This is not simple. For millenia, churches and kings have crushed the life from mortal men. "Individual" is a foreign concept. Bound to service, the human soul has slept.
But no longer. Magic is alive, and it awakens the human soul.
Guided by ancient secrets and mystic tools, the arts of Creation well up in man's imagination. To embrace them is to Awaken, to throw off the mantle of sleep and stride into the night with a blazing torch. That fire burns, but it purifies as well.
Not every sorcerer is necessarily a man; indeed, tales say women possess magic beyond any man's comprehension. Such women refuse the chains of common life; instead, they dance with devils or bathe in divine glory.
Clandestine societies burn candles against the gloom; arcane fellowships school their apprentices; universities and lodges shelter the architects of a new day, and hills blaze with the light of the Old Gods. The price is great, but the sorcerer pays it gladly.