Joerg illuminated me with:
>According to Reaching Moon Megagorp theories (which I support in this
>case), this is about to happen when you start using Pelorian Newspeak.
>You are forced to think Lunar, not just the language. Just as Issarian
>(Jrusteli, rather?) Tradetalk will make you think of trading rather than
>philosophy.
Raising some obvious and MGF parallels for those who learn Darktongue, for
one... ("Must... eat.... elf. Cannot... use.... silverwear." :)
Ewwww... it does give me cold shudders to think that learning Lunarspeak turns you into a Lunar (yuck!), but I like the implications. Brrrr...
>The Lunars still are the only ones to have regiments of magicians only.
>The Sartarites and other Regimental Magic users combine (admittedly
>warlike) priests and other magicians with lots of crack guards, providing
>fair cavalry and ordinary infantry even if the magicians are taken out
Ah... I thought it implied that Argrath was fielding all-magical units.
Frex, the combined arms technique probably works better for the Sartarites
anyway, who don't have the numbers or the luxury of training a bunch of
freeloading war mages in any case. Yup, I agree with you now -- he
probably wasn't adopting their terminology, because he didn't do _what_
they did, it was something similar. I'm converted.
<An interjection on words>
>This happens mostly when the people who adopt the foreign word aren't
>aware of its meaning. One way to say "Cheers!" in Finnish still is
True -- it just struck me as odd. I suppose it's not the grizzled
frontiersman who speaks Spanish that stuck "mesa" into English, it was the
settlers who followed him, and who didn't know what it meant. The
frontiersman was just the guy who introduced the settlers to it...
>>And from RoC, that didn't seem to be just volleying spells off -- it
>>seemed very intricate to me.
>And very Lunar. Definitely not Argrath's style.
Ah, the sylph-riding weenie. Probably lots of chest-thumping and "I big
Orlantho hero" boasting. If he's so big, why'z he not playing Trollball?
Now _there's_ some regimental magic for you!
Frex, Trolls probably wouldn't go beyond a clan/family system normally, but the ZZers must have developed a _very_ interesting hybrid, considering that it's an open war cult. Be interesting to see what they'd come up with - -- gives them another edge over Karrg's Sons, too, since they can't go far from Mom's skirts.
>>The Dwarves
>>are another good candidate -- I'd think the Iron Dwarves must have
>>_some_ sort of system for this stuff. The Kralorelans? Others? With the
>>Lunars simply being the ones who made the breakthrough to the next
>>level.
>Dwarves don't need it, really - they suck above-ground, and have all the
>magic and devices they need below.
True, true, although I think they might organize sorcery use in a fashion
similar to regimental magic.
Something along the lines of musket drill -- _everyone_ in X rank casts X
spell when the officer yells one command, etc. They might get some special
effect from doing so...? Or perhaps the Iron Dwarves know potent World
Machine magics which work when each Iron Dwarf casts his own part of the
spell? That rather appeals... plus, it gives you an _incentive_ to get in
there and pound the hairy little buggers; kill off enough of 'em to stop
them from Summon Armored Division, or whatever nasty spell they have in
mind. :)
Or maybe it _is_ in the magics/weapons, and the "ritual" is the special
tactics they use in response. Perhaps the Cannon Cult and the
assault ladders from the Cradle were only the beginning... who knows what
nasty, vile weapons are being hammered out in Dwarven lairs?
>Kralori use dream dragons created by their most potent magicians, and
>similar stuff.
Or perhaps, if they practice ancestor worship, a regiment raised from a
certain area performs the Ghost Regiment ritual, and their ancestors
appear, to take form once again and fight beside them. All those
terracotta statues give rise to some lovely possiblities.
Anybody else got thoughts on this? On what kinds of forms "regimental" magics might take for other races & cultures? My mind boggles at trying to figure out how the Elves would use mass magic in war (I'm sure they do, I just don't think like an Elf.)
On words:
>Yeah. Taxes, quartering of imperial troops, curfew all would be
>Lunar-derived words. As might aquaeducts (to get the excess rain away -
"Before your Lunars came, our simple people had no word for 'Kill by
nailing one to a cross in a painful fashion.'" Or -- can't recall the
author -- "What kind of a people invents words for things like 'kill every
tenth person'"...
The good ol' Lunars, adding to the vocabularies of all those they come in
contact with...
James Frusetta
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