Each Sequence in Lord of the Mysteries reads like a fantasy rank, yet it also functions as a remarkably precise career model. Moving upward does not simply add power; it tightens the operating envelope. Like rising marginal effects in economics, every new level amplifies impact while shrinking the range of tolerable error, environment, and behavior.
Low Sequences resemble generalist roles with wide variance in performance and acceptable experiments. Loss of control hurts, but the fallout is mostly local. High Sequences look closer to complex systems operating near entropy increase limits: tiny perturbations in mindset, ritual, or environment trigger catastrophic instability. The character gains access, information, and authority, but must obey narrower rituals and harsher psychological constraints to avoid literal breakdown.
That trade is familiar in real careers. Senior experts enjoy greater leverage and decision weight, yet face stricter implicit rules, tighter reputational bandwidth, and far less cognitive slack. Specialization raises your effective power but compresses safe options, much like a rocket engine whose specific impulse climbs even as structural tolerance thins. The Sequences dramatize a professional truth: true advancement expands what you can influence while ruthlessly limiting how you are allowed to move.
