Neil Smith, How Dragonfriend got his name:
Nice story, I like twist where the narrator at first doesn't know why he is told to find the specific items, but finds out in the end.
Erik Sieurin, How Bonepecker became Woodpecker:
Lovely! Can we have more?
Mysticism and personality
- -------------------------
Andrew:
> Erasing your personality is a good idea because we are all facets
>of Ourouboros, the Cosmic Dragon. Our conviction that we are discrete
>individuals hides the glory of our true nature from us. By
>transcending/annihilating the individualistic ego we can become one with
>Nature!
Hmm, dragonewts start out _without_ personality and strive hard to get one in order to progress.
Tim:
>Union with God, the Void, Nature, the Force, Tao, Allah, etc can only be
>achieved by extinguishing personality.
I'm by no means an expert on the subject, so if you can back that with some quotes or such I might buy it, but I thought that rather than extinguishing your personality you have to balance and harness it in order to succeed as a mystic.
Non-violent themes
- ------------------
Jonas:
>But hasn't anyone considered: roleplaying?
...
>But the main thrill of RPGs is being able to hold those
>wonderfully twisted discussions that you so seldom have in real life.
...
>The Hero Wars don't strike us as a very interesting event to be caught up
>in... But playing a character who has delusions of becoming a Hero, while
>he's really stuck on the farm for life, _is_ fun.
It is certainly possible to play out life at the farm, but there are two problems:
As to the in-character player to player conversation, it sure is fun, but to me it isn't the be-all and end-all of a game. Just like combat it grows stale if overdone. (Not that there is a big chance of that happening with my players who are problem-solvers/power-gamers who are extremely result-oriented and always optimize everything for efficiency.)
This doesn't mean that I wish a continued combat/action emphasis. I admit unashamedly that I love high action, high power level, high magic, heroic, cinematic stuff, but I want the drama, magic and mythical aspects to spill over on the non-combat scenes too. The problem is, lowering the power level and focusing on in-character interaction won't achieve that.
Eastern magic
- -------------
Andrew:
>Perhaps if/when Codex#4 appears and Dream
>Magic is revealed in all its glory it will be possible to do a synthesis
>of all the inwardly directed Mystical magic systems of Glorantha (Draconic,
>Kralori, Colour and Dream) hiving them off from Sorcery.
Anyone know what's up with Codex #4? It was a long time ago that Mike Sawson announced its imminent arrival.
As to differentiating mystic magic from sorcery, the published dragon magic doesn't have much in common with sorcery. The dream magic which will be presented in Codex has some concepts in common with sorcery. The Kralorelan mysticism rules which some of us use is totally different.
However, there doesn't seem to be much of a common theme between these. There probably should be though.
>Does the old orthodoxy that Easterners have Sorcerors, but treat them as
>artisans, stand? I assume this is true in Kralorela. Has this been
>replaced by Dream Magic in the EI?
The way I see things, the only sorcery-users in the east are the Valkarists in the East Isles. Kralorelan 'sorcerers' are specialized mystics and East Isles 'sorcerers' are elucidated dream magicians.
>Or is Dream Magic the local equivalent
>of Divine Magic, replacing the EI deities write-up in GoG?
Dream magic replaces both spirit magic, sorcery and divine magic. However, the divine dream magic uses the same spell descriptions as ordinary divine magic.
>If Tsankth is
>worshipped in the EI, where battle magic is unknown, why does he give it
>out?
An East Islander worshipping Tsankth would access the divine spells through dream magic and wouldn't know the spirit magic, but a Tsankth worshipper from a theistic culture would get magic according to her paradigm.
Peter:
>Looking at the Church of Valkaro (whatever Loren's complaints about
>it), I think that Valkaro had introduced sorcery and integrated it
>into the Dream Magic paradigm and that this version of sorcery is the
>one picked up and used by the more Civilised Islands near the Valkarian
>confederation (ie Haragala, Mokato etc). I don't think the less
>sophisticated isles use this sorcery.
The Valkarists don't really integrate sorcery and dream magic since that isn't really possible insofar that one person can't effectively use both. The mindset is so totally different. The sorcerer uses his magic force (MPs) to mold reality a bit. The dream magician uses his magic force to make a piece of the dream world come into the waking world. On the other hand, the two magic types are kind of integrated in Valkarian society. The lower classes are allowed to use dream magic even if it is discouraged since it may be damaging to the user's spiritual development from a Malkioni POV. The wizards may not use dream magic.
Haragala and Mokato do not use sorcery and are not much influenced by the Valkarian federation. The Valkarists on their hand are more tolerant than many Malkioni since they think that the other Islanders are just a bit misled and will understand as soon as the missionaries have converted their islands' gods into good saints. The main enemies of the Valkarists are those who live in the sea.
Andrew:
>Are the "exotic" Vorumai are standard theists except for a few weirdos?
In my opinion, no. I'm definitely for diversified magic, where different cultures have different ways to do magic and reach the otherworld.
>Does anyone know anything about Vormaino colour magic and it's relation
>to Kralori Mysticism?
My grand non-unified theory of eastern magic, with an emphasis on MY, i.e. this is _not_ founded in any published material. I think all eastern magic has its roots in Vithelan magic from the godtime. Magic flowed freer and was easier to control then. That ancient magic probably most resembled East Isles 'free' dream magic of today, meaning that given enough skill and imagination, you could do just about anything. Also, this magic was not bound and quantified into specific spells.
As people spread and cultures changed and grew apart, so did magic. The Kralorelans got draconic connections and developed mysticism. I'm not sure about the latter, but I think mysticism was originally created for the common people who weren't enlightened enough to grasp the dragon magic. The Vorumai developed a stratified, formalistic society and thus the free-flowing Vithelan magic was crystallized into colour magic which I see as more rigid and formal. The conservative East Islanders held on more to the old ways, but had to develop their magic into modern dream magic when the dream world and the waking world were separated at Dawn.
Forests
- -------
Joerg uses swedish forests as an analogy for Winterwood, specifically its nature as an open forest. Apart from the mountain birch forest just below the timberline, swedish (nordic) forest in a natural state is not especially open. The forest we see today is though, but that is mainly because of hundreds of years of human use, nowadays on an industrial scale. With that in mind, it is probably a very good analogy though.
Once again trying for epic proportions by mixing many things in one posting...
Nils W | Here we are! Office: niwe_at_einku.ericsson.se | We sail on a ship made of dreams.Home: nilsw_at_ibm.net
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