I have become aware that many of you are unclear on the fundamental difference between channeling the Silverflame and acting as a Channel for Mystra, so that will be the topic of this short essay. Generally when a Member of the House speaks of channeling they mean one of two related but separate things. The first is channeling the Energies of the Silverflame to reach their goals. The second is acting as a Channel to allow Mystra's energies and actions to work through you as a portal. This makes for fundamental differences in the end effect and methods used. We shall discuss the channeling of the Silverflame first, then acting as a Channel. These are Two of the metastates of the Extrinsic State. *

    When a member of the House who has the genetic capability and experience to do so calls upon the energies of the Silverflame to perform some function Mystra opens a link or conduit through space-time and sends the requested energies to the Member.  As they receive these energies they must by their own force of will, knowledge, experience etc... shape these energies and powers to their purpose, some of these effects are harder and some easier, the things that may be done with these raw energies however are the topic of a different discussion. The effects of channeling these energies are usually of two kinds, the effect it has on space-time, and the effect it has on the member. There are many magnitudes of channeling available, from the very weak such as would be used to generate a spark to light a fire, to the phenomenal such as would be required to level or raise a mountain to magnitudes beyond that which are outside the scope of this discussion. First we shall consider the effects on space-time. Within almost all universes there is a balance of Chaos and Order which underlie the physical and magical laws of that universe. They are normally in a state of relative parity, with the Chaos allowing change to occur and Order holding everything together. Silverflame has a tendency to alter this balance, and thus change the reality into which it is brought. In the hands of an experienced wielder this can be used to cause controlled and meaningful effects, in the hands of the inexperienced it tends to leave their control and cause effects other then that which they had in mind. This tendency is called "perin'zat" and is generally measured in degrees of magnitude, which shall be discussed in further detail in another lecture which will focus more on the power and perils associated with wielding the Silverflame. In general the greater the amount of Silverflame being channeled and the greater difficulty of the effect and the less experience of the wielder, the more likely of a larger degree of perin'zat. Within the House these things (amount of Silverflame being used, difficulty of effect, and experience of the wielder) are referred to collectively as the "Kerin'su" of an effect. Each part of the Kerin'su also has its own name, but that will be discussed in a later lecture. This is also measured in degrees of magnitude, the higher the Kerin'su the greater the likely resulting perin'zat. Again, this will be covered in more detail in a further lecture. The effects on a Member are of slightly different nature. Like muscle building, the more the power is exercised, the stronger it becomes, and when this is done slowly over time great strength can develop, however if to much is attempted too fast the Member will in fact likely hurt or possibly if the strain is far to great, kill themselves, this effect is called "Cha'nen". Cha'nen is related to the perin'zat but is not the same thing, generally, the greater the perin'zat the more strongly Cha'nen will be felt, but they are not always in direct proportion.

Acting as a Channel for Mystra is a different activity with some things in common and some things greatly different between it and channeling the Silverflame. There are two main times when a member will act as a Channel for Mystra. the first is when they call upon Mystra to perform some feat, whether it be of a deific nature or not. The second is when Mystra feels the need to act without being called. In the first case a Member will mentally request intervention by Mystra in a method similar to, but fundamentally different from prayer. With prayer a person calls on a divine being exercising faith in that being and hope that the being will intervene on their behalf, all from outside the person. Whereas when a member calls on Mystra they are connecting to her through their genetic link and asking her to use them as a link, or Channel so that she may directly act on their environment through them. Generally one of the simplest ways to tell when this is happening is there are associated energies which are of a brilliant sapphire blue, as opposed to the normal silvery energies from which the Silverflame takes its name. When this is occurring Mystra is limited by the person acting as the Channel, The degree of magnitude to which she can perform any effect is limited by several factors of the Channel. The greatest limiting factor is the strength of the bond between that Channel and Mystra, those with weaker bonds are poorer Channels. Also the amount of Silverflame a person may safely channel limits her as she acts through those same links. Further the belief of the person also limits her as she may not do for someone something they do not believe she can do. There are rare exceptions to this, but they usually involve another Member somehow assisting with the Channel. Unlike with channeling Silverflame where a Member may do themselves serious damage acting as a Channel for Mystra will never cause the person to be harmed, although they may feel somewhat weakened if they were running at the very limits of acting as a Channel for Mystra. The reason the danger of Channeling Mystra is so much less is that when the critical point is reached where more or greater Channeling would harm the Member is reached is also the point at which there is no more room for Mystra's power to flow.

I hope this will answer most the questions on what the difference is between channeling the Silverflame and acting as a Channel for Mystra. As always, feel free to ask me any questions.
 

*See Lecture on the House Genetics