"Light Castle" <light_castle_at_...> writes:
>These do help, and do make sense. But it does seem to drift back into concentrating (as
>a game construct) meaning something other than just the three worlds that we get in the
>basic book. Hopefully ILH2 will make this all a bit clearer to me. Because now it seems
>that Concentration is a trade off -- limiting some magics and increasing others. But
>outside of the 3-world paradigm, it seems that concentration really does seem to work by
>religion, or subset of religion. (The common magic concentrations.)
>
>So I'm still a little confused as to what Concentration means *to a Gloranthan*. Do all
>these different religions have a word for some kind of magical focusing that is
>"concentration"?
I agree that it seems a little, well, convenient... "To Concentrate, you have to focus on magic from one specific Otherworld. But if you worship *our* Goddess, you can get Concentrated magic from _all_three_ Otherworlds! And we're accepting converts now! Just line up outside the temple here..."
You know there has to be a catch, and I'm not just talking about that big hungry Bat the missionaries don't tell you about up front...
Part of the problem seems to be that every time one of the writers comes up against a culture or religion that doesn't seem to fit the Three Worlds paradigm, they declare that it's an exception to the normal rules.
The Uz are an exception, because they come from the Underworld where all magic forms are undifferentiated. The Lunars are an exception, because the Red Goddess is a revolutionary, tradition-shattering being born Inside Time. Lanbril is an exception, because, er... because as god of thieves, he can steal magic from any source! The Teshnans are an exception because, um, er... because they're Mystical and have secret Oriental kewl powerz!!
(To be fair, probably the exceptions get more attention because, well, they're exceptional)
_at_@@@
As for an in-world explanation, I can offer this: using powerful magic successfully requires you to get close to its ultimate source - one of the Otherworlds. (Ignoring Talents for the moment).
The trouble is that not only the techniques, but also the mental attitudes, beliefs and disciplines required to do so safely (on more than a superficial level) are dramatically different, and even contradictory, from Otherworld to Otherworld. The mindset that will allow you to manipulate the raw energies of the Sorcery Plane successfully will get you into all sorts of trouble in the God World where those energies are personalised, have feelings and a name, and are likely to resist your efforts violently...
So, Concentration requires that you dedicate yourself to one particular Otherworld, focus yourself on it and learn its ways. In metaphysical terms, you have to purify your soul/spirit/essence of all extraneous elements, and become One with your chosen Otherworld. Individual religions would likely phrase this in different ways: Theists would say 'become One with [your God]', Atheist Sorcerors might say 'cast off the shackles of outmoded anthropomorphic thought-patterns.'
As for mixed Religions - it could be that although you need very different mental and spiritual disciplines to contact each Otherworld *in general*, there are certain limited areas where the same techniques *will* work in more than one Otherworld. For example, if Rufelza's insanity is a rejection of reality, it should not matter which reality it is rejecting - mundane, theist, sorcerous or animist.
Alternatively, while it might be inherently twice as hard to use magic from more than one Otherworld than to concentrate on one only, if you practice enough the difference might not be noticeable to most ordinary bystanders. (It may have cost Lanbril twice as many Hero Points to become a Badass 10W8 as it would have done if he'd concentrated on one Otherworld, but you still wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley...)
If you become a Hero or a God and teach your methods to worshippers, they might be able to emulate your actions. In HQ game terms, they will have the benefits of Concentration if they follow your teachings precisely, allowing them to use the same powers you had at the same Heropoint cost.
However, they lack the flexibility of "real" Concentrated people, because they haven't learned the mental techniques needed to manipulate an Otherworld (or "attained the spitritual purity needed to draw directly on the power of the Gods", if you prefer). That's why they can't use magic outside their religion at all. In effect, they're cheating; they've rote-learned a set of magic abilities that work, without really understanding the principles behind them.
Stephen
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