Harald Smith has the guts to accuse ME of heresy! :-)
> - Erik Sieurin on dwarfs:
> > Tin dwarves are capable of growing "bionic" replacements for lost
> limbs and organs
> "growing"? "Bionic"?--clearly a Vegetarian heresy taking root here which
> must be quickly extinguished. ;-) Tin dwarfs, as with any other dwarfs,
> would "make" their limb replacements just as they make the Jolanti and
> nilmergs. Though undoubtedly requiring appropriate dwarf "magic" these
> would be fully functioning and would not require such inferior human
> magic as Animate Tin or Iron, etc.
Harrumph, I was referring to terms as "bionic" and "grow" so that
the uneducated humans on the list would understand what I mean. With
"grow" I meant a process similar to the one used to "grow" crystals
in watery baths from salts. The same process Tin Dwarves uses to
create Nilmergs and Jolanti, as well as Gobblers and Gremlins (tho
only after sending application form 56.a.Fe.378 to the Iron
department to check that the ordering of a Gobbler was correct -
these are military material!).
Similarily, I used the term Animate Iron, though referring to an
inferior human magical process, to indicate a psychokinetic
meta-transformation and fluidization of ferrite metals that requires
a constant influx of mana, for the same reason.
>
> Properly made Limbs require a core metal (possibly created by the Brass
> Dwarfs), a tin sheath, copper tubing to conduct sensation, a system of
> small pulleys and gears to allow motion, and a quicksilver plate for
> adherence to the actual dwarf arm and to transform signals passing into
> the arm into those recognized by the mechanical setup. Once assembled,
> the tin dwarf would utilize an appropriate technique to seal the Limb to
> the afflicted dwarf. Such Limbs might look like the original or they
> might reflect a specific change to amplify the afflicted dwarfs skills
> (an Iron Dwarf might have a "shield" arm which reflects human magic back
> at its caster; a Rock Dwarf might have a hammer fist; etc).
Yikes! THIS is heresy! Only heretics would allow this instantaneous
and morally inferior unity with the Machine! Think that by this, a
mere level 4.8 could impersonate a full diamond dwarf if the correct
mechanisms were incorporated! This Harald "Smith"(!) is obviously an
agent of a coming military coup instigated by the Instant
Mechanisation heretics! :-)
However, I think the Vegetarian heresy was started by Tin and
Quicksilver dwarves. They argue that when you fix a machine, the
first thing you correct is the most damaged part. The most damaged
part of the World Machine is obviously that of Growth. This process
is actually very efficiant and an important integreated part of the
fuel cycles, they continue. The trouble is that Growth has grown
self-aware to an unhealthy degree and that control has been lost.
Thus vegetarian dwarves have large plantations, fertilized by a
mixture of offal from dwarven cities and minerals mined from their
mines. The Vegetarians state as proof of the validity of their
theories the higher efficiency of this process for the creation of
food, clothing, medical equipment than the common Quicksilver
processes. (Efficiency in cost is generally seen as Very Good by the
dwarves, as it is a sign of similarity to the Great Machine, which of
course is so enormously efficient that it has an unlimited effect
(the universe) while demanding NO fuel).
These plantations are worked by machines, human workers and
"rehabilitated" Aldryami. Usually these poor creatures are not grown
from seeds or spores as their normal kin, but cloned en masse. This
have the unfortunate effect of making them extremely vulnerable to
Aldryami attacks using Vorali allies; if the elves find a spore that
will kill one of the Corrected Aldryami, it will generally affect all
his clones, since their souls and bodies are so closely connected.
Erik Sieurin
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #117
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html