> 2009/6/17 simon_hibbs2 <simon.hibbs_at_...>:
> > I think it would might work in a similar way to Qabalism or European occult
> > magic. The heroquests would reveal the states of mind necessery to unlock
> > the power of magical incantations, gestures and rituals. For the most
> > experienced practicioners, they might be able to perform the spells purely
> > through an act of will, by calling the magical formulae and ritual actions
> > to mind.
> >
> > Some monotheist spells might be in the form of prayers, with the heroquest
> > re-enacting the story of the saint that orriginated the prayer so that you
> > 'discover it' for yourself.
>
> FWIW this is pretty much precisely how I imagined Wizardly HQs to go.
> It can be something like a Borges short story (with nodes and nooks
> with books or something) or it can be Tron or it can be a Pi or it can
> be like Alan Moore's Promethea - it's an attempt to, albeit
> temporarily, understand the nature, structure, and intent of the
> cosmos in a way that most people don't bother with.
>
> In their own way people who devote themselves to wizardly explorations
> should be a strange as the folks who become devotees of Humakt or any
> other theistic entity. That they have concerns that are weird to the
> rest of society is entirely proper.
I agree completely with this. There is a lot of Borges influence in the stuff that Greg and I did in Middle Sea Empire. Frex, Zistorite magic was not based on cybernetics but on powered prayer wheels that created endless combinations of the text of the Abiding Book in an effort to remake (and recreate) Glorantha.
Jeff