quickpaw, but weren't the Gaelic tribes prone to non-reformation techniques? I mean, I've read theories from a book written by one of your colleagues, Dr. Richard Blass, that states any society that allows free range vore will lead to the destruction of the class archetypes that are required to advance in things such as technology, the arts, and higher learning. Isnt it a fact that those warriors, who did not allow their consumeres to come back, basically stripped their counterparts of their basic rights?", quipped a student.

"Dr. Blass is correct, and later in that particular dissertation further examines this effect on the roman society and how they managed to overcome it with their managed consumption of enslaved persons. However, it was not a perfect solution, hence the expedition forces into Northern Africa, Gaul, and Persia. Even with their managment, hunger and poaching were rampant in various places within the empire. The difference with the gaelic tribes is that apart from the field of combat and the occasional lovers spat, warriors only consumed other warriors, under the direction of the Magi. With this controlled consumption and reformation, the Magi were able to keep their population in balance, and their fighting force strong. By contrast, whenever the roman armies supplies were cut, armies were often reduced to half strength simply because they tuned upon one another during long, forced marches. The Gaelic Magi, who would later work with roman scholars, refined their thaumatic techniques, and around the late second century, created the first successful reformation crystal, which was a major breakthrough, although it still had many flaws. From what we understand, it allowed an almost reliable reformation ratio of the ingested, allowing first slaves, than others to be ingested several times without affecting the supply. One of the flaws, of course, was that after only a few consumptions, prey were often emaciated and weak, meaning the energy transfer between predator and prey was still very inefficient. The innovation was not enough to stop the roman decline however, and between political turmoil and the ongoing wars with the advancing gaelic tribes, The Roman Empire dissolved into many city-states and regional kingdoms. Much of the progress made by the empire was lost, including much of the thaumatic research. This was compounded by the burning of The Library of Alexandria, where many of the records were kept. It wasn't until the renaissance when some of that research was rediscovered and development resumed."

At this point, Taris produces a small amethyst crystal from under the podium, about 3 inches long and one wide. It's edges were worn and faded, and he holds it up to the light for the class to see, a picture of it sliding into view on the projector. "This is one such renaissance-era reformation crystal recovered from a dig site in Northern Italy. The merchant Vincheso Alushendur had a personal attendant synchronized with it, and ingested her on a regular basis. One of the older ley lines that ran through his city enabled a much higher rate of reformation then in other areas, and he apparently consumed her over 200 times over the course of several years, before finally the crystal failed and she was digested for the last time, which he wrote about at length. More modern synthetic crystals have very nearly a 100% reformation rate, when coupled with an electromechanical amplifier. All of you at this point are keyed with one, and I don't doubt that some of you even have a designer crystal in some iridescent or other enhanced color or shape. Now, while natural crystals are also popular, there is no scientific evidence to show that they are any more potent then synthetic crystals, and are really only prefered by some of the older families, species, or collectors." He put the crystal away, turning to regard the class. "Now, who here is familiar with the tuning and reformation process, and I dont just mean that you get eaten a lot."

The leopard was furiously writing down notes. His black tipped ears flicked now and then as the professor belted out a plethora of information. The rapt student chuckled to himself as the statements came to a close with the reformation question. The cat, being a little sinister, couldn't help himself to a quip. "The only reformation I know about are furballs and whatever ends up in the litterbox."

The class chuckled at the remark the leopard made, as another raised his hand. "But todays crystals can reform you a lot more then just 200 times. Is there a new limit on the number of times one person can be ingested or is it still the same?"

The large wolftaur nodded and burped again, tasting the now lifeless form of the lion on his breath. "Indeed. Today's crystals are capable of several thousand reformations, usually enough for a lifetime for most people, but it is recommended that they are replaced or at least inspected every few hundred reformations. With modern mass production, it is rare to find someone that does not use one at home, through an insurance policy, or other organisation. The school requires that all students be attuned to a crystal on campus or in student housing, due to a higher ingestion rate of students on campus, by other students and faculty." He grins at the last remark, patting his own sloshing, gurgling guts. A fennec fox raises his paw, and Taris acknowledges him, inviting him to speak.

"On modern reformation techniques, don't those work on a type of energy resonance theroy? Like, we all have a unique type of energy, and a Tuner can make us synch up with our crystals, so that whenever we get hurt we can just reform. Is that right?"

