Illumination is like the Buddhist goal of achieving enlightenment. It is a liberation from entrenched predjudices and attitudes (good vs. evil, woman vs. man, black vs. white). IMO Illumination is Nysalor's secret. In this it is much more like a Great Secret like Become Air. Achieving it requires time and effort (those 1W2 masteries in his other affinities). I suspect much of what we term illlumination abilities from RQ are more properly feats of seekers on the path. The real achievement of the secret would create a decision: to retire from the world, or to remain. Or perhaps like the buddhist difference between achieving Nirvana and bodhvista (sp?) to retire from the suffering of life or to remain to aid others through compasssion. For illuminates the choice is probably complicated by the light side - to remain to help others along the path or the dark side to remain and seek temporal power. Perhaps the ability with the secret represents your ability to remain and not fall prey to the temptations of the dark side (though even this light/dark attitude is probably meaningless from the perspsecitve of the illuminate who has resloved bipolar perceptions).
Whatever illumination is far more than just a source of cool powers it is a fundamentally shifted perspective of life.
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