My Redsmith skill is even WORSE than my Metal Lore, but.....

From: Erik Sieurin <BV9521_at_utb.hb.se>
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 17:18:55 +0100


Michael Raaterova about smiths:
> IMG, they use spells to heat their forge and bless their smithy, but their
> real magic comes from within. They have discovered the secrets of smithing
> more or less by Questing, and so their powers to shape metal become innate,
> and not spells sacrificed for.

Good. Very good. Note, however, this is how I more and more think of MOST cults (especially the small ones, like, say Gustbran, or Minlister).

> The Master Smiths (of the Wayland kind) are more likely shacked up in some
> strange place where only the worthy may enter. They will make what you ask
> of them, and more, if you can pay their price, which is mostly not a bag of
> wheels, but some strange artifact or object, like Dragon Scales, Swan
> Maidens, Styx Water, Giant Blood and Phoenix Feathers.
What do they eat? How do they get it?
"What is your price, oh Waylandfaistos, to make me the wonderful Sword of Lunar-slaying?"
(thoughtful pause)
"The skull of a leper broo, a pound of emerald moonstones, a piece of Kero Fins placenta..... and then you must vow that your tribe must feed me for a year to come, bringing barley and beer and beef, and some nice-looking girls who do what I tell them to cook it and mend my clothes, and a new boy to sweep the smithy - they can't stand the heat of burning bronze as in the Second Age, I tell you. And toss in a bag of wheels, as well."

>
> The standard system for such things simply isn't good enough, so instead of
> forcing smiths and artificers to comply with the system, i scrap the system
> in order to make my smiths mysterious figures capable of strange
> enchantments.

Why not create a new and better system? (An open-ended one, the old one is fairly open-ended.) As stated, most cults, especially the small ones, could do well with some coherent thoughts and guidelines ("rules") on what REAL "cult skills" are. I mean, things that ONLY people of the cult (or tribe, or bloodline) can learn.

Erik Sieurin


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