TheFuzzyLumpkin posted:

Since screwing up magic can REALLY gently caress up your day (which you can see when Mikaila blows a spell and the khert tries to eat her), every country has a strict set of legal spells. Duane getting an offer to become a composer is that he's getting an offer to write and test new spells to be added to the set of legal spells.

Black tongues disapprove of this and want to have the power to make spells be decentralized. Because their risky, untried spells have the potential for extreme harm, the organization is illegal and widely despised. However, they've managed to invent useful spells, which have been sneakily adopted by various governments (without acknowledging their origins.)

It's the difference between being a dev at Microsoft on project, or being a hacker in your garage, except with much bigger stakes potentially at play.

Slight spoiler for Blacktongue initiation and naming conventions: To prove your devotion to the organization (and weed out infiltrators) you are required to castrate yourself before you can join. Lady Ilganyag, who they're named after, is likewise sterile, which is why she steals children.