"Close, but not quite, and that makes some broad and incorrect assumptions about the nature of the crystals. Yes, crystals work on an energy resonance. This energy has been called many things by many cultures over many millennia. Aura, Qi, Souls, Chakara, Aether, Mana, all are referring to the same energy. These crystals, when synchronized, or 'tuned' by a licensed Magi, resonate at the same rate as your own personal energy field. This is what allows your crystal to reform you, and not some random fur off the street. Furthermore, these crystals do not keep you alive indefinitely, nor do they protect you from all harm. You'll notice that people that get hit by cars dont reform from their encounter, or that our grandparents don't die and then reform. This is because of the very unique interactions of predator and ingested prey. When prey is swallowed whole, and broken down at the molecular level, their energies begin to dissipate, and harmonize with a predator's own energy field. This interaction triggers the energies of the crystals to be released, causing a reformation. This reaction happens only when your own energy is encased in another's, and your form is broken down at a chemical level. This is why cooking and dismemberment are so rare, and happen only in very strict, controlled cases with a lot of legal work on both sides of predator and prey; the prey will not survive the encounter. This is also why you can safely be consumed by gelatinous creatures, and certified living cyborgs, but not robotic creatures; That energy field must be present. It is also because of this gradual dissemination that can cause several hours of lag time between ingestion and reformation, though sometimes it is as quickly as minutes, depending on particular energy harmonics at the time and place of ingestion. Furthermore, it is these mnemonic energies that allow, say a tattoo, piercing, or a fur color change you got a few days ago to remain after being ingested. If anyone is familiar with phantom limb syndrome, its the same effect. The energy field remembers the imprint of the missing limb, or piercing, or other body feature, and preserves it during reformation. It is why you are told to not be ingested for a week after getting a tattoo or piercing, and why some hospitals will staff large predators in their ER unit. By consuming someone that is tuned to a crystal and has been in a terrible accident, they may be reformed without the trauma in some cases, though the procedure is risky due to the disruption and trauma one's field has so recently experienced."

"It is also through modern technology that we don't meet the same fate as the early roman slaves. Back then, the fat, muscle, and nutrients of the prey were consumed by the predator, but the crystals, while functional, did not hold nearly as much energy as required to reform a whole being. Prey would lose mass because the energy conversion was insufficient; rapid re-ingestion means they would not have time to have their crystals recharged, or their own body mass recovered. Modern crystals can reform someone even of my size pound for pound with ease, though I'm sure some of you may have noticed a few pound loss after a weekend vore binge if you were the prey." He looks pointedly at the spotted feline, having no doubt he's been to more then one of these wild events. "An amplifier helps ensure there is enough energy, and more advanced designs can even be tuned to restrict the flow of energy slightly, making getting eaten a popular and effective weight loss program, but only for the prey."

"What about multiple prey consumption?" Asked a large orange dragon at the back of the classroom. "How many can one consume before energies mix too much or can they not be mixed at all?" The dragon smirked as he looked over to the two bunny girls giggling to each other. They had been still fixated on the student in the wolftaurs gut. "What happens when you eat too many?"

"To this point, research has been limited, because most furs can only ingest a few at a time, some reptiles, six or more. At those rates, there has been no detected intermingling of energies, per say, though prey do sometimes mention a feeling of a shared experience, though usually it's just that they all shared the same stomach for a few hours. You can follow some research attempts online with one of the other institutes, where a rather large dragon and whale have volunteered to host prey. Alas, finding willing prey to get eaten, just to find out what will happen, has delayed research. Early indications prove that prey will reform as they should with no ill effects."

The dragon thought to himself as a new question came to mind. "If you were to, say, eat two little bunnies, digest them and 'release' them the next day, when they would reform and would they merge, or stay the same? What about that group of anti-thaumaturgists? Last I heard they were trying to counter the energies of the crystals and to set the food chain back to the natural way it always was."

The wolftaur checks his watch and moves the slide to the final slide, with a reading assignment on it. "While some crystals do allow prey to be reformed from processed remains of their former selves, those are rather few and far between, though popular in some areas for their lower power usage requirements, due to being able to reuse former host matter. In such a case, each lapine's crystal would be keyed to their own energies and separate the two with no issues. In all other normal cases, they would reform near their crystal and have no issue being sorted out, even in the case of identical twins. As for the dissident faction in the news as of late, there is little to fear, the thaumatic techniques used today are very stable and have been thoroughly tested over the years. This recent group is not the first to protest the use of crystals. Rome had many that refused to use the crystals when they were first introduced, and surviving records even cite ancient police reports of assaults and riots over the issue. Today they are integral to the operation of our society. Can you imagine living in fear of being eaten while walking down the street, never to be seen again? No, these anarchists are more likely to resort to more direct physical assaults and will no doubt quickly be rounded up in any case." The wolftaur looks around the room, some students checking the clock, others checking out each other, some drooling. Taris too checks the clock, and sees that the period is almost over, the lunch period coming up next.

"Before you all leave, please take a moment to write down this week's assignment. We'll be discussing other uses of thaumatic energies in modern society, and where these uses originated. Also, can someone give a copy of their notes to Jeremy when he reforms in the dormitory? Im sure we'll have his full attention next week." The wolftaur finishes as the bell rings, his stomach growling and continuing to churn around his digesting student as everyone gets up and files out, student and meal alike.