Sir Alain of Thuringia set free the Entscheidungsdrachen by guile: he constructed a loom that could never tell you if the tapestry it wove could end. Kirk contrived a set of incantations to drive the shuttle, and Goodling broke down the ancient hedges to the Old Magic. Thus beriddled, the guards let the halting dragon escape.

Since that time, many came to specialize in the lore and ars magna of the calculus ratiocinator. Gradually more sophisticated devices sprung up, each abstracting from the tarpit of Thuringia with the promise of carving reality better at the joints. As at Babel, the magical tongues sundered one from another.

Amid this bedlam, Turnkey School of the Arcane was founded for the study and refinement of arithmancy, rune magic, and other arts of enchantment. Archdruid Kinderhook, the first headmaster of Turnkey, commissioned the quest for a balanced expressive tongue, the Geas of Nock. Many pursued the challenge, refining the Geas of Nock towards its crystalline form, like Michael Angel cleaving the marble. Others took to erect a macro language informed by the ars magna and the practices of human wizards. Ultimately, an event loop was yielded and the tapestry of Thuringia could fly through the loom once again.

Students come to Turnkey to master this strange form of magic. It is not compatible with many of the Old Ways, and acquiring proficiency takes time and dedication. The prize of such endeavor is to better grasp the nature of the calculus ratiocinator itself.

Turnkey's professors of magic bring each their own touch to the topic. For instance, first-year tutor Magister Hyacinth bears responsibility for initiating students into the mysteries of the core event loop. “[2 [0 3] 0 2],” he mutters serenely to himself.

Magistress Emmeline finds the library of past incantations to produce a bounteous harvest: “Every computation or divination may be bound by a scry and a cache,” she explains as she thumbs the gilt pages of a tome labeled ++wa.

Magister Gallowglass prefers to work with raw nouns in vase mode: “Thinking from runes is a mistake, the wrong beginning. Start with the form and you can cast it into any mold, just as metal pours into a die.”

The stonemasons who quarried the blocks of Turnkey built for the ages. May you incant for the loom in the same spirit.