This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 547th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

Podcast.

I hope you enjoy this week's episode, Arcotypeal Character Arks, Part 14, the Mage's Shadow Artypes.

Structurally speaking, it is always the end of a story, its climactic moment,

that tells us what it is about the climactic moment ends the external plot by telling us who wins

But it also implicitly ends the protagonist's arc by showing us whether the character succeeded in

arcing positively and helping others to do the same, or if the character failed to overcome inner challenges and level up.

This also holds true within the overarching cycle of archetypal character arcs, which can be seen to make up the story structure of a human life.

The Mage arc is the final moment in the story.

It is the climactic moment, and as such it tells what the overall story of a single life has been about

Well the character complete the final arc positively, die a good death, and leave a powerful legacy

to the descendants. Or, well the characters succumb in the end to the powerful temptations and struggles of either of the potential negative shadow archetypes, the miser or the sorcerer.

The miser, of of course represents the passive polarity

within the mage's shadow, the sorcerer represents the aggressive polarity.

If we think rightfully that the challenges of the

polarity. If we think rightfully that the challenges of the Maiden and the Hero

Arks are hard, these challenges look small indeed in comparison to the stakes of the stage art.

There is a reason so few people reach this arc

much less fulfill it.

As Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette point out

in King Warrior Magician Lover,

it is extremely difficult for a human being to develop to full potential.

...