>>ian i. gorlick on elemental power<<
Geez! (errr I mean... Arkat!) It seems that this is really bugging Ian.
How about this, for all their power and possible use, most people do not use
elementals to power things like mills, ships, furnaces, etc because:
- The average gloranthan has a slight fear of techno/magic oriented items as
they are god-learnerish. Thus those who do use them had better be: in power,
subtle, or not noticed.
- The stress on the material being used is too great. We are dealing with
bronze-age materials here. And as others have pointed out, elementals are raw
power, the larger the more force you have to channel.
- As they are non-sentient, they do have to be controlled. Sure you can use
them to run a windmill, but you cannot keep them going constantly unless you
have someone with a long term spell to control them, and if you do, that
person had better not let his mind wander (i.e. while on sylph control duty
at the mill, joerg notices a cute lass he has been interested in and thinks
about 'picking her up' tonite at the inn when.... the sylph he was
controlling picks her up and slams her into the nearby inn as it trys to
follow his wishes.). They are very dangerous and thus need really careful
use. Waertagi probably have a better control of undines being tied to the
same rune, thae same with sylphs and windchildren.
I am sure in some areas there are elementals used in such ways, for example:
- Mostali are of course the best at using elementals in various techno ways,
salamanders to heat forges, steam engines, sylphs to channel out smoke and
refresh the air, undines for watermills, gnomes for construction, etc.
- Lodril cultists use salamanders for forges as do the Mostali, but also can
tweak them to do more specific things do to their understanding of the nature
of their god.
- Lunars have many new innovative uses for elementals and are not going to
not use an elemental if it has a good use.
- Earth cultists have gnomes to move/pulverize rocks, till soil, fertilize,
bury, etc.
- Aldrymi use gnomes to move large plants/trees safely (for the plant, less
chance of shock), turn rocks into soil, as guardians (i.e. gargoyles)
- Sorcery using societies use combination of the above in varying quality of
use.
I never meant to open a tin of mostali foodstuffs here when I suggested this.
Scott
aka
Delecti_at_aol.